Empire State South by Hugh Acheson

This is Hugh Acheson's first project outside of Athens and has been a great success since opening back in 2010.  Their in house sommelier is doing great things for both the wine list and overall beverage program including an extensive list of coffee drinks.  

Kevin dined here for brunch in early January with Shona Jonson.  They have a fairly extensive brunch menu with a deep Southern theme with some unique twists.  For starters, the pimento cheese with bacon marmalade.  If you are a Southern kitchen and can't produce good pimento cheese this is always a good judge...and it was delicious!  Additional starters included the Fried Scrapple Hash with mushrooms, caramelized onion, jalapeno, arugula, and sunny side up egg and the Farm Egg over maiitake mushrooms, hot dog, scallions, crispy Carolina gold rice, and kimchi.  For mains, we had to try the Hot and Sour Turkey Soup consisting of braised greens, rice wine vinegar, and chili.  The English Muffin was topped with bologna, beet greens, candied bacon, egg, and pepper jelly.  And last but not least, the Grass Roots Farms Duck Leg served over grits, braised greens, cipollini onions, pecans, and coddled egg.

For the ICCA Culinary Immersion we elected the prix fixe group menu.  For starters we did the "In Jar" which consists of a beautiful platter of jars and accompaniments including deviled ham, trout mousse, pickles, pimento cheese & bacon marmalade, and red pea hummus.  For the first course, the Farm Egg described above was a delicious blend of flavors and textures.  For the second course, Trout with turnips & greens, sweet potatoes, radish, sea beans and ginger; Pork Loin with confit belly, beets, charred red onion, rice grits, and hazelnuts (my favorite!); and Hanger Steak featuring beef cheek, potato macaire, trumpet mushrooms, chard, and marrow sauce.

The desserts were the perfect balance of rich and sweet.  The Cocoa & Farro- brioche bread pudding, toffee sauce, coffee toffee, and malted milk ice cream seemed to be the group favorite but I rather enjoyed the Hot Buttered Malt- malt cake, hot buttered rum, vanilla wafer, topped with frozen banana custard.