Chef’s Table - Chef’s Table

Killer food on tap

Killer food on tapIn the course of a year, 5 Seasons ?Brewing serves about 9,000 gallons of beer in 30 ?different varieties, with five to nine on tap at any given ?time. Chef/co-owner David Larkworthy is the guy ?responsible for lining your stomach with really good bar food so you can imbibe responsibly. Somebody’s eating well: They serve 400-800 meals a day.

Creative Loafing: Brewpubs rock in Portland, Boston, Seattle, Chicago because they serve great food. In Atlanta, that’s unheard of.

Larkworthy: We do way more business with food than beer. Most people weren’t convinced that you could get great beer and fresh, wholesome food under one roof. We’re a nonpretentious place to get both.

Where’d the name come from?

We originally knew we wanted to do seasonal food and beer. It tastes the best, and it’s the cheapest, plus there are so many great foods and beers you can’t feature them all at one time. We wanted ‘season’ in the name. We had like, 100 names written down, and then my partner’s wife, who’s from Japan, mentioned the fifth season is the monsoon season. So it’s special — a little bit more. We have a joke that we are one better than that hotel chain [Four Seasons].

Your restaurant has no street access, you’re buried in the back of the Prado; people have to know where you are. How do you combat that challenge?

It’s an enormous challenge to overcome. People walk in every day and have no idea we are here, people who live less than a mile away. We did the Sandy Springs Festival and hundreds and hundreds of people walked up to us and said, “We didn’t know you existed.” In three-and-a-half years, we’ve been lucky to grow through word of mouth.

What are your top-selling dishes?

We serve simple and sophisticated food and offer 15 to 30 menu specials a day between lunch and dinner. We might serve tacos next to foie gras. But we have a core menu of signature items like filet au poivre, a classic French dish, and grilled ravioli that we cook over a grill so they get kind of crispy and then we stack them like a Napoleon.

You have a commitment to using artisan products.

We feature local produce and meat and what the farmers have. We make our own beer and everything we serve is from scratch. We butcher whole organic cows and pigs on occasion, we make our own sorbets and pasta. Nothing is pre-processed or packaged, leaden with chemicals and saturated fat. It’s how we like to eat.

Do you recommend pairings?

More lately, particularly seasonal beers. Like a nice German Helles with a lighter dish like fish. Or a Lambic raspberry-infused beer with chocolate cake — those two go really well together.

-- Suzanne Wright


5 Seasons Brewing, 5600 Roswell Road. 404-255-5911. www.5seasonsbrewing.com.






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