Chef Damon Wise Is IN as Culinary Director for Linton Hopkins’s Restaurant Group

Linton Hopkins’s Resurgens Hospitality Group has a new culinary director: Chef Damon Wise has joined the company in the new position, reports Atlanta Magazine. Wise comes to Atlanta from New York City, where he most recently helmed the kitchen at Sauvage in the city’s Greenpoint neighborhood.

“I have mega props for New York,” Wise told Atlanta. “The food scene is incredible and exciting and people constantly have great ideas. But it’s too expensive to live here.”

A representative for Resurgens tells Eater Atlanta Wise will be “largely focused on team training and building and helping further develop menus (and foster those farmer relationships).” His first task in his new gig is to help with the opening of C. Ellet’s, the company’s steakhouse that is planned for the Battery development adjacent to the Atlanta Braves’ SunTrust Park.

In the longer term, Wise will serve as Hopkins’s “right hand man,” and he’ll help out with all Resurgens restaurants — Restaurant Eugene, Holeman & Finch, H&F Burger, Hop’s Chicken — but they will continue to be led by their respective executive chefs.

Wise spent years in New York, where his time included work at high-profile brasserie Lafayette and Top Chef judge Tom Colicchio’s restaurant empire. He also had a brief stint in Charleston.

“I am excited to return to the Southeast,” Wise said in a prepared statement. “Linton’s reputation in Atlanta precedes him — he is a true culinary professional and his enthusiasm and passion for both this project and his family of restaurants is ultimately what brought me here. I have been coming to Atlanta for years, and I’m excited to explore the city and work with Georgia farmers and purveyors.”

• Celebrated New York chef Damon Wise is moving to Atlanta [Atlanta]
• Damon Wise Has Left Sauvage — for Atlanta [ENY]
• Damon Wise Reveals Scarecrow & Co. Concepts for Charleston [ECHS]
• Damon Wise Heads Back to NYC [EATL]