Southbound

They got balls to open a joint like this in the middle of nowhere Chamblee... And I'm glad they did. It's on the other side of the tracks from Oriental Pearl and the Chinatown Mall/Food Court. They did a great job renovating a pretty big space and retained some of the character of the original space which was a Masonic Lodge... I wonder if there are secret passages, dungeons and virgins to sacrifice. The overall look inside is nice, simple, rustic, southern... I like it a lot. There's a long bar, upstairs, downstairs, a side room and an outdoor patio seating space... It's a big space and table turn over is still pretty speedy due to the efficient kitchen and staff. Just because you can pump out the grub doesn't mean it's quality... The place is getting a lot of attention and no shortage of customers especially on the weekends even though the area is like a ghost town. Let's take a first look with a few samples.

Octopus Salad, taters. I love octopus but I'm not in love with this presentation. It's very sloppy looking.. Everything is pushed to one side like emptying out the plate before going into the dishwasher. For $12, I expected a little more octopus than a few slices but they were tender and tasty enough for me to not stop eating it. I have yet tried an octopus dish in this town that wowed me... So, I made one with uni and wakame, it was killer (see below).

Boom. All mine, suckaz.

Boiled Peanuts, pork broth. Sounds like a great idea but the pork broth doesn't give it that kick as much as you think to these nuts. They were good but somehow I was expecting a much more porky flavor punching at my nads.

Beef Tartar, shallot, capers, creole mustard, olive oil, quail yolk. Even though they spelled tartare wrong on the menu, this was still a very tasty tartare. They seasoned the meat well and the quail egg is standard issue now which was great. The only gripe I have is that they didn't clean the meat as well as they could before grinding. You get a bite of sinew every now and then but it doesn't affect the overall dish.

SB Burger & Fries, mayo, beer mustard, dill pickles, hook’s cheddar, shaved red onion. Spot on temp at mid rare. I have been on a kick to find the next great burger in this town because lately all the burgers have been pretty lame. General Muir might be the only one that I would go back specifically for it. This burger here was pretty good, the bun needed to be toasted because all the grease turned the bottom bun mushy so you basically pick it up once and eat until it's gone.. If you're really good at eating you can use one hand for the burger and the other for fries. I'm on the fence on getting this again with all the other dishes on the menu yet to try.

SB Hot Chicken, cilantro, arbol chili, garlic, lime. I had to get this, save the best for last right? First thing right off the bat, it ain't no hot cheekan and it's also boneless (not that there is anything wrong with a boneless hot cheekan if it was made the right way, Jim N Nick's BBQ had a killer boneless hot cheekan). It's not quite red, spicy and glazey enough. This was their lackluster vision of the spicy chicken dish that I grew to love and adore like a crackhead.. And their version was just ok. This was not bad if comparing to spicy chicken tenders found at local fast food joints but definitely not a hot chicken. The heat/spice level was very low. It was more like a dry rub of spices and then floured and deep fried a tad too long because some parts of the flesh was tough and chewy. I understand they want to do a different take on this dish but sometimes when it ain't broke, don't fix it... Just add a little of your style to it to make it a little different. I would have to pass on this dish on the next visit even though I want to give it another shot, I just don't want to be disappointed again like the time this hot broad ditched me to go see Road House with some other dude... I wasn't cool enough to be a cooler.

Even with some hits and misses (nothing was bad just needed fine tuning), I still like this place a lot and will be back to try some other dishes I saw going around... Like the ginormous bone in ribeye and the behemoth ribs. Could this be the start of a new Chamblee southern dining screen that doesn't consist of ethnic grub every corner in this town? I hope so but not at the expense of these great ethnic spots being dumb down. If they keep working at the menu and make a few tweeks, this place could be a very consistent resto. Plus, they have a bunch of Big Green Eggs on the patio, so that's extra points for them.

5394 Peachtree Rd
Chamblee, GA 30341
678-580-5579
http://www.baconsnobs.com/baconsnobs/welcome.html