Food Stalls Begin Opening Soon at the Andrew Zimmern-Backed Chattahoochee Food Works

The first restaurant stalls inside forthcoming northwest Atlanta food hall Chattahoochee Food Works begin opening later this fall. So far, nine of the 31 stalls planned for the food hall are locked in and preparing to open over the coming months.

The 22,000-square-foot market and test kitchen in the Underwood Hills neighborhood is a collaborative effort between James Beard Award-winning chef and “Bizarre Foods” host Andrew Zimmern and Robert Montwaid, the creator of luxe food hall Gansevoort Market in New York City.

Chattahoochee Food Works is part of the The Works complex, an overhaul of several warehouses set along an industrial strip off of Chattahoochee Avenue on Atlanta’s west side. Once complete, the sweeping 80-acre development will feature 500 residences, a boutique hotel, retail shops and the food hall, a 13-acre greenspace, and full-service outposts of Fox Bros. Bar-B-Q and Scofflaw Brewing.

Chattahoochee Food Works

Zimmern told Eater in 2019 he planned to tap into Atlanta’s diverse dining scene to fill the stalls at Chattahoochee Food Works — a scene that encompasses cuisines influenced by micro-regions of the South, India, Mexico, and France, and restaurants serving dishes from Ethiopia, Brazil, Laos, Korea, and the Shaanxi province of China.

He and Montwaid said they hoped to provide opportunities for up-and-comers, immigrants, women, and people of color to grow and experiment with their food-driven businesses in Atlanta. This includes offering an affordable financial “entry point” to chefs and culinary business proprietors who choose to open stalls at the market, “regardless of previous barriers to access.”

Most food halls offer licenses rather than leases between the stall operator and the landlord. A food stall license costs less than a month-to-month restaurant lease and averages one to three years in length. It typically covers rental fees, length of the license, dimensions of the stall, use of common space and storage, and scullery services and general maintenance. The contract often contains a percentage rent provision — a daily percentage of sales from each stall paid to the landlord.

Eater reached out to Zimmern and Montwaid Thursday afternoon to ask for further details and definitive cost figures for stalls at the market, including licensing terms and fees.

The Stalls

Baked Kitchen South African Street Food

Morelli’s Gourmet Ice Cream

The popular Atlanta-based ice cream company, owned by Donald Sargent and Clarissa Morelli, serves up flavors like butter pecan, Krispy Kreamier with chunks of Krispy Kreme doughnuts, coconut jalapeño, and marzipan cherry almond.

TydeTate Kitchen

The Thai-food stall and Lawrenceville-based catering business is owned by Tana Bhamaraniyama. TydeTate Kitchen serves “home-style” Thai comfort foods and dishes like plah talay (seafood salad), saku wraps, stuffed chicken wings, and curry puffs on its menu.

Graffiti Breakfast

This stall, owned by chef Marcus James Waller and Tonya Waller, will offer Southern twists on breakfast staples using produce and ingredients from urban farms across Atlanta.

TydeTate Kitchen

Graffiti Breakfast

Unbelibubble Tea House

Owned by Alex Yoon Kim and Mindy Kim, the Duluth-based company offers nearly 50 variations of bubble tea on its menu.

Taqueria La Luz

The new Mexican street food stall is owned by siblings Luis Martinez-Obregon and Lucero Martinez-Obregon who also own Zocalo on 10th Street in Midtown.

Babakabab!

The Lebanese barbecue food truck, owned by Mark Haddad and Samer Bakri, opens a permanent location at the food hall this fall. Babakabab offers build-your-own platters and boxes of grilled kebabs and falafel.

Baker Dude

Baker Dude

This will be the second location of Grant Park-based bakery and cafe Baker Dude. Owned by Orran Booher, the bake shop offers cupcakes in flavors like zesty key lime and a gluten free, paleo cupcake made with fair trade chocolate and mint chocolate morsels, as well as pastries, daily-baked breads, and breakfast and brunch dishes such as a pesto egg wrap and quiche Lorraine.

Pomodoro Bella

Chefs James Semanisin and Byars Parham (Cru Food & Wine Bar at Avalon) open their new Italian food stall serving pizza, fresh pasta, desserts, and weekly meal kits. Pomodoro Bella will include a dough room that can be viewed from inside the market and a to-go window located on the patio, allowing the stall to remain open after other stalls have closed for the day.

Baked Kitchen South African Street Food

Baked Kitchen South African Street Food

Owned by food truck operator Allan Katzef, expect South African-based fare on the menu at this stall. Katzef, who was born in South Africa, plans to serve dishes like the Burri Don Dawg made with South African boerewors (sausage) and sosaties or lamb and apricot grilled skewers coated with apricot jalapeño barbecue sauce and served with a side of yellow wild rice and pap (a type of maize porridge.) The stall will also offer vegan burgers and weekly specials.

In addition to the food stalls, a large outdoor patio and an indoor-outdoor bar and lounge with a retractable glass wall opening to the outside are also planned for Chattahoochee Food Works. The menu for the yet-named bar centers around raw bar selections and charcuterie paired with cocktails, champagne, and sparkling wine.

1235 Chattahoochee Avenue NW, Atlanta. chattahoocheefoodworks.com.

• Just What Does Andrew Zimmern Have in Store for Westside’s New Food Hall? [EATL]
• Westside’s Chattahoochee Avenue Lands Itself a Food Hall and Brewery [EATL]
• Fox Bros. Bar-B-Q Opens a Second Location Next Year in Underwood Hills [EATL]
• Meatpacking District Food Hall Gansevoort Market Appears to Have Permanently Closed [ENY]