Atlanta Rapper Lil Baby Opens a Seafood Restaurant and Lounge in the AUC

Atlanta native and rap artist Lil Baby is adding the title of restaurateur to his resume with the July 14 opening of the Seafood Menu Restaurant and Lounge on the edge of Atlanta University Center (AUC).

Located along M.L.K Jr. Drive, just west of James Beard award-winning soul food restaurant Busy Bee Cafe, the Seafood Menu is a collaboration between Lil Baby and Chad Dillion, the man behind restaurant the Boiler Seafood Atlanta on Piedmont Road. The design for the restaurant pays homage to Atlanta, its rich hip-hop music scene, and legendary musicians like Aretha Franklin, Prince, Marvin Gaye, and Ray Charles. Expect a menu featuring everything from crab rangoon wontons and shrimp tempura skewers to steamed and fried seafood combinations with snow crab legs, shrimp, lobster tail, and catfish. Butter sauces for the seafood platters also include a choice of sauces, like Caribbean jerk (Lil Baby’s favorite sauce), sweet chili, honey hot, and lemon pepper.

Lil Baby eventually plans to franchise the Seafood Menu and package the restaurant’s butter sauces to sell in grocery stores.

Take a peek at the menu here. Open Sunday - Thursday, 12 p.m. to 12 a.m.; Friday and Saturday, 12 p.m to 2 a.m.

The Seafood Menu and Lounge

The Seafood Menu and Lounge

Marcus Samuelsson is throwing a patio block party at his Atlanta restaurant

Celebrity chef Marcus Samuelsson and Atlanta chef Dayana Joseph are teaming up Friday, July 14, from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., on the patio of Marcus Bar and Grille on Edgewood for a block party. Samuelsson and Joseph are grilling up cookout favorites paired with cocktails, music, and lawn games like giant Jenga. The regular menu is also available.

Weekend eating recs

Sweet Auburn BBQ owners and siblings, Howard and Anita Hsu opened Gezzo’s Coastal Cantina in the former Juniper Cafe space this summer, bringing Bolton burritos, tacos, and other Mexican dishes infused with Southeast Asian flavors and ingredients. It may be listed as an appetizer, but the Baja chicken egg rolls are a sizable portion — easily a meal for one, definitely enough for two — and come generously stuffed with chipotle chicken, cheese, and serrano escabeche. The egg rolls are served with a side of Thai sweet chili sauce.

There’s disco fries (fries covered in cheese and gravy) and then there’s the superior Southern version of the late-night diner dish: disco tots. And you’ll find these tots at Roshambo in the Peachtree Battle shopping plaza. Disco tots come drizzled in pimento cheese mornay sauce and are sprinkled with bacon bits and scallions. Pro tip: Go for happy hour when the typically $14 tots are $10, and pair with a $4 lager or a martini at the bar.

Beth McKibben

Beth McKibben

A hidden cocktail bar is opening at Girl Diver in Reynoldstown

Chef Richard Tang is adding a hidden cocktail bar to his seafood restaurant Girl Diver at Madison Yards. A grand opening takes place July 20 and features cocktails and seafood dishes from the restaurant. Eater reached out to Tang for more information.

Omakase Table adds cocktails to the menu

Omakase Table, the West Marietta Street sushi restaurant owned by chef Leonard Yu, is launching a cocktail menu to complement its 20-course omakase. Created by Atlanta bartender and King Cube founder Jeff Banks, think highballs with Iwai 45 Japanese whisky and vermouth-based Japanese cocktails like the Petite Prelude presented in Riedel glassware.

Shah’s Halal Food opens in Peachtree Corners

The first Georgia location of fast-casual restaurant Shah’s Halal Food is now open at the Peachtree Parkway Shopping Plaza for gyros, falafel, and rice platters paired with lamb, kofta kebabs, and chicken.

A location of Gusto is opening at the Lee and White development

A location of fast-casual, healthy-ish joint Gusto is opening at Lee and White in West End this fall. Gusto will be located in an exterior corner space of the upcoming food hall at the development and will feature a patio with access to the Westside Beltline trail.