Vote for The Optimist’s Adam Evans as Food & Wine’s The People’s Best New Chef 2014

Photo by Richie Arpino

Adam Evans, executive chef at The Optimist, recently learned he’s one of 100 innovative chefs across the U.S. nominated for Food & Wine’s The People’s Best New Chef 2014® award! Find Evans on the Southeast slate and vote! Online polls are open through Monday, March 31. Every vote counts toward determining a winning chef for each region and thus identifying Food & Wine’s 10 best up-and-coming chefs. Evans continuously wows The Optimist guests with addictive upscale fish shack dishes. Read his short bio then help spread the word via Twitter or Instagram using the #PeoplesBNC hashtag.

Southern Food Tour Features JCT. Kitchen & Bar, The Optimist and American Spirit Whiskey

On Thursday, October 11, four of Atlanta's best chefs will pour on their Southern culinary charm for the Southern Food Tour, a guided walking tour aimed at building awareness and community around Southern food heritage. 

Ford Fry of JCT. Kitchen & Bar, Adam Evans of The Optimist, Anne Quatrano of Bacchanalia and Linton Hopkins of Restaurant Eugene are all participating. Each chef will prepare one of their restaurant's most iconic Southern dishes and will share their unique stories of what Southern food means to them. 

The chefs also will pair their dish with a whiskey cocktail from American Spirit Whiskey. Space is limited to 30 guests; tickets are $200 per person and are available online. More info on Facebook.

The Optimist Opens May 21, Bringing Sustainable Seafood To West Midtown

Photo by Andrew Thomas Lee

Fishermen embrace each day on the water as an opportunity to catch the next big one. As owner of The Optimist, West Midtown's soon-to-open sustainable seafood restaurant, Ford Fry finds the positive word appealing. The name "Optimist" was actually suggested by Fry's father, referring to a small sailing dinghy for children. Look for The Optimist and Oyster Bar at The Optimist to open Monday, May 21 at 914 Howell Mill Road. 

The restaurant will offer high-quality seafood, classically prepared in a wood-burning grill and oven and served in environs that evoke a vintage Savannah fishery feel. Weekdays, The Optimist lunch menu offers a selection of fish entrées, salads and sandwiches ($12-$19). Lunch might be crispy day-boat flounder with ricotta gnocchi, ale-battered haddock fish and chips or a chopped salad with wood-roasted organic chicken and local feta. 

Open nightly, the restaurant divvies up its dinner menu ($2.50-$26) into categories of On Ice, Start, Fish, Farm, Sides and Such, and Pies, Cakes and Frozen Stuff. Start salivating for East Coast oysters with fresh horseradish mignonette; Florida grouper with smoked Vidalia onion and horseradish broth; roasted Heritage pork with farm spinach and sherry onions; duck fat-poached swordfish with pickled sweet peppers and crispy pancetta; and buttermilk doughnuts, sweet corn ice cream and red pepper jam. 

For liquid refreshment, look for seafood-friendly wines from global coastal regions, American port-city microbrews and creative cocktails with a seaside twist ("The Truth As We Know It" martini has a smoked salmon garnish). Lunch is served Monday - Friday 11:30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m.; dinner Sunday - Thursday 5 - 10 p.m. and Friday and Saturday 5 - 11 p.m.

Oyster Bar at The Optimist, is a casual "fish camp" style place with an outdoor patio and of course, an oyster bar. Venice Beach in the 1970s? You're there now. Raw bar and small plate prices run $2.50-$14 for tempters such as peel-and-eat Georgia shrimp, smoked haddock chowder and Maine lobster roll with shoestring fries. An ice-display station features a daily punch and "oyster backs," mini-cocktails that pair with the day's raw bar specials. 

Doors open at 5 p.m. weekdays and 3 p.m. weekends. Closing? When the fish stop running for the night. Add the phone number to your contacts now to get ready: 404-477-6260.