Tag: Jen Hidinger

If you want to support the hardworking people who power Atlanta’s culinary engine, buy a ticket for Team Hidi 4.0, the group’s banner fundraiser slated for the end of the month, January 31, at the Georgia Railroad Freight Depot.

A first look at four newcomers to Atlanta's restaurant scene: Staplehouse, La Mei Zi, Com Mai, and Venkman's

Ryan’s sister Kara Hidinger, her husband and chef Ryan Smith, and Jen have been working feverishly to fulfill Ryan’s dream of opening Staplehouse. Jen says the end—or maybe the new beginning—is finally in sight. “We’re deep into construction and on schedule for the middle of summer—the end of July if not sooner,” she says. “It’s been six years since we birthed this concept out of our home. It’s formed so many different branches for such good, and it’s the heart of what Ryan and I created.”

Chefs and mixologists from more than 50 local restaurants and bars will gather on January 25 at the Georgia Railroad Freight Depot for Team Hidi 3.0. Proceeds will go toward the Giving Kitchen, an organization that provides help to restaurant workers in need.

It was the year of the city center. With the opening of Buckhead Atlanta, Inman Park’s Krog Street Market, and Alpharetta’s Avalon, restaurants opened in droves. Local chefs got a nod from the James Beard Foundation, a lime shortage caused momentary panic, and one popular pop-up signed on its first brick-and-mortar location. Read on as we remember when.

What started as a dream in 2009 is about to become reality this year. Staplehouse, a restaurant helmed by chef Ryan Smith (previously of Empire State South), will open in the Old Fourth Ward in "the very foreseeable future," according to co-owner Jen Hidinger.