One Eared Stag Chef Plans East Lake Chicken and Oyster House [Updated]

One Eared Stag chef Robert Phalen is behind the third announced restaurant for East Lake’s Hosea & 2nd project. Phalen will open Mary Hoopa’s House of Fried Chicken & Oysters at 2371 Hosea L. Williams Dr. NE, reports the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The initial timeline targets a January 2017 debut.

Phalen is often cited by other culinary professionals as a chef who makes some of the most exciting food in Atlanta. He’s been manning the kitchen at One Eared Stag since it opened at 1029 Edgewood Ave NE in 2011, a time when Inman Park wasn’t a neighborhood saddled with the pros and cons that come with a popular food hall and large, restaurant-heavy mixed-use development. With a new venture in East Lake, the chef may be looking for more of that quiet neighborhood feel.

Mary Hoopa’s, reportedly named for the nanny of Phalen’s mother-in-law, will, obviously, focus on oysters and fried chicken, a couple of the favorite happy hour or certain-night-of-the-week specials for many Atlanta restaurants (at One Eared Stag, the oysters are $1 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays, and fried chicken is served for dinner on Mondays). The AJC says the menu will feature bivalves served in a variety of ways, and it will also include dishes previously seen at One Eared Stag.

The Hosea & 2nd development comes from Clay Harper and Mike Nelson, the team behind Fellini’s Pizza and La Fonda Latina, and ReDevStudio partners Jay Martin and Nathan Bolster. It will bring a total of four restaurants to the intersection of Hosea L. Williams Drive and Second Avenue. So far, a third outpost for Harper and Nelson’s The Greater Good Barbecue has opened on one corner, and Poor Hendrix, from James Beard Award-nominated pastry chef Aaron Russell and wife Jamie, is planned to come online this fall. One spot at the development is still available.

Update: October 10, 2 p.m. Mix'd Up Burgers has claimed the fourth spot on the roster, and Hosea + 2nd developers plan to add add more dining options in 2017.

• One Eared Stag’s Robert Phalen to Open a Restaurant in Atlanta’s East Lake Neighborhood [AJC]

• Fellini's, La Fonda Owners Planning Four Restaurants for East Lake [EATL]

• Poor Hendrix Is the Second Announced Restaurant for East Lake Project [EATL]

• The Greater Good Barbecue Debuts in East Lake This Week [EATL]