Courtesy of So. Fox
Wander through Virginia-Highland on a weekend morning and you can’t miss the massive line weaving through Kinship Butcher & Sundry, with neighbors catching up on gossip as they await Academy Coffee and griddled breakfast sandwiches. Try to reserve a table at k|n, the fine dining pop-up held on select evenings in the space, and you’ll discover a waitlist longer than a CVS receipt. There’s so much demand for founders Rachael Pack and Myles Moody’s hospitality that the duo is launching a second Kinship location, as well as a full-service restaurant called So. Fox.
Replacing Farm Burger on the corner of Virginia and North Highland avenues, So. Fox brings a return to the couple’s finer dining roots, having worked at high-end establishments like Eleven Madison Park, Blue Hill, and Aska. Though chef Moody says he’s hesitant to describe the wine-focused restaurant as “fine dining,” it will serve an “elevated, smaller format, a la carte menu that allows us to focus on the cooking and the technique.” Centered on seasonality, it will feature a new dish every two weeks with micro ingredient changes daily.
Expect 14 to 16 offerings, sourced locally. There will be a snack section with offerings such as Georgia olives and Gulf oysters and composed entrees like cobia cooked over pecan shells with charred fermented cabbage and preserved flowering dill sauce. Larger parties may have access to shareable dishes, for example a T-bone with charred winter greens and fermented marble potatoes. Vegan options will be available too.
Pack, a certified sommelier, is designing a wine program around organic and biodynamic wines from around the world. “This is a wine-focused restaurant,” she says. “We want the producers to have the same kind of commitment and ethos that we ask of our farmers, which is they may not be certified organic, but they’re growing organically. They’re doing their best to be good stewards of their land.”
Courtesy of So. Fox
The name So. Fox is short for Southern Fox, a type of grape muscadine, that will, of course, make an appearance on the menu. “There’s something feral and wild about it, which I find absolutely delightful,” Pack explains.
Staff will be well-informed about the menu and attentive to educating the guests. “I don’t like disembodied juice in a glass. Every glass has a story,” she says. There will be a non-alcoholic wine list, five beers on tap, and a handful of seasonal cocktails that mirror the ethos of the kitchen.
The space is undergoing surface renovations to reflect the new concept. “We want it to be convivial and light, where people feel a welcome, neighborhood vibe,” Moody says. “We have a pretty good ear to the ground in terms of what Virginia-Highland wants. There are quite a lot of options for casual dining environments where people can bring their kids. They want a buttoned-up place where they can share a glass of wine as a couple, pop in for dinner or for a snack.” As such, reservations will be available early in the evening. After that, it will be first-come, first-serve.
While k|n is on hold right now, Moody says he hopes to bring it back—possibly on the days So. Fox is closed. “I feel the burden of responsibility to make sure that everyone on the waitlist gets to dine at some point,” he says.
In the meantime, customers can visit Kinship in Virginia-Highland and come fall, in Grant Park. In the new location, Kinship will offer three meals daily, Academy Coffee drinks, and butchered meat. Since the space is much larger, seafood will be available as well.
