GSU project explores ATL’s South Asian restaurants!
March 6 — It’s Thursday, friends!
For today’s Side Dish, we’re offering two recipes, including one for coconut curry lentils! There’s a story on pastry chef Claudia Martinez’s new dessert and cocktail bar and a feature from Sarra on a nerdy but super rad Georgia State University project exploring ATL’s South Asian restaurant scene.
➕ Plus, we’ve rounded up February restaurant openings for you and provided a list of food and dining events you should check out this month around Atlanta. As always, expect the latest Atlanta dining news, including a new cocktail bar popping up on Fridays and Saturdays in Decatur and some Victory Brands restaurant news.
In case you missed it in your inbox on Tuesday evening, here’s a link to the latest edition of “Family Meal.” It features an interview with Matt Watkins, the bar manager and bartender at Chef Terry Koval’s Decatur restaurant The Deer & The Dove, and upcoming wine and amaro bar Fawn.
Cheers from the Rough Draft dining team!
🍸 Beth and 🍰 Sarra
💎 Join theAtlanta Contemporary Jewelry Show on March 8-9, from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. at The Carter Center! Shop unique, artist-designed jewelry from makers across 20 states. Admission: $10, with free parking and shuttle. A must-see event for jewelry lovers! SPONSOR MESSAGE
Have You Heard?
🍳 Remember our February story on Chef Robert Butts, one of the new owners of Auburn Angel in Sweet Auburn? We also told you that the restaurant would soon begin serving breakfast. That debuted earlier this week! Breakfast and brunch are served from 9 a.m.-3 p.m.
😍 According to this Instagram post from Atlanta design firm Gentle Works, the team behind LLoyd’s, Stereo, and Victory Sandwich Bar will open a coffee stand, bar, and events space at the old Masonic Lodge in Ormewood Park. Beth plans to chat with owner Ian Jones soon about the project, so stay tuned!
🍹 Beth recently checked out The Ramspeck in Decatur, a new events space owned by the folks behind Brick Store Pub. In fact, it’s located right next door and is open to the public for cocktails, beer, wine, and food on Friday and Saturday nights, from 6-11 p.m. It appears this will be an ongoing situation at The Ramspeck for the foreseeable future, save for any private events on Friday and Saturday evenings. No reservations necessary!
🍷 Speaking of Decatur, it appears Fawn, the new wine and amaro bar from Chef Terry Koval, will open within the next week or so next door to Cafe Alsace and just around the corner from Koval’s other restaurant, The Deer & the Dove. Beth will have more on Fawn soon.
🥧 Look for Atlanta pastry chef Jon’nae Smith to compete on Food Network’s “Spring Baking Championship” on March 10 at 8 p.m. Smith is also part of Chef Robert Butts’s chefs collective called The New South that you read about in Sarra’s story last month.
🎂 The Daily in Buckhead will host an exclusive Bake Club event with Milk Bar owner Christina Tosi on March 20. The $100 ticket price includes food, drinks, and an autographed cookbook from Tosi. The event starts at 5 p.m. at the Northside Parkway location of The Daily.
🍕 Millie’s Pizzeria, the lone restaurant at the Politan Row food hall at the Forum in Peachtree Corners, will open on March 21. But there’s a sneak peek on March 19 and 20, from 5-10 p.m. The menu features pizzas, meatballs, table-side cacio e pepe, salads, and sandwiches. Expect cocktails and wine from the bar. Millie’s will serve dinner, lunch, and weekend brunch.
Fresh & Fun: Atlanta Contemporary Jewelry Show Returns March 8-9!
SPONSORED BY ATLANTA CONTEMPORARY JEWELRY SHOW
💎 Discover handcrafted artist-made jewelry at the Atlanta Contemporary Jewelry Show, Sat. and Sun., March 8-9, from 10 a.m.-5 p.m.at The Carter Center. This vibrant and innovative jewelry event features contemporary classics and bold new designs by artists from over 20 states. Explore stunning craftsmanship in gold, gemstones, titanium, and more!
➞ Admission is $10, with free parking and shuttle service. Proceeds support the Craft Emergency Relief Fund. Meet the artists, shop unique designs, and celebrate creativity!
March Dining Events
📆 Looking for food and dining events to attend in March? Consider attending dining events surrounding International Women’s Day this Saturday. Also, Chef Donald Young from Michelin-rated Chicago restaurant Duck Selwill serve a 7-course meal at Taqueria del Sol on March 10. Plus, Chai Pani Decatur is celebrating Holi and the restaurant’s 12th anniversary on March 14.
⏩ Click here for the full list of March food and dining events.
Top Stories
GSU project explores Atlanta’s South Asian restaurants
✍️ Until recently, no resource delved deep into the diverse culinary regionality of South Asian food and restaurants found throughout Metro Atlanta or the geopolitical, socioeconomic, and demographic influences shaping what these restaurants serve.
But that changed with Atlanta Gastro Carta and its complex system of mapping South Asian restaurants in the metropolitan area. The project was founded by Abhik Banerjee, a faculty member at Georgia State University (GSU) Perimeter College, who graduated last summer after defending his thesis at the Department of English at GSU.
“The major reason behind this project was my decade-long interest in exploring how food ingredients and style of cooking speak about a community [or] culture in a particular geographical space,” Banerjee said.
🌏 Banerjee was exposed to different styles of Indian cooking growing up in Durgapur and Kolkata in the West Bengal region of India. He lived in Delhi before moving to Atlanta to pursue his PhD at GSU. Banerjee’s affinity for Anthony Bourdain’s television series “No Reservations” and “Parts Unknown” influenced him to pursue a project that examined the overlap between geopolitics and gastronomy.
⏩ Read more about Banerjee’s findings in this feature from Sarra.
Pastry chef Claudia Martinez will open a dessert and cocktail bar!
🍨 James Beard-nominated pastry chef Claudia Martinez (Tiny Lou’s, Miller Union) and El Ponce owner Rosa Thurnher will team up to open dessert and cocktail bar Bar ANA this summer. It takes over the former El Bar space beneath El Ponce in Poncey-Highland.
During the day, Bar ANA will act as a coffee shop, offering a rotating pastry menu, savory snacks, and drinks from an acclaimed local barista. At night, the focus will shift to cocktails, sophisticated desserts, and music, nodding to El Bar’s past as a hip-hop dance club.
⏩ Read more about Bar ANA here.
ICYMI, February restaurant openings
🍽 Check out this brief roundup of recent restaurant openings and announcements of upcoming restaurants you might have missed in February, including a Filipino restaurant residency in Kirkwood and a new diner in the heart of Little Five Points.
⏩ Here’s the full list of February openings
💎 Join the Atlanta Contemporary Jewelry Show on March 8-9, from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. at The Carter Center! Shop unique, artist-designed jewelry from makers across 20 states. Admission: $10, with free parking and shuttle. A must-see event for jewelry lovers! SPONSOR MESSAGE
At the Market + Two Recipes
IN PARTNERSHIP WITH COMMUNITY FARMERS MARKETS
🥥 Rough Draft Atlanta and Community Farmers Markets are bringing you two tasty recipes using ingredients from your local farmers market. This week, we’ve got coconut curry lentils and Buffalo cauliflower. Check the recipes out here!
