🍗 Rotisserie chicken cost breakdown
Thursday, Oct. 15 — Hello, internet friends.
🐔 Back in my big media days, I wrote quite a bit about rotisserie chicken. I also organized a huge taste test and inadvertently caused a rotisserie revamp at a certain Birmingham-area grocery store, but that’s another story. Anyway, I learned to view the price of grocery-store rotisserie chicken as an economic barometer, and if you’ve recently had one for dinner, you know prices have gone up.
Earlier this year, I noticed more restaurants adding roasted or rotisserie chicken to menus. Yes, chicken prices have gone up, but a whole or half bird feeds multiple people at once and these restaurants have caught on to that. And at least three rotisserie chicken chains have recently opened in Atlanta (Ford’s, Pretty Hens, and Roasters). Even finer dining spots like Last Dance and So. Fox have roast chicken on the menu now.
Restaurant rotisserie chicken’s prominence and prices are what inspired our latest “What’s That Cost?” installment. I was very excited to talk to the owner of Las Brasas in Decatur about this. You’ll find that cost breakdown below in today’s newsletter.
🚲 For Quick Bites, get updates on a taco pop-up at Pullman Yards, a bicycle food delivery service in Cabbagetown, and a top Atlanta chef joining an upcoming Fayetteville restaurant. Keep reading for stories on an Eastside Beltline closure and the reprinting of “The High Museum of Art Recipe Collection” cookbook.
Lastly, read this week’s “Family Meal,” where we share our exclusive on Minhwa Spirits’ big move next year and Beth talks about why it feels like so many restaurants are closing.
See y’all next week,
🍰 Sarra
Quick Bites
Openings
🌮 Taco pop-up Beefies began a residency at Pullman Yards in the former Peckish ATL space.
🥯 Ida’s Kitchen Counter will open in South Downtown on Oct. 19.Temporary closing
☕ Cometa Coffee in Reynoldstown will temporarily close Oct. 18-24.
Coming attractions🌾
Harvest & Grace, a neighborhood cafe, will open at the Town at Trilith in Fayetteville next month. The restaurant hired Justin Dixon (Humble Mumble, Bully Boy, Local Three, The Spence) as executive chef.
🇰🇷 Rough Draft exclusive: Minhwa Spirits will relocate to Westside Provisions District early next year.
Community announcements
🚴 Little’s Food Store in Cabbagetown brought back its bicycle delivery service in and around the neighborhood.
🍵 Kafeiin Coffee in Duluth will be takeaway only Oct. 19-23 due to renovations. A pop-up coffee shop will be located right outside.
☕ Waller’s Coffee Shop in Decatur is seeking donations to cover operating costs, including repairs. Those interested in contributing should visit the coffee shop’s GoFundMe page.
Industry updates🛞
Michelin will drop its 2026 guide to the American South, which includes metro Atlanta restaurants, during an evening ceremony in Nashville on Oct. 21.
🍝 Longtime A Mano General Manager Bethany Farmer, Beverage Director David Guth, and Director of Operations Will Gregory have all been named owners of the Old Fourth Ward Italian restaurant.
🍸 ASW Distillery’s Hunker Spirits brand has been named an official partner of the University of Georgia Athletic Association.
Add to your calendar
🍡 The 17th annual A Taste of Chamblee takes place this Saturday from 3 to 8 p.m. Attendance is free. Food and drinks for purchase from festival vendors.
🎗️ Joey D’s Oak Room in Dunwoody and New York Prime in Buckhead are continuing CentraArchy Restaurants’ annual “Pink Kiss for the Cure” campaign. Fifty percent of the proceeds from the Pink Kiss martini will go to Living Beyond Breast Cancer.
🎃 The East Atlanta Nature Sanctuary will host its inaugural Fall Fest on Oct. 17 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Expect a free garden exchange table and plant swap, fall gardening workshops, and a garden market with small-batch vendors.
🪔 The Chai Box will host its fifth annual Diwali Mela in Marietta on Oct. 24 from 4 to 8 p.m. The free event includes food, live entertainment, gifts, music, and henna.
🖼️ On Nov. 12, Bey Mediterranean Kitchen + Bar and the Roswell Arts Fund will host Art Around: Food, a four-course dinner complete with wine pairings and live jazz by Trey Wright. Look for food and drinks from Bey, Tipsy Thaiger, Silla del Toro, Bask Steakhouse, and Deep Roots Wine Bar. Tickets cost $159.12. All proceeds benefit Roswell Arts Fund and its Art Around Roswell initiative.
Taste Your Way Through Alpharetta
SPONSORED BY AWESOME ALPHARETTA
🍴 Alpharetta Restaurant Week is happening now, ending Sat., Oct. 17!
Join us for a great opportunity to visit restaurants you’ve always wanted to try and to rediscover old favorites. It’s a celebration of the cuisine that makes Alpharetta a culinary hot spot!
Top Stories
The High reprints 1981 community cookbook
🎨 In honor of its centennial, the High Museum has reprinted its 1981 community cookbook.
The recipe collection spans from dainty party appetizers to desserts with silly names like “Deep Dark Secret.” A group of Atlanta chefs recreated some of the recipes for the High’s Recipe Revival event last week.
⏩ Read more about the cookbook and how to buy it here.
Rina exits the Eastside Beltline
🚛 Mediterranean street food restaurant Rina closed on the Eastside Beltline.
Oliva Restaurant Group told Rough Draft, however, that Rina still offers catering services and plans to reopen elsewhere.
⏩ Read more about Rina’s departure here.
Chicken math time!
💸 The latest installment of “What’s That Cost?” focuses on the pollo a las brasa (Peruvian-style rotisserie chicken) from Las Brasas in Decatur.
We took a closer look at all the costs that go into making one rotisserie chicken, including line items you may not consider, like charcoal and diesel prices.
⏩ Check out the full cost breakdown here.
🍽️ The City of Chamblee is days away from its 17th annual A Taste of Chamblee on Sat., Oct. 17, from 3:00 p.m.-8:00 p.m. in Downtown Chamblee. Join us for the City’s premier food and craft festival! SPONSOR MESSAGE
At the Market
IN PARTNERSHIP WITH COMMUNITY FARMERS MARKETS
🍆 Rough Draft Atlanta and Community Farmers Markets partner each week to bring you two recipes you can make at home using ingredients from your local farmers market. This week, we’ve got a beet-themed take on a poke bowl and Chinese five-spice eggplant. Check out both recipes here.
That Slaps
🇱🇦 Will you promise not to judge me for waiting so long to try So So Fed at Ok Yaki? I realized the magnitude of that mistake on a recent Sunday night, when I got to pick the restaurant for our regular family dinner. I am not exaggerating when I say everything we had from the Lao-Chinese-American pop-up was so good.
Sunday’s meal, which included cold glass noodles, pork wontons, hamachi crudo, Sichuan hot fried chicken, scallop red curry, and a coconut whip fruit plate for dessert, is one I will be thinking about for a long time.
🥰 There was a lot of holding my hands up to my chest during this meal, which means I was really taken by the food from Chef Molli Voraotsady, who owns and operates So So Fed.
You can catch So So Fed popping up in the dining room at Ok Yaki in East Atlanta on Sunday and Monday nights.
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 email me.
