The welcome mat is out in Buckhead Atlanta for The Southern Gentleman, the latest restaurant from Southern Proper Hospitality, located at 3035 Peachtree Road, NE. Opening Tuesday, December 2, this gastropub speaks "y'all" with leanings toward the lighter, more modern side of Southern food versus the cliché of fried everything. Executive chef Randy Lewis draws upon seafood from Southern coasts, local farmers, veggie-heavy dishes and playful flavors and turns out new gastropub traditions such as the warm mustard greens salad with runny yolk, crispy pig ear and sorghum-mustard seed vinaigrette or chicken and brown butter-herb waffles and Nana's chow-chow. Lewis organizes his menu into "Snacks" such as TSG deviled eggs; and Hoppin' John-boudin balls with warm pepper jelly. "Before Supper" starters include Sequatchie Cove Farm cheese bread with warmed Dancing Fern, H&F Batard and Southern Waldorf salad; and pickled gulf shrimp with pumpernickel toast, shrimp butter, herbs, sprouts and flowers. With plates for all appetites, "Supper," includes such dishes as shrimp and grits with head-on Gulf shrimp, New Orleans 'BBQ' sauce and speckled whole grain white grits; Southern "porchetta" with loin, belly and skin of Riverview Farms Heritage pork, balsamic braised greens, cornbread puree and au jus; and duck and dumplings with duck confit, root vegetables and duck fat dumplings. The bar program explores classic Southern cocktails from barrel-aged to cocktails on tap, plus craft beers and New World label wines from the Americas and Australia.

The Southern Gentleman shares neither grammie's Southern kitchen nor her décor. The restaurant sports crisp seersucker at the windows, tufted camel leather booths, herringbone wood floors, marble counters, vintage plateware and 25-foot-high ceilings. Co-owner Chris Hadermann sums up The Southern Gentleman as "that place you take your friends from, say, New York, to show them what it means to live in the South or in Atlanta these days--a warm, welcoming extension of our homes...showcasing who we really are in the South." Make reservations via OpenTable. Southern Proper Hospitality is the owner and operator of Smokebelly BBQ, The Big Ketch Saltwater Grill, Milton's Cuisine & Cocktails and Gypsy Kitchen, next door neighbor to The Southern Gentleman. 

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