Foraging Inspires Drew Belline of No. 246; He Shares Chanterelle Recipe on HGTV

Photo by Tuan Huynh

As Drew Belline tells it, a forager showing up at his restaurant with a bag of forest-fresh chanterelles turned him on to the beauty of foraging. Now hooked, he excuses himself from the kitchen at times to find fungi in the North Georgia mountains to inspire recipes at No. 246 in Decatur. HGTV blogger Danny Bonvissuto recently featured Belline, his fancy for foraging and his recipe for wild chanterelle mushrooms in Parmesan brodo with goat cheese tortellini, sweet corn and tarragon. Lack of foraging needn’t send you on a guilt trip. Store-bought chanterelles do just fine.

Atlanta Eats Chomps its Way to No. 246 in Decatur

Photo by Andrew Thomas Lee

The cool thing about the new CBS local-eater show "Atlanta Eats" is that we can watch it and try out the restaurants because they are right here in our city. This Saturday's "Atlanta Eats" chows down on Decatur's No. 246 at noon. You know the chefs involved:  Owner/Chef Ford Fry and Co-owner/Executive Chef Drew Belline. Will show host Steak Shapiro step out back for some Ping-Pong on the patio?  We wouldn't put it past him. The show will surely leave you salivating. Thankfully, No. 246 serves its Italian-inspired and locally driven menu at lunch daily from noon until 3 p.m. and dinner beginning at 5 p.m. each night. Click this link or call 678-399-8246 to make your reservation.

No.246 Gets Its 15 Minutes (Or Five Days) Of Fame As It Closes Temporarily For Filming

What’s better than dinner and a movie? Having dinner at a restaurant where a movie was filmed, of course! Unfortunately, you can’t dine during filming, meaning that No. 246 in Decatur will be closed to all of us regular, non-A-listers starting Sunday, March 25 until 6 p.m. on Friday, March 30. But with celebs like Amy Poehler, Adam Scott, Jessica Alba, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Jane Lynch starring in this upcoming comedy (called A.C.O.D., standing for “Adult Children of Divorce”), we’d say it’s worth the wait. No. 246 Owners Ford Fry and Drew Belline apologize to fans for the inconvenience, and they'd love for guests to come enjoy live music at the restaurant when it re-opens to the public. Music starts at 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday nights, but you don’t have to wait until then to start planning your meal; your mouth can water while reading the menus online! So even though you have to wait almost a week to dine out at No. 246, being able to say “Oh yeah, I ate there,” after the movie’s release, just might be worth it!

Vote for Your Favorite Chefs So Their Face Can Grace a Street Banner!

Hurry! Every vote counts as Taste of Atlanta selects its top 12 chefs according to Facebook polling. We're campaigning for some of our favorites: Andrew Smith of Atkins Park Tavern in Virginia Highland, Asha Gomez of Spice Route Supper Club and Cardamom Hill, Drew Belline of no. 246, Ford Fry of JCT. Kitchen & Bar and John Coley of Double Zero Napoletana. The only "voter registration" required is to "Like" the Taste of Atlanta Facebook page so you can participate in the vote count. Voting ends September 9. The 12 top vote recipients will be listed on festival banners. This year's fill-the-streets-with-eats festival takes place the weekend of October 23 - 24. Get to voting and tasting!

Counter Culture Gets A Whole New Meaning at No. 246

Photo Credit: Helena Peixoto

The bite about reality cooking shows is that you watch the chefs…then the “experts” get to eat.  You get nothing. Not so when you sit down to the new Chef’s Counter dining option at newly opened No. 246.  Watch Chef Drew Belline in action?  Check.  Close-up views?  Check.  Eat?  Five courses, coming your way, Tuesday through Sunday each week! 

For $50 per person, Chef’s Counter guests dine on a five-course menu of Italian-inspired cuisine served directly to them by the chefs who prepared the dishes, who can answer questions and who can make drink pairing suggestions.  No. 246 usually doesn’t take reservations… in this instance reservations can be made for two or four people at 6:30 p.m. or 9 p.m.   Note any dietary restrictions when making your reservation.

2, 4, 6, 8, No. 246 Has Been Worth The Wait!

Ford Fry, owner/executive chef of JCT. Kitchen & Bar, and Chef Drew Belline, previously the chef de cuisine at Floataway Café, are opening No. 246 -- their new Italian-inspired, locally driven restaurant in easy-going Decatur next week! Stay tuned to their Facebook page to get the scoop! No. 246 (twofoursix) takes its name from the original number of the plot of land where the restaurant sits. Through their joint venture, Fry and Belline share their passions for using seasonal, local ingredients, simple preparations and wood-fired cooking -- key strengths of both Californian and Italian kitchens.

The No. 246 menu veers off the Southeast's meat-centric path, setting forth more vegetables and dishes driven by local farm produce. Dinner dish examples include "start" of wood oven-roasted razor clams with salsa verde and lemon. Among the "flour & water" selections are garganelli with soffritto-braised rabbit, sultanas, broccoli rabe and pecorino and a cherrystone clam pizza with grana padano, parsley butter, garlic and chilies. "From the hearth" items include wood oven-roasted Springer Mountain chicken with hen-of-the-woods, roasted young carrots and a sherry-bacon vinaigrette or a whole wood-roasted fish of the moment. As a "finish," dessert options include lemon balm buttermilk panna cotta with lemon marmalade and brown butter blueberry croustade with crème fraîche. Lunch features entrée salads and sandwiches including the No. 246 burger with Teleme and house pickles and a BLT featuring Belline Farm's tomato, fior di latte, backyard basil and prosciutto.

Lara Creasy directs the beverage program, pouring wines from Italy and California and providing a revolving list of "house wine" values by the glass or half-carafe. Cocktails contain numerous traditional Italian ingredients -- vermouths, amaros, aperitivos, digestivos, seasonal fruits and produce, Italian sodas and house-made mixers. Coffee also will be a priority at No. 246 -- perfect to enjoy in a place where the front doors spill out onto the sidewalk while the backdoor opens into a yard green with an herb garden, shuffleboard court, and a deck built around a tree where live music will be played on Saturdays and Sundays. The restaurant will serve lunch and dinner daily and will not accept reservations. So, what comes after No. 246? Ate, of course.

No. 246: 129 E. Ponce de Leon Avenue in Decatur; 678-399-8246.