DINING OUT
4-10 p.m. Mondays-Sundays. Lunch coming soon.
Bites, $5; starters, soups and salads, $6-$10; sandwiches, $11-$14; plates, $19-$35.
9 S. Main St., Alpharetta. 678-691-4622, southmainkitchen.com.
South Main Kitchen opened in late August on South Main Street in downtown Alpharetta, a stretch that’s been enlivened by a redevelopment project that includes a new city hall, town plaza, park and parking facility. Louis Soon, previously of F&H Food Trading Group in Roswell, teamed with chef Christy Stone to create a “kitchen-inspired” dining experience in a historic 1906 storefront across the way.
The look: Like many vintage spaces along South Main, the bar and dining room are arranged in a long, narrow configuration. In back, the semi-open kitchen is surrounded by white subway tiles. The rustic-modern design features exposed brick walls and whitewashed wood floors and furnishings. Upstairs, there's a two-story deck and rooftop bar.
The scene: On a recent weeknight, nearly every area was packed with a loud and lively local crowd. The main bar was elbow-to-elbow, most tables in the dining room were taken, and guests spilled out onto the sidewalk, and up the stairs to the rooftop bar.
The food: Stone calls the menu a "healthy take on modern American comfort food," with a variety of bar bites, starters, soups, salads, sandwiches and entrees, and a range of price points. Snack on edamame with mint fluer de sel ($5) or spicy chili pork rinds ($5). Starters include Brasstown Beef ($10) meatballs with blackberry barbecue sauce and pickled zucchini slaw, and salmon latkes ($11) with peach salsa and lemon Dijon dressing. A grilled chicken sandwich is topped with goat cheese, caramelized Vidalia onions, pecans and fig compote. Red snapper ($29) is served with fingerling potatoes, green beans, snap peas, peach salsa and blood orange sauce.
The drinks: From the full bar menu, servers recite nightly cocktail specials, and local draft beers ($6), including the likes Hop Dang Diggity IPA from Alpharetta's Jekyll Brewing, and Coconut Porter from Cherry Street Brewing in Cumming. Like the food menu, the wine list, ordered from lightest to heaviest, offers a range of price points, from an $8 glass of Codorniu Brut Cava from Spain to a $175 bottle of Mt. Brave Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa.
The extras: Look for daily lunch service, starting as soon as Sept. 15.
