Table and Main

How refreshing to scan the menu at this newcomer and not find pimento cheese or deviled eggs, two dishes so ubiquitous to the metro area’s “Southern farm-to-table” explosion that they’re both shaping up to be the fried calamari of this decade.

Executive chef Ted Lahey, who worked for Hugh Acheson at Athens’s Five and Ten, thinks for himself with dishes like Hogs ‘N’ Quilts, moist pulled pork folded into chive crepes with an admirably subtle vinegar sauce. The man is not afraid of calories. His Charleston she-crab soup is so rich that it’s hard to finish, and he gilds his country-fried veal with sausage gravy.

My biggest complaint: He needs to cut his unwieldy version of fried chicken into smaller pieces. Who wants to wrest wings, legs, and breasts apart while the batter crumbles off? Kudos to the lengthy bourbon list, though.