Two Georgia restaurants have received honored recognition in the New York Times’ annual guide to America’s best restaurants.The Times’ food writers and critics said that “Savannah’s Brochu’s Family Tradition and Atlanta’s Bomb Biscuits are two of the 50 restaurants they are most excited about this year.” For greater detail on these two restaurants, see video of Erika Council, Atlanta’s Bomb Biscuits Co. chef, discussing her biscuits with Sharon Lawson and photo of food offered by Brochu’s Family Restaurant and its Instagram page.
Reporting entices the reader with descriptions of luscious cuisine preparations. Reporter Kim Severson praised chef Andrew Brochu’s fried chicken thighs, which she called a “highlight of a deconstructed Sunday supper platter packed with biscuits, chicken salad, sunchoke hot sauce and a ramekin of gravy for dipping.”
The reader’s attention is directed to Old Fourth Ward’s Bomb Biscuits. Background on the restaurant discloses that it “grew from a stall on the BeltLine to its own restaurant where fans crowd to grab one of its signature flaky treats.”
It is interesting that Bomb Biscuits owner, Erika Council, is a former software engineer. Council explained that “the love of cooking biscuits has been in her family for generations.” Elaborating, Council added that her “grandmother, Mildred Cotton Council, opened the legendary soul food restaurant Mama Dip’s Country Kitchen in Chapel Hill, North Carolina more than 46 years ago.”
Erika Council stated modestly: “I just watched all the men and women both make biscuits and fried chicken.” Reporter Kim Severson specifically mentioned Councils’ Glori-Fried Chicken Biscuit, which is made with a “spiced buttermilk-marinated thigh.”
Severson paid a poetic tribute to Council, writing of Council’s cuisine: “A dip in a thin, hot honey sauce is good, but the lemon-pepper version is her love letter to Atlanta.” Council has a cookbook paying homage to the biscuit craft and her family’s cooking heritage titled “Still We Rise,” which includes more than 70 sweet and savory recipes.