So many new restaurants!
Feb. 19 — Hello, internet friends.
It seems like there are just as many new restaurants popping up around Atlanta as there are daffodil blooms in my backyard.
In this week’s Quick Bites, get the latest on Atlanta’s recent restaurant openings, including a new yogurt spot in Doraville’s Asian Square and Home Grown’s new restaurant-within-a-restaurant. Plus, DBA Tacos & BBQ in Clarkston closes and pivots, a chopped cheese place opens soon in Little Five Points, and a barbecue restaurant in Dunwoody Village debuts weekend dueling piano shows.
Later on in “Side Dish,” I reminisce on a good breakfast sandwich from last week and share some of my grandparents’ favorite Atlanta restaurants.
ICYMI, here’s a link to this week’s “Family Meal,” where Beth explains a few food bills making their way through the state legislature. Chef Max Hines also shares Breaker Breaker’s chicken Caesar wrap recipe.
See y’all next week,
🍰 Sarra
🏀 ATL! Join the Atlanta Hawks tomorrow, Feb. 20 as they take on the Miami Heat and celebrate Culture Fest presented by Verizon — a night honoring the diversity of Caribbean, Hispanic, and African communities. Grab your seats now! SPONSOR MESSAGE
Quick Bites
Openings
🍗 Wyld Bird is now open for dinner service Wednesday through Sunday at Home Grown in Reynoldstown. The pollo asado operation is an extension of Brad Syfan and Chef Tony Seichrist’s The Wyld Dock Bar in Savannah.
🥤 Korean yogurt beverage chain Hey Yogurt in Doraville’s Asian Square is now open. In addition to Japanese-inspired, drinkable yogurt smoothies, Hey Yogurt offers desserts like cheesecake and croissant waffles. As part of the celebration, the shop plans to offer BOGO yogurt (same flavor only) through February 25.
🥃 The Library Bar inside bookstore Scholar & Scribe opened at Fayetteville’s Town at Trilith earlier this month. And breakfast restaurant Thumbs Up Diner in the town center rebranded to Greystone Local Eatery.
Closings
⏸️ DBA Tacos & BBQ in Clarkston is closed “until further notice.” According to owner Matt Coggin, the Clarkston location will house an expanded DBA catering operation and host pop-ups. Coggin opened the location in a former combination Taco Bell and KFC on East Ponce de Leon Avenue in 2024. DBA Barbecue’s Chastain Park location remains open.
🍝 DePalma’s in Athens will close after 38 years on Feb. 27. The owners plan to retire. A new restaurant called Pompeii will open in March.
Coming attractions
🥪 Los Angeles-based chain New York’s Chopped Cheese will open in Little Five Points this spring.
🥙 The renovations at Rumi’s Kitchen in Sandy Springs are nearly complete, meaning the reopening is within sight.
Menu changes
🥞 In Sandy Springs, Persian and Middle Eastern restaurant Yalda added weekend brunch to the menu lineup. Yalda’s Howell Mill Road location added brunch in 2024.
In memoriam
💐 Amore e Amore (formerly Il Localino) announced via a social media post that co-founder Giovanni Ferro died over the weekend. Ferro owned the Inman Park restaurant with his wife, Gale Parker.
“Giovanni had an extraordinary vision. Love flows through our dining rooms because of him. You can feel it the moment you walk in,” the post read.
That love was regularly expressed through Amore e Amore’s hospitality and creativity, which often extended to seasonal themes. There aren’t many places where you can comfortably dine on chicken piccata and massive antipasti plates and listen to 1980s dance tunes while wearing a silly hat.
The restaurant plans to host a memorial for Ferro later this spring.
Add to your calendar
🍽️ Tickets are still available for the Stolen Goods Edna Lewis Sunday supper at Bread & Butterfly on Feb. 22. The event will feature a multiple-course meal by chefs Demetrius Brown (Heritage), Cleophus Hethington (Lucia Los Angeles), Justin Dixon (Humble Mumble), and Max Hines (Breaker Breaker). Seatings are at 5:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
☪️ The Atlanta Muslim Festival Collective’s Ramadan Food Festival returns for a second year on Feb. 27, from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m., at 2077 Beaver Ruin Road in Norcross. Part night market and part food festival, the event will feature more than 60 halal food vendors, an artisan market, cultural activations, and an indoor-outdoor kids’ area. Tickets are $12. All faiths welcome.
🍱 Nakato Japanese Restaurant and the Tara Theatre are collaborating with bento and a movie on Feb. 22, featuring a 4 p.m. screening of Oscar-nominated Japanese film Kokuho. Nakato will offer a selection of bento boxes during the screening. Tickets for the movie and a bento box are $46 per person.
🍸 On March 10, Nakato owner Sachi Nakato Takahara will host a sakura spirits (cherry blossom) cocktail class at the Cheshire Bridge Road restaurant’s newly renovated bar. The lesson includes three cocktails utilizing Japanese sakura spirits, accompanied by small plates. Tickets are $70 per person.
🎹 Funwoody Village barbecue spot Morty’s Meat & Supply in Dunwoody will pursue a new tune and debut a dueling piano bar this spring. Starting in March, expect a dueling piano show every Friday and Saturday night.
A new standard in Morningside
SPONSORED BY ATLANTA FINE HOMES
✨ Offered at $5,495,000, this first-of-its-kind transitional new construction in the heart of Morningside is set on a rare double lot and crafted by woman-owned Broad Builders. Designed with museum-worthy materials and exceptional craftsmanship, the six-bedroom residence showcases iron windows, soaring ceilings, a temperature-controlled wine cellar, and Nano doors that open to a heated porch, an infinity-edge pool, and a beautifully appointed pool house.
Atlanta Fine Homes Sotheby’s International Realty is Metro Atlanta’s No. 1 residential real estate company and No. 1 in luxury home sales above $1 million.
👉🏼 Explore our current listings.
Top Stories From the Week
Füm opens at Star Metals
🇮🇹 Miami-based group Grassfed Culture Hospitality’s “contemporary Italian” restaurant Füm, which offers open-fire meats and handmade pastas, opened at Stella at Star Metals over the weekend. Later this spring, the group will open Rabbit Ears at Stella.
⏩ Read Beth’s story, and learn more about Füm.
Three new restaurants headed to 207 Peachtree in downtown ATL
👀 The group behind Red Phone Booth and Amalfi Cucina will open 207 Peachtree, bringing three new restaurants to Downtown this spring. Expect a rooftop lounge, an upscale sports bar, and a dive joint offering barbecue and live music.
⏩ Read about the new restaurants and historic building.
Downtown’s The Center will open this May
🤔 Remember that food hall planned for the CNN Center? Well, it’s finally happening this spring, with a targeted opening date of May. It’s almost like there’s some big sporting event coming up this summer (World Cup) prompting the opening of all these new downtown Atlanta restaurants.
⏩ Read Beth’s story about The Center and its food hall here.
At the Market + Two Recipes
IN PARTNERSHIP WITH COMMUNITY FARMERS MARKETS
🥕 Each week, Community Farmers Markets and Rough Draft Atlanta partner to bring you two tasty recipes using ingredients you can find at your local farmers market. This week, we’ve got honey and soy sauce carrots and a creamy vegetable soup. Check out both recipes here.
🏀 ATL! Join the Atlanta Hawks tomorrow, Feb. 20 as they take on the Miami Heat and celebrate Culture Fest presented by Verizon — a night honoring the diversity of Caribbean, Hispanic, and African communities. Grab your seats now! SPONSOR MESSAGE
That Slaps!
🥚 I didn’t exactly have any grand food adventures last week. I did, however, have a very frantic hangout at Little Tart Bakeshop, where I finally tried a breakfast sandwich. I got the egg and cheese because I just wasn’t in the mood for bacon, and it was like a holy hybrid between an Egg McMuffin and those Starbucks sous vide egg bites.
My grandparents’ favorite Atlanta restaurants
🌹 My love for food was instilled in my grandparents’ kitchen, where I ate chicken, Persian rice, and eggplant stew nearly every weekday as a child. Our more recent quality time involves going to lunch or ordering delivery. My grandparents are two of the purest people on earth, but they’re also extremely picky eaters.
Here are the Atlanta restaurants that get my grandparents’ seal of approval:
Grindhouse Killer Burgers: Fun fact: Persians are major fast food fans. Every time we drive by the Grindhouse on Piedmont, one of my grandparents makes a comment about going back. It’s nearly as wholesome as the time my grandmother asked why they were called “killing hamburgers.”
Le Bon Nosh: There’s nothing my grandparents love more than a cafe. Le Bon Nosh in Buckhead is one of their favorites, especially when it comes to the brunch options. I’ve learned I can’t go wrong with a place for them to dine as long as there’s a good sandwich or soup on the menu.
Daily Chew: Speaking of soup, my Babajoon (grandfather) is a big fan of the soups at Daily Chew on Liddell Drive. My grandparents are always cold, so the patio (under an umbrella, of course) makes an ideal setting.
Delbar (Buckhead): One cannot go wrong with flat bread, a cheese and sabzi platter, and kebabs. The three of us prefer to dine during lunch at Delbar, when the restaurant is quieter.
Atlanta Fish Market: My grandparents are creatures of habit, and one of their prime habits since moving to Atlanta is grabbing dinner at Atlanta Fish Market. They always dine at the same corner table and usually order the “rainbow fish” (trout).
We’re always looking for recipes to highlight on Rough Draft. If you have a favorite dish from a restaurant you want the recipe for, please send me an email to sarra@roughdraftatlanta.com.