KIMBALL HOUSE
Overall rating: 3 of 5 stars
Food: raw bar, small-to-large plates
Service: relaxed, friendly and efficient
Best dishes: cocktails, oysters, ham and eggs
Vegetarian selections: a range of vegetable plates
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Price range: $$$
Credit cards: all major credit cards
Hours: 5 p.m.-1 a.m. Sundays-Thursdays, 5 p.m.-2 a.m. Fridays-Saturdays
Children: probably not the best spot for kids
Parking: street parking
Reservations: no
Wheelchair access: yes
Smoking: no
Noise level: high
Patio: yes with plans to add seating in the spring
Takeout: yes
Address, phone: 303 E. Howard Ave., Decatur. 404-378-3502.
Website: www.kimball-house.com
The Atlanta dining scene is having a moment. We’ve moved well beyond the burger buzz and cupcake craze. Hallelujah.
And while we were feeding the food-truck frenzy, our chefs and restaurants were busy resurrecting time-tested cooking methods and trends of old, seamlessly blending them with today’s favored techniques and ingredients to create something altogether new.
Kimball House, the most recent of a string of restaurants to occupy the old Decatur train depot, exemplifies this marriage of past and present. The restaurant’s name pays homage to the glorious historic hotel that helped define Atlanta when it was erected in the 1870s, about the same time the train station was constructed. The handsome decor also harks back to that time period with subtle brocade wallpaper, ceiling fans on a pulley system, bubbled glass partitions and bar shelving complete with a library ladder.
What’s old is new again at Kimball House, which comes together in a compelling restaurant “best of” reel. We find an inspired revival of the once-dying cocktail culture and a raw bar with a brilliant oyster selection unparalleled in Atlanta, the restaurant’s two main draws. We also find an impressive restaurant garden and co-executive chefs Philip Meeker and Jeffrey Wall taking inspiration from early Kimball House hotel menus as they develop new and mostly successful combinations with scores of ingredients, many pickled, cured or fermented in-house. All of these pieces have come together in something of a time capsule for Atlanta dining in 2014.
A diverse group of seven partners, including the folks behind Decatur restaurants Leon’s Full Service and Brick Store Pub, bring together their passions at Kimball House. Co-owner and mixologist Miles Macquarrie curated the beverage program with full-on absinthe service and crafty cocktails, both classic and and contemporary. I might have enjoyed the “Holland Razor Blade” ($10), complete with Bols Genever, lemon and cayenne, but I fell in love with Macquarrie’s pecan-brown-sugared spin on the Old Fashioned ($11). There’s a reason that more than a third of the restaurant is given over to bar seating.
Partner Bryan Rackley translates his encyclopedic knowledge of oysters into a hefty list of nearly 20 options. Oyster newbies need not be intimidated, as this is the best place for you to begin that education. The menu offers size and tasting notes for each bivalve, comparing the flavor of Shigokus ($3.15) to salted sunchokes and the Barcats ($2.15) to steamed broccoli. Perhaps start with the Beausoleil ($2.35), a very mild and balanced specimen from New Brunswick.
As you wait for a table (no reservations here), you’ll be drawn to the cozy and very crowded bar for a drink. Pull a stool up to the marble counter and explore the raw bar menu. Go with those pewter-plattered oysters or classic caviar service with selections ranging from trout roe ($25) to Siberian Oscietra caviar ($120). Whichever you crave, you’ll soon discover that you aren’t in as much of a hurry to vacate your coveted seat.
But Meeker and Wall will eventually lure you to the main dining area with a menu of fish, meat and vegetable plates in a progression of sizes. They hope to dazzle you with the presentation and precision of each. And while I wouldn’t call them fussy exactly, many dishes include dollops, puddles and swipes of one accoutrement or another.
You’ll see what I mean with the bowl of soft, roasted sunchokes, charred scallions and beech mushrooms ($10) enriched by smoked lardo. It comes with dabs of tangy house-made satsuma marmalade that play off the sweetness of the sunchokes and a hazelnut puree to pick up the earthy musk of the mushrooms.
In most cases, the melange of numerous ingredients keeps flavors interesting and intriguing. Take the house-cured ham and poached egg ($12) with a salty-vinegar kick. It shares real estate with roasted baby sweet potatoes, carrots, broccoli, white shimeji mushrooms and bits of almond. Yes, it sounds like a one-pot meal, but it works together just beautifully.
With the Brussels sprouts ($9), it was the speckled, rust-colored pecan-pimento swipe that caught my attention. Even though the tiny shavings of sprout didn’t deliver the cabbage-y burst I expected, they became the perfect vehicle for the puree.
An abundance of ingredients also work together harmoniously in the hoppin’ john ($15). Sea Island red peas and Carolina Gold rice give it an appealingly firm texture smoothed by a tangy goat’s milk yogurt. Caramelized Brussels sprouts and roasted broccoli just add to the fun. Granted, the shaved, raw celery ribbons added little beyond visual appeal, but just relocate those.
With each visit, I found myself more and more drawn to these vegetable dishes. That doesn’t mean you should miss the sweet and salty fun of the luxuriant pork belly ($12) dotted with crisp fennel slices and brightly sweet orange segments. Definitely give the peppy preserved-lemon beef tartare ($12) a shot. But be especially sure to experience the kitchen’s veggie skills.
For me, the dessert highlight came in a caffeinated package with a choice of Intelligentsia direct trade coffees prepared tableside in a Clever Dripper. I paired my coffee with the upscale banana sundae ($8). I was rewarded with scoops of banana, banana bread and cashew ice creams adorned with miniature banana bread croutons alongside a bruleed banana.
The Atlanta dining scene is having a moment, all encapsulated in one tidy package at Kimball House.
