Watershed elevates Southern cooking to an art
Published: Feb 18, 2009
You wouldn’t think a former gas station would be an ideal location for one of Atlanta’s best and trendiest restaurants. But, then again, the folks at Watershed make a living out of gussying up the ordinary.
Chef Scott Peacock, who cooked for two Georgia governors, wins awards by the armful for his gourmet approach to Southern cuisine. He pops up sautéing okra with Martha Stewart and is the go-to expert when Better Homes & Gardens writes about the best way to make biscuits. Peacock was named 2009’s outstanding chef by the James Beard Foundation,.
The restaurant is obsessive about using fresh, seasonal, regionally grown ingredients, prepared with the barest of embellishments. This is how your meemaw used to cook, assuming you grew up in the South and your grandmother was a chef.
Watershed's fried chicken is legendary and only served on Tuesdays after 5:30 p.m. That’s because it takes days to prepare, a day soaking in brine, another day soaking in buttermilk before being fried in a big cast iron pan. Chicken so good, it falls off the bone. This bird may be fried but it still flies out of the restaurant, so reservations are a must if you want some.
Southern staple pimento cheese, available as an appetizer or lunch entrée, goes upscale with sharp Wisconsin cheese, homemade mayo and just enough of a peppery bite. Other favorites include delectable salmon croquettes, braised lamb shank with butternut squash-sweet potato puree and sautéed spinach, an all-natural beef burger, a dry-aged cowboy ribeye, and mouth-watering pork chops rising an inch and a half off the plate.
Vegetarians adore Watershed’s hot vegetable plate, five or six servings of seasonal vegetables such as whipped rutabagas, fried cauliflower, sun-ripened tomatoes or gingered beets.
Appetizers include garlicky hummus made with butter beans and served with fresh vegetable crudités and pita, creamy stone ground shrimp grits, a creamy tomato basil soup, sautéed wild mushrooms, fried oysters and Prince Edward Island mussells.
Lunchtime specials include a garlic and thyme roasted porch sandwich studded with sweet fig conserve, fresh cheese and mustard, butternut squash pancakes with braised cabbage and gingered beets or a white truffle chicken salad sandwich. The restaurant has a limited late afternoon menu between 3-5 p.m. daily.
The dessert menu sounds like a bake sale in paradise. Watershed’s “Very Good Chocolate Cake” is made with cooked frosting and a sour cream batter. Other offerings include such diet-busters as Georgia Pecan Tart with Shortbread Crust, Carrot Cake, Old-Fashioned Cream Cheese pound Cake, Caramel Glazed Fresh Apple Cake with Whipped Cream and Chocolate Pecan Praline Parfait.
Even the drink menu has a real Southern flair. Besides the mint juleps and exotic martinis, there's the Glass Menagerie featuring bourbon and elderberry flower liquer and the Dixie Belle with gin, brandied cherry juice and absinthe.
And if soul-satisfying food, drink and desserts weren't enough, Watershed has a heapin' helpin' of celebrity cache on the side. Indigo Girl Emily Saliers is a co-owner of the restaurant, and the Indigo Girls have song called "Watershed" to their credit.
- by Diane Loupe, Atlanta Reporter for HelloMetro
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