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“The Move” is your guide to the top food finds from Senior Editor Beth McKibben, who oversees restaurant and dining coverage at Rough Draft. The guide appears first in our weekly Side Dish dining newsletter. Subscribe for free to Side Dish to get the latest restaurant intel and scoops and to be the first to know where she’s been eating around Atlanta each week. Side Dish drops every Thursday at noon, just in time for lunch. 

Minhwa Spirits/Postern Coffee/Ganji
2421 Van Fleet Circle, Doraville

You may recall I covered Minhwa Spirits for my WABE “City Lights” collab in November. Owned by James Kim and Ming Han Chung, this dynamic duo produces Korean spirits like soju and makgeolli, along with a chai-infused gin. But they’ve opened their tasting room and cocktail bar to two other Asian-owned businesses: Postern Coffee and Korean food pop-up Ganji. The result is a triple threat of culinary talent across the board. 

During a recent visit, I enjoyed the rich and creamy S[e]oul chai from Postern Coffee complete with a misugaru (Korean multi-grain powder) cold foam sprinkled with cinnamon. Next, my husband and I dove into a series of dishes from Ganji that simply knocked our socks off, including cacio e pepe tteokbokki (chewy rice cakes), a beautiful seasonal burrata salad of persimmons, local lettuces, and crunchy toasted pepitos with a pomegranate glaze and apple-jujube dressing, and melt-in-your-mouth kimchi fried rice arancini. Ganji uses thigh meat (thank you) for its take on Korean fried chicken, which comes sauced two ways: spicy and garlic soy. 

Cocktails are also now available at the bar using Minhwa Spirits’ soju and gin, which means I’m due for another visit soon to sample more drinks and continue making my way through Ganji’s menu. Put this food and drinks trio on your holiday break to-do list.

Home for the Holidays
565 Northside Drive, Adair Park

Home for the Holidays in Adair Park, located inside a portion of private wine club The Vine Club, might be my favorite holiday-themed pop-up in Metro Atlanta. It’s low-key, serves a full dinner menu, and includes martini service and occasional live piano music. Think of Home for the Holidays as an intimate supper club with a kitchen incubating up-and-coming chefs and a dining room decked out in mid-century Christmas decor with a soundtrack to match. 

Backed by the team behind pop-ups Bovino After Dark and Supper Deluxe, the four-course menu features everything from shrimp cocktail crudo and zesty lamb egg rolls to smoked beet tartare and poached pears for dessert. Each meal comes with fresh bread and two drinks: wine, mini martini service, and cocktails. You can also order menu supplements like steak frites served on a silver tray. The steak platter, accompanied by creamy Béarnaise sauce, feeds up to four people.

Candlelit tables, steak and martinis, retro holiday vibes, and a little seasonal mood music make for a solid evening in Adair Park this December. The $82-per-person reservation includes two drinks, bread service, and four courses with the option to add supplemental caviar, oysters, or steak frites. And, while reservations are required for the four-course menu, I have it on good authority that you can walk into Home for the Holidays and order the steak frites until 1 a.m. 

Open Thursday – Monday for happy hour, from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Dinner begins at 6 p.m. Running through the end of December.

Larakin
208 12th Street, Midtown

Located on 12th Street in Midtown, just beyond the entrance to Piedmont Park, Larakin serves as both a coffee shop and wine bar. The sprawling, dog-friendly patio has become a relaxed meeting place for friends, neighbors, co-workers from nearby offices, and regulars like myself who don’t have an outdoor space at home.

If owner Jordan Chambers’s name sounds familiar, that’s because you may know him from his former coffee shop, Steady Hand Pour House. He owned it with Spiller Park Coffee’s Dale Donchey before opening Larakin in late 2022. 

I enjoy stopping at Larakin in the evenings or on weekend afternoons to enjoy a thick slice of focaccia pizza with a glass of wine or to share a charcuterie and cheese spread with tinned fish and a bottle of wine with friends. 

In the mornings, Larakin serves freshly baked biscuits, local pastries, and one of my favorite breakfast sandwiches, including a version of the Egg McMuffin called the McLarakin served on a toasted English muffin. It’s only available on Sundays.

However, on a recent Saturday after my trip to the Green Market at the park, I enjoyed the McLarakin served on a buttery brioche bun. The usual breakfast sandwich typically features jamón, which wasn’t available that day due to a supplier issue. Instead, Chambers and his team offered a twist on the McLarakin. The breakfast sandwich comes with a fluffy folded egg, cheese, sausage patty, pickled red onions, and Lambrusco wine jam. It hits all the right notes: savory, sour, tart and tangy, and slightly sweet. 

Larakin is open for coffee and wine Wednesday through Sunday. Because this is an outdoor spot (with heaters and a tent during the winter), make sure to dress appropriately for the weather. It also means on rainy days, Larakin may close the patio and only serve coffee, pastries, and sandwiches to go. Check Instagram for updates on hours, weekly specials, wine tastings, and patio events.