Chef Todd Richards Plans to Open His Barbecue Restaurant in Florida Heights

Soul cookbook author chef Todd Richards plans to open his new barbecue restaurant in the former Anderson’s Old Fashioned Bar-B-Que on Willis Mills Road in the southwest Atlanta neighborhood of Florida Heights. It’s located near Hamilton Holmes and Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, south of I-20 and west of Westview Cemetery.

A representative for Richards confirmed the news to Eater Atlanta, saying the yet-named restaurant includes Southern and Chicago-style barbecue as well as dishes from his cookbook and now-closed Rolling Bones barbecue. A fun fact: Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas from the R&B group TLC apparently once worked a summer job at Anderson’s.

Richards teased the restaurant’s location on Instagram. The photos show the gutted interior of the former barbecue restaurant. The chef, whose resume includes The Four Seasons, White Oak Kitchen & Cocktails, One Flew South, and The Shed at Glenwood, writes in the post, “...why BBQ. Simple answer is fine dining is is my brain (math & physics major) but BBQ is in my soul. If you don’t know ask my family. We go back generations.”

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The chef opened Richard’s Southern Fried at Krog Street Market in 2016, followed by Chicken + Beer with Atlanta-based rapper Chris “Ludacris” Bridges on Concourse D at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. Richards helped open One Flew South (OFS) on Concourse E with chef Duane Nutter and barman Jerry Slater (H. Harper Station, Expat in Athens). He recently returned to OFS as part of his role as culinary director for Jackmont Hospitality, which owns OFS and Chicken + Beer at the airport.

It seems Richards made some changes to the menu at OFS, including the addition of a tasting menu — a first for Hartsfield — along with a few new dishes like collard green ramen and curried lamb ribs. Both dishes are listed among the recipes in Soul. The cookbook released in May 2018.

While in the kitchen at OFS several days a week, Richards shares cooking duties with chef de cuisine Cedric McCroery.

65 Willis Mill Road SW, Atlanta.

• Chef Todd Richards’ New Barbecue Restaurant Is Taking Shape in Westview [EATL]
• Chef Todd Richards Is Working on a Cookbook [EATL]
• Richards’ Southern Fried Is Certified Open at Krog Street Market [EATL]
• All Todd Richards coverage [EATL]