Tag: Kimball House

At Kimball House, co-owner Bryan Rackley gives an English major’s attention to the descriptions he writes for the oyster menu. Rackley is also just as obsessive about how these briny beauties are presented. Novices need not be afraid to shuck oysters at home if they follow some simple guidelines.

Even those with little to no agricultural know-how might assume, and reasonably so, that to be a farmer, you have to own land. Turns out, that’s not the case.

To pint or not to pint? If you count yourself as part of an increasingly educated craft beer market, you know the answer is this: Only sometimes. The taste, aroma, and overall experience of your beer can vary greatly depending on what vessel you use to drink it, and the default pint glass has been overrated for quite some time.

Much like our intrepid political leaders, I spent the better half of Tuesday refusing to accept the reports of meteorologists that a snowstorm was coming to cripple the city. Even when images of overturned vehicles popped up on Facebook, I remained optimistic that I was making my 7 p.m. dinner plans. Obviously, they didn’t happen.

Kimball House, Decatur’s buzziest new restaurant, doesn’t take reservations. In most places, such a policy leads to a wait about as pleasurable as the midnight drive-through line at Zesto’s.

The original Kimball House, a hotel that took up an entire city block, opened in 1870 in the area bound by Peachtree Street, Pryor Street, Wall Street, and Decatur Street. The new Kimball House—a restaurant with former Joël line cooks Jeffrey Wall and Philip Meeker in the kitchen and ex-Leon’s mixologist Miles Macquarrie behind the bar—opens in Decatur tonight. Housed in an old train depot at 303 East Howard Avenue, Kimball House will serve dinner nightly. Below, Meeker shares his inspiration for the menu and tells us what to expect.