Flaky and buttery, high as the sky, a golden-brown crust with a soft interior, ever so tangy, and with a balancing pinch of salt — if your mind conjures such thoughts when you picture the best buttermilk biscuit you ever ate, and you’ve yet to try one from Bomb Biscuits, you’re due for a visit to this new food stall at Irwin Street Market.
Credit: Chris Hunt
Credit: Chris Hunt
Baker and food writer Erika Council informally joined the dining scene in 2016, as the host of Sunday supper parties. A year later, that morphed into pop-ups at B’s Cracklin’ Barbecue, with her biscuits starring next to pitmaster Bryan Furman’s smoked meats. By 2018, Bomb Biscuits was a bona fide company. When the pandemic hit, Council, formerly a software engineer, added biscuit delivery to her pop-up model. This past September, her roving eatery found a home in Inman Park.
Credit: Chris Hunt
Credit: Chris Hunt
Council learned to make biscuits years ago while working at her grandmother’s restaurant, Mama Dip’s Country Kitchen, in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. It seems almost disrespectful to refer to Bomb Biscuits’ basic offering by its menu name: Plain Jane. These are no ordinary biscuits. Hot and fresh out of the oven, these rounds are light, fluffy and wholly satisfying on their own. And, as the backbone for a breakfast sandwich, they are the bomb.
Credit: Chris Hunt
Credit: Chris Hunt
The SEC sandwich (maple sausage, egg and American cheese — cheekily referred to as “the people’s cheese”) is undefeated in my book, but the Classic (bacon, egg and cheese) takes a close second — except when I want a thick, juicy cutlet of fried chicken with a few bread and butter pickles (the Glori-Fried, or its sweet-savory glazed cousin, the Hot Honey). But, glory be, that Carolina’s Finest open-faced biscuit, topped with fried chicken, bacon and smothered in sausage gravy, is a heck of a post-church meal. In fact, as the menu warns, it may induce a midday nap.
A flavored biscuit is a fine foundation for a handheld, too. The Atomic, a cheddar jalapeno biscuit filled with spicy sausage and a scrambled egg flecked with red pepper, is such a stellar flavor combination that this popular special now has a permanent place on the menu — and the kitchen even has developed a vegan variation.
Indeed, this is a place where vegans and gluten-free eaters will feel included in the biscuit love. Council may be able to make traditional buttermilk biscuits in her sleep, but developing a recipe for a gluten-free product took some doing. The combination of rice and oat flours makes for a slightly earthier taste and denser baked product, but the gluten-free version still comes with a flaky texture and nice height.
Credit: Chris Hunt
Credit: Chris Hunt
Even after you’ve made a tasting party out of all eight of the menu’s biscuit sandwich staples (and built a few of your own creations), the constant creativity will keep you coming back to check out the weekly specials, like sweet potato biscuits or the (I can’t believe it’s vegan) Florentine biscuit sandwich, featuring plant-based versions of chicken, Monterey Jack cheese and scrambled eggs.
I could gush on about all the savory goodies, but that would leave out the sweet stuff. A chocolate chip biscuit is a fine pairing with a cup of coffee. So are fluffy, pull-apart cinnamon buns slicked with a cream cheese frosting that accents the pastry, rather than taking center stage. I’m of a mind to hit up the place again this week, considering s’mores are the featured bun. And, next week — or whenever they finish perfecting their cheesecake bun number.
“All the desserts I love will end up as cinnamon rolls at some point,” Council told me when we spoke on the phone.
Credit: Chris Hunt
Credit: Chris Hunt
It’s mesmerizing to watch Council and her crew work in that cramped kitchen, with barely enough space to move a rack filled with trays of biscuits and buns. A few counter stools offer a front row seat to the biscuit baking and sandwich assembly that finishes with each warm treat carefully wrapped and sealed with a sticker.
Credit: Chris Hunt
Credit: Chris Hunt
Right now, Council and her crew are transforming bags of King Arthur flour into more than 1,000 biscuits a week. Imagine what the number would be if Bomb Biscuits were open more than four or five hours a day, four days a week.
“It will be at some point,” said Council, who hopes to find a larger space that would support increased production and hours of operation. Until then, Thursdays through Sundays are when you should get your buns to Bomb Biscuits.
BOMB BISCUITS
Food: biscuits, biscuit sandwiches and cinnamon rolls
Service: speedy, with a smile
Setting: food stall inside Irwin Street Market
Best dishes: black pepper bacon biscuit, the SEC sandwich, the Classic sandwich, the Glori-Fried sandwich, the Atomic sandwich
Vegetarian selections: always a vegan biscuit and biscuit sandwich option
Alcohol: no
Price range: $
COVID-19 safety: masks required inside when ordering, and when not eating or drinking
Credit cards: all major credit cards accepted
Hours: 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Thursdays-Fridays, 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturdays-Sundays
Children: yes
Parking: free parking in lot and on street
MARTA station: Inman Park/Reynoldstown
Reservations: no
Wheelchair access: yes
Noise level: low
Outdoor dining: picnic tables
Takeout: yes — also Thursday and/or Friday delivery for pre-orders to most neighborhoods inside the Perimeter
Address, phone: 660 Irwin St. NE, Atlanta; 678-705-7945
Website: bombbiscuitatl.com
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