🇰🇷 Big Westside dining news

by Beth McKibben

Minhwa Spirits heading to Westside Provisions

Tuesday, Oct. 13 — Happy Tuesday! Welcome to the table.

Wondering where Sarra and I have been eating lately? Check out the latest update to our favorite dishes from September dining. Be on the lookout for the October update to this guide at the end of the month.

We’ve also been tracking all of the restaurants opening around downtown Atlanta over the last year. You’ll find the latest update to that list here, including new restaurants in South Downtown and Underground Atlanta.

In this week’s “Family Meal” you’ll find an exclusive report from Sarra on the relocation of Minhwa Spirits from Doraville to Westside Provisions District and what’s in store once the soju distillery and restaurant incubator opens there early next year. Plus, I hope you’ll indulge me later in the newsletter as I talk about restaurant closures and the importance of supporting our scene’s foundational dining institutions.

Finally, El Tesoro shared its recipe for the restaurant’s beef barbacoa to use as filling for tacos, mulitas, or burritos at home.

Cheers!
Beth

The City of Chamblee is days away from its 17th annual A Taste of Chamblee on Sat., Oct. 17, from 3-8 p.m. in Downtown Chamblee. Join us for the City’s premier food and craft festival! SPONSOR MESSAGE

Minhwa Spirits Relocating to Westside Provisions

Doraville distillery and restaurant incubator Minhwa Spirits will relocate to the former Aziza space at Westside Provisions District early next year. Owned by Tal Baum and Oliva Restaurant Group, Aziza closed in 2024 after five years at the Howell Mill Road complex. The space has remained empty ever since.

The relocation of Minhwa Spirits from Doraville to Atlanta will see the return of Chef Jess Kim to the soju and gin distillery’s kitchen. Chef Lino Yi will also revive his popular Korean street food pop-up, TKO (The Korean One), at the Westside Provisions District location.

Postern Coffee, currently housed inside Minhwa Spirits, will take over the entire Doraville space and assume care of resident neighborhood cat Hoshi.

Minhwa Spirits owners Ming Han Chung and James Kim said they will announce a date soon for winding down service in Doraville. For now, it’s business as usual for both Minhwa Spirits and Postern Coffee at the current space.

At the new location, expect more seating in the dining room, as well as space for Yi to revive TKO inside the former Falafel Nation location next door. For Yi, bringing TKO back wasn’t originally in the cards after he closed his food stall at Southern Feedstore in East Atlanta Village two years ago.

Over at Minhwa Spirits, Jess Kim will serve small plates and shareable dishes like sweet potato dumplings in brown butter sauce. And Chung and James Kim plan to continue hosting pop-ups and chef collaborations at the new location.

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From the Editor’s Desk

Yesterday’s fire at the Marché des Enfants Rouges food market in Paris got me thinking about restaurant closures.

Restaurants come and go. However, it feels like restaurant closures are happening more often these days. And not just in Atlanta. Restaurants are a notoriously difficult business. Margins are thin, operating costs are high, labor is constantly in flux, and social media drives the furious pace at which food tastes, trends, and dining habits change. To put it into perspective, the average lifespan of a restaurant is about five years.

But what’s lost when an older, established restaurant closes, one that’s been at the heart of a community for decades? A new and shiny, socially influenced spot can’t suddenly replace a neighborhood institution you’ve always counted on for a reliably good meal and a drink. It takes years to become this kind of gathering space within a community.

Imagine losing a restaurant you love not to financial mismanagement or a downturn in the market, but to something unforeseen, like a fire. These closures can happen to every type of establishment, from the smallest of mom-and-pops to the upper echelon of fine dining.

Five months after a fire broke out at the Parkview on Peachtree complex in Chamblee, Michelin-recommended restaurant The Alden remains closed. Opened in 2018, The Alden had found success in Chamblee and was on its way to establishing itself as a neighborhood go-to.

Monday’s fire at the Marché des Enfants Rouges devastated the centuries-old market and the businesses of more than a dozen vendors operating there. The market has been at the heart of the Marais neighborhood and its food scene since 1615.

Closures like these make you stop and think about how truly precious our restaurant institutions are in Atlanta, and how much these places enrich our city’s food scene. That includes the 104-year-old Atkins Park in Virginia-Highland, The Colonnade on Cheshire Bridge, which turns 100 next year, Majestic Diner on Ponce, turning 100 in 2029, the 47-year-old Cascade Road restaurant The Beautiful, and Atlanta’s hallowed Municipal Market, in operation in the Sweet Auburn neighborhood since 1918.

Here’s my charge to you: The next time you’re looking for a place to eat, skip scrolling the socials for guidance. Instead, ask your friends about their favorite classic Atlanta restaurants, or do a search for “oldest Atlanta restaurants” and see what pops up. It should be just as important to patronize our foundational dining establishments as it is to dine at the latest hot opening.

Beef Barbacoa Recipe

This week, we’re sharing a beef barbacoa recipe from El Tesoro.

Chef de cuisine Mayra Vazquez taught herself to make this dish out of necessity as a child when she had to care for her siblings and other family members.

Get the full recipe here.

Get double the Atlanta food and dining coverage with “Family Meal,” edited by Beth McKibben, on Tuesdays at 5 p.m., and “Side Dish,” edited by Sarra Sedghi, on Thursdays at noon. Subscribe to both here.