Nearly a year after announcing plans to turn his popular Atlanta pop-up Gene’s into a brick-and-mortar, Avery Cottrell is almost ready to open his first restaurant.
Gene’s is set to open in mid-July at 2371 Hosea L. Williams Drive in the Hosea + 2nd development in Atlanta’s East Lake neighborhood. Guests who want to get a taste of what to expect can visit the restaurant July 4 for a $59.69 takeout-only package offering a rack of ribs, tallow beans, cucumber salad, flour tortillas and pickled onions and peppers.
The menu at Gene’s, which is named for Cottrell’s 35-pound pet cat who he calls “my muse,” is built around meats smoked on-site in a bubble-gum pink, 1,000-gallon offset smoker made by Cumming company Primitive Pit.
Cottrell describes his barbecue style as “traditional offset smoking Texas-style BBQ. We start with those fundamentals, but then we start playing around with it and making it weird,” he said. “It’s Gulf Coast barbecue with an eclectic set of ingredients.”
Credit: Courtesy of Gene's
Credit: Courtesy of Gene's
To start, the menu offers appetizers including crab claws marinated in chili vinegar, herbs and shallots; pickled chili chicken thighs with pork crackling gremolata served with pickled chili white barbecue sauce; sticky ribs with fish caramel sauce topped with peanuts and fried shallots; peel-and-eat shrimp served hot or cold and served with Gene’s Dust Cajun seasoning and NASCAR sauce, a take on cocktail sauce made with mayonnaise instead of ketchup; fish dip made with smoked gulf grouper, herbs, pickled chilies and crackers; and egg rolls stuffed with boudin, a mix of pork and rice sourced from Louisiana.
In addition to core sandwich offerings including pulled pork, brisket, Philly cheesesteak with jalapeño cheese and pickled chilis on locally baked TGM bread, and buffalo shrimp hoagies, Gene’s will also offer at least one or two rotating daily sandwich specials such as crispy pork belly banh mi, smoked shrimp salad sandwich, and a smoked beef cheek debris po’boy. There will also occasionally be non-sandwich specials such as buffalo frog legs and smoked and grilled fish collars.
“We’re just cooking stuff that we like, and we like stuff from all over the place,” Cottrell said of the eclectic offerings.
Credit: Courtesy of Gene's
Credit: Courtesy of Gene's
For traditionalists, the menu also offers barbecue plates with protein options including brisket, ribs, pork, sausage and chicken. And lest the non-meat eaters feel left out, mushroom tacos and a whole smoked cauliflower with harissa rub and pomegranate make appearances. A kids menu also offers several smaller items from the regular menu.
Sides include creamed elote with pepper cream sauce and topped with lime, mayo, queso fresco and tajin; smashed cucumber salad with garlic, mint, cilantro and red onion; and coal-roasted beet salad with a goat cheese orange vinaigrette.
The food menu is rounded out with desserts such as biscoff banana pudding, and seasonally rotating pies baked by Cottrell’s wife, Elizabeth Hurstell (cherry pie and salted honey tart will be available at first).
Credit: Courtesy of Gene's
Credit: Courtesy of Gene's
At about 9 p.m., the restaurant will shift to a bar vibe, complete with a mirror ball and a small late-night menu of snacks from the regular menu.
A Sunday brunch menu, which will likely launch soon after the restaurant opens, will offer items like an Egg McMuffin-style breakfast sandwich with a choice of protein (including a hot sausage made served with Tabasco mash from Avery Island in Louisiana) and McDonald’s-style hash browns.
Other brunch options will include breakfast burritos and tacos, New Jersey pork rolls, and cheddar biscuits spiced with Cajun seasoning served with butter and rotating seasonal jams. Also keep an eye out for coffee drinks including Irish frozen coffee.
Gene’s beverage offerings include rotating frozen drinks like the Bushwhacker with rum, coconut, cacao and amaretto; and the nonalcoholic Genesicle, with orange, vanilla and coconut (and the option to add a shot of booze).
Credit: Courtesy of Gene's
Credit: Courtesy of Gene's
Other options include the canned hard tea Oops Delicious made in collaboration with Decatur brewery Inner Voice; natural and orange wines; and three local beers on draft as well as Coors Light and Banquet in cans. Also available will be batched and draft cocktails developed by Kimball House partner Miles Macquarrie, including the Gene’s Martini with Decatur-produced Murrell’s Row gin, dry vermouth, cap corse blanc and a smoked olive; and the Tulsi Tonic with Murrell’s Row tulsi gin, lime cordial, faccio bruto centerbe and tonic.
Boozy options will be capped off by rotating flavors of Jell-O shots (the opening menu will feature Mountain Dew).
“I love the idea of cooking with these complex, interesting flavors and pairing it with some of the dumbest stuff,” Cottrell said. “If you’re too serious, you have no fun.”
The space, which seats more than 50 inside, will allow guests to order at a deli counter near the front door stuffed with grab-and-go items and desserts. Seating is available at the bar, in booths, tables and a larger round table for big groups, and customers will have a view into the semi-open kitchen.
Outside, covered patio booths will look out onto the smoker and an herb garden.
The eclectic décor includes vintage, mismatched furniture, a 20-foot alligator, disco balls and Christmas lights hanging from the ceiling, retro toys glued to various surfaces, and “strange and cool pictures and art hanging on the walls,” Cottrell said. “We have folk art hanging next to a Lego Yoda.”
One bathroom’s walls and ceiling are covered in mirrors, while the other uses tarot cards from Cartoon Network show “Adventure Time” as wallpaper.
Credit: Courtesy of Gene's
Credit: Courtesy of Gene's
A free jukebox in the center of the restaurant will be stocked with CDs running the musical gamut, including Atlanta punk music, Flock of Seagulls, Jimmy Buffett, Kiss and Outkast.
“We achieved a weirdo vibe in here for sure,” Cottrell said. “We wanted to offer a space that was pretty unique for Atlanta, and I think we achieved that goal.”
An Atlanta native who previously worked as a chef at neighboring restaurant Poor Hendrix, Cottrell launched Gene’s before the pandemic, when he was still living and working in New Orleans. He’d drive up to do pop-ups at Decatur brewery Inner Voice and restaurant Kimball House, whose owners he started to meet and befriend while he was still a teenager working at Brick Store Pub. Kimball House’s owners are also partners in Gene’s, along with John Ward, who works for Victory Brands restaurant group.)
Credit: Avery Cottrell
Credit: Avery Cottrell
Eventually, Cottrell moved back to Atlanta with Hurstell and their daughter. Over the past few years, he’s popped up at restaurants including Brick Store Pub, Pollo Primo and Argosy in East Atlanta, Talat Market in Summerhill and, naturally, Poor Hendrix.
Gene’s will join several food and beverage concepts in the Hosea + 2nd development including La Fonda Latina, Perc Coffee and Mix’d Up Burgers, in addition to Poor Hendrix.
Credit: Avery Cottrell
Credit: Avery Cottrell
Gene’s opening hours will be 4-10 p.m. Tuesdays-Thursdays, 11:30 a.m.-11 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays and 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Sundays.
Cottrell said he hopes eventually to allow pop-ups to use the Gene’s space during off hours to host other pop-up chefs.
“The gratitude we have for the people who’ve helped us out with this process is immense,” Cottrell said. “There’s such a great restaurant community in Atlanta. If we can help other people out the way we were helped out, that would be great.”
2371 Hosea L. Williams Drive, Atlanta. genesgenesgenes.com
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