Platez Southern Kitchen & Cocktailz will open Aug. 19 in Decatur.
Located at 130 Clairemont Ave. in the Courtyard by Marriott Atlanta Decatur Downtown, the restaurant will feature music from 107.9 FM and 102.9 FM on its opening day and guest artists over the weekend.
Etanya Lucas, who has lived in the Atlanta area for 30 years, owned the first Georgia franchise of Hattie Marie’s BBQ, which was housed in the same location as Platez before closing earlier this year.
Credit: Courtesy of Etanya Lucas
Credit: Courtesy of Etanya Lucas
Lucas took inspiration for her Southern menu from her grandma’s restaurant Neta Dupree’s Soul Food Café in North Carolina, which was open for over 40 years. The name Platez comes from her grandmother, who would ask customers every day, “What plate of goodness are you having today?”
The menu was a collective effort between Lucas and the restaurant’s four African American chefs.
“We talked about our recipes that have been passed down with each of our different lineages,” Lucas said. “Somebody would say, my grandma made her dish one way, and somebody else would go, my grandma did a little bit of this or that.”
The restaurant will be open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, starting with dishes like salmon croquettes and shrimp and grits for breakfast and shrimp po’boys, catfish filet, and beef and turkey burgers for lunch.
For dinner, entrees include a seafood boil with lobster, shrimp, crab and corn; BBQ ribs; and fried chicken. Platez also will have a late-night menu and a dessert menu with sweet potato pie and cakes.
“We’re hoping to just bring just good down-home cooking that everybody can walk away from and say that they were grateful to experience,” Lucas said.
Opening hours are 8 a.m.-7 p.m. Sundays-Mondays, 8 a.m.-8 p.m. Thursdays and 8 a.m.-10 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays.
130 Clairemont Ave., Decatur. platezsouthernkitchencocktailz.com.
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