Quick Bites: Gypsy Kitchen, Bento Hut open and more
Atlanta restaurant news
- Photo by Brandon Amato
- Gypsy Kitchen is now open at Buckhead Atlanta
Marking the third official restaurant to open at Buckhead Atlanta (after Shake Shack and Thirteen Pies), Gypsy Kitchen has opened at 3035 Peachtree Road. A tribute to Spanish cuisine in the Old World tradition, the exotic concept is the brainchild of JP Piemonte and Chris Hadermann (Tin Lizzy’s Cantina, The Big Ketch Saltwater Grill, Milton’s Cuisine and Cocktails), with executive chef Randy Lewis, formerly culinary director of numerous California wineries. He brings the flavors of Spain’s Andalusian, Basque, Galician, and Catalonian regions to the table, offering tastes such as octopus confit with potato, paprika, garlic chips, and parsley; Serrano ham-wrapped North Carolina trout with fava-bean and Spanish-olive salsa; and a bone-in beef rib-eye with roasted red peppers, feta, capers, and preserved lemons.
Gato Cafe’s longstanding Gato Arigato pop-up has ended, confirms Jarrett Stieber. Stieber is best known for his Eat Me Speak Me supper club, and operates his own pop-up out of the Gato headquarters on Sunday and Monday nights, but is changing the schedule to Friday through Sunday beginning October 24. As for the primary pop-up on site, we do know a new culinary concept for Monday and Tuesday nights is coming soon.
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In case you missed it, 10 months after chef Paul Luna decamped Atlanta to follow his wife to Switzerland, his offbeat downtown eatery, Lunacy Black Market (231 Mitchell St.), has officially shuttered. No word yet on what restaurant may replace Lunacy Black Market downtown.
The owners of Umi Sushi plan to open an as-of-yet-unnamed semi-private nightclub/lounge in the same building as its existing Buckhead eatery at 3050 Peachtree Road, says Tomorrow’s News Today. Chef-partner Fuyuhiko Ito, formerly of MF Buckhead, is expected to be involved with the new concept, which is slated to serve craft cocktails and sake and open in spring 2015. “It’s like a place where James Bond and Sammy Davis Jr. would meet for a martini,” Umi’s other co-owner, Farshid Arshid, told Eater.
Atlanta celeb chef Kevin Gillespie’s Glenwood Park eatery, Gunshow, has been named one of Esquire magazine’s 12 best new restaurants in America, part of the magazine’s first-annual American Food and Drink Awards by editor at large Josh Ozersky. In an October 14 release from Gunshow’s press rep, the restaurant is described as possibly “the manliest restaurant in America,” with “a kitchen so ballsy and hyper-creative that you can’t figure on ever getting the same thing twice.”
Six months after taking over the former home of Aqua Bistro at 264 Pharr Road, local seafood chain Boneheads closed its Buckhead location on the ground floor of the Eclipse condominium building on October 12. The now-shuttered eatery, which originally took nearly $2 million to renovate, was the flagship for the Atlanta-based company — which boasts outposts in North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana.
Replacing the former Chow Bing location at the Pencil Factory Lofts (349 Decatur St.) is Bento Hut, a casual Pan-Asian concept that serves an odd but alluring combination of health-centric juices and classic dishes — think chicken katsu, udon noodle soup, nigiri, tempura rolls, bubble tea, and more. The restaurant offers lunch, dinner, delivery, and catering options.
Grant Henry’s second location of Sister Louisa’s Church should open in Athens at 254 West Clayton St. on Friday, October 17. The irreverent original in Old Fourth Ward is immensely popular with Atlanta’s hipster set, and the second is sure to beguile with a similar vibe in Athens.