GUNSHOW

We finally made it to GUNSHOW!  Our son-in-law's birthday rolled around so we decided to treat both of our adult kids and their significant others to dinner at Gunshow.  It was a treat!

GUNSHOW

924 GARRETT STREET

ATLANTA, GA

30316

Gunshow is headed by renowned Chef Kevin Gillespie  - so it's not easy to snag a reservation here.  It took a few weeks advance planning and a week night reservation for our party of 6 to get a spot.  But boy were we glad we did!

When you walk in the door it hits you immediately that you are not in an ordinary restaurant.  There are no walls to speak of - just one room that includes tables for dining, two bars: one for drinks and one for dining and the open kitchen with chefs racing around preparing the day's dishes.

The bar area at Gunshow:

 My son-in-law and my daughter, both May babies:

 One of their specialty drinks du jour:

The vodka drink was good and it was refreshing but it was made with "asparagus vodka" so after about 1/2 the glass, I really had had enough asparagus flavor.  It really overtook the drink in my opinion.  Some flavors are lovely like cucumber, pepper, lime, basil, but asparagus isn't a flavor I want in my mixed drink again.  Two others in our party agreed.


And their take on an Old-Fashioned:

They ignite a cinnamon stick, then they rub the rim with orange and voila!

 The menu the night we were there:

Once you are seated at Gunshow, the fun begins.  Chefs come by with carts on wheels with a sampling of what they've prepared that night (all are on the menu above).  And you have to decide whether you want to try that chef's dish or not.  And if you DO want to sample it, you then decide HOW MANY of the dish you want.  The chef then takes your menu and writes a number on the side so they can tally your bill at the end of the evening.

Here are the dishes we sampled on this particular night:

 MUSHROOM PATE, SOURDOUGH CROUTONS, DILL, MUSHROOM KETCHUP, TRUFFLE

We devoured this dish, so unfortunately this picture is the only one I was able to snag.  Loved the mushroom flavor here.  It was decadent without being too rich.

 GRILLED VEAL SWEETBREADS, PISTACHIO, SWEET HERBS, KOHLRABI, PANISSE

The sweetbreads were delish!  These are not for everyone, but I thought the dish was wonderful, and the combination of flavors was really great.

 "ELVIS RIBS" PEANUT. BANANA. BACON. CHILES

Our group thought these ribs were fabulous (I'm not a peanut butter fan, so they weren't for me).  But the combination of the "Elvis" favs: peanut butter, banana and bacon, was a hit.

 CONCH FRITTERS, CARIBBEAN GAZPACHO, GEORGIA STRAWBERRY, RHUBARB

This dish was MY favorite!  Those fritters were prepared perfectly and then dipping them in the gazpacho was incredible.  There was definitely some spice to the dish but it was executed with style. LOVED this dish!

 PULLED PORK, BRAISED LOCAL FENNEL, PORK RINDS, RANCH, FENNEL POLLEN
This dish was so good.  The picture doesn't even come close.  And who thinks to combine fennel with pulled pork?  The combination was lovely, and the crunch of the pork rinds was fun.

 SOFT FARM EGG, ANSON MILL GRITS, DUCK HASH, HABANERO

Most of the people in our group loved this dish - the creamy grits and the small farm egg were great.  I loved the salty duck hash with the habanero to offset the richness.

 The egg:

 This dish was decadent and delicious
WHIPPED FROMAGE BLANC, RAMP CHEDDAR BISCUIT WITH HOMEMADE STRAWBERRY JAM
We were fighting over who could get the last bite!

  Just wow.  This entree dish was absolute perfection.
ROASTED RED SNAPPER, COUNTRY HAM DASHI, ENGLISH PEAS, LOCAL MUSHROOM
All 6 of us agreed that this one was spectacular.  Loved loved loved the salty country ham with the red snapper and creamy peas.  Just amazingly good.  We got 3 of these for our group of 6 people and it was the perfect amount.

 And no one had room for dessert but it WAS Brian's birthday so we demurred and went with the WARM BANANA PUDDING
OMG!  Each bite was better than the last and we scraped our 3 orders clean.  Ridiculously good.

We all had a ball at Gunshow!  We stepped out of our element for a night and all of us ended up sampling some things we hadn't tried before (like sweetbreads!), and because you are getting "samplings" of dishes, you can have a variety of things without getting totally stuffed.

Perhaps my only "complaint" would be that at some point in the evening we wanted a mixed drink (that wasn't asparagus vodka), and our server said that they couldn't make one that wasn't on the drinks special menu.  He went so far as to ask what we wanted (pretty easy: vodka and grapefruit), and he said he'd check (and never did).  We ended up just ordering a couple of bottles or Malbec for the table, but they have a huge bar, so it seemed a bit strange that they couldn't accommodate that request.

Gunshow: it's not a place you'd want to drop by every night perhaps, but what a fun evening we had!  The food is fabulous, innovative and fun.  And the atmosphere is high energy, loud and casual.  I highly recommend going and experiencing what Kevin Gillespie has created: a gem of a dining experience in Atlanta.
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