NFA Burger in Alpharetta Has an Opening Date!
May 8 — It’s Thursday! Time for a little “Side Dish.”
For today’s Side Dish, we’re offering two recipes, including one for a vegetable-laden carbonara using in-season vegetables from your local farmers market. We also have a full rundown of April restaurant openings, from Alpharetta to Midtown to Gay, GA, an hour-plus south of Atlanta. (That last restaurant south of Atlanta comes from the folks behind Staplehouse.)
➕ Plus, Sarra has two stories this week on a family-owned and operated tortilleria supplying heirloom corn tortillas to local restaurants and markets, and breaking news on the opening date for NFA Burger’s new location in Alpharetta.
In case you missed it in your inbox on Tuesday evening, here’s a link to the latest edition of “Family Meal.” It features a recipe from Rumi’s Kitchen – roasted salmon with sour cherry rice – and intel on a new Alpharetta restaurant serving Uzbek-Uyghur food, a first for Metro Atlanta.
Cheers from the Rough Draft dining team!
🍸 Beth and 🍰 Sarra
🍻 Join us this Sat., May 10 for Hope Fest 2025 at SweetWater Brewing (21+)! Live music from Wim Tapley & the Cannons and more – all to support Hope Atlanta’s efforts to prevent and end homelessness. Click to learn more & grab your tickets today! SPONSOR MESSAGE
Have You Heard?
🔥 Guy Fieri spotlights Atlanta restaurants
Remember when we told you in March that Guy Fieri was in town filming an episode of his series “Diners, Drive-ins and Dives”? Well, it turns out part of his Southern road trip to Atlanta will air tomorrow at 9 p.m. on Food Network, and one of the featured restaurants will be Atlanta-based Yumbii. The mayor of Flavortown slipped into Atlanta in March and was spotted in Summerhill, downtown Decatur, and Olive and Pine in Avondale Estates, with sources indicating he may have popped in to visit How Crispy Express and The Deer and The Dove. Those episodes air later this month.
⛑️ “Bar Rescue” in Kirkwood
It appears Jon Taffer has been in Kirkwood this week helping out neighborhood pizzeria and bar Urban Pie for his Paramount Television show “Bar Rescue“. Like Gordon Ramsay does in “Kitchen Nightmares,” Taffer delivers some tough love while he assists struggling bars by examining what’s gone wrong, from staffing and service to cocktails and business practices. The makeover, which includes upgrades and a mini reno, takes place in just five days. Urban Pie’s reveal will apparently happen on Friday night. No word on the TV air date.
😭 Restaurant closure
The restaurant closures continue along the Howell Mill Road corridor. Bartaco closed on Monday after 11 years on Marietta Street, becoming the latest restaurant to call it quits in Northwest Atlanta. West Egg Cafe, Snooze an A.M. Eatery, Humble Pie, L.O.A. Social Club, Superica, Wagamama, Slim + Husky, Culinary Dropout, Le Fat, and Postino Wine Bar all closed over the last several months. And, sources say that yet another nearby restaurant may close soon. Speculation on the reason for so many restaurants shuttering in the area ranges from high parking fees to high rents, but traffic and lack of proper infrastructure may also factor into the rash of closures. Stay tuned for more.
☺️ Restaurant openings
A permit has been filed to transform the former Hodgepodge Coffeehouse space on Moreland into a new coffee shop. Raani Coffee, owned by Praveena Sundarraj, will include a kitchen and coffee roastery on site. Rough Draft reporter Logan C. Ritchie reached out for more details from Sundarraj, who told her that Raani Coffee will open this fall and include a roastery and a tasting room and serve pastries. Read more from What Now Atlanta‘s initial reporting.
Chef Tamara Hewitt will open Peckish on May 17 in the former Fishmonger space at Pullman Yards in Kirkwood. The brunch restaurant residency will be open only on the weekends, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., serving dishes like shrimp and grits, smoked jerk wings, peaches and cream-stuffed waffles, and a high tea tower filled with honey chicken biscuits, oxtail empanadas, lox sandwiches, and fruit tarts.
A second location of Azotea Cantina opened at Southern Post in Roswell, home to restaurants like Grana and Bey Mediterranean. The restaurant serves food and drinks inspired by the restaurants and bars found in Mexico City. Azotea Cantina also includes a location at Atlantic Station.
🌧️ Rain date
This weekend’s rainy forecast caused the organizers of the annual Turkish Food Festival in Alpharetta to push the date to next weekend, May 17 and May 18.
🥇 Awards
The James Beard Foundation announced the finalists for its broadcast media and journalism awards this week. Athens-based publication “The Bitter Southerner” nabbed three nominations, including for Food Coverage in a General Interest Publication, the MFK Fisher Distinguished Writing category for Caroline Hatchett’s story “Clam South,” and Profile Writing for Christina Cooke’s story “Black Earth.”
Of the 12 restaurant semifinalists from Atlanta and Georgia, Aria is the lone representative this year, a finalist for Outstanding Hospitality. In March, Aria chef Gerry Klaskala announced his retirement from the restaurant industry. This includes stepping down as owner and head chef of Aria, the Buckhead restaurant he opened in 2000 inside a converted house on East Paces Ferry Road.
The awards ceremonies take place in Chicago, with the media awards on June 14 and the chef and restaurant awards on June 16.
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Top Stories From the Week
NFA Burger prepares for May 15 opening in Alpharetta
🍔 The second location of NFA Burger opens on May 15 in the former Rina space at Avalon in Alpharetta. The Avalon opening comes sooner than expected. Last month, NFA Burger founder Billy Kramer and COO Brett Crowder took the opportunity to withdraw from Truist Park food hall Outfield Market in exchange for accelerating Avalon’s timeline.
Diners can expect counter service, a simple bar program, and a nearly identical food menu. (Instead of Schmoops cinnamon sugar twists, the Avalon location will serve cups of frozen custard.) For drinks, think margaritas, and down the line, a bourbon cream.
➡️ Read more from Sarra on NFA’s Alpharetta opening.
The April restaurant openings you need to know
🆕 Check out this brief roundup of recent restaurant openings and announcements of upcoming restaurants you might have missed in April.
➡️ Read the full list of April restaurant openings here.
The story behind Molino Tortilleria, an Atlanta-based heirloom corn tortilla company
🌽 These days, an increasing number of Atlanta restaurants, like Beto’s Tacos, Polanco Taqueria, Ford’s BBQ, Rreal Tacos, and Superica, along with food trucks like Vice Tacos and specialty shops like Poco Loco, are serving and selling tortillas made with heirloom ingredients and processes. Many of those tortillas are produced locally, including by Aaron Harris and his team at Molino Tortilleria.
Based out of Prep Kitchen on Presidential Parkway, Molino produces between 1,200 and 1,500 pounds of tortillas daily, which are sent to dozens of markets, food delivery services like Fresh Harvest, and local restaurants every week. The tortillas are made from heirloom corn varieties grown in Georgia, using a traditional Mesoamerican corn mill called a molino to grind the corn into masa. Now, owner Aaron Harris is on a mission to increase demand for more Georgia farms to grow heirloom corn varieties used to make flour for tortillas.
➡️ Read more about Molino’s tortillas from Sarra.
Here’s an update on our story about Atlanta’s newest wine bar
🍷 UPDATE! Side Saddle Wine Saloon opens this weekend in Boulevard Heights. Owned by Kayla Bellman, the natural wine bar takes over one of two repurposed buildings at the Penman apartment complex, sharing a patio along the Southeast Beltline with a second location of her coffee shop, Finca to Filter.
Finca to Filter is currently open at the Penman. Side Saddle will debut with food and BYOB service pending the approval of its liquor license. But when both businesses are fully open, they will give the neighborhood spaces for all-day dining and drinking and a place to gather for events like jazz, trivia, and wine tastings.
Located on Hamilton Avenue, Finca to Filter opens early in the morning for coffee, espresso, and baked goods made in-house by Emily Davis. As Finca to Filter sunsets later in the afternoon, Side Saddle opens for wine, cocktails, and food from veteran Atlanta chef Carla Fears.
➡️ Read Beth’s full story on Side Saddle here.
🍻 Join us this Sat., May 10 for Hope Fest 2025 at SweetWater Brewing (21+)! Live music from Wim Tapley & the Cannons and more—all to support Hope Atlanta’s efforts to prevent and end homelessness. Click to learn more & grab your tickets today! SPONSOR MESSAGE
At the Market + Two Recipes
IN PARTNERSHIP WITH COMMUNITY FARMERS MARKETS
🫐 Whether you’re looking for sweet or savory, we’ve got you covered! This week, Rough Draft Atlanta and Community Farmers Markets are partnering to bring you two amazing recipes – one for blueberry tarts and one for a vegetable-inspired take on carbonara. Click here for more.
🖊️ Today’s Side Dish was edited by Julie E. Bloemeke.
