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we do three things--
we live, we love, we eat.
Get ready, 'cause I'm taking you on a road trip
to my hometown, Atlanta, Georgia,
to some of the hottest spots the city has to offer.
There's no place like home,
but this is home with a new twist.
The new generation is keeping old traditions alive
and adding exciting new flavors,
making Atlanta a city
that truly represents the new South.
We're kicking it off with a big Southern brunch--
shrimp and grits, short rib hash,
all the way delicious.
Then, we're gonna hit the sweet spot of Atlanta.
I'm gonna get down with a true Southern classic--
Whoa.
And to wrap it up,
Southern cooking, live music,
Wow.
I can't wait to give you a taste
of my hometown, Atlanta, Georgia.
We're cruising down to Northside Parkway
in the business district of Atlanta
to a place called Local Three restaurant and bar.
I hear you can't get any more authentic
or local than this.
GARVIN: When I say this place
is off the beaten path, I'm not kidding.
Located in an office building
in one of the business district's
modern industrial complexes,
makes Local Three truly a hidden gem.
Chef Chris Hall, Chef Ryan Mussman,
and General Manager Ryan Turner
are the owners who have created
a unique food experience
making Local Three a local favorite.
The service, it's personal,
because one of their mottos is "People matter most."
Chef, thanks for having me.
Thanks for coming out, appreciate it.
Talk to me about what you guys are doing.
We wanted to highlight what's local around here.
Support our local farmers, our local artisans,
keeping it fresh, cooking seasonally,
and really just making great food.
We got a guy that comes up
with wild Georgia shrimp once a week.
We've got grits
from a little mill up north of here.
This kitchen is really unique,
and you see a lot of kitchens.
Now listen, I've seen a lot of--
and I've seen a lot of small...
Yeah, crammed in, yeah, yeah, exactly.
Everybody's getting burned.
We have a 63-foot-long oven,
that's the longest single oven in North America.
So we said, we got to find a way
that people can interact with this kitchen.
What a better way than to walk people
through and do a brunch?
And our chefs are just cooking food right there
and putting it up in the window for you to grab.
You can come back as many times as you want.
People really love getting to come in here
and see what we're about.
So what are we making today?
Nothing's more Southern than shrimp and grits, right?
Should we start with the bacon?
We're gonna start with the bacon.
This is from a local Berkshire pig,
and we're gonna cut some nice, big hunks of it.
And we're just gonna cut these up, right?
And we're gonna start rendering this bacon out.
We're gonna get garlic and shallots in here.
Then we got our peppers, onions and celery, all right?
Listen, you know, I don't do this job
'cause they pay me, I do it 'cause I get to eat.
So let's go with our shrimp now.
Let's get after it.
So a little salt and pepper
would be awesome right now.
Everything has to have its own identity.
Season the shrimp, crispy up the bacon,
sauté it up, you know, make it right, make it whole.
So we've got a teeny-tiny bit of white wine right there
that we're just gonna put in.
We're gonna hit it with a touch of cream,
about half that... there we go.
We got some Thai chili paste right here. There we go.
We're gonna take a little bit of butter in there, just a touch.
We're gonna allow the whole thing to emulsify. Awesome.
Now earlier, we cooked our grits.
These are grist-milled the old way,
so you can feel how thick they are.
You could actually feel the texture on these is completely different.
They're not like instant grits,
so they take a little bit longer to cook.
We're gonna finish them off with a little pimento cheese that we made here in-house.
We'll hit it with some butter, and we're good to go.
It's hard to put too much butter in some grits, man.
You don't hear me complaining.
We're just gonna kind of make sure
Don't cheat me now!
I'm not gonna cheat you, man, I'm not gonna cheat you.
Give me some of that.
Thanks, man.
The shrimps, the bacon,
Thank you.
So tell me about some of the other items
on the Sunday brunch menu.
CHRIS: You're gonna see everything
from a homemade tomato soup,
something that my grandmother used to make.
We've got some pancakes
with a little maple cream and bourbon.
We've got soft scrambled eggs out there.
Biscuits and country ham gravy.
Lot of breakfast places,
you're gonna get your corn beef hash.
I don't want to be like everybody else,
so we did short rib hash.
My favorite cut of meat with mushrooms,
Brussels sprouts, some garlic and shallots,
local beets,
you've got potatoes and carrots
and some Cipollini onions, teeny bit of kale.
It's just hearty, good food.
Wow.
Shrimp and grits, short rib-- neck and neck.
Neck and neck.
So you and I go out there,
I'm gonna hang out on the line?
All right.
How you all doin' today?
You guys got to try the soup, chef's grandmother's soup.
Oh, cool.
and then fried chicken with house pickles.
Oh, wow. That's a great idea.
Can't even keep up on them. Doing my best.
WOMAN: Yes, please.
This is my second round.
Uh-huh. Uh-huh.
Don't forget that short rib hash, it's unbelievable.
Isn't it?
The short ribs are super tender.
Are there beets in there?
There are beets in there.
Shallots, garlic
and a whole lot of love, you know--
Soul.
She says she wants to hang out in the kitchen.
Thank you.
The Sunday brunch here is unlike anything I've ever seen.
The food is amazing, the attention to detail,
the integrity of the place, it's outstanding.
This is the best of Atlanta and it starts right here
at Local Three on Sunday.
Now that's how brunch is done in the new South, baby.
GARVIN: Hey, stay with me as we roll over to a place
that literally takes the cake.
And then, one of the hottest scenes in Atlanta,
Southern food with a French twist,
high octane cocktails and live music
are gonna make for one perfect Southern evening.
Hey, I'm G. Garvin,
bringing it to you from the ATL,
my hometown, Atlanta, Georgia,
where Southern hospitality is very much alive.
So you know I wouldn't be comin' correct
unless I gave you a true taste of the South--
Red Velvet cake.
Let's go check it out together.
GARVIN: We're headed to the Buckhead section of Atlanta,
to the go-to place
if you want to satisfy your sweet tooth.
And just like everything else in the South,
the vibe is laid back and easy. In fact...
it's a Piece of Cake.
Hello, G, how are you?
I'm doing well. Thanks for having me.
GARVIN: Owner and baker Melissa Bunnen
has built quite a name for herself
as the creator of some of the best homemade cakes in Atlanta.
I come here all the time.
I purchase lots of cupcakes.
That's a good thing.
So the first time you made a cake,
you were at your house?
It was a chocolate cake,
didn't have a clue what I was doing.
Did that cake make the menu?
That's called our chocolate cake.
That's what's up. Chocolate cake.
Yep.
So we're gonna make what today?
We're gonna make a Red Velvet cake.
That's truly Southern.
A lot of people say they can do Red Velvet cake.
Oh, but they can't do it like this.
Not like a Piece of Cake, huh?
Okay, go.
So you want to go ahead and cream the butter,
low speed.
Okay.
Pour a little bit of oil in there, mix the sugar in.
Scrape the sides a little bit.
Okay, so everything gets mixed well.
While you're there, you might want to go ahead
and crack some eggs.
Okay.
This is a combination of red food coloring, some vinegar.
This should go in slowly, right?
Yeah, 'cause it may end up all over you.
All over you.
That could be fun depending on
who you're making cake with.
Okay, how we lookin'?
I think we're looki'' good so far.
This is what?
Flour, cocoa, salt,
Okay.
This is buttermilk, and you're gonna
alternate adding them to the cake.
I can help you out.
Yeah.
What makes Piece of Cake different than
all the other places that do cakes and cupcakes?
We're making these cakes exactly like you'd make it
if you were making it at home.
So it's not factory driven,
it really is like your house,
it's just a big house.
Okay, cool.
That's what fingers are for.
Damn!
Whassup, Liss? Boom!
All right.
Good!
I'm not mad at you.
I might have to sneak your cakes in the house
for Christmas, you know what I mean?
Go for it.
And we want to mix it, make sure it's all--
Okay.
You might be short, you might be long--
you just have to work it out.
Might be high, might be low.
Okay, mix them all up.
Time for the oven.
350?
350 for about 25 or 30 minutes.
So let's make some frosting.
Let's go for it.
Cream cheese, little bit of butter.
Okay.
Now you want to add some confectioner's sugar.
Slow down. Whoa, whoa. Slow your speed down.
Oh, oh, okay.
Gonna get flour all over me, huh?
Ha ha ha ha!
I'm gonna add a little vanilla while you do that.
Now I'm gonna put a little milk in.
Just regular whole milk?
Yeah, just to make it a little creamier.
That looks good.
Okay.
Medium.
Okay.
I should come here and work part-time.
Yeah. I'm always looking for new bakers.
Perfect.
You have to sort of work, kind of spinning it, and--
I mean, it ain't yours.
I think sometimes people think making cakes
might be easy, but it takes technique.
Sometimes you get imperfections,
but I think it's how you bring it
all together that makes it work.
You ready for a slice?
I'm ready for a slice.
How many of these you think you make a day?
Of all the cakes, we make anywhere
from several hundred to several thousand.
So for all my hard work this is my payoff.
Really Red Velvet.
Ha ha ha!
Alrighty.
Melissa, tell me about some of the other cakes you guys make.
We make carrot, orange, coconut, strawberry cake,
chocolate chip, coffee cake,
our signature white chocolate cake.
And then we also have cookies and cupcakes.
We've added a lot to our menu in the last few years.
Nice.
Even though you're making a thousand-plus cakes a day,
it still has that personal touch,
the attention to detail is absolutely amazing.
I mean, these cakes are truly phenomenal.
We have over 40 employees that rock.
We bake every flavor every day.
You can order a cake and have it delivered.
Wherever I am, I could get this amazing Red Velvet cake.
The ones that are getting shipped out are frozen,
shrink-wrapped.
Like my grandmama used to say,
"We's cookin' with gas, baby."
Okay, that was absolutely amazing.
It's Red Velvet cake, but it's at a whole new level.
And the best part is,
they're still making 'em by hand.
It's just a Piece of Cake.
Hey, this road trip is far from over.
It's time for a great Southern evening--
amazing food, outstanding cocktails and live music.
Atlanta baby, road-tripping.
Hey, I'm G. Garvin,
kicking it in my hometown, Atlanta, Georgia
and bringing you the very best
of what the new South has to offer.
We're headed to the Westside
to a place called JCT Kitchen.
According to the locals, we're in for a hell of a treat.
The guys at JCT Kitchen are bringing a Southern farmstead cooking style
to an elegant French bistro setting.
Executive Chef Ford Fry uses farm fresh local ingredients
and infuses the best of Southern cooking
with the best of French cuisine.
JCT's also got a smokin' hot bar scene
with tantalizing specialty cocktails
and live music
by some of Atlanta's best local talent.
Let's go see what's happening.
What does JCT mean, by the way?
Oh, nice.
The train tracks' right outside here, so...
And it's kind of a meeting place for everybody.
What are we going to be making today,
It is.
Okay.
So right here we have chicken that we're gonna do.
Correct.
The brine is a little bit of water,
then we do salt and sugar.
Basically, you want to heat the water up,
just to kind of melt the salt and sugar,
then give it a good stir.
Some fresh thyme, bay leaf and some black peppercorn.
Once it cools down to room temperature,
pop it in the fridge, chicken in for at least 12 hours.
We can make one.
So we serve a three-piece.
It is.
We have a little cayenne, some garlic powder,
onion powder, a little bit of nutmeg,
salt and black pepper.
Now, do you let people call and pre-order it?
Ahh!
I'll have a guy frying chicken pretty much all evening.
Oh, yeah.
That's where you have to find that balance of creative
Absolutely.
I see you got the old-school paper bag.
Old school, man. Brown paper.
I am.
That's hilarious. That's great though.
Kind of get the excess flour off.
The paper bag, we used to, you know, shake it up.
So how long does it take to cook?
Okay.
This is about 260 degrees right now.
***.
We got our Sea Island red peas.
We get these in dry, we soak 'em overnight in water,
and then we cook them in chicken stock,
veal stock, garlic, celery,
carrots and onions, some aromatics,
thyme, bay leaf, whatnot.
We have this nice baby Dinosaur Kale right here,
we'll sweat these with a little bit of shallot...
till they're nice, nice and tender.
They cook pretty quickly.
You can see that dark spot.
It's what we're looking for.
Chicken is going, it looks perfect.
Yeah.
We're gonna do wood-grilled hanger steak with fresh cut fries,
do a little side of tarragon béarnaise.
Shall we knock out the béarnaise sauce for the meat and potatoes?
Let's get on the meat and potatoes.
All right, cool, let's do it.
So we got about four egg yolks here.
You want to cook this real gently.
This is a tarragon vinegar reduction.
Tarragon, shallots and a little bit of champagne,
vinegar and some sugar, for a little bit of acidity.
And keep it on a kind of a medium heat,
we're gonna kind of whisk this
until it kind of gets to the ribbon stage.
And if I can get you to just drizzle in that butter.
Keep going.
Clarified butter.
That should probably do it.
Don't be trying to do a béarnaise and be on the phone.
You gotta pay attention.
Hanger steak.
Brush with a little olive oil.
All right.
And a heavy dose of salt and pepper.
Fresh-ground, coarse-ground black pepper.
And you season it heavy.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And then, Chef, speaking of the grill...
Yeah, this is a wood-burning grill.
We burn hickory,
so you have a nice even cooking surface
across the whole thing.
So, Chef, tell me about some of the great items
on the menu that you love.
We got a great chicken and dumplings.
It's a comfit chicken leg,
we do it with ricotta dumplings,
fresh vegetables, local greens,
get that skin nice and crispy.
We got a great slow-roasted pork belly,
and we serve it with a butternut squash agnolotti,
which is like a little rectangular ravioli,
brown butter sauce, fried sage.
Deviled eggs, one of our most popular shared appetizers.
Whipped egg yolk, little bit of mayonnaise,
and some mustard and some chives,
and then we top it with Benton's country ham.
We got a great braised Mississippi rabbit.
We serve that on top of a homemade
black pepper tagliatelle pasta,
wood-roasted mushrooms, Cippolini onions
and a candied garlic jus.
Pretty good stuff.
Now, Chef, how long is this gonna go?
Uh, this is only gonna take about 3 or 4 minutes a side.
Okay, okay. Nice.
So we're gonna finish up that,
we've got the chicken going.
I'm gonna let you finish this baby up.
All right, buddy.
Thank you so much.
Here we go, baby.
Chef.
Meat and potatoes, good old fried chicken.
I appreciate you, man.
All right.
This fried chicken...
It's so perfectly seasoned, and it's super crispy.
Mmm. And the beans, unbelievable.
Meat and potatoes...
Steak is cooked to perfection,
super tender.
I love the béarnaise.
This is what the South is all about.
I'm gonna jump behind the bar
and make a couple of classic cocktails
with that Southern twist,
check out a little live music,
I'll see you all in a minute.
Mmm.
Hey, check out all my road trip spots
at cookingchanneltv.com.
Hey, thanks for coming back.
I'm still hanging out at the JCT Kitchen,
amazing Southern food.
Now I'm upstairs, JCT Bar, with my girl Janet,
we're gonna make a couple of cocktails.
What's the first drink we're gonna make?
The JCTea, it's T-E-A at the end.
Oh, wow, got-- Yo.
Yeah.
So we use 1-1/2 ounces of ice tea-infused gin.
Now you guys make the tea here?
We do.
Fresh-squeezed lemon juice.
And then our homemade simple syrup.
Which is sugar and water.
Absolutely.
1/2 ounce of the orange liqueur,
couple dashes of orange bitters.
So what happens if there's a party of nine girls,
all the girls are going out...
Happens a lot up here.
...and they just want nine of those?
You're literally goin'...
Wow.
Now do you come here when you're not working
I do.
I actually had a Girls Night up here the other night.
Cheers to JC...
BOTH: Tea.
Absolutely.
It's pretty good.
They say gin'll make you sin.
I'm in.
All of the flavors, it really works.
The JCTea, baby.
All right, so now we're gonna make something else.
This one is called the Root in Rye.
You're gonna put me to work on this one, right?
So 1-1/2 ounce of rye,
you fill that all the way to the top,
all the way to the top.
So now you're gonna put
a couple dashes of orange bitter.
Help me out, G! That JCTea is kicking in.
One, two.
Good, now we're gonna do aromatic bitters.
It's gonna be two dashes of that.
Now we're gonna put ice in it.
Okay.
That's not really stirring it, but that's okay.
There you go.
So now you're gonna take your root beer.
Okay, now for the flame orange peel.
Don't try this at home.
Slice off about a quarter size,
just squeeze it into the flame.
It takes me a couple of tries anyway.
I know you can do this.
You're gonna get it, I promise you.
Yeah, I'm gonna get it or we're gonna run out of tape.
There you go! There you go, you got it.
Wow!
You better be damn good,
all the work you caused me, too.
It's refreshing.
That's a good one.
It's refreshing,
but it's got that "sneak up on you."
Cool. Cheers.
Thank you so much.
Hey, I'm G. Garvin. My girl Janet.
This is truly the best of Atlanta,
my hometown, baby.
So until we meet again, I'll see you on the road.
♪ I'll write you a love song ♪
( woman giggling ) Oh, yeah.