Award-winning pitmaster Rodney Scott is slated to make his long-awaited Atlanta debut this week.
Rodney Scott’s Whole Hog BBQ will open July 27 at 668 Metropolitan Pkwy. SW, joining locations in Charleston, South Carolina, and Birmingham, Alabama.
At about 5,000 square feet, the Atlanta restaurant will be the biggest of the three. It also will feature a walk-up window and a large outdoor patio, and will be the only Whole Hog to have a pit in the kitchen, allowing air conditioning for the staff and making it easier to pass food through the service window.
The restaurant will offer South Carolina-style whole-hog barbecue with vinegar-based sauce, along with ribs, chicken, catfish and steak sandwiches. Side dishes will include macaroni and cheese, collard greens and hush puppies, plus desserts and cocktails.
Scott, who began barbecuing at the age of 11, grew up working at his family’s Hemingway, South Carolina, restaurant, and stayed there for 25 years, before opening his first barbecue place in 2017 in Charleston, in partnership with Nick Pihakis of the Pihakis Restaurant Group.
That same year, the restaurant was named one the 50 best new restaurants by Bon Appetit, and, in 2018, Scott was named the James Beard Foundation’s best chef: Southeast.
Pihakis already has ties to Atlanta, thanks to the 2020 openings of Pihakis Restaurant Group eateries Pete’s Hot Dogs and Hero Doughnuts and Buns in Summerhill.
Starting Tuesday, the Whole Hog restaurant will be open 11 a.m.-9 p.m. daily.
Boon Development LLC has plans to open a restaurant and neighborhood market at 536 Decatur St. in Old Fourth Ward, Atlanta Business Chronicle reports. The restaurant would have a covered outdoor seating area with a view of dog park-bar Fetch across the street.
Old 4th Distillery had previously planned to open a second location in the space.
Pellerin Real Estate, the company behind the Beacon mixed-use development in Grant Park and the forthcoming Southern Feed Store in East Atlanta Village, applied for a special use permit for a food truck park at 876 Bouldercrest Drive SE, What Now Atlanta reports
Antico Pizza Napoletano is slated to open a location at 3340 Peachtree Road in Tucker, Tomorrow’s News Today reports. Owner Giovanni Di Palma also operates Antico locations in Atlanta’s Home Park neighborhood, the Battery Atlanta at Truist Park and Avalon in Alpharetta.
Ghost kitchen meal prep business Epic Kitchens Inc. is expanding operations to Atlanta, Atlanta Business Chronicle reports. Epic, which is headquartered in Atlanta, currently only operates in Chicago. It partners with nine restaurant brands, including Burger Fi, Pokeworks and Buffalo’s.
Wave 3 Coffee is set to open in August at 3145 Peachtree Road in the Buckhead Commons shopping center, What Now Atlanta reports.
More dining news from the week:
Atlanta restaurant mandates COVID-19 vaccine for customers
Steak Market to open in Midtown
JoJo’s Beloved cocktail lounge opens in Midtown
Monk’s Meadery opens in Poncey-Highland
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