EAV's Octopus Bar Reels in Chefs and Revelers

It took me way too long to finally eat at East Atlanta Village’s Octopus Bar, a fringe endeavor—call it a restaurant addendum—that came to life last fall. Nhan Le, owner of Vietnamese pho joint So ... Read more

Passing Down Passover

Passover Seder is the ritual Jewish meal commemorating the Israelite exodus from slavery in ancient Egypt. Custom calls for the youngest child at the table to recite questions that frame the evening’s ceremony, beginning with, ... Read more

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Assi Plaza

The most global culinary destination in Gwinnett, the metro area’s most international county, at first glance looks like a typical American food court. But the bazaar inside Duluth’s Assi Plaza brings together the cuisines of ... Read more

Sustainable Seafood on Menus

Nothing makes me as anxious as ordering seafood in restaurants. I must look like a nutjob when I play twenty questions with a server, who more than likely has no clue about the exact provenance ... Read more

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Thomas Catherall's Staying Power

Talking about money is uncouth in some circles. Thomas Catherall—one of the defining forces of the Atlanta dining scene for nearly three decades, with eleven restaurants under his Here to Serve Restaurants umbrella—does it to ... Read more

Finding Solace at Restaurants' Chummy Bars

In his book The Hidden Dimension, anthropologist Edward T. Hall defined the concept of proxemics—the cultural relevance of the spatial distances that individuals maintain. It helped me understand what felt so alienating about the United ... Read more

Pouring Over the Past

Whatever happened to sauces? If they appear at all on the dishes served in many modern American restaurants, sauces tend to hide meekly under a hunk of protein. I understand why young chefs who carefully ... Read more

The Pie Shop

Photograph by Alex Martinez If you met Mims Bledsoe, owner of Buckhead’s delicious new Pie Shop, on the street, you’d never guess what she does for a living. There is something about this tall woman ... Read more

Niche Dishes

Compared to other cities in roughly the same genre (youthful, sprawling, diverse), Atlanta doesn’t offer much of a platform for would-be indie food entrepreneurs with small budgets. I hear the same complaints constantly: “Why do ... Read more

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Livingston

When visitors ask a local for restaurant recommendations, they should receive more than strictly gastronomic guidance. They need a sense of place with their meal. In Atlanta, where dining often transpires in flashy but meaningless ... Read more

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Johns Creek and Regional Chinese

For ages the most famous restaurant in Johns Creek, the golf-obsessed town in north Fulton County where office parks and subdivisions define the landscape, was Sia’s. The eclectic bistro mirrored the fusion cuisine fashionable in ... Read more

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Rediscovery: Haven

After almost eight years in business, Michel Arnette’s Brookhaven restaurant Haven is at the top of its game—a smooth hangout for an affluent clientele who enjoy a Buckhead-level experience without the party-mentality aggravation. Haven’s habitat, ... Read more

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Discovery: Urban Cannibals

Transforming old storefronts into hopping neighborhood hangouts has been Calavino Donati’s life since she gave up being a jeweler and artist in the mid-1990s and moved to Atlanta. Urban Cannibals—a small bodega, bakery, and sandwich ... Read more

Culinary Character: Paul Luna

Among his peers, Paul Luna sticks out like an extreme skateboarder at a golf convention. As tiny and intense in his forties as he was two decades ago when he first landed in Atlanta, he ... Read more

Discovery: Sister Louisa's Church

By his own admission, Grant Henry had to dumb down the decor of his provocative new dive bar on Edgewood Avenue. From the street, Sister Louisa’s Church of the Living Room & Ping-Pong Emporium (Church, ... Read more

Eggs: All They're Cracked Up to Be

The strangest egg I ever ate had no shell at all. Its perfectly formed yolk and the transparent white around it were inside a hen that my grandmother, a fierce woman and a great cook, ... Read more

Strip Steak: Cheetah's Alluvia

I didn’t drag my editor to the Cheetah. He wanted to go. For the food. The idea of reviewing Alluvia, the in-house restaurant inside the Midtown gentleman’s club, took hold of me after a conversation ... Read more

Discovery: Two Friends Import Company

In wine retailing, knowledgeable buyers are forever looking for the sweet spot—a special bottle costing between $11 and $17 that displays impressive character. Buyers collect even more cool points if they are early adopters of ... Read more

Atlanta's Cheese Culture

Sometimes I feel like a walking, talking French cliche. Pessimist? Check. Contrarian? Check. Obsessed with cheese? Check! I can’t remember a time when I didn’t eat cheese, and while I would rather die than drink ... Read more

The Kids Are All Right: Children of Immigrant Restaurateurs

I owe a huge debt of gratitude to the Asian community. Atlanta’s adventurous Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, Malaysian, Indonesian, Japanese, and Indian eateries have saved me from a boredom that otherwise would have broken my spirit ... Read more