Fried Chicken Worth the Pot-hole in Atlanta

I love finding new places to eat in my hometown, Atlanta, because I can be a creature of habit when it comes to restaurants.  Nothing wrong with that, right?  If you like it, why go elsewhere?  Well, because it is good to expand horizons and you never know what you will find!  So it was easy for me to accept a friend’s invite to try a new place in town:  Buttermilk Kitchen, up on Roswell Rd. but inside the Perimeter (as we call I-285 around here).

In an unassuming building (with a pothole right where I parked,…), the good news is all the assuming will be done on your plate!

We went for their once-a-month dinner service (they are only open for breakfast and lunch otherwise; I am told I need to try their breakfast on a weekend day).  Their once-a-month dinner service is a fixed menu centered around fried chicken.

My friend is a regular so she knew to sit at the “bar” area (in quotes because they do not have a liquor license since not normally open for dinner; you CAN bring your own beverage of choice though!).  At the bar area, it was easier to interact with the staff and the owner.

The menu started with a fall salad based on arugula with farro, raisins, black rice, and butternut squash with a champagne vinaigrette.  They use produce from the area so the salad was fresh and the combination of flavors really nice.  It was a good way to start our dinner.  The salad actually went well with the Cabernet Sauvignon we were drinking from Conn Creek in Napa Valley.

The next plate serve was the cheese plate:  herb-goat cheese spread on a homemade emmental cracker topped with a delicious onion jam.  I could have eaten a dozen of these, left to my devices but the main course was soon following AND I knew what dessert we were going to be served…

Then the star of the night made its appearance:  the fried chicken!  A breast and wing battered and fried to perfection.  Moist, well-cooked – how do they do that??  I have never had a perfectly cooked piece of fried chicken like this.  It was paired with a sweet potato puree with quinoa crumbles and with braised mustard greens with apples.  The idea of pairing apple with the mustard greens was brilliant.  I never thought I’d say mustard greens could wow me but they sure did!

But the evening was not over.  Oh no, it was not.  We were about to be shown a masterpiece of pound cake-dom:  a caramel pound cake served next to vanilla gelato with pie crumb around and an apple chip topping it – oh, and those pomegranate seeds added a great mix to the flavor and texture combination.  I am glad they only serve one piece because I don’t care how full I was, I would have done a round two in heartbeat and pounds (sic) be damned!

Suffice it to say, between the food and great staff and chef, I am going back in November for dinner service -pothole or not-, wondering how Buttermilk Kitchen will top these dishes!!