![]() Peter Dale’s new fast-casual café fills a void in Athens for healthy, tasty food on the fly. Spoiler alert: It’s similarly crowded and undeniably worth the wait. A second location opened two years ago on Macon Highway. Do they come for the raspberry jam, so ceaselessly utilized that each table has its own squirt bottle of the stuff? Or the buttery square biscuits? The pulled pork and potato hash? Or thyme sausage gravy? The ample meals here are everything you need to get going or a fine excuse to go back to bed. There are several spots for good brunching in Athens, but Mama’s Boy draws the biggest crowd. An oversized Jim Fiscus photograph of a Big Boi and Andre 3000 sets the tone for said bar, a more relaxed space that’s favored by those coming or going to the indie movie theatre Ciné, next door. This diamond in the downtown rough was created by Hugh Acheson and his protégé Peter Dale and conjures up a golden age of travel-note the wall-mounted wooden plane propeller and postcards from faraway places pinned to the back bar. “But it’s so good.” The NationalĪzure patterned plates harmonize with the Mediterranean menu, in which patatas bravas and Manchego-stuffed Medjool dates give way to a diplomatic entrée list ideal for power lunches and first dates. “I feel dirty even saying it,” the bartender explained. Ask for “nut dumps” and your pork-and-scallion wontons will come smothered in peanut sauce. Available only by request, the Hot Hot Sauce sharpens and mellows with each crop of Collective Harvest habanero and ghost peppers. ![]() It’s all your workaday favorites-General Tso’s Chicken, Kung Pao Shrimp, Crab Rangoon-gone bespoke. Shae and Ryan Sims’s take on Americanized Chinese food evolved from a supper club series they launched after leaving the kitchen at Five & Ten, where they met. If you’re waiting for a table, head there for Sazeracs and Derby Sours, and don’t be shy about selecting an album for the turntable from the Slaters’ own stack of vinyl. Less than two years ago, the Slaters transformed a historic house in Five Points, which UGA alums will recognize as the former Two Story Coffeehouse, into an understated dining room crowned by a stylish cocktail aerie. Harper Station-at the hostess stand running through the French brasserie lineup with former Hampton + Hudson chef Savannah Sasser. The ExpatĪrrive early and you’ll find owners Jerry and Krista Slater-the bon vivants of Atlanta’s former H. Mimi’s nods to her hometown are among her best offerings. When there’s a New Orleans dish on the menu, grab it. The restaurant did some renovating last year, adding a dainty marble bar where chief barkeep Noel Finch infuses rum with gardenias (bet your mama didn’t do that). Her tomato pie is just like your mama used to make, but- shhh-so much better. Mimi Maumus manages to make her Baxter Street beacon of Southern food feel as comfy as home but also special enough to warrant putting on your fancy new shoes. If you don’t have tailgate plans, hit the deep front porch on game day for barbecued game hen sandwiches and housemade bologna brats. But this grande dame does provincial as well as it does posh. When you turn a 1913 house into a restaurant you get a constellation of intimate dining rooms perfectly suited for beautiful food and quiet conversations. Hugh Acheson’s flagship oozes Old South grace, but the menu triumphantly samples from regions far and away (we’re lookin’ at you labneh and schnitzel). Photograph courtesy of Five and Ten Five & Ten The bar’s eponymous drink-a shaken, dill-tinged sipper-is a great place to start. With all the coin you’ll save on a couple dozen, treat yourself to a few plates from the laser-focused seafood menu, and, of course, a cocktail. Celebrate your victory and hold onto that seat. Seabear serves a rotating roster of six varieties on the half shell, and from 3 to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday, they’re just a buck-fifty a pop. Nabbing a seat at the bar of this petite oyster parlor is the cocktail hour equivalent of a touchdown on the opening drive. ![]() So after your pilgrimages to the Grill, the Grit, the Globe, and-god forbid-the Taco Stand, do as the townies do and pull up a chair at these choice establishments. Much to the delight of locals, many of those kitchen impresarios have stuck around. ![]() It’s been nearly 20 years since Hugh Acheson opened his flagship Five & Ten restaurant, creating an unofficial culinary incubator that’s birthed a small army of standout chefs. Window._PLUGIN_STATE_ = JSON.Same goes for the food scene here.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |