Saint Leo Secures Location Adjacent to Oxford’s Historic Square

Emily Blount with Saint Leo mobile unit. (Photo taken September 9, 2015 by Liz Foster)

Forthcoming restaurant Saint Leo has secured a location just off Oxford’s central square at 1101 Jackson Ave East.

Set to open in spring 2016, the much-awaited Mississippi restaurant will serve artisanal wood-fired pizza, rotisserie chicken, seasonal salads, and other offerings. With the highest level of hospitality, Saint Leo will be sophisticated, simple, and comfortable—a community-focused spot welcoming guests for lunch, brunch on Sundays, dinner and takeout. The restaurant is owned and headed up by Oxford local, Emily Blount. The location news follows a successful series of three sold-out, pop-up, preview dinners hosted in Oxford this past fall, with locations including The Powerhouse and the Ole Miss Motel.

Set inside a building that formerly served as Wiley’s Shoe Shop, Saint Leo’s intimate, 1100 square-foot dining room will seat about 72 guests. The restaurant is currently under construction and will feature expansive windows lining exposed brick walls and a front entrance opening into a bar area. The earthy and modern space will exude warmth from Saint Leo’s wood-burning, Pavesi oven imported from Italy. Guests can choose to sit at inviting booths, leather lined banquets or at the marble-topped bar.

Saint Leo’s menu will highlight the purity and simplicity of beautiful ingredients, locally sourced and thoughtfully prepared. Wood-fired pizzas from naturally leavened, from-scratch dough will be topped with housemade mozzarella and ricotta cheeses and the region’s freshest produce and meats. Salads and pastas made in-house will change often to showcase the best of the season, and most of the small plates and entrees will be finished in the wood-fired oven. Rotisserie chicken will round out offerings for takeout or dine-in. Small batch ice cream will complement other from-scratch desserts for a sweet finish.

Picture from Facebook.com/SaintLeoRestaurant

The drink menu will feature fresh, seasonal, craft cocktails, local craft beers, and an eclectic wine list curated by a Napa Valley-trained sommelier.

An Oxford resident, Saint Leo’s Founder and Owner, Emily Blount, grew up just north of San Francisco and worked in restaurants from an early age. Her love of good food is strongly influenced by her California roots and time working in New York City. During 13 years in Manhattan, she gained production and management experience in a variety of settings, including working at legendary restaurants Raoul’s in SoHo and Scarpetta. She has a BFA from Emerson College in Boston and received her culinary education at Verace Pizza Neopolitana. Emily moved to Oxford in 2012 with her native Mississippian husband and their two boys.

Emily is collaborating with Dan Latham to open Saint Leo. Originally from Madison, Mississippi, Dan’s early culinary career included six years with Mario Batali’s restaurants Po and Studio del Gusto, plus time making salumi at Babbo in New York City. He then opened L&M’s Kitchen and Salumeria in Oxford, an Italian eatery specializing in house-cured meats and Italian wines. In 2009, he was nominated for a James Beard Foundation award for “Best Chef: Southeast.” He served as Culinary Director for Atlanta-headquartered, fast-casual burger restaurants Farm Burger and YEAH! Burger, and most recently, he has consulted for restaurants including Resurgens Hospitality Group (Holeman & Finch, Restaurant Eugene, H&F Bread) in Atlanta, Blackberry Farm in Walland, Tennessee, Jim N’ Nicks BBQ in Birmingham, MexiCue in New York City, and others. Dan lives in Atlanta with his wife and two children.

For more information, visit www.eatsaintleo.com.

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