*This is part of a series of restaurant reviews we are doing in anticipation of Michelin coming to Atlanta. We have been to several Michelin restaurants around the world, so we consider ourselves somewhat of a Michelin snob. Michelin publishes their official criteria of earning a star (or stars), which are the 5 tenets. Here, we will try to talk about each tenet and see how the restaurant we predicted MIGHT be Michelin worthy, fared with these 5 tenets.
Georgia Boy is an intimate restaurant situated in the back of its sister restaurant, Southern Belle. Georgia Boy is open Thursday to Saturday only, with a Chef’s tasting menu that is not disclosed in advance. The setup feels so similar to some of the Michelin restaurants we’ve been to that we were so excited.
To get to Georgia Boy, you have to first enter Southern Belle, then we were lead to the back, and given a couch to sit on with complimentary champagne, while we waited for others that had the same dining time as us. After everyone showed up, we were lead to a small room, closed off by a curtain, and some introductions were made, and the first few courses were presented. Then, the waitress asked what we thought the owner/chef Joey Ward’s favorite childhood book was. (There was clues to this if we studied the posters on the wall.) We were a particularly illiterate group I guess, because no one could come up with the answer (and the waitress jokingly said “this has never happened before”). Eventually the waitress told us the answer and one guest seemed to have had it at the lip of her tongue. She was asked to find the book from the bookcase. When she did, the bookcase opened – it was a trick door! And we were lead into the kitchen, where the rest of the magic happened.
There was two drink options to add to the tasting menu – the wine pairing, or the nonalcoholic cocktail option. We had one of each. The wine pairing comes with “top up”, although it was hardly needed. The nonalcoholic cocktail is made for every few courses so there isn’t a top up option, but when the waitress noticed Teddy was drinking them rather quickly, she offered to bring him an extra.
Course 1: A Study of Summer Corn
First course, came with huitlacoche churro, chips, salsa, and guac. It’s their take on chips and salsa with churros. Huitlacoche is a fungus that grows on corn and makes the corn kernel deformed. It has an earthy, truffle flavor. It is a delicacy in Mexico, but not really seen in the US, probably because it doesn’t look appealing. The churros were filled with huitlacoche which was just SO DELICIOUS.
Course 2: A Trip Down Buford Hwy
Buford Hwy used to be a popular street in metro Atlanta, known for its authentic Asian restaurants. I remember when I moved to Georgia in 1996, one of my favorite past-time activities was to visit Buford Hwy. At that time, Buford Hwy was the way to visit “home”. Buford Hwy meant so much to me that when I met my first husband, it was the first place I took him to. Seems like Buford Hwy made a similar impression on Chef Joey Ward. This course was a visit down memory lane as he tried to recreate some of his favorite dishes that he encountered on Buford Hwy in his childhood but put some of his own twists in each. From left to right, the items are: shrimp pajeon (Korea), pork belly in chili garlic sauce (China), and Vietnamese iced coffee (Vietnam). Everything was good of course, but pajeon is best when it’s piping hot, but after all of the introduction, it really wasn’t hot by the time I ate mine, so that was disappointing. The Vietnamese iced coffee was really cool – it was filled with coffee inside somehow, and it pops in your mouth.
Course 3: Memories of Summer
Chef Joey Ward used to visit his grandpa in the summer and enjoyed eating tomatoes in his garden, followed with drinking water out of the garden hose to cool down from those summer days. This was paying homage to that. The tomato sandwich tasted delicious of tomato flavor. The glass container had some mildly sweet granita, a Sicilian semi-frozen dessert.
Course 4: Spicy Tuna
This course is like a spicy tuna roll deconstructed. It had watermelon, shiso, soy, wasabi, and avocado. It was delicious, but notice how thin my tuna slices were? It was literally see through. It seemed that everyone else’s plate had thicker slices of tuna. I wasn’t happy about that.
Course 5: Jekyll Island Grouper
The Jekyll Island Grouper came with summer melon salad, crispy potatoes and black olive. We were told the little flowering cucumber on top was edible – it was delicious. The sauce and the potatoes were so good. The grouper was delicious as well.
Course 6: Heirloom Tomato Focaccia
Finally, a course where my plate isn’t the smallest of the table! The bread course. This focaccia is made with heirloom tomatoes and it came with a dipping sauce made with Georgia olive oil. It also normally comes with bruschetta butter in the sauce, but I went with butter free. It was delicious, but I wish I wasn’t filling up on bread, and I wish there was more sauce to dip (I ran out of my sauce quick probably because my bread was so much bigger than everyone else’s!)
Course 7: Meat & Potatoes
This is a spin on the traditional meat & potatoes. It has dry-aged ribeye, with caviar and local potato. It was creamily delicious and I wish I didn’t have the smallest plate again.
Course 8: Sweet Potato
Benton’s bacon cotton candy on top of a sweet potato cake, with some maple syrup. How fun! Benton’s is a country bacon and ham store from Tennessee. I love how Georgia Boy incorporates small farms to their dishes.
Course 9: Smyly Farms Duck
Smyly Farms is a small farm in Chattahoochee Hills, Georgia. I’m a huge fan of duck, but I was not a fan of this. It was chewy, tough, and the knife they provided was not sharp enough to cut it. I also watched my tablemates struggle so I wasn’t alone. This dish did remind me of the duck dishes I had in Lautrec (both times I was served duck), but this pales in comparison. Besides the chew duck, this also came with summer squash, farro, miso, blackberries, and caraway. The summer squash here is a pattypan squash, which I had never had before. It looked really interesting, but tasted pretty similar to zucchini.
Course 10: Marigold Sorbet
Are we at dessert already? Wow time flew by, and I don’t feel that full. Then we were told this was Intermezzo. OK, at least that means this wasn’t the final course already. I think maybe I would have been more full if my plate wasn’t consistently the one having the smallest amount of food. Humph. This sorbet came on a plate of marigold flowers which we were told not to consume – marigold has some edible varieties but not all of them are edible. The sorbet itself did come with edible marigold so if that’s your thing, you probably won’t be disappointed. There’s Georgia olive oil in this, peach, and some foraged herbs. This was absolutely delicious.
Course 11: Lick the Beater
We were each handed some cake batter on an egg beater. The cake batter was lemon pound cake which was good but too sweet for my liking. I think this course was kind of a way to slow us down as they were preparing on the next course.
Course 12: Banana Ice Cream Cake
The banana ice cream cake came on a unique plate that is folded almost in half. The cake was coffee flavored, with Biscoff, chocolate, and salted caramel. This was super good.
Some of the Non-alcohol Cocktail Pairings
Unfortunately I don’t have the names of these non-alcohol drinks but every one of them was delicious, innovative, and unique. I highly recommend the non-alcohol pairing for this tasting menu.
Wine Pairing
The wine pairing was amazing and for each wine, the sommelier told us a story behind it. The story was told to the whole table, so as long as someone at your table is getting the wine pairing, you’ll get to learn about these wines like everyone else. There is top up service on the wine so your price includes refills. The final course came with some port, which was really good as well.
Michelin Star Worthy?
So how does Georgia Boy score against the 5 tenets of Michelin Star criteria? Let’s see.
1. Using Quality Products
Georgia Boy seems to put a lot of emphasis on small, local farm produce and proteins which I like. Typically that means higher quality products and more seasonal. I did find the duck particularly chewy and tough.
2. Mastery of Flavor and Cooking Techniques
When Chef Joey Ward first came out to talk to us, my husband and I looked at each other and wondered how such a renowned chef could look so young. Later we learned that Chef Joey Ward has been working in this career since he was 16 years old and has had many experiences in upscale dining establishments.
3. Personality of the Chef in the Cuisine
Chef Joey Ward personally came out to serve many of his dishes and told us stories behind them. We learned about his childhood favorite book, his memories living near Buford Hwy, and how he spent summers at his grandfather’s garden.
4. Value for Money
The cost of the tasting menu is $219 including tax and tip. Remember, the value for money isn’t just in the food, but also in the service, presentation, and the overall experience. There was a good amount of theatrics to keep the night interesting – we were there for over 3 hours but it didn’t feel that long at all. The service was phenomenal and I do believe the value was there. I just wish there was more food – I didn’t leave hungry but I also wasn’t nearly as full as I expected to be.
5. Consistency of Food
Everyone seemed to be happy with their food and each course was presented beautifully. Besides the fact my plate had the smallest amount of food consistently, everything else seemed to be top notch. I wonder if they gave me the smallest amount of food because I was the youngest female at the table? I don’t know.
Conclusion
Overall, amazing experience for sure. Based on the reviews and pictures I’ve seen online, it seems that they change their menu quite frequently, so if we go back, chances are, we would get to experience some new food, which is awesome. I loved the fact there was no menu – most tasting menus we’ve been to at least gives you the menu before you start, this place did not. You do get the menu when you are finished and ready to leave. I also liked the fact the price included tax and service charge, even Aqua Panna water. I believe Georgia Boy will receive one Michelin star. In fact, I’m so confident in my prediction that if I were given $100 to wager on any number of restaurants, I would put my entire $100 on Georgia Boy.