Gunshow’s ‘90s Week menu is a love letter to the decade

Heads up, millennials: It’s time to eat revamped pizza rolls and Good Burgers
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Gunshow

Photograph by Angie Mosier

Joey Ward
Gunshow executive chef Joey Ward in the 1990s

Photograph courtesy of Joey Ward

The 1990s: It’s the decade that transformed Atlanta. We watched the Georgia Dome’s debut (and the Falcons first Super Bowl loss), Atlanta grew faster than any city in history, and Freaknik hit its peak.

So just before Halloween, Kevin Gillespie’s Gunshow is paying tribute to the iconic era. From October 17 to 21, the Glenwood Park restaurant will feature a menu filled with ’90s throwback foods and pop culture references—all while the staff dresses up and ’90s music roars through the speakers.

With a majority of the staff in their late 20s or early 30s, ’90s references are thrown around the kitchen all the time, says executive chef Joey Ward. You’ll frequently hear throwback tunes blaring in the back (Smashing Pumpkins is one of Ward’s favorite bands), so don’t expect any shortage of Smash Mouth, Blink-182, Snoop Dogg, or the Macarena during the celebration. Also expected: Slap bracelets and a projector playing classic ’90s TV shows.

“It’s a nice, nostalgic, fun thing to do now,” Ward says. “I thought it would be kind of fun and push the creative boundaries.”

And creative it is. Here’s a sneak peak at what the team has planned for the menu:

“Your Brain on Drugs”
This egg dish references the highly memed PSA that campaigned against drug use. It’ll be a smoked beet tartare with a fake sunny-side-up egg that is actually the dressing.

Good Burger
“Welcome to Good Burger, home of the Good Burger, can I take your order?” It’s a line still stuck in the brain of most ’90s kids. A nod to the 1997 Nickelodeon movie starring Kenan Thompson (of Saturday Night Live fame) and Kel Mitchell, this one will probably be a pretty . . . good burger.

Cheese pizza roll agnolotti
You couldn’t get through an entire commercial break in the ’90s without seeing a pizza roll advertisement somewhere in the mix. But this dish isn’t coming out of a cardboard box—these pepperoni and cheese-flavored bites will be assembled with hand-made pasta.

Black Hole Sun cocktail
A nod to the 1994 Soundgarden hit (RIP Chris Cornell), this dark, boozy cocktail will be a twist on a Black Manhattan—including Rittenhouse Rye whiskey, Cynar, and black walnut liquor.

Lunchables plate
Using local ingredients, including Joyce Farms turkey and Udderly Cool Dairy cheddar, Gunshow will recreate the cracker sandwich meals that made you the cool kid at the cafeteria lunch table back in the day.

Offal Waffle
This waffle with roasted foie gras is a nod to the “awful waffle” from the early ’90s Nickelodeon show Salute Your Shorts, where Camp Anawana jokesters would pin down someone, push a tennis racket on their belly, and pour syrup on the racket while everyone would chant “awful waffle, awful waffle, awful waffle.”

“Zima” and rock candy cocktail
Instead of Jolly Ranchers and Zima, cocktail conductor Mercedes O’Brien is swapping out the clear, lemon-lime flavored malt beverage of yore with Angostura rum.

And more
The menu will also feature a molten chocolate cake (which Ward wants to name “Are You Afraid of the Dark Chocolate”) and East Coast vs. West Coast oysters (a reference to the ’90s rap war).

Kevin Gillespie
Gunshow owner Kevin Gillespie (right) in the 1990s

Photograph courtesy of Kevin Gillespie

Gunshow reservations can be made here. And don’t leave home without your scrunchies and flannel: Customers who dress up will receive a complementary gift.

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