Tag: Eat Me Speak Me

For our 21st Century Plague project, we spoke with 17 Georgians about the toll of COVID-19.

For our 21st Century Plague project, we spoke with 17 Georgians about the toll of COVID-19.

Chef Jarrett Stieber, of the long-running pop-up Eat Me Speak Me at Gato and S.O.S. Tiki Bar, is just about ready to open his first brick-and-mortar restaurant, Little Bear.

As obvious as the physical transformation of Atlanta’s restaurant scene has been, an underground dining revolution is also underway. The latter—waged by chefs hosting pop-up “restaurants” and dinner series, as well as entrepreneurs offering incubating spaces—isn’t as easy to observe as the former. But it’s similarly impressive. In many ways, it’s more impressive.

I hate hovering servers, but I also don’t want to be completely ignored. One easy way to negotiate the right level of service is the buzzer common in Korean restaurants. Picture a red button mounted next to your table. Push it, and a server materializes, ready to turn down the flame below your sizzling meat, refill your kimchi bowl, or bring you more barley tea.

If your table’s “fresh-picked” centerpiece was actually picked two weeks ago in, say, South America, then flown or driven thousands of miles to its final destination, it subtracts from the flowers’ lifespan. Local flowers often last longer, which ultimately cuts down on cost.

After Jarrett Stieber launched his beloved pop-up Eat Me Speak Me at Gato in 2014, many considered him Atlanta’s unofficial pop-up king. Stieber recently moved Eat Me Speak Me to S.O.S Tiki Bar in Decatur, and the new incarnation is more restaurant than pop-up, according to the chef.

Although prized most for their crunchy texture and peppery bite when raw, radishes become earthy and mellow—more like their cousin, the turnip—when cooked. Eat Me Speak Me chef Jarrett Stieber shares his techniques for both.

In cities like New York and Los Angeles, I’ve found municipal water is great right out of the tap. But in Atlanta? I can’t stand the foul flavor of our water, which restaurants often pour straight over a fistful of ice cubes.

From local tomatoes with coffee vinaigrette to wild catfish with oyster mushrooms, you can always count on something quirky and colorful from Jarrett Stieber, who operates this weekend pop-up out of the tiny kitchen of Candler Park’s Gato.