About Dunwoody reporter. (Sandy Springs, GA) 20??-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 2, 2021)
Food & Drink | 7 FEBRUARY2021 ■ www.ReporterNewspapers.net Food For Thought: The General Muir’s chef chats about opening in City Springs BY KEVIN C. MADIGAN An outpost of the popular Emory Point restaurant and delicatessen The General Muir opened its doors at City Springs on Jan. 13. The Rye Restaurants group, of which chef Todd Ginsberg is a partner, has five other eateries around Atlanta: West Egg Cafe, TGM Bread, Fred’s Meat & Bread, Yalla and Wood’s Chapel BBQ. Ginsberg, a graduate of the Culinary Institute of Amer ica, was a James Beard Foundation semifinalist for Best Chef (Southeast) in 2014 and 2015. His career began at the Ritz-Carlton in Atlanta and continued at the Michelin- starred Lucas Carton in Paris and Alain Ducasse in New York. Back in Atlanta, he helmed the kitchen at Bocado be fore launching the General Muir at Emory in 2013, which became an instant success. The General Muir is named after the vessel that car ried co-owner Jennifer Johnson’s family, who were Holo caust refugees, to the United States following World War II. The restaurant serves pastrami sandwiches, matzo ball soup, burgers and bagel sandwiches, among other tradi tional Jewish delicacies, as well as fried chicken and spa ghetti suppers. The new location is in Sandy Springs’ civic center at 6405 Blue Stone Road, Suite 240, at the intersection with Johnson Ferry Road. For more information, see thegener- almuir.com. Todd Ginsberg, chef and partner at the General Muir. that reports to me and then we have executive chefs in each of the res taurants, and they have their sous chefs, and I oversee them all to avoid those balls falling in the gutter. That’s my goal: keeping those balls go ing down the alley until it ends. How is this new location in Sandy Springs different from the one at Emory? It doesn’t differ too much, other than we’ve done a couple things cos metically. At the other General Muir, there are pictures of our fami lies on the walls, and here we have pictures and some memorabilia of people that we’ve met over the years since we opened the first one. The menus are the same, but I think we’re going to be selling a lot more ba gels, pastrami and corned beef than at the other restaurant. The fried chicken that we had available only on Friday nights at the other Gener al Muir we are doing every night here, and we’re also doing brisket ev ery night. What’s been the reaction so far? Some of the people that I’ve talked to that have been to both restau rants say it’s very consistent, and that’s been great to hear. Our number one goal was to bring our product and our brand to a new space and we wanted to make sure that people are enjoying it. A lot of them live clos er to here than the other spot, so this is just around the corner for them. The feedback has been great. The community has wanted us from day one and they’re supporting us and are happy that we're finally here. You oversee seven restaurants as chef. How do you not go crazy doing that? We have a huge support team that ensures no one goes crazy, and that way we don’t drop too many balls or have things fall through the cracks. I have a culinary director What else would you like people to know about your restaurants? That we are a friendly and safe environment for people to work in as well as eat in; that we take safety and precautions very seriously during these times; that we are protect ing our staff as well as our guests. In addition to that, we’re doing things that everybody grew up eating and we just try to do them a little better than they remember them. 4^* X .auraL^mbu o / jautcmj RF/MAX —[TT7TT]—^ (877)BUY-MTNS
