One of my favorite restaurants in Atlanta is Gunshow, Top Chef alum Kevin Gillespie’s innovative Glenwood Park restaurant that features small plates that are prepared by multiple chefs and then distributed around the dining room on rolling carts like beefy and porky dim sum service. This format lends itself to guest chefs who can show off creative dishes without having to worry about how they mesh with the rest of the menu.
Since 2013, Gillespie has hosted a “Hired Guns” dinner series, and over the years he has invited chefs such as Mason Hereford, Vishwesh Bhatt, Kelsey Barnard Clark, Vivian Howard, Joe Kindred, Kristen Kish, Niven Patel, Brian Voltaggio, Brooke Williamson and Tandy Wilson to participate in the fun. For this year’s Hired Guns, Gunshow is offering a season pass that includes two seats to all six of the guest chef dinners. If the series doesn’t sell out in advance, they will offer single-event tickets, but I wouldn’t bet on that.
Chef Brian Baxter
To make sure the series sells out, Gillespie has looked to Nashville for his lead-off hitter. Brian Baxter has been taking on some guest chef gigs around the country since leaving The Catbird Seat, and he previously worked with Gillespie as the opening chef at his short-lived restaurant Cold Beer. The team will be back together for one night only on Sunday, Jan. 26. Other chefs who will be dropping in on Sunday nights at Gunshow this year include Kevin Chrisman of Golden Hour in Asheville, N.C., Jill Mathias & Juan Casselett of the fabulous Chez Nous and Malagón Mercado y Tapería in Charleston, S.C., and Neil Zabriskie of Regards in Portland, Maine. You can check out the entire lineup and purchase your season pass at the Hired Guns webpage.
As I mentioned last week, my colleague Margaret Littman is doing the Lord’s work by compiling recommendations from the atlas of holiday pop-up bars and restaurants happening around town this month, but I have a non-pop-up I wanted to share. Rather than go over the top with holiday decorations that look like a Dollar Tree exploded, Tandy Wilson and the staff at City House have decided to let the food do the talking when it comes to holiday cheer.
Through the holidays, they’re bringing back some of their most beloved traditions, holiday ham, a snowfall of truffles and Christmas cookies! They’ll be carving Smiley Hollow Farms by hand as well as offering tableside shavings of luxurious truffles to elevate the already vaunted pizzas and other dishes on the City House menu. It’s market price for the truffles, so don’t forget to say “when,” unless you’re really going all out for the holidays! They’re also introducing some wine-by-the-glass specials to supplement the already fantastic normal list.
Finally, City House pastry genius Rebekah Turshen may be the actual reason for the season with her popular selection of to-go baked goods. Be the hit of any holiday party when you arrive with one of her famous Tennessee Waltz Cakes, a Malted Vanilla Mint Cake, or a Holiday Cookie Box including frosted vanilla shortbread sprinkle trees, chocolate espresso mint marshmallow cookies, milk chocolate dipped marble cookies, Italian piped jam cookies, anise wedding cookies and a special surprise. Or heck, just keep them for yourself! Cakes are available for $50, and boxes of cookies are $45; they can be purchased on City House’s website.
