Starting today, Inman Park restaurant Parish Foods & Goods will be called the Brasserie and Neighborhood Café at Parish. Under the leadership of executive chef Zeb Stevenson, Parish has revamped its focus, redecorated its dining room, and redesigned the menus to be “more appropriate for the neighborhood, the building itself, and the demand.”
The changes have been rumored for months, dating back to Stevenson’s start at the restaurant last November. Originally Parish was a New Orleans-themed spot, but by the time Stevenson joined, it had become New American. “It was struggling for identity,” he says. “It needed a push in one direction, needed someone with a vision.”
Why, then, did Stevenson wait nine months to make major changes? “I like doing things properly as much as possible. [Waiting] gave me time to observe and see what’s working and what’s not,” he says.
He decided a brasserie was the way to go because “a brasserie is a place where you go to get delicious, unpretentious, well-crafted food.” He’s focusing on making the restaurant market-driven and enhancing the quality of ingredients used, while infusing his personality into typical brasserie fare.
“For example, we have a corned duck leg that I’m really fond of. In the brasserie world, it would be duck confit. [Instead], we braise it, soak it in corned beef brine, and serve it with potatoes, cabbage, toasted hazelnuts, and horseradish gel.”
Other items on the new dinner menu include goat cheese and beet jam on toast; sourdough gnocchi with porcini, crimini, kale pesto, and candied lemon; black truffle grilled cheese; and grilled trout with Swiss chard, shitake, and orange. Stevenson also reinstated the raw bar with oysters, shrimp cocktail, and Hamachi crudo.
“We’re having a lot of fun,” Stevenson says. “I never have the same menu for more than a handful of days.”
No head bartender has been named since Arianne Fielder left in April, but Stevenson has been collaborating with the bar staff to create new cocktails that focus on seasonal ingredients. The Chef’s Happy Place drink is made with St. George gin, dry vermouth, and brine from his pickled vegetables.
Stevenson also worked with Concentrics Restaurants partner Todd Rushing to redesign the wine list. Expect a larger proportion of Old World wine varietals. The beer offerings are all local with one exception: Old Milwaukee Tall Boy, simply because it’s what Stevenson grew up drinking.
Fewer changes have been made to the Café (formerly the Market) and the brunch menus. “The Market [Café] is a neighborhood favorite. Brunch works. Let’s just make them better,” Stevenson says.
He is, however, looking to sell more artisanal food items made by local vendors for at the Cafe. Each item “has to have low food miles on it,” he explains.
Located along the Atlanta BeltLine, the Brasserie at Parish is intended to be a neighborhood spot, and its interior has been redesigned to reflect as much. The team has added banquettes and low marble tables, removed the giant nude statue (which can now be found at Painted Pin), and “repositioned things to bring texture and depth, comfort and hominess to the room,” Stevenson says.
To see the new menus, click the thumbnail below
