“The Move” is your guide to the top food finds from Rough Draft Dining Editor and Editor-in-Chief Beth McKibben. The guide appears first in her weekly Family Meal newsletter on Tuesdays at 5 p.m. Subscribe for free to Family Meal, which includes exclusive Q&As with Atlanta chefs and bartenders, Beth’s latest dining excursion for The Move, a recipe, and other subscriber-first stories. As a subscriber of Family Meal, you’re automatically signed up for Side Dish, the Rough Draft dining team‘s Thursday newsletter dropping at noon rounding up the week’s Atlanta food news.
The Porter Beer Bar
1156 Euclid Ave., Little Five Points
Located next door to Criminal Records, The Porter Beer Bar offers a varied brunch menu that includes everything from its popular salt-and-vinegar popcorn and black truffle deviled eggs to Dutch baby pancakes and fish and grits featuring beer-battered haddock and shrimp gravy.
Brunch salads are my jam, and on a recent Saturday morning, I opted for The Porter’s Little Gem and baby kale salad ($12). Watermelon radish slices and crisp cucumbers provide some extra crunch. The salad comes lightly tossed in green goddess dressing topped with fluffy crumbles of tangy parmesan cheese. I ordered a couple of sidekicks for my salad: a buttermilk biscuit with whipped butter ($5) and two house-made Toulouse pork sausage patties ($6) seasoned with white wine, garlic, and nutmeg.
The spicy Bloody Mary ($12) stirred up with pepper-infused vodka is A+. However, the Porter’s house bloody mix alone is worth the $8 price tag.
Related story: Little Five Points beer bar The Porter is finally back
Gene’s
2371 Hosea L Williams Dr., East Lake
There’s something so wholly satisfying about cutting into a hunk of crispy iceberg lettuce loaded with bacon bits and a smattering of other ingredients doused in creamy blue cheese dressing. Simple yet indulgent, the wedge salad requires you to eat it with a knife and fork, a gratifying experience delivering crunch, texture, and a mingling of flavors with each bite.
A 2024 Best New Restaurant, Gene’s in East Lake gives the classic wedge salad a fresh, zesty twist with fried shallots and garlic, a generous sprinkling of chives, and sprigs of dill amped up with basil oil and dressed in jalapeno ranch. For $10, you get half a head of lettuce on your plate, too.
Related stories:
• Gene’s brings barbecue, frozen Bushwackers, pure fun to East Lake
• The Best New Atlanta Restaurants of 2024
The Wrecking Bar Brewpub
292 Moreland Ave., Inman Park
Wrecking Bar Brewpub might be one of Atlanta’s most underrated restaurant experiences, a fact I was reminded of during a recent visit with a group of friends who ranged from quite particular to unabashedly adventurous eaters. This is where beer geeks, whiskey aficionados, cocktail lovers, and gourmands can happily converge to dine and drink in the cellar of the circa 1900 Kriegshaber mansion on the border of Little Five Points and Inman Park.
At dinner that evening, it became a toss-up between ordering the crispy cod sandwich, dressed with shaved onions, lettuce, pickled jalapenos, and anchovy herb aioli, and the confit duck leg. Both are menu favorites of Wrecking Bar regulars, but (pro tip) the duck changes seasonally. Past versions have seen the duck leg marinated in chili fish sauce and sprinkled with bonito flakes (pictured), served on a salad of padron peppers, garlic corn, and bok choy atop butternut squash puree. A soft-boiled egg adds a rich creaminess to the dish.
It was chilly outside. I was drinking French cider. The duck ($26) was necessary that night. A hearty medley of radicchio, Swiss chard, and kohlrabi and hakurei turnips provided crunch and texture for the duck tossed in togarashi (seven-ingredient chili pepper seasoning) and nitsume (sweet and salty Japanese sauce). The yolk of the soft-boiled egg soaked up the togarashi and nitsume, lightly dressing the winter salad accompanying the duck with a little umami.