Table Talk: Dinner launching at Home Grown
Jan. 20 — Happy Tuesday! Welcome to the table, friends.
In today’s “Family Meal,” I’m bringing you details on the new restaurant-within-a-restaurant launching at Home Grown in February. Wyld Bird will serve dinner five nights a week at the Reynoldstown diner, with a menu centered on Cuban pollo asado. I also tell you why you need to order a slab of Greek lasagna at Midtown Promenade bar Buddy Buddy.
➕ Plus, I’m providing a little behind-the-scenes peek at three restaurants currently on my dining radar that I have queued up to check out soon. (There’s barbecue, katsu, ramen, and liverwurst involved.) And Brookhaven restaurant Confab Kitchen & Bar shares its recipe for sticky duck wings, a solid option to consider for that Super Bowl party you’re hosting or attending on Feb. 8.
FYI: The James Beard Foundation will announce the semifinalists for its restaurant and chef awards tomorrow. Look for a story from me on the Atlanta semifinalists.
Cheers!
🍸 Beth
Pollo Asado Restaurant
Launching Inside Home Grown
🍽️ Dinner begins at Home Grown in Reynoldstown next month.
Wyld Bird, a restaurant-within-a-restaurant owned by Brad Syfan and Chef Tony Seichrist of Wyld Dock Bar in Savannah, will open for dinner inside the Memorial Drive diner in mid-February.
Home Grown co-owner Kevin Clark hinted at adding dinner service to the lineup last August when he and business partner Lisa Spooner purchased the restaurant’s property. While Home Grown will operate as usual, serving breakfast and lunch daily, Wyld Bird will take over for dinner Wednesday through Sunday, serving what Syfan describes as “Miami-inspired” chicken.
“Tony grew up in Miami and there is a fast-food restaurant in South Florida called Pollo Tropical that serves Cuban pollo asado. He grew up eating that in Miami and has been tinkering with a version of his own,” Syfan explained. “He’d always wanted to do something with that idea, and this just fit.”
Syfan has known Clark and Spooner for years. Before moving to Savannah in 2015 to open Wyld Dock Bar, Syfan and Seichrist worked together at Iberian Pig in Decatur and were part of the Atlanta restaurant community. With their Savannah operation running smoothly, Syfan eventually returned to Atlanta, traveling back and forth between the cities. With Wyld Dock Bar running at full tilt, the pair began toying with the idea of opening a dinner spot in Savannah.
🇯🇵 In the off-season, Syfan and Seichrist host a Japanese food and sushi pop-up at Wyld Dock Bar. They shopped for spaces to open it as a restaurant in Savannah, but nothing quite fit the bill. Syfan admits, not everyone in Savannah got what they were trying to do with the pop-up.
Then, Seichrist suggested reaching out to Clark in Atlanta.
With Atlanta’s thriving pop-up scene, a restaurant-within-a restaurant isn’t viewed as a foreign concept. On Sunday and Monday nights, Ok Yaki in East Atlanta becomes Laotian restaurant So So Fed. Monday evenings sees Baraka transform Midtown coffee and wine bar Larakin into an omakase counter. Every quarter, wine bar and jazz club The Prez takes over the dining room at Madeira Park. 7th House in Adair Park hosts weekly pop-ups in the kitchen. Its chef’s tasting sibling, Bovino After Dark, resides within the bar and lounge at Hop City Beer & Wine in West End.
“I called Kevin and was just like, ‘Hey, what if we opened a dinner spot in your restaurant?’ And Kevin was like, ‘Let’s do it,’” Syfan said. “It turns out, Kevin had been wanting to do something like this for a long time. We thought about doing the Japanese thing here, but high-end sushi didn’t mesh with the vibe at Home Grown.”
They settled on pollo asado (bone-in chicken cooked over charcoal) and Wyld Bird to keep in line with Home Grown’s comfort food menu and affordability. Home Grown’s most famous and sought-after dish also happens to center around poultry: the comfy chicken biscuit.
🍗 Expect a tight menu of half and whole bird pollo asado plates with sides of rice and beans and plantain chips, along with skin-on airline chicken breasts sliced up for sandwiches, bowls, and salads. Seichrist plans to offer braised pork cheek dishes and appetizers like griddled Chihuahua cheese tortilla strips Syfan likens to “a Cuban version of cheesy bread” served with dipping sauces.
The bar will feature a handful of beers and wines by the glass. Cocktails will lean fruit forward, light and bright, and easy to drink (think a margarita, a paloma, and a coconut oil-washed mezcal cocktail made with pineapple oleo syrup.)
With Seichrist running day-to-day operations at Wyld Dock Bar in Savannah, Syfan will handle daily operations at Wyld Bird in Atlanta. They hired a kitchen manager to oversee food at Wyld Bird, along with a few other restaurant staff members. Syfan and Seichrist also gave Clark and Spooner’s employees the opportunity to pick up shifts at Wyld Bird in the evening if they wanted the extra work.
✍️ Syfan and Seichrist are waiting on the final paperwork to be filed and the mayor to sign off on Wyld Bird’s liquor license before opening the doors for dinner.
“Wyld Bird and Home Grown is a great synergy. It all works so well together. Kevin and Lisa are just so great to work with and good people, so this partnership has been easy because we trust each other,” Syfan said.
“Kevin has always sort of tinkered with the idea of opening a second Home Grown,” Syfan said of the future. “If Wyld Bird fits well here, maybe we’ll do exactly this at another location in Atlanta that’s Home Grown and Wyld Bird.”
Wyld Bird at Home Grown, 968 Memorial Dr., Reynoldstown. Opening for dinner in mid-February, Wednesday through Sunday at 5:30 p.m.
Roswell Restaurant Weeks
SPONSORED BY VISIT ROSWELL AND ROSWELL INC.
🍽️ Roswell Restaurant Weeks returns for its 11th year, Jan 22 – Feb 7. This year, 59 participating locations are creating delicious prix fixe menus for you to enjoy. Roswell Restaurant Weeks celebrates the vibrant dining scene and culinary diversity found in Roswell.
🎁 Check out the new interactive event guide with ways for you to explore the restaurants, check in, earn badges, and win prizes.
🎉 Enjoy the most delicious time of the year in Roswell.
The Move: Greek Lasagna at Buddy Buddy
🇬🇷 Buddy Buddy took over the former Tapa Tapa space at Midtown Promenade last fall, transforming it into a cozy neighborhood bar serving homestyle Greek dishes just like owner Nick Chaivarlis’ grandma used to make. In fact, Chaivarlis tells me that Buddy Buddy has received the yaiyai (Greek grandma) seal of approval. Several Greek matriarchs heard about his little Midtown bar through the Greek grapevine and decided to check it out. Despite being in restaurants for 20 years, pleasing the Greek grandmas of Atlanta was more nerve-wracking than having a restaurant critic in the house.
Chaivarlis is a familiar face to Atlanta cocktail enthusiasts. He’s been part of some of the city’s most revered cocktail programs, and co-owned Ink and Elm at Emory Village until it closed in 2015. At Buddy Buddy, Chaivarlis leans into his Greek heritage on the menu, honoring his parents, who immigrated to the U.S. from Greece. Cured yolks for the deviled eggs are whipped with labneh, aleppo pepper, and dill, then garnished with feta cheese. A whipped Yukon gold potato and garlic dip (skordalia) is served with pickled vegetables, fried garlic, and grilled bread. But while entrees of lamb and stuffed peppers (yemista) grace the menu, the Greek lasagna (pastitsio; $22) at Buddy Buddy is a showstopper.
A thick layer of savory ground lamb and beef comes sandwiched between a crispy thin layer of béchamel and a dense foundation of béchamel-laced bucatini noodles. Chaivarlis isn’t playing when it comes to Buddy Buddy’s Greek lasagna, which arrives as a hefty slab of meat and pasta sitting in a pool of spicy tomato sauce.
On My Radar
1️⃣ Texas-style barbecue pop-up Misfitsss BBQ, led by Bryan Hull and Chef Tyler Heath. The pair started Misfitts BBQ after Hull failed to come to terms on an operating agreement for barbecue restaurant Owens & Hull with his now-former business partner Robert Owens. Misfitsss operates out of Round Trip Brewing on Saturdays, serving traditional Texas-style barbecue plates, and out of Communidad Taqueria on Monday evenings, serving Tex-Mex tacos and dishes like fried pork belly ends (pictured) with salsa macha, chili slaw, and Cojita cheese. Hull and Health plan to open a permanent location of Misfitsss by early next year.
2️⃣ Ramen and katsu restaurant Aji-Katsu Japanese Tonkatsu & Ramen. It’s all in the name. A few folks have told me this restaurant is worth the trip to Johns Creek. We’ll see.
3️⃣ Deep cuts menu at The Deer and The Dove in Decatur. James Beard award-winning chef Terry Koval just dropped this new menu on Sunday, featuring smaller, shareable bites at a more approachable price point for snacking at the bar (between $8 and $12). I’m eager to try the polenta cake and the rabbit and pork liverwurst on the Deep Cuts menu.
Sticky Duck Wings Recipe
From Confab Kitchen & Bar
🦆 This week, we’re sharing a recipe for the sticky duck wings from Confab Kitchen & Bar in Brookhaven. If you’re hosting a Super Bowl party (or a backyard barbecue this summer,) Confab founder Doug Gross said the brine and glaze in this recipe will work for up to 74 duck wings.
You can find duck wings at butcher shops or stores like Super H Mart and Your DeKalb Farmers Market. Gross recommends using drumettes rather than flats. Unlike with chicken wings, duck wing flats don’t have much meat. If you do use duck flats, consider upping your wing count per person. Can’t find duck wings? No problem. Chicken wings will do just fine.
As for the duck fat called for in the recipe, check out Whole Foods, specialty markets, or ask you local butcher.
👉 Check out the full recipe here.
➡️ Get double the Atlanta food and dining coverage with “Family Meal,” edited by Beth McKibben, on Tuesdays at 5 p.m., and “Side Dish,” edited by Sarra Sedghi, on Thursdays at noon. Subscribe to both here. ⬅️
