On a Friday evening at Gigi’s, diners traversed the black-and-white-checked floors to find gingham-draped tables nestled near thick red curtains. At a glance, this could be any one of the buzzy red-sauce joints that opened this year, the ones that seemingly aim to capture some of the success of now-iconic examples of the genre like Carbone. But think of Gigi’s as the anti-Carbone. The former pop-up eschews excess fanfare: Chef-founders Eric Brooks and Jacob Armando don’t take reservations and they invite other up-and-comers to use the space as an incubator. Where other trattorias might have a photo gallery of celebrity guests, a closer look at the Gigi’s photo wall reveals the black-and-white portraits are fellow Atlanta chefs and other friends of the team, as if to say, “When you’re a part of this community, you’re family.”
The concise menu plays with Italian American classics, so along with beef carpaccio with rice crackers and brown butter pork Milanese, there’s always a pasta dish. It changes with the chefs’ whims, but it likely will highlight Georgia produce, as in a brilliant fresh rigatoni with okra in a creamy onion soubise so pleasingly light that finishing the bowl is quick work. Perfect tiramisu is another constant, a grounding note to end a meal of surprises. With its whole-hearted embrace of the local dining culture, Gigi’s isn’t so much bringing another red-sauce restaurant to Atlanta as it’s bringing Atlanta to the red-sauce conversation, with entirely unique and extremely satisfying results. — Monica Burton
Gigi's Italian Kitchen & Restaurant
Atlanta, Georgia
Photography by Sydney A. Foster
Gigi's Italian Kitchen & Restaurant
1660 McLendon Avenue NE
Atlanta, Georgia
Gregory Gourdet — Top Chef finalist, James Beard Award winner, industry longtimer — is probably Portland’s most famous working chef, and now, he finally has his own restaurant. At Kann, he explores his culinary background with meticulously executed, genre-bending Haitian fare. Longtime fans will recognize the juicy Pekin duck from holiday dinners at Departure, where Gourdet led the kitchen for nearly a decade. But at Kann it comes lacquered with cane syrup, pineapple, and tamarind, bringing the Haitian flavors of his childhood to his experience with Southeast Asian cooking. The cocktail menu is stacked with impressive, multifaceted nonalcoholic drinks, fitting of Gourdet’s impassioned activism around sobriety and recovery in the restaurant industry. There’s eye candy, too; a surprisingly savory salad of berries, cherries, and young coconut is a striking new vegan dish in a city that’s seen its fair share of vegan trailblazers.
Yet as Gourdet reveals more of himself than ever before, he’s also sharing his spotlight with the larger team it takes to run one of the country’s best new restaurants. Pastry chef Gabby Borlabi’s nondairy ice creams impress, as in a silky rum raisin paired with Gourdet’s grilled upside-down cake. Chef de cuisine Varanya Geyoonsawat is responsible for one of Kann’s easiest hits, a torch-kissed butterfish with piquant shaved ice. General manager Damont Nelson warmly delivers plates to the tables, sharing a bit of context or a meaningful anecdote as he goes. Together, they’ve created something near-impossible: genuine hospitality that shrugs off the trappings of celebrity. — Brooke Jackson-Glidden
Kann
Portland, Oregon
Photography by Dina Ávila
Kann
548 SE Ash Street
Portland, Oregon
Paying it forward is part of the history of the Gigi’s restaurant space. Eric Brooks and Jacob Armando are continuing that legacy by keeping the pop-up incubator going. On Thursday evenings, they open up the kitchen where they themselves got their start to other emerging chefs on the Atlanta food scene. — Beth McKibben
The Tipping Point
