The Atlanta Foodcast: A Food Podcast

10 years. In the course of life for a restaurant, this is either insignificant — or it’s everything. Oftentimes, getting through the first 365 days of service can set the pace for the next nine years and good golly are the stories what make it all worth it.

Thusly, we’re celebrating an incredible restaurant, culinary team, restaurant group, and generally wonderful mess of people here in Atlanta. The Iberian Pig, part of Castellucci Hospitality Group, is turning 10. These guys got their start back in 2009 in Decatur Square and they’ve seen a lot in the years since getting things going. In fact, the story of one restaurant is also the story of many others under the Castellucci umbrella — which you’ll hear more of in this episode.

Seriously, though, some of the stories you are about to hear are absolutely insane, hilarious, and absolutely worthy of appreciation. I sat down with Fred and John Castellucci and Edwin Molina — who has been with them since the very beginning. We/I laughed a lot during this recording.

Think of the last time you went to “see your butcher.” Back in the day, your butcher was the person who took care of everything for you — steaks, burgers, sausage, a whole chicken, bacon… everything, right? Knowing your butcher is now back on the rise as we all seek to learn and understand more about food and foodways.

Enter: Rusty Bowers, Butcher and owner of Pine Street Market and Chop Shop. Pine Street hit the city back in 2008 and brought a side of butchery that celebrated the whole animal and especially paid homage to the hard-working folks who raised them in the first place. Now, Rusty and his team are continuing to expand Pine Street, and, they just opened Chop Shop — a market in direct partnership with Riverview Farms.

I love restaurants. The culture, the people, the opportunity to experience the cuisine. Everything. Over the past few years, I’ve gotten to know more people actively working to make Georgia an incredible state for growing. Agriculture. Two of those people are Ilana and Zach — Owners and Farmers at Levity Farms up in Milton. I met them a few seasons back at the Ponce City Farmer’s Market. Every Tuesday, we’d walk away with incredible produce they they planted, nurtured, and wrested from the earth — and that’s all it took.

So, here’s a first for The Atlanta Foodcast (and certainly the first of many). We went up to the farm, walked the rows and plots, picked produce, snacked on veggies of all kinds, and stopped for a bit to record a podcast.

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Kraig moved to Atlanta back when things were still taking shape… in fact, many aspects of food, good beer, the Beltline… and generally Atlanta as we know it today was the distant future. He opened Hop City a little over 10 years ago to offer a place for Atlantans to fill a growler, pick up all the gear needed for home brewing, a few bottles of wine, and more.

Since that first location on the Westside, they’ve expanded the stores across the city and into Birmingham, AL. The other side of Kraig’s story you’ll love is that he found his way into opening restaurants through his love, and the need, of good beer.

The story of Hawkers doesn’t revolve around singular talent in the kitchen.

The goal of Hawkers was always to bring the experience of eating at a hawker stall on the streets of Asia. Thusly, four friends brought the concept to life in Orlando in 2011. Since then they’ve been celebrating the recipes and flavors of generations past that are now still being enjoyed today — all the way here to the Atlanta Beltline

Kaleb Harrell and Allen Lo are two of the founding members of Hawkers. We caught up earlier this summer so I could hear their story and how they’ve grown the restaurant concept over the years.