Killer Mike, broom in hand, swept the brick-tiled walkway outside the entrance of Bankhead Seafood at 11:10 a.m. Wednesday, minutes after the long-awaited Westside restaurant quietly opened to the public.
The Atlanta native, known locally as an outspoken community voice and globally as a prolific hip-hop recording artist whose 2023 album “Michael” swept its 2024 Grammy nomination categories, initially downplayed his cleanup efforts as necessary chores in a city known for an annual deluge of fall foliage.
“It needs sweeping!” Mike said with a laugh. “It’s autumn in Atlanta ... When people come in, there should be a clear pathway. I want ‘em to know somebody cares. And like my grandmama said, ‘If you need something to do, go sweep the porch.’”
Credit: Mike Jordan
Credit: Mike Jordan
Alert, attentive and perhaps slightly and understandably anxious, the rapper born Michael Render did seem to be searching for an assignment. As he praised the restaurant’s staff, who were preparing to greet and serve their first paying customers, he also made clear where the buck stops at Bankhead Seafood.
“We have a bunch of people doing their jobs; I’m not going to stop them,” he said. “As an owner that’s part of my responsibility: sweeping the floors and cleaning the bathrooms. The idea is that you come into a clean, welcoming, beautiful, bright space. I just want it to be a comfortable experience.”
The restaurant opens in earnest Sunday, Nov. 17, but yesterday was the first day anyone could walk into the new, reimagined Bankhead Seafood, a cherished neighborhood restaurant whose reputation for fresh and tasty fried fish spread to the far reaches of metro Atlanta and beyond, thanks to affordably priced carryout meals sold in abundant portions.
Credit: Andrew Thomas Clifton
Credit: Andrew Thomas Clifton
The restaurant was also made famous by a notable shoutout on a classic Atlanta hip-hop song. Lyrics by Goodie Mob member Big Gipp, recited on “Soul Food,” the title track of the group’s debut album, are painted in red and yellow on the stair panels leading up to Bankhead Seafood’s string-lit rooftop deck.
“And Miss Lady, acting like we in jail, says she ain’t got no extra hush puppies to sell. Bankhead Seafood, making me hit that door with a mind full of attitude...”
Credit: Mike Jordan
Credit: Mike Jordan
Now that Killer Mike owns Bankhead Seafood, along with his wife Shana Render, developer Krystal Peterson and fellow superstar Atlanta rapper Clifford “T.I.” Harris, things are different from when Helen Harden — Bankhead Seafood’s founder and the “Miss Lady” to whom Big Gipp was referring — owned the restaurant.
Today they do have extra hush puppies, in orders of six and 10, despite Killer Mike saying in March 2020 customers would not have the option. Crisp, chewy and slightly sweet with whole corn kernels mixed into its batter, the fried bread brings familiarity to a new menu led by executive chef Sabrina Thompson whose experience includes cooking at Old Vinings Inn and Café Circa.
Thompson’s new dishes include a 5-pound seafood boil with crab legs, shrimp, corn, potatoes and sausage. Wings, sauced or seasoned with buffalo, sweet chili or lemon pepper, are available now as starters, as are fried lobster tail “bites,” beer tempura cauliflower and a Baltimore-style, jumbo lump crab cake.
At $27 it’s the menu’s second most expensive item, behind the “Big Ass Platter,” generous portions of lobster, fish and shrimp priced at $31.
Credit: Andrew Thomas Clifton
Credit: Andrew Thomas Clifton
The $8 special advertised on Bankhead Seafood’s truck is absent from the restaurant’s opening menu, seemingly replaced with a $9 catfish box named in honor of Harden. There’s also an impressively sized fried fish sandwich on thick-sliced bread with lettuce, tomato, yellow cheese and pickles for $15.
Killer Mike called their fish sandwich “a handful of a helluva fish sandwich” — one that’s different from those made famous by other cities, like the po’boy of New Orleans and the cheesesteak of Philadelphia.
“I haven’t seen a sit-down restaurant with our style of fried fish sandwich. It’s the Atlanta style, and I think people are going to be intrigued.”
Credit: Andrew Thomas Clifton
Credit: Andrew Thomas Clifton
Harden, who visited Bankhead Seafood on Wednesday afternoon, said she always insisted on high quality fish and fair prices for customers. She said she advised the new ownership group not to cut corners on cost of food products.
“Ms. Helen Harden, when she would pack those boxes, the people who were coming in here were working-class folk. My grandparents would get a couple boxes and feed seven or eight kids. That affordability means something,” Killer Mike said.
The Run The Jewels rapper also believes fried fish holds an important place in Black culture. “For me, man, the fried fish experience is one where you can quickly get together, quickly convene whether it’s a festivity or a funeral.”
T.I. said the process was educational, and that the food truck not only helped market the restaurant’s relaunch but taught them valuable food business lessons. “I’ve learned a lot about fish and seafood, and the many different levels at which you can offer it,” he said, specifically noting how frying different species had effects on weight and volume.
“A lot of fish gets lost in the fryer. You might take 4 ounces of fish, batter it and drop it in the fryer, but because of the texture of some fish, you ain’t gonna get 4 ounces back. A lot of that comes with experience, and we had to learn on the go.”
Credit: Michael Blackshire
Credit: Michael Blackshire
Killer Mike said the partners intensely researched, tested and had debates over different dishes, eventually coming up with a recipe everyone agreed on — one that replaced lard with a healthier fat for frying but retained enough flavor and quality to earn Harden’s blessing and pride.
Harden admitted running the restaurant for 50 years came with highs and lows. The loyal customer base rewarded her with success, but pricing her food so inexpensively didn’t leave much for her to make improvements over the years.
A string of bad financial luck, from IRS troubles to former employees she said took money from the register over time, added to the fact that family members weren’t interested in taking her place at the restaurant. Tired without a way to sustain the business, she closed in late 2017.
“I feel wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. I just wondered if I was gonna live long enough to see it come to reality, but since God was good, here I am, and everything is just what I dreamed of,” Harden said.
Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC
Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC
Other visitors Wednesday, most of whom skewed older in age, were enthusiastic about the reopening. Buck Johnson, who ordered the Bankhead platter, was picking up lunch during his break and said he’d been patronizing Bankhead Seafood since the late 1980s. “I’m glad to see that it returned and it’s still Black-owned,” he said.
While driving past the building and noticing new activity at the corner of Donald Lee Hollowell Parkway and Florence Place that morning, Carol Herring decided to stop in. A longtime customer now in her early 80s, she said before Bankhead Seafood closed seven years ago, she often drove from Decatur to order fried fish that could barely fit into a Styrofoam container.
Herring also ordered the Bankhead platter, quarter pounds of shrimp and fried pollock or catfish, served with crinkle-cut fries, hush puppies and coleslaw. She said she was pleased as she walked from the building to her car.
“It’s nice. It’s so friendly. I think it’s the friendliest place I’ve been in a long time,” Herring said, adding that she liked the restaurant’s makeover. “Maybe other places will open with different things that could help the community.”
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Another returning customer, Stanley “Coach” White, remembered ordering from Harden in Bankhead Seafood’s previous life. A private tennis instructor who teaches the sport to Black youth in nearby recreation centers, White said he hopes the restaurant sets an example other entrepreneurs will follow, particularly younger generations. White also said he hopes it brings more people to the Westside to learn about the area.
“Hopefully those individuals are going to pick up the same thing, who’ve been wanting to see change,” White said. “We have a lot of smart kids in the community. They need to understand the history of this community — how it needs to grow and become a Buckhead.”
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
It’s an interesting suggestion, especially considering what currently surrounds Bankhead Seafood. The shiny new building sticks out considerably from neighbors like West Lake Food Mart convenience store, an aging A-Town Wings location and an empty parking lot across Donald Lee Hollowell.
After originally purchasing the building and restaurant name from Harden, the partners purchased adjacent buildings and had an architect draw plans to expand Bankhead Seafood’s footprint to its greatest capacity. The rooftop was the result. “It was a little more expensive but we found a way to make it work because we thought the community deserved it,” T.I. said.
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
There have been recent improvements to the area, including an affordable housing apartment development not far from the restaurant, which counts T.I. as an investor. In December, Killer Mike and T.I. secured a $1.2 million loan to fund the restaurant’s opening and “support Bankhead Seafood Restaurants’ growth across Atlanta,” from Atlanta-based digital banking services company Greenwood.
T.I. hints at the effects of gentrification playing a role in some of the delays reported in Bankhead Seafood’s journey to opening. “The person I’m used to servicing in that community ain’t necessarily the people that’s still there. It’s shifted, but at the same time the people who’re still there need servicing,” he said.
“The issues I have faced is, the evolution and diversification of that community has caused for some people to think their voices should be louder than others, and their needs should be met more than others. I think it’s my job, our job, to step back and show each side of the community how their needs can be met together.”
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
T.I., who owns Trap City Café and was a partner in closed downtown restaurant Scales 925, said this process has been rewarding. “The community needs ambition, but it also needs familiarity, a place where it can be itself,” he said.
“I feel that with Mike and I collaborating and coming together for Bankhead Seafood, the process of that experience has shown me how much more we can do collectively.”
By 11:20 a.m. Wednesday, tables began to fill with customers getting their first looks at the renovated building and freshly printed menus. By noon they were finishing seafood platters, while upbeat R&B songs like “I Need You Tonight” by Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam and Destiny’s Child’s “Say My Name” played modestly over the loudspeakers.
Diners also took advantage of the full bar, whose menu is still being created in advance of Sunday, and a planned ribbon cutting ceremony on Nov. 29. For now there are four specialty drinks available, including a version of a lemon drop they call “trap lemonade,” along with iterations of classic cocktails like the old fashioned, margarita and mojito.
Credit: Andrew Thomas Clifton
Credit: Andrew Thomas Clifton
The restaurant has a total seating capacity of 135, including the upstairs rooftop deck and the enclosed front patio. With black leather booths, a tall yellow leather banquette which seats six and a white stone-topped bar built into the only remaining brick wall from the original building, the space feels comfortable, efficient and welcoming, like a neighborhood diner whose partners aim to connect Atlanta history to its future, while feeding the Westside and even handling minor chores in and outside the doors when needed.
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Killer Mike admitted that the restaurant industry wasn’t in his plans and doesn’t necessary recommend it, despite the fact that many Atlanta celebrities have become investors in places where fans can dine and drink.
“I would advise anyone not to get into the restaurant business. I’m not in the restaurant business. I’m in the culture of Atlanta business,” he said.
“I want people to have a good time over good food, and go home but not have to drive 40, 50 minutes, but if you want to drive 40, 50 minutes to come, we welcome you. And you’re going to feel as though you’re at a table with friends and family.”
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