Late Night Dinner at Five & Ten in Athens, Georgia

At first, I was really, really upset that my flight to Atlanta was delayed, making us miss our 8:30 dinner reservation at Five & Ten in Athens, Georgia.

This was no ordinary dinner reservation. My brother Joe and wife Rachel had arranged a special tasting meal for us with Five & Ten’s executive chef, Jason Zygmont, who they originally met when Joe stopped into the kitchen one day last year unannounced to borrow preserving salt for some charcuterie he was making. Joe returned a few weeks later to give Jason some of the duck proscuitto he had cured, expecting to quickly drop it off with the busy chef, only to have Jason invite him in and then cut into the breast and taste it right there, declaring it delicious. The charcuterie geeks bonded, and after repeat visits to Five & Ten, Joe and Rachel have gotten to know a number of folks there, including Eric, who runs the bar – apparently the place to experience dinner there, as well as to taste Eric’s concoctions which line the shelves.  If Eric is one of the first people you meet in the Athens food scene, you will immediately understand the warm and convivial nature of the town.

These guys help run one of America’s finest restaurants, not as a pretentious celebrity chefs and “mixologist”, but as real people who are into what they are doing and just want to excel and share.

True, Five & Ten’s owner and founder Hugh Acheson is a bona fide celebrity chef, with a James Beard award, four restaurants and several stints on Bravo’s Top Chef to his name. The staff at Five & Ten are proud of Hugh of course, but not so impressed by it all, if that makes sense, because they and Hugh are Athenians first, and they know what’s most important is the food not the pretense. And so the T-shirts they wear feature not Hugh’s prominent name, but his prominent unibrow. They mock, yes. But it’s not the Brooklyn-hipster, cooler than everyone and everything mocking that puts off those of us uncool enough to get the joke. It simply says this – Ignore all that. Come. Sit down. Let us feed you.

Joe had been talking about Hugh and Jason and the crew at Five & Ten for ages, and we had tried and failed on more than one occasion to find a weekend for me to come down and enjoy a meal there. So you can see why I was upset when our plane left two and half hours late due to thunderstorms in the Atlanta area.

I called when we touched down in Atlanta.  Just meet us at the restaurant, Rachel said. So we did. At 11 pm. After a long, dark and rainy drive.  Half an hour after the last seating.

Ironically, that was the best part!

By then the place had cleared out of all but one large table on the front porch of the rambling formerly private home next to the Greek Houses along the Fraternity/Sorority Row known as Milledge Ave.

The wait staff were leaving, and the kitchen crew was cleaning up. But Joe and Rachel were at the bar, relaxed after a long day and well into their second (third?) drink. We plunked ourselves down next to them. By now Jason’s girlfriend, a former New Yorker, stopped by to meet Jason, who by now scrapped his after work plans to make good on his promise of blowing our minds. They just added another place setting for her and we grew by one more. Eric welcomed us all with a glass of wine, and Jason came out to greet us personally.

And then he fed us, right there at the bar, the most wonderful meal I think I ever have had.

THE FOOD 

Every ingredient on the menu at Five & Ten has a story, a history, a tale of the making. Not in a way that is precious or off-putting, but in a way that makes you pause before you bite and say a little prayer of thanks to the ranchers and farmers and to the chef, who worked so hard to put it all together so wonderfully, taking the time to infuse those two strawberries with Urfa Chilis, or pickle those blueberries or braise those lamb ribs.

As for the flavors, there an earthiness in these dishes that keeps them accessible despite the complexity of their ingredients. It’s incredible cuisine, but with a taste of home in it. I tell this to Jason, and it seems to not make any sense. How can cooking this complex make me think of mom, of home?

But now I realize it does make sense. The ingredients are of home, of the heartland. Grass fed beef and pork, sorghum and morels, dandelion and tomato, peas and strawberries, blueberries and chard.  This is Southern Cooking, but Southern Cooking for the 21st century. Jason has managed to combine these familiar ingredients in remarkable ways that allow you to see and taste them anew, evoking a memory but then layering on a richer, more complex experience.

I’m reminded of how classical composers might evoke a theme from a familiar folk tine in a more complex piece of music.  Think “Simple Gifts” in Appalachian Spring by Copeland. (I’ve linked it up there) The listener says, “I know that!” and is immediately at home in an otherwise very challenging piece of music.

That’s exactly what this food does. It makes you feel comfortable and at home, all the while taking you to places gastronomically that you’ve never been before. A most incredible experience.

THE MEAL

All right, enough. Let me tell you about what we ate –

Fried Stuffed Pig Snout Medallions, riccotta gnocci, spring onion vichyssoise, and tomato marmalade. Don’t let the name put you off. These fried medallions are to die for. Nose to tail eating they call it, and this is the nose. With a bit of guanciale and some other magical ingredients, rolled into a galantine, wrapped in cheesecloth, braised in broth, then sliced, rolled in crumbs and fried. The gnocci was tasty and the sauce and marmalade a perfect accompaniment to both. We practically licked the plate clean. I’m not sure if Jason intends to add this dish to the menu, but if he does, all it will take is a little coaxing from the wait staff to become a hit.

Sweet and Sour Lamb Ribs with sorghum gastrique, charred scallion, benne seed, and brussel kimchi. A little translation is in order here.  Gastrique = caramelized, sugar, deglazed with vinegar. Sourghum – a traditional Southern sweetener, product of the sugar cane, now the go to sweetener for Southern chefs. According to the NY Times  “It’s sweet, yes, but complex enough to hold your interest. Sometimes vegetal, sometimes smoky and always bright, sorghum fits in anywhere” . Benne seeds = Southern for Sesame seeds (Benne comes from the african word for sesame).  I assume Jason made a brussel sprouts kimchi, but I’m not sure. But you see what I mean about the complexity of the ingredients?

DAY BOAT SCALLOPS grilled little gem lettuce, field peas, soy pickled mushroom, Meyer lemon, mint. Perfect. I loved how the separate flavors of the ingredients stood out from each other, yet blended so well in the mouth. That’s what was so much fun about eating Jason’s food. Each ingredient beckons you to taste it alone, but you don’t really want to miss tasting them all together, so you find yourself planning strategically, taking teeny little bites of each separate thing first, then grouping them into small bites together, exploring how the tastes play off each. So much more fun than just grabbing a forkful of something and shoveling it in.

PAINTED HILLS BEEF NY Strip, braised veal breast with glazed field peas and grilled carrots, tomato marmalade, broken garlic vinaigrette, dandelion greens. A real meat sampler, neither overdone nor overwhelming. What meat should be. The strip steak was aged two weeks in house (of course!). Kudos to the Painted Hills ranchers in Oregon for raising some amazing meat.

ANDERSON FARMS PORK CHOP sorghum glazed,  smoked beets, radicchio, swiss chard puree, pickled chard stems and chard marmalade, strawberry compressed with urfa chili. That’s right. Swiss chard three ways in the same dish. Insane and amazing how much work goes into this food. This was when Joe revealed his truly expert palate, asking Jason “There’s something smoky in those strawberries. what is it?” (The urfa chili infusion).

FAVA BEAN and RAW COWS MILK RICOTTA ANGLIOTTIs with sunchoke puree, sunchoke chips, morel mushrooms, pickled blueberries, smoked pecans and  herbs. My favorite dish of the evening. Jason makes each of the pastas himself, telling me how if it took him a couple of years at Per Se to get it right, he couldn’t just pass the task off to someone else in the kitchen now. And the morels? Joe has a friend who forages morels and Jason jumped on them.The forager harvests only “restaurant quality” and leaves the rest for the deer. There were three bags of those babies in Joe’s fridge at home too, and we cooked them up the following night.  Joe’s job is putting people together and this connection was perfect.

GROUPER glazed in vegetable dashi with fava beans. soy braised artichokes,  cilantro oil and pea shoots. Just lovely. (no pic, sorry!)

ICE CREAMS  – Home made, light and delicious. I can’t believe we ate it after that dinner, but we did.  I think these were the flavors -banana puddin’ | cherry sorbet | peanut butter brownie chunk | dreamy blood orange.

THANK YOU, JASON & ERIC & THE CREW AT FIVE & TEN
Thank you so much, Jason for a truly amazing meal! And Eric, for your hospitality, warmth and company at the bar. And the crew at Five & Ten for a most wonderful experience.  I can’t believe you guys hung around to wait for us – you were just so damned gracious; I’m still stunned thinking about it. This meal will go down in my history as one of my most memorable ever because of the food and because of you two. That Five & Ten is located in an old home seems so incredibly fitting.

If you get to Athens, GA, you need to eat here. That simple.