Chef John Currence is bringing his Big Bad Breakfast chain to Atlanta
Popular Southern chef John Currence is opening the first Georgia location of his breakfast and brunch restaurant Big Bad Breakfast in southwest Buckhead.
Currence, a James Beard Award-winning chef and cookbook author based in Oxford, Mississippi, will make his Atlanta debut with Big Bad Breakfast on Nov. 4 at 1952 Howell Mill Road.
“I approach this with very cautious optimism,” Currence told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
He opened the first location in Oxford in 2008 and has since expanded with more than 20 locations across Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Mississippi, Tennessee and Kentucky. But Atlanta will be the “first major market” they’ve broached, he said.
Initially, his team hoped to find a location outside the Perimeter to establish the restaurant’s foothold, but when an opportunity arose to set up shop along the Howell Mill Road corridor and partner with real estate developer Healey Weatherholtz Properties, Currence said he decided to take the risk.
“We really want to sort of be the anti-chain, chain. We want to be a scaled, independent concept,” he said. “The challenge there is doing all scratch cooking, you know, maintaining a level of consistency across all those stores.”
The Southern-inspired menu will feature staple dishes like shrimp and grits, bacon cured in a Tabasco mash, biscuits, bloody marys, and the Big Bad Skillet with scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, ham, onions and potatoes.
New dishes unique to Atlanta include a peach and blueberry coffee cake and shiitake on a shingle, a vegetarian riff on an old Army breakfast Currence’s dad would feed him, with roasted shiitake mushrooms and gravy on toast.
Beyond breakfast items, expect sandwiches, salads and cocktails made with Georgia spirits. There will also be fried Gulf oysters available in sandwiches and breakfast dishes.
“We have always designed our interiors in the buildings to feel as sort of an organic extension of the neighborhood that we’re in, wherever we go,” he said.
For Buckhead, he commissioned a local sign painter to do all the exterior signs at the restaurant. The restaurant team also “invests in local products wherever we can.”
The space will include about 90 indoor seats and some seating in three outdoor areas at the back, front and side of the building.
Big Bad Breakfast will be open 7 a.m.-2:30 p.m. daily.
1952 Howell Mill Road, Atlanta. bigbadbreakfast.com/bbb-locations/buckhead-ga
About the Author
Olivia Wakim is a digital content producer on the food and dining team. She joined the AJC as an intern in 2023 after graduating from the University of Georgia with a journalism degree. While in school, she reported for The Red & Black, Grady Newsource and the Marietta Daily Journal.
