Add Upper Room Atlanta to the growing rotation of pop-ups in this city. Upper Room will offer dinner on Sundays at Japanese restaurant Tomo in Buckhead, with chef Andrew Bantug dishing out ramen, pork buns and other plates that give Asian treatment to Grassroots Farm pork. The pop-up will only offer a three-course, prix-fixe menu served family style. In addition, it will not take reservations. Rather, it will operate on a first-come, first-served basis. Bantug plans to cook up enough for 50 hungry diners.
Upper Room Atlanta will make its debut Oct. 18. Guests will see a first course of gyoza (pork dumplings), pork buns and a daikon salad. The second course will include ramen and tonkatsu (a breaded, deep-fried pork cutlet) as well as a Japanese-style curry and steamed rice. Ice cream mochi ends the meal.
Bantug is a 2008 graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York, with stages in venerable NYC institutions Le Bernardin and Eleven Madison Park. In his hometown of Atlanta, Bantug has worked at Tomo – his relationship with that restaurant's namesake, chef Tomo Naito, paving the way for Bantug's pop-up to become a reality – and at The General Muir before heading to American Food and Beverage in Buckhead. Bantug plans to keep his position as sous chef there as he begins his first venture of his own.
Editor’s note: This post was updated Oct. 7 at 3 p.m. to remove the price of the menu. The price was originally stated as $25 per person. However, the owner stated today that the price will be a little higher due to unforeseen costs. Upper Room Atlanta will honor the $25 price its first two weeks in business.
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