Sure, you can grab dinner and then go see a show. But what if you could combine the two? These metro Atlanta restaurants offer tableside services, from baked Alaska flambéed right in front of you to temaki service that includes nori roasted and wasabi grated at the table.
Bloody mary cart at Americano
The Americano at the InterContinental Buckhead Atlanta elevates brunch with its tableside bloody mary cart, which makes the dining room rounds every Sunday from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
The service offers guests their choice of several different garnishes, including olives with rosemary and olive oil, jalapeno and serrano peppers and sweet cherry peppers. There’s also the option of gin, vodka or tequila; spicy bloody mary mix or the Americano house mix; and a salted or Tajín-rimmed glass.
Clam juice or beef bouillon can also be added to the drink upon request, in addition to fresh stalks of celery and lemon wedges.
Americano will soon add juices made with different kinds of tomatoes to the cart, as well as tomato water for a clear-colored bloody mary.
In the coming months, the restaurant will also roll out a tableside amaro cart for after-dinner drinks and a tonic cart with options for spirits and dried fruit.
“It makes it a little more personalized when guests see it happen in front of them,” said Americano beverage manager and sommelier Christopher Gonzales.
3315 Peachtree Road NE, Atlanta. 404-946-9070, theamericanorestaurant.com/atlanta
Credit: Courtesy of Jason Liang
Credit: Courtesy of Jason Liang
Temaki and sizzling matcha from Brush
If you’re looking for dramatic tableside service, sushi restaurant Brush, which recently opened in the Buckhead Village development, offers it three ways.
Start with the 4-ounce Miyazaki A5 wagyu spinalis, which is cooked in the kitchen but cubed tableside and seared on a sizzling binchotan grill, followed by a pour of garlic butter shoyu. The meat is served with roasted root veggies and charred greens.
Move on to Brush’s temaki service, for which several elements are prepared in front of guests, including roasting the nori, grating fresh wasabi and shaving black truffle.
“Nori gets soggy extremely fast,” said chef and co-owner Jason Liang. “Roasting it in front of guests maximizes the crispiness, and they enjoy watching it.”
The service also brings ossetra caviar, Hokkaido, uni, negitoro ikura (minced tuna with salmon roe), spicy tuna and snow crab.
End the night with the Sizzling Matcha prepared on a tableside cart. Matcha milk is poured on a hot plate to create a “steaming, dramatic presentation,” Liang said, with a dessert of matcha brownie topped with a scoop of matcha ice cream.
The tableside dishes are part of the restaurant’s goal of delivering something beyond just what’s on guests’ plates.
“It feels like you’re getting more than what you pay for, because we put in extra effort,” he said. “You’re getting a 10-minute show in front of you.”
3009 Peachtree Road NE, Atlanta. 404-500-1888, brushatl.com
Credit: Courtesy of Chops
Credit: Courtesy of Chops
Dover sole at Chops Lobster Bar
Operating in Buckhead since 1988, Chops specializes in old-school presentation, including its tableside Dover sole.
The fish is sauteed and, once out of the kitchen, is placed on a gueridon cart over a butane burner while it’s deboned by the server. An emulsion of extra-virgin olive oil, lemon juice, capers and parsley is poured over the fish and presented to the guest.
“It’s our signature dish,” said general manager Kevin Brown. “One of the great things about it is that you get to see how beautifully it’s cooked and how large it looks, and then you get a little show at the table. The way the servers debone the fish is kind of a lost art.”
The restaurant, part of the Buckhead Life Restaurant Group, also prepares its steak tartar and warm bacon spinach salad tableside.
70 W. Paces Ferry Road, Atlanta. 404-262-2675, chopslobsterbar.com
Caesar salad at Davio’s
According to Davio’s owner Steve DiFillippo, the key to the dressing for the restaurant’s tableside Caesar salad is the eggs. Davio’s, which has been open in Buckhead’s Phipps Plaza since 2010, uses pasteurized eggs for its dressing to allay any concerns about salmonella.
Eggs are combined at the table with roasted garlic, mustard, white anchovies from Portugal, lemon juice, Parmesan and Romano cheeses and fresh croutons to make the dressing, then tossed with Romaine lettuce and garnished with Parmesan crisps.
“It’s made fresh right in front of you, and it’s entertainment too,” DiFillippo said. “People get so excited. The cart is this big huge clunky thing, and some people have said, ‘You have to fix that,’ and I say ‘No, the cart is part of the whole thing!’”
3500 Peachtree Road NE, Atlanta. 404-844-4810, davios.com/atl
Flounder from Foundation Social Eatery
Foundation Social Eatery, which recently celebrated its one-year anniversary in Alpharetta, has done several tableside pours over the past few months. Currently, the menu features a sauteed flounder dish with a smoked mussel chowder.
Mussels are sauteed with aromatics and white wine, then cooled and cold smoked. The liquid from the mussels is used to make a chowder with fingerling potatoes and roasted fennel. Before the fish leaves the kitchen, it’s sprinkled with chopped chives.
At the table, the soup is poured next to the fish, “so you get the beautiful white chowder, speckled with chives,” said chef-owner Mel Toledo.
Toledo said offering guests something beyond the ordinary is important, especially in the post-COVID era.
“People are holding onto their money,” he said. “On our end, we owe it to them to add another dimension to the dining experience beyond just, ‘Here’s your food.’”
55 Roswell St., Alpharetta. 678-691-0028, foundationatl.com
Credit: Courtesy of Gunshow
Credit: Courtesy of Gunshow
Tableside cocktails at Gunshow
Kevin Gillespie’s Glenwood Park staple, which was recently named a Michelin Guide-recommended restaurant, goes beyond standard tableside service.
“It’s not just a piece of what we’re doing,” Gillespie said. “The founding principle of Gunshow was rooted in the interaction of the cooks with the guests. I wanted to ensure that every person who took a plate of food was talking to the person who had conceptualized and executed it. So really, everything we do is tableside.”
In addition to guests getting to decide which dishes they’ll eat based on their interactions with the chefs, Gunshow’s rotating menu also features tableside preparations.
Credit: Courtesy of Gunshow
Credit: Courtesy of Gunshow
He’s currently working on a tableside dish that will involve an electric hot dog roller. Previous tableside dishes include okonomiyaki prepared on a butane griddle and an elaborate British-style Sunday roast complete with sizzling pans of Yorkshire pudding and sauces made on an induction burner.
The restaurant’s bar program also offers four drinks made tableside from a mobile bar cart.
924 Garrett St., Atlanta. 404-380-1886, gunshowatl.com
French onion soup at Resto L’Antoinette
When Leonardo Moura and Jamie Adams decided to reconceptualize their Legarde American Eatery in Milton as French bistro Resto L’Antoinette, they knew at least one tableside service was going to make the menu.
“2020 killed off a lot of cool stuff,” Moura said. “We want to bring back that magic.”
The restaurant’s reimagining of classic French onion soup fits the bill. A server comes out with a plate topped with caramelized onion, crusty bread and melted cheese, then presents a French press holding the consomme infused with herbs, which is poured over the plate.
Moura said more tableside features will be added to Resto L’Antoinette’s menu in the coming months.
1935 Heritage Walk, Milton. 770-797-5074, estolantoinette.com
Credit: HANNAH KIK
Credit: HANNAH KIK
Raclette at Little Sparrow
When the team at Little Sparrow began contemplating the menu for the recently-opened west Midtown restaurant two years ago, one of the first ideas was also one of the showiest.
“It’s super classic and something we were really excited about,” said executive chef Bob Ryan of Little Sparrow’s raclette service. “When we knew we were going to be featuring frites, we thought it would be the perfect opportunity.”
The raclette sees melted, bubbling Alpine cheese poured tableside over frites cooked three times to create a soft inside and crispy exterior. The dish is served with a side of Dijon mustard and cornichons, with the option of adding white truffle for a $55 upcharge.
The dramatic effect of the cheese pour poses a challenge for the French restaurant’s kitchen staff, as “the cheese melts really easily, but it sets back up so quickly. You have about a 20-second window to get it out to the dining room before it becomes a solid brick,” Ryan said. “Challenge accepted. We’re going to make it happen.”
Looking for more tableside action? Little Sparrow’s Halibut “Pot-au-feu” has a tableside pour of beef consommé, while the Maine Sea Scallops bring a lobster cream pour at the table.
1198 Howell Mill Road, Atlanta. 404-355-2252, littlesparrowatl.com
Baked Alaska at Marcel
Marcel, the west Midtown steakhouse owned by Ford Fry (who’s also behind neighboring French restaurant Little Sparrow, among several other metro Atlanta eateries), offers two tableside options.
Caesar a la minute is a classic Caesar prepared at the table in a large wooden bowl. The bananas Foster baked Alaska combines two old-school desserts in one: brown sugar cake and malted milk ice cream are topped with bruleed bananas that are flambed tableside. The blue flame surrounding the treat makes it one of the more dramatic ways to celebrate a birthday.
1170 Howell Mill Road, Atlanta. 404-665-4555, marcelatl.com
Peking Duck at Painted Duck
While Painted Duck is named for the duckpin bowling it offers guests, it’s also a reference to its signature dish, a Peking duck presented laneside or tableside.
The duck is salt-cured with spices and aromatics, then smoked, deep-fried in duck fat and roasted in the oven. It’s served with peppered bacon, lettuce, tomato, grilled onions and King’s Hawaiian rolls on a melamine board, allowing guests to assemble their own sliders, though waitstaff can also put the sandwiches together.
“It’s just so juicy and tender and flavorful,” said co-owner Justin Amick. Served family-style, the dish takes 90 minutes to prepare, so Amick recommends guests place orders as soon as they take their seats or hit their lanes.
976 Brady Ave. NW, Atlanta. 404-352-0048, thepaintedduckatl.com
Punch at Painted Pin
Bowling alley Painted Pin, the sister concept to Painted Duck, is known for its big bowls of punch, which are mixed and poured table- or laneside.
Offerings include bourbon punch with notes of orange; a gin punch with grapefruit and lemon; and an herbal rum punch. The drinks are portioned for four and served in sterling silver bowls.
“In the ‘eaterterinment’ space, we’re all about the wow factor and theatrics,” said Amick. “Anything where you can add an extra layer of presentation or engagement really captures the guest experience.”
He plans to offer similar tableside services at pickleball-focused Painted Pickle and Painted Park, both expected to open in Atlanta in the next few months.
737 Miami Circle NE, Atlanta. 404-814-8736, thepaintedpin.com
Guacamole at Zama Mexican Cuisine
Guacamole is made tableside at Zama, which has three locations around metro Atlanta. Go for the base version made with guacamole, tomato, cilantro, onions and, if you’re feeling spicy, jalapenos, or try one of the more dressed-up options. Tropical guacamole adds pineapple; another version includes roasted corn and bacon; while another adds chicharrones.
Multiple locations. zamamex.com
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