The sister restaurant of Bantam and Biddy, Shaun Doty and Lance Gummere’s Chick-a-Biddy will open July 1 in Atlantic Station. This fast-casual chicken spot will take over the space once home to the Grape and more recently pop-up restaurants like Hudson North. Executive chef Scott Weaver will cook up wood-grilled piri piri and fried chicken as well as falafel, crab cakes, and salads. For brunch, almond pancakes, breakfast burgers, and of course, chicken and waffles. Read on for Chick-a-Biddy by the numbers. Note: the menu is preliminary and both the items on it and prices are subject to change. Read More

If you’ve been to a Waffle House lately, you might have noticed that something is different: The old analog jukeboxes have been swapped out for newfangled digital ones. Waffle House purists like me were sad to see them go—despite a newfound ability to subject fellow diners to obscure college fight songs at the touch of a screen. But earlier this month, with the email announcement of the first-ever Great Waffle House Jukebox Auction, I changed my tune: Now was my chance to fulfill a longtime dream and get a classic Waffle House jukebox of my very own. Read More

Andy Minchow, founding partner of Holeman & Finch and an acclaimed mixologist, will open Ration & Dram, located at 130 Arizona Avenue, in late August or early September. The dual-level restaurant and bar is named after the military term for a portion—usually of food—(ration) and the nautical term for a unit—often mentioned with whiskey—(dram). Since Minchow, who is working at the Drafting Table for the time being, has a 4-year-old and the restaurant is near a big soccer field and a pool, he decided to make Ration & Dram child-friendly—at least during the day. Minchow hopes adults will enjoy beer on tap (each of 12 taps is assigned a category of beer, such as IPA or imperial) and light, European-style cocktails with vermouth and soda water during the afternoon, and then come back after 9 p.m. without the kids in tow for more potent beverages made from eclectic small-batch spirits. Read More

Castellucci Hospitality Group, the restaurateurs behind Sugo, the Iberian Pig and Double Zero Napoletana, will open a Spanish and French Basque-inspired restaurant in the Elan Westside building at 691 14th Street early next year. Federico Castellucci III—who owns the restaurant with his sister Stephanie and the company's culinary director, Chad Crete—is focusing on the San Sebastian region in particular, with traditional dishes such as tapas-like pintxos as well as modern takes on the cuisine (“New Basque”). Read More

Hugo’s Oyster Bar, a new concept from C&S Seafood & Oyster Bar’s Rich Clark and chef Jon Schwenk, opens Saturday in Roswell. The restaurant will serve only seafood indigenous to Southern waters, from the Carolinas to New Orleans, with the exception of oysters, which will come from the Northeast due to the high quality there. Read More

Scheduled to open the last week in June, Ink & Elm will combine fine dining with a casual tavern, coffee shop, and upscale lounge under one roof in the Druid Hills/Emory Village area. Read More

Last summer I met Daniel Vaughn, author of "The Prophets of Smoked Barbecue" (just published on May 14) and Texas Monthly’s new barbecue editor (coolest job title ever). A mutual friend in Dallas, where Vaughn lives, introduced us via email. I already knew about his Full Custom Gospel BBQ, the obsession-fueled blog he’d written on all things Texas barbecue since 2008. Vaughn, who until a couple months ago also held a full-time job as an architect, was coming to Atlanta for a project. Read More

Anyone familiar with the restaurant scene in Atlanta is well aware of the major players—chefs like Linton Hopkins, Anne Quatrano, Kevin Rathbun, and Ford Fry—that will be participating in the Atlanta Food & Wine Festival this weekend. One of the most unique aspects of AFWF, though, is that it brings in other chefs from the breadth of the South and Texas (which is arguably its own region). Offering a taste of what's to come, we chatted with two participating chefs that represent their geographical bookends: Texas's Kent Rathbun and Maryland's Clayton Miller. Read More

On the final afternoon of last year’s Atlanta Food & Wine Festival, comments began popping up on Twitter. “Goodbye to a great food city and the festival that brought it to the world. I’ll never miss this one again,” tweeted Josh Ozersky, a food columnist for Time magazine. Raphael Brion, national editor for Eater.com, posted, “Atlanta is a great food town and has an equally great food fest.” I felt something between pride and vindication. Craving respect is encoded in our city’s DNA, and this four-day event, in only its second year, was emerging as the culinary ambassador that we’ve long needed. Read More