The March Hit List: Mujō, Big Game, Gunshow, and More

Started as a carryout-only omakase-style sushi pop-up in 2020, Mujō has gone permanent, opening a few weeks ago in an intimate 1,500-square-foot black, red, and gold space with a 15-seat sushi bar, and a gorgeous six-seat stone cocktail bar for pre-and post-dinner libation. Chef J. Trent Harris, a classically trained sushi chef who has earned Michelin Stars at two New York City restaurants (as chef de cuisine at Aldea and executive sous chef at Sushi Ginza Onodera), is in charge of the edomae-style sushi, which is expertly aged and cured, accentuating its incredible quality and freshness with pronounced flavor. The omakase-only experience — whose menu changes daily and is based on availability of high-quality fish from Japan that’s flown in daily — starts with small plates served kappo-style (multiple courses chosen by the chef), and progresses to seasonal nigiri. It’s exquisite. Reservations are required. 

Shay Lavi, the Israeli executive chef at Nur Kitchen, keeps the Mediterranean restaurant’s menu focused on the simplicity of foods he learned to prepare watching his mother and grandmother (from Turkey and Libya, respectively). His talent — particularly his baking skills — are beautifully displayed and enabled by the brick oven that sits behind a colorfully tiled wall inside the modest-sized Buford Highway restaurant. Be sure to try plenty, starting with roasted veggies from eggplant to beet “carpaccio,” or cauliflower with house labneh cheese and za’atar. Graduate to a chicken schnitzel or shawarma pita sandwich for lunch, or entrees like whole-roasted fish of the day, sauteed mussels or half chicken. Come back for brunch, which offers an omelette on a Turkish sesame bagel, a lamb burger on brioche with hand-cut fries (add a side of beef bacon for $2), or Bulgarian cheese puff pastries.

Call 678-691-3821 to reserve a table; visit the website here.

“Fine Mexican gastronomy” is what’s promised in this contemporary gourmet dining den, formerly the home of Escorpion on Peachtree Street, where Baja-Med cuisine is served in style. The interior is a pleasant mix of white-painted brick, forest green furniture and plant life, plus natural wood and muted gray seating and flooring. It’s a modernized backdrop for enjoying scallop crudo with clementine, cilantro and pickled onions, soft-shell crab with polenta, or a six-ounce carne asada with poblano cream, chile relish, and red bliss potatoes — and that’s just the appetizer menu. When it’s time to go big, order a branzino wrapped in Mexican pepperleaf, or a braised short rib in black garlic molé over stone-ground grits, and a horchata panna cotta to sweeten the ending. Be sure to try their beguiling cocktails; the Secreto de Amor (mezcal, green tea, Chartreuse, lemongrass and fino sherry) is an herbal and floral wonder, but the list of Latin American wines, from Argentinian cab to Chilean riesling, is just as alluring. 

Hunt no further if you’ve been looking for a sports bar where the game is not only on the TV screen but on your dinner plate. Big Game, a sprawling lodge-inspired dinner hall from the group behind nearby Bantam Pub (which has also been known to serve hunters’ fare from time to time), opened just weeks ago on the edge of Historic Fourth Ward Park. The wild game restaurant is lovably brawny, from the gritty maroon wall paint and leather booths to the super-DIY carved wood bar setup, all of which make for appropriate surroundings to watch all the college basketball your heart desires, while chomping away with friends on a charcuterie board adorned with duck prosciutto, pheasant sausage and more, or a fanciful helping of venison tartare with quail egg and toast points. There are tamed-down plates such as grilled bass with rainbow carrots, but the real fun is in the bison burger (topped with caramelized onion, bacon jam, and pimento cheese), Buffalo-sauced quail with Stone Mountain blue cheese grits, or the wild boar white Bolognese. Wash those down with crisp local lagers on draft, such as Monday Night Brewing’s Taco Tuesday or Creature Comforts’ Bibo pilsner. That’s game.

Get more information at Big Game’s website here.

Kevin Gillespie continues to show consistent resilience, still pleasing packed crowds at his nine-year-old dim sum-styled cart service restaurant, and simultaneously pulling James Beard Award nominations. The Red Beard Restaurants leader was just announced in late February as a semifinalist for a 2022 Outstanding Restaurateur award for driving both Gunshow and Revival, his Southern food restaurant in Decatur. The kitchen/dining room hybrid setup still gives guests a unique culinary entertainment experience, with chefs rolling up with carts of routinely-changing dishes such as red fish over Carolina Gold rice and green papaya, or pork belly with radicchio, turnips, and peanut miso. The cocktails are just as creatively conceived, whether you’re interested in a hot-mulled tempranillo mixed with blood orange vinegar, or “The Opulent Nemesis”: an añejo Tequila beverage with nutmeg, chestnut yogurt, lactic acid, and truffle. Award nominations aside, KG’s culinary style and kitchen brilliance make Gunshow a dining experience that’s always worth a shot. 

The rap group Nappy Roots’ brick-and-mortar brewery — only the second Black-owned brewery in Georgia — is finally open and pouring brew from its taproom. Located mere blocks from Mercedes-Benz Stadium, just west of Downtown, the spacious beer operation is beginning with four styles: a stout, an IPA, a pale ale, and an amber lager. With thousands of square footage that can be separated into smaller areas for private or large events, they’re getting folks through the doors for now with their weekly “Nappy Hour” drinking sessions, and other events such as art shows, yoga classes, and cookouts. Check them on social media for their rotating food trucks and guest caterers, including barbecue from The Chicken Trap and crab boils from ATL Seafood Bags.

Keep updated on Atlantucky’s latest brews and events at Instagram. 

As soon as you walk in and see the unbelievable selection of spirits — 600-plus whiskies and more — stacked on the impossibly tall bar shelves which require ladders to access, and smell the unmistakable scent of 28-day aged steaks, flame-broiled and charred to perfection, you’ll know you’re in a place of indulgence. Joey D’s has been serving Dunwoody steak lovers for more than 40 years, but continues to surprise and evolve its Creole-leaning steakhouse menu toward modern times, as seen in the fact that lemon-pepper wings are an appetizer choice. Of course you’ll at least consider the filet mignon, 18-ounce garlic strip, and slow-cooked prime rib (available anytime Sunday until sold out), but it’s OK to veer into adventure, as you can’t go wrong with the garlic-butter-sautéed crab claws, or a barbecued beef rib if your reservation is early enough to get one before they’re gone. And what’s an Oak Room visit without a signature Woodford Reserve old fashioned, or a Bourbon and Smoke with bourbon, vanilla syrup, and a smoked ice cube?

Chicken sandwiches will always be welcome in Atlanta, as we know from being the home of the super-successful fast-food chain that claims to have invented them. But all of Atlanta’s big chickens are surely nervous about the arrival of How Crispy Express, a walk-up base where carryout chicken sandwiches, described as “Atlanta type” chicken in marketing language painted on the beige building’s exterior, are sent home with hungry customers. Nothing on the menu is over $10, whether you grab one of the fried chicken thigh sandwiches like the garlic-honey-butter “Hunny Boi,” or the tangy Buffalo “Lemon Pepper Wet,” or a six-piece box of nuggets with honey mustard sauce. A project led by Ticonderoga Club’s Greg Best and Bart Sasso, HCE is only open from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. every day but Sunday, until staffing levels are where they need to be for expanded hours. The lines were a bit long when it opened in late January but they’re moving quickly these days, especially with the new ability to order online before you arrive. And while the drinks are limited to soft drinks and still or sparkling water, the owners encourage you to grab a beer from their neighbor Halfway Crooks, where How Crispy began during the pandemic with an ordering system that saw orders of chicken being lowered from a second-floor window via rope and bucket. 

See the full menu and order online here.

Located near the corner of Peachtree Street and Piedmont Avenue in the heart of Buckhead, this upscale Cajun restaurant is the fanciest of its siblings in East Point and Decatur, with exposed loft ceilings and circular iron chandeliers in an off-white space that feels, dare we say it as Atlantans (and Saints rivals), like a nice New Orleans dining room. You’ll want to give some of the special dishes here a shot, such as the Angus rib eye Orleans or grilled redfish Pontchartrain served with dirty rice and corn maque choux, and topped with shrimp and lump crabmeat, but you won’t regret keeping things familiar with fried catfish or crawfish etouffee. Just don’t forget the beignets, and go easy on the hurricanes — when the bartenders make them rain, they pour quite heavily. 

Since opening six years ago this month, this heralded Cobb County restaurant, run by chef Brian So (a Kennessaw native), has made the season of renewal a cause to celebrate year-round, and picked up countless local and national accolades in the process of impressing everyday Atlantans who keep showing up hungry. The space, with its minimalist café charm of original wood floors and brick walls dating back to its original incarnation as a cotton mill, keeps your attention focused on the food, and few Atlanta restaurants’ fare is worthier. Take for example the list of entrees — a simple three-item menu with roasted venison loin, pan-roasted fluke with winter glazed veggies in beurre blanc, or Maine lobster garganelli with saffron and tarragon. Whether you pair your feast with a glass of 2017 nebbiolo, a half-bottle of viognier, or a full bottle of citrusy Château de Béru Terroirs De Béru Chablis, you’ll surely leave with a spring in your step.