5 days ago
A Candlelit Butcher Shop Is Hosting Atlanta's Most Intimate Meal
Henna Bakshi is the Regional Editor, South at Eater and an award-winning food and wine journalist with a WSET (Wine and Spirits Education Trust) Level 3 degree. She oversees coverage in Atlanta, Miami, New Orleans, the Carolinas, and Nashville.
Welcome to another installment of Scene Report in Atlanta, a new column in which Eater captures the vibe of a notable Atlanta restaurant at a specific moment in time.
What is usually a bustling, sun-lit cafe and butchery, with people lining up for its famous breakfast sandwich on brioche, transforms into a candlelit oasis with four seats lining the bar. Afterhours at 8:30 p.m., Kinship Butcher and Sundry co-owner Rachel Pack greets you at the door, while her husband, Myles Moody, is a buzzing shadow with pots and pans behind the meat counter. The produce light is on with fairytale eggplants and peppers on display, the cheese case beckons, and folded napkins and freshly polished wine glasses wait dramatically at the handmade bar. And that's how dinner begins.
The produce section at Kinship is dimly lit during dinner. Andy Leverett
Starting in September, Kinship in Virginia-Highlands will debut a 12-course tasting menu, seating just four guests per night, two weekends a month. Priced at $325, the hyper-intimate dinner showcases local ingredients and wine pairings from chef Myles Moody (formerly of Eleven Madison Park, Aska, and Blue Hill at Stone Barns) and sommelier Rachel Pack (also formerly of Aska, where the couple met). Eater got an exclusive first look at dinner. Here's what to expect.
The food
Most ingredients rely on what's fresh and new, but here, dishes embrace aging and fermentation. Aged and preserved fruits appear on both plate and in glass, balancing summer garden brightness with the depth of time.
The first course, aptly named the Garden, is a refreshing herb bundle steeped in a chilled, foaming cucumber drink alongside a lettuce, cheese, and preserved chamomile tartelet. (The ethos is immediately very EMP and Noma.) The second is a fermented green tomato with capered coriander seeds — a revelation that coriander seeds can be salted and pickled like capers, offering tiny bursts of acid and spice.
Royal red shrimp and sungold tomatoes served on Carolina Gold rice, with fermented strawberries and bay laurel. Dave Crawford
Pack shows the diners a large bowl of dried spicebush, a shrub in the laurel family, that Moody has foraged locally. It has a pink peppercorn flavor, which Moody finely grates atop a croustade pastry shell filled with potato and gold koji whey. The ingredients and techniques may sound complicated, but the flavors combine effortlessly, punching at acid, deep umami, and preserved fruit and spice. One of the best dishes is one made with sungold tomatoes (skins and flesh prepared in different drying and aging techniques) and royal red shrimp served on Carolina Gold rice, with fermented strawberries and bay laurel — something you might find at Atelier Crenn in San Francisco. It is plated in a vintage swirling orange glass bowl to match the sungolds.
A bowl of dried spicebush. Henna Bakshi
Chef Myles Moody grates spicebush on a croustade course. Andy Leverett
You can tell Moody is playing. There are courses of monkfish, quail served with grilled cream and a special lemon-pepper wet quail wing, and of course, a butcher one does not make without serving your best cut of beef. The one here is dry-aged for 40 days, served with fairytale eggplants and preserved roselle (hibiscus). The meaty beef with the sweet and tangy roselle is a true crescendo.
Insider tip: Ask what leather britches are.
Rachel Pack pours Champagne Piollot for the first few courses Andy Leverett
The drinks
Pack runs the wine and non-alcoholic pairings and does so brilliantly. The first few courses are served with biodynamic Champagne Piollot, followed by a sherry-like treasure from Spain (2021 Raul Moreno 'Destellos'), beautiful reds, and capped with a sweet ratafia from Vilmart et Cie. The non-alcoholic wines are well-sought, ranging from a gruner weiss from Austria, a floral sparkling tea from Copenhagen, and a pre-mixed cocktail called 'for bitter or for worse' from Rose City Fizz — the last is a brilliant pairing with the beef and roselle course, matching the hibiscus notes to a T. The drinks are served in Zalto glassware — one of the finest wine glasses from Austria that makes you feel like you're drinking out of thin air. Additionally, the plateware and silverware are French antiques the couple has collected over their travels.
Pack's attention to detail on service, from front-of-house greetings, warm and cold towels, dish presentation, and pickup, down to the thoughtfulness of handmade menu sleeves, is like watching a ballerina perform — it's choreographed, yet natural.
Insider tip: Ask Pack about the wine and its producers in detail. She's an encyclopedia. Then grab a bottle to bring home.
An herb bundle is steeped in a chilled cucumber concoction for the first course. Andy Leverett
Grab wine and cheese to bring home after dinner. Andy Leverett
Prepare for
A long dinner. Mine lasted about four hours, though with fine-tuning on pacing, it might become shorter. Take stretch breaks by checking out the fresh produce or wines on display. Moody is testing his culinary chops with gusto, though he may have a finer menu by cutting a course or two and letting the heavily orchestrated dishes have breathing room to shine.
Chef Myles Moody and Rachel Pack, co-owners of Kinship Butcher and Sundry. Kathryn Ann Waller
Go here for
A local story. From ingredients to the people behind it. Moody and Pack run one of the best neighborhood butcher and coffee shops in town and now own Under Acre Farm in Ormewood Park in southeast Atlanta, where they'll grow muscadines, herbs, and vegetables. Seeing their fine dining past resurrect in this ode to the South is admirable. And it's all happening in a candle-lit butcher shop. Isn't that worth a visit alone?
