Red Hare Brewing Company is the newest addition to Atlanta’s growing number of craft brewers and while they are the new kids on the block they are off to a rabbit quick start and from what we’ve seen they are in the race for the long haul.

Owner Roger Davis and brewmaster Bobby Thomas showed us around their Marietta facility recently and let us sample some of their beer. The brewery was spotless, well laid out and designed for to allow for future growth. In slight contrast to the shiny new 20-barrel brewing system (by Specific Mechanical), their original homemade boil kettle and Gott cooler mash tun sat on the shelf, a reminder of their initial brewing efforts just three years ago.

The beers sampled were the Gangway IPA, The Long Day Lager, and the base for their upcoming Brown Ale. All the beers were nicely balanced and true to style. The IPA was finished with Chinook hops – a nice break from the all too common Cascade fad. The lager (a bold choice for a start up brewery initial offering) was slightly darker in color than expected but had a nice malt base and a complimenting hoppiness that kept it clean, crisp and refreshing. I only sampled the initial stages of the upcoming brown ale but from what I tasted this will definitely be a beer to buy.

The following is an interview with Owner Roger Davis and brewmaster Bobby Thomas of Red Hare Brewing Company.

To go from basement home brewing to having your beer available in a growing number of local bars, in a little less than three years time is a remarkable accomplishment so I’d like to ask you a few questions about that transition.

Q: When you first began brewing did you have plans to eventually make it a commercial endeavor?

A: Actually, we were looking into possibly doing a winery but we got hooked after brewing our first batch three years ago and we decided to focus on brewing instead.

Q: Your blog mentioned that, you cobbled together your first brewing system in your basement but then rapidly decided to move to all grain for your second batch. Brewing from all grain presents a whole different set of challenges and possibilities. Did you find your brewing choices limited by equipment issues?

A: Yes. From day one we wanted to brew a lager so there were quite a few equipment restraints initially. It is a learning process. When you think you know what you are doing in week three week twelve is a real eye opener.

Q: What advice would you offer home brewers that might hope to see their beer on store shelves one day?

A: The best advice we can give is to keep brewing. To sell your beer commercially takes a good product, a lot of time, a lot of money, and a sound business model. The more you brew the better your product.

Q: You attended an Intensive Brewing Science course at a University of California’s Davis extension. How has that influenced your brewing?

A: The course at Davis helped marry the logic with the science.

Q: So far as Georgia’s newest brewery has it been harder to make good beer or to navigate the rules and regulations involved in doing so?

A: Both are challenging and both require patience. Once we filed the forms we got approval in thirty days but it took nearly a year and a half to identify, locate, navigate, and complete the forms. Ironically, the last 47 pages certified that we understood the paper reduction act.

Q: Why did you choose to go to market in draft form rather than bottles? Is bottling as a future goal?

A: We will do packaging in the future but initially it is an issue of both cost and capacity. Plus keg beer is fresh beer and we like knowing our product is fresh.

Q: Why did you choose to introduce Red Hare Brewing Company by debuting first an IPA and a lager?

A: We cut our teeth brewing IPAs and lagers – which are our personal favorites. Brewing lagers was one of our goals and a point of pride.

Q: Aside from your regular tastings at the Red Hare Brewing Company Brewery where can beer lovers go to try your beer?

A: Right now our beer is available in a number of locations in Marietta, Midtown, and Decatur both on draft and in growlers

Red Hare Brewing Company
1998 Delk Industrial Boulevard
Marietta, GA 30067
770.331.8763
www.redharebrewing.com

This is the kind of thing most chefs only dream about, but it’s an every day reality for chef Rose. I recently caught up with him to talk farming and food, here’s what he had to say.

Q: Finishing up at Johnson & Whales a young aspiring chef, did you ever imagine that one day you yourself would be pulling fresh radishes from the soil and picking plump tomatoes off the vine just hours before dinner service?

A: My ultimate dream has always been to own my own Southern-inspired restaurant. The garden in the back just made sense and is the perfect accompaniment to my restaurant.

It’s amazing the difference in quality and taste that a few feet from soil to table can make vs. hundreds of miles from soil to table. However, I must admit, back in 1995, coming straight out of culinary school, my dreams and goals in life seemed way out of reach and a long way from reality.

Q: As a chef it’s very rewarding to create a dish out of ingredients that were dropped off by truck, so how greater is that sense of reward when you take ingredients from seed to plate?

A: The sense of award is amazing when you watch a plant grow from seed to fruit, harvested and served on the same day.  You are always excited to see that first squash blossom, or first set of tomatoes popping up on the vine. I’m always planning in my mind when the vegetables will be ready to harvest and utilizing them to complement each other. We planted more variety this year and less quantity of items so that we could control the garden better and have more to play with.

I’ve had a lot of fun with the squash blossoms and lettuces we planted — arugula, red leaf, green leaf, mesculin and romaine. Unfortunately, our spinach did not take.

Q: How much more have you learned about food since implementing the restaurant’s farm?

A: The main thing I have learned is that there is no comparison to freshness, especially where vegetables are concerned. Eating raw vegetables out of the garden just as they are has inspired me to create dishes so that others can appreciate them in their natural state. Watching vegetables grow from seed to table has given me a whole new found respect. Not just for the food itself, but also for the farmers and their knowledge, and for the amount of planning and labor that goes into it.

Q: Can we be expecting Milton’s veggies in a jar this fall?

A: That is definitely going to be one of our outlets for some of our Milton’s Acre harvest this year. Besides using them every possible way in the restaurant, we will also have a daily garden stand, and a weekly one at the Roswell Farmer’s Market

Q: If you had to choose one dish on your menu that truly defines you as a chef, which dish would that be, and why?

A: It would have to be my Mushroom Crusted White Marble Pork Loin stuffed with country ham and Havarti cheese. It comes with bacon-braised greens, truffle blue cheese sweet potato mash and red wine demi glace. This dish is a combination of bold intense flavors that come together harmoniously on the palate. It’s also presented in a simple artistic way and is definitely southern inspired.

Q: You worked at the famed Peninsula Grill for many years, what was the single biggest thing you took away from that experience?

A: Professionalism, make it happen.

Q: What can we expect from the restaurant and you in the near future?

A: More seed to table gardening year round, more outsourcing of local farms to include local cheeses, eggs, honey, pork, lamb and beef products, chef-inspired dishes using the best natural local ingredients around, and possibly even a cookbook in the near future.

Milton’s Cuisine and Cocktails
780 Mayfield Road
Milton, GA 30009
770-817-0161
www.miltonscuisine.com

Reid is about as sharp they come with pairing food and drink. He has a remarkable ability with flavors, so much so that he can pick the perfect wine for you just by knowing how you take your coffee in the morning. Follow Reid on his blog.

I recently caught up with Reid to see what he has to say about the craft beer explosion, among other things.

Here’s what he had to say:

Q: I noticed you’ve implemented a new system for breaking down your wines, which really simplifies things.  Could you please explain to us how it works?

A: Not being a  big fan of ratings, after all, what does a 85-point wine really taste like? What are the real parameters? A 90-rated wine may not even be your preference.

We have recently unveiled our “DNA” breakdown; instead of scores I tasted and ranked all the wines that we carry ranking the three main points from 1-10 that people look for when tasting wine.

Fruit fruity / dry – 1 being dessert styled sweetness and ten being very dry.

Weight light / full bodied — think skim milk to heavy cream

Finish jammy/acidic — Zinfandel and others tend to be somewhat jammy and many wines can get a firm with some bite in the finish.

Food or Cocktail? The last rank is letting you know if a wine is styled towards either food or cocktail. Your “drinking wine” is often designed to stand alone where a “food wine” is slightly unbalanced alone but becomes whole with food.



Q: Being a “Wine Guy” in a “Beer World” so to speak, does the occasional beer drinker drift across the isle to your side of the store in search of grape juice? 

A: Those that do are well-rewarded! We also see a good amount of co-purchases.



Q: How do you help them know which wines they’d like? 

A: We are designed for just that! Kraig [the owner] gave wine a fair amount of space and we carry a wide variety of wines which lets us cater to any taste, especially beer.

Most of us “wine guys” have a passion and respect for beer — and have spent a fair amount of time studying the subject. Wine and beer both share a wide range of intensities, and even flavors that lend well to sharing the palate. Sometimes the issue is as simple as trying to enjoy a product that has no bubbles. Intensity without the correct mouth-feel can really throw off your perception; a dry, crispy cava is a good start for that IPA lover. Many a cava these days has a very raspy, dry, intense finish and lower PH making them even more IPA friendly than ever.



Q: Beer has really made a major surge the past 5 years and is now on par with wine.  What in your opinion is the catalyst driving this latest craft beer explosion?

A: One word, women! Being the “beverage for everyone” beer is bringing into the fold a passionate and well-versed beer lover. One of the appealing aspects of Hop City is that we are approachable and very “non-package store” and very women friendly.
   
The Nielsen Panorama wine consumption survey, conducted from August 2009 to July 2010, found 56.7 per cent of wine drinkers were women. That study found more women (54 per cent) than men (46 per cent) bought wine on their last shopping trip.

I feel comfortable in saying that the numbers are going in the same direction with beer. And, the beers that are being purchased are of the “craft” genre and not the macho-mega-beers!



Q: Do you believe the craft beer surge has lasting legs?

A: The whole limited release program is currently driving sales on a “call to action” marketing program. Meaning, get it or it is gone! Two problems arise from that scheme, one being that some beers are so limited that beer is “no longer for everyone” selling out in a matter of hours. Why can’t they make these awesome beers year ‘round?

Also, it is interesting to think that some companies have a better reputation for limited and seasonal, but not their everyday beers. Some breweries do end up making some beers year ‘round and use small batches to see what works, which is awesome.

The same problem that wine has been suffering from for years is that beer pundits send certain beers into hyper drive. I think that they live in fear that if they do not talk about a beer with 12 hops and 16 malts at 12% alcohol, their voice would not be heard. I actually got to meet Michael Jackson and respected his ability to write passionately about all styles of beer. He had preferences of what was best within each style, but had respect for all of them.

Put some more effort into “session” beers, they drive the segment and increase quantity of beers purchased with the bonus of drinking better beer.



Q: What are your thoughts regarding the whole “creative brewing” kick?  Do you feel that some brewers have strayed too far from “traditional” ways to the point that respect for style is being disregarded?

A: Wow, loaded question. Arguably, the original drive for American craft beer styles is making a bigger and better version of a classic European [Which just happened to inspire the brewers] and we did that well. Even an American Adjunct Lager can not hide mistakes. However, today we are driving for the ever-new and different — and run the risk of not having any style at all. Calling some beers IPA’s because the category is hot runs the risk of alienating and confusing the public.



Q: You are perhaps the best in the city at pairing food and drink.  How do you approach this intimidating (for most of us) task?

A: Hmm… Not sure that I deserve the compliment. I do seem to look at it a little differently then some.
1. First, know your chef! A chef’s food is no different than a winery or brewery in that they have there own style.
2. Next, judge the dishes intensity based on the four corners of the plate [sweet, sour, bitter, and salty], and judge how those items come together on the plate.
3. How is the food cooked? A dish prepared in a saute pan will generally be less intense than one on the grill. Any sauce? Does Umami play a role?
4. Then consider matching that to every beer, wine, liquor, coffee, tea, and soft drink that I have ever tasted…



Q: You’re also legendary for finding wines under $12 that drink like $50 or better bottles of wine.  What new wine do you have in stock right now that you would put in that category?

A: Anybody can sell you wines that are decent above $20. Wine or beer [in moderation] should be a daily beverage and finding values makes that a viable option. One on many current selections that fits the bill is a winery called Arrogant Frog, a French winery that offers a yummy Pinot Noir, Cabernet-Merlot and Chardonnay-Viognier blend. The label is as playful as the wines and goes to show you that not all French people take their wines too seriously. Perfect for everyday.



Q: Anything you would like to say to the beer world?

A: Stop bashing wine, your alienating a important potential customer base and it makes you sound kind of silly.

Anybody that would love to do a beer versus wine dinner just let me know? Win – Win



Q: I take my coffee black with a little bit of sugar.  Which wines would I like?

A: I limit those answers to in-store only. But yes, I can find your wine/beer based on virtually any other beverage, even Diet Dr. Pepper.

Cheers!
Chris Reid

Q: I have to start with a question I’d ask any formally trained personal chef: what does someone like you eat for breakfast? It’s easy to imagine you always whipping up crêpes or fancy omelets with elaborate ingredients!

A: We do a quiche or an omelet once a week or so, with whatever veggies and herbs we have left from our box from Serenbe, since we get what they have fresh sent to us and get to create meals from there. That might be our dinner even! But most days for breakfast, I’ll have fried eggs and whole grain toast, or a [whole-fruit] smoothie.

Q: Speaking of family meals and cooking at home, tell me what it’s like with your boys [Natalie has two sons, Noah, 11, and Harper Paul, 4]. Do they have a wide range of taste preferences and enjoy a lot of foods? Do they cook, too?

A: They do cook. Both of them are good eaters and will eat most anything. Harper is funny, and will say things like “I’m not an herbivore, Mom! Where’s the meat in this quiche?!” but generally he’ll eat it anyway. And Noah has a few things he truly doesn’t like, such as raw tomatoes, so I don’t put those in things I make for them; but at his age, he’s got a good bit of ownership in the kitchen and will make a number of dishes, like chicken parmigiana, for example. I’ve encouraged them all along to try things as well as to eat really healthfully and to have a largely unprocessed diet, simply by putting that kind of food in front of them. I believe in that.

Q: Tell me about cooking for your clients as a personal chef. You do custom meals, largely for families and couples, and you also focus on providing meals for people with special diet and health needs. How did you get into that and why is providing a health-focused meal service important to you?

A: I grew up loving food, and the experience of cooking with my family is something I remember enjoying from very young – that immediate sense of being connected to each other and appreciating one another. I call all my clients my “families” and feel like I provide something important to them by listening to what they need and figuring out how to provide it. Many of them come to me with specific questions or concerns, or doctors’ instructions, so as my business has grown I’ve developed a system for gradually refining what I provide for each family to meet their individual needs. I believe that the healthier and more whole-food (organic, unprocessed) you eat, the better you feel and are. For health reasons, I need to eat a low-sodium diet, so I share an understanding with the people I’m cooking for of wanting to eat better, and how it makes you feel when you do improve your diet.

Q: What’s your process like of figuring out how to shop, cook and prepare food for your families? Do you typically have a lot of regular and repeat customers?

A: Most of my customers come to me knowing they want a personal chef. A lot of them have a certain amount of money to spend and may have decided, for example, that they need to lose weight and instead of two gym memberships for the husband and wife they are going to start walking or running and use the money to hire me to prepare them meals on a weekly basis. So, they’ll decide to go with one of my packages – say, five meals of four servings with the cost of groceries included. We’ll sit down and I’ll ask them a bunch of questions about their goals, and the kind of foods they like and don’t like, and all of that kind of stuff. As I cook for them and get to know them better, I can adjust my work to really suit their individual taste preferences. I accommodate dietary restrictions like food allergies – gluten and caisin are big ones – and taste preferences – for example, many people really dislike cilantro while others love it. Spice is a big point of sensitivity; one customer’s “little bit of flavor” is another’s Mt. Vesuvius! I tend to cook for my families on a repeat basis, and we build a rapport and trust. Most of the time, if people are making changes to their diets such as lowering fat content or going towards less processed, more whole foods, it happens gradually and our food relationship evolves over time.

Q: You also do cocktail and dinner parties and other events. What do you enjoy most about that side of your business?

A: I love to do parties! I like to say “There’s nothing wrong with perfect.” It makes me happy to see beautiful little displays of hors d’oeuvres, all lined up in tidy little rows – maybe it’s the French side of me! The aesthetic pleasure of cocktail parties is always a fun challenge, plus the atmosphere of those kinds of events is always enjoyable. Going into a client’s home is a measure of their trust, and bringing my staff with me where we bring all of the ingredients we will use for the dishes and will be there typically interacting to some degree with the client’s guests is a pleasure.

Q: Finally, why “The Food Optimist”? It’s not a name you hear for your typical chef or food service but it does seem to fit you!

A: I wanted to start from the beginning with a name that could grow with me, that was more than just my personal chef “brand.” Eventually I want to do packaged meals, and I plan to write a cookbook – I’ve even been thinking about a food cart now that the street food movement has finally gotten some real traction in Atlanta! The name can encompass everything I want to do with food and cooking, but it also clicked with me because it’s how I feel about food and everything good that it symbolizes. Eating well and enjoying food – and by extension, enjoying it and what it symbolizes with those you love and care for – is something optimistic and hopeful. The name and what I do are a way of sharing my view with others.

Q: Nearly all great brewers have a signature or flagship beer that defines their career.  What would you consider your flagship beer?
 
A: Geez, that’s a tough one. I’m not sure I can say I have a flagship beer. At different times, I tend to go through periods where I focus more on one style than an other. Not to say that the other beers in the Twain’s lineup will suffer, just that at one time I might be concentrating on how the Brown Ale can be improved. Or maybe I’m interested in how the Pale Ale will turn out using different hops. When often asked what is my favorite beer, I rarely have an answer. That answer changes so frequently and to define a career with a flagship might only detract from the freedom of brewing in an environment such as Twain’s. (Although I do really enjoy a well made Pale Ale)
 
Q: What is the biggest challenge you’re currently faced with brewing at Twain’s?
 
A: Well, I think this question might have answered itself. The biggest challenge I am currently faced with is, well, the challenge I am currently facing. That’s always my biggest! It doesn’t really matter what the current one is because there will always be another. Once one is tackled, hopefully it is no longer a challenge. But I guess one might be just overall equipment sizing. Sometimes that mash tun just won’t fit all the malted barley that I wish to stuff in there! And that can be a challenge! All in all, being faced with hurdles is part of the fun in brewing. It can force me to become inventive and keeps the daily grind interesting.  

Q: Last month your brewed Choco-nut, a fun bold cask-conditioned brown ale that screamed food.  Being the food and beer lover I am, I wanted to sneak it out the door and take it to a Buford Highway Vietnamese noodle house. Can we expect more fun food beers out of you in the near future?
 
A: Absolutely, you can expect more. Many times I will do cask-conditioned beers including ingredients that pair very well with food. One of the great things about doing these cask-conditioned beers is that they are small batch beers and I often don’t know what I’m going to do until the day I fill the firkin. I like to take an inventory of what beers are in the fermenters, and just walk around the farmers market trying to come up with ideas. I usually brew a Gingerbread Ale during Thanksgiving time which includes fresh ginger and cinnamon. The Gingerbread Ale is brewed as a full sized batch and might even stand alone as a dessert beer. Another great food beer is the Cocoa Stout. That usually comes around during the colder months and is also brewed as a full sized batch. As far as in more recent terms, I will have a Double I.P.A. out in mid July which has a big citrus character from the hops. We have used this beer in one of the beer dinners at Twain’s and found it can pair very well with food. It can be paired very nicely with dishes that have a bit of kick. Maybe a nice curry dish or even the habanero wings at Twain’s. I’m also thinking of taking our Wit & Humor Wheat and using a little citrus peel and maybe some coriander later in the summer. This beer might go great with a side salad and our mussels.

Q: I.P.A. has been the beer style du jour over the past few years.  Do you believe we’re finally starting to see a move away from the I.P.A trend?
 
A: You would be correct in that I.P.A. has been a staple beer for many breweries in the past few years but I don’t think they are going away necessarily. I would say that I see brewers looking for other styles to concentrate on. And therefore, bringing other styles to the market for people to try. Or maybe just the concentration on other styles will expand the number of options we all have for a quality beer. I like the thought of brewing many different styles. As they say, “variety is the spice of life”, and a variety of different beers by different breweries can only be good.  

Q: With beers latest big move American craft brews seem to be leading the way.  Being an American craft brewer I imagine this makes you proud.  Did you ever think we’d see American brewers leading the way in the latest beer revolution?
 
A: Yes. I don’t think I ever questioned it. I am proud of it and look forward to being a part of it for years to come! American craft beer comes with less tradition than many of the other brewing cultures. That has allowed a more “no holds barred” approach. All brewing traditions are still very well respected by most American brewers, it’s just that those traditions have not been our boundaries. Beer and craft brewing is still pretty young in America. So I see some great beers coming from American brewers in the future.

Q: Food radio, as sexy as it sounds, hasn’t been a successful business model for the many souls who tried and failed before you.  However, your show is sizzling hot.  What do you think you’ve done differently?

A: Maybe it’s because my boss is the Big Guy upstairs!  I’ll tell you what, DwD has been truly blessed from the very first week we even went on air.  And it’s been a roller coaster ride of surprises ever since.  I pinch myself and give thanks every single day.

I think a lot of the success can actually be attributed to timing.  When DwD first aired, we were up to our necks in presedential election drama, the economy seemed fatal, fear and negativity were running rampant across all talk radio and it was ugly for a while.  In the midst of all that, suddenly, here comes a new show on the a.m. format that is strictly entertainment driven, rather than business/political/news based.  And not only was this entertainment quality—but it’s a lively, upbeat, humorous, and amusing little show, which offers a delicious form of escapism.  It gave even the most controversial political ranter a 30-minutes mental break.  So I do believe timing helped me stand out amongst the rest and be noticed as the one show who was happily just off in my own world.

Now since then … the “hottness” factor of DwD comes from the insatiable guests who come in studio, the amazing restaurants I get to showcase, the wines we discuss, the contests and giveaways each week, coverage of foodie events in this city, and so much more.  I know most people wouldn’t think of Paula Deen as being ‘hot,’ but the way she made my show sizzle just cranked her up a few notches in my book.  That episode was really a turning point in our success and listenership.  I had her cracking up.

Q: You have a degree in Broadcast Journalism, but how on earth did you come to the realization that you wanted to be a food radio personality, a career position that really didn’t exist before you came along?

A: The story actually seems quite magical in regards to how it all came together.  But in a nutshell, I was working for the radio station, 920 WGKA,  already doing sales.  At every staff meeting each week, just for fun, I would pass out recipe cards of certain dishes I had been experimenting with on my own at home, and give one to each co-worker to try. And then I would ask for their feedback once they cooked it and ate it for themselves. It was kind of “my thing” at the office. I was new to the company and had only been in sales for a few months when one week, something happened and a paid programming slot came open on the weekend with no show to fill it. Somebody heard that I had a small background in broadcasting, and next thing I knew—I was being asked to come up with a 30-minute show, which would be used as a ‘filler’ until that program time slot was sold again. But would I be willing to do the extra work in the meantime? I was shocked and said “absolutely.”

Because of my cooking and recipe hobby, it just made sense to piggyback on Food Network’s success and take the idea to radio.  I had only one short week to create my very first show, which aired July 4th weekend 2008.  Using my sales skills, I quickly snagged Shane Thompson of Shane’s Rib Shack to come on air and talk about great summer barbecue. After our interview, I walked listeners through a few short recipes of my own which were perfect for July 4th cookouts.  … The show was an unexpected instant hit.  I realized immediately that this is what I wanted to do.  This was it. This was my future.  I had finally found my passion.  And I’m good.

Q: You’ve hosted numerous celebrities on your show, Ted Allen, Paula Deen, Jeff Corwin, and the list goes on, in your opinion which one really stood out and delivered that “WOW!” factor?

A: No question, Guy Fieri! (Food Network)  He was hands down—the biggest ball of raging energy I have ever encountered over radio.  My listeners know ME to be the upbeat, bubbly and animated personality, but Guy Fieri had me beat …. times ten.  I had so much fun interviewing him that our full-throttle conversation lasted nearly 35 minutes, which made it impossible during editing because I only had 10 minutes to air it.

Another reason this was my “wow” show was because my own excitement level was elevated to the likes of a child trampling down the stairs on Christmas morning.  I am a huge fan of Fieri and he’s one of my all time favorite foodies to watch on television.  I’ve said dozens and dozens of times how I hoped there would be a day when we could meet and I could interview him.  So when that day actually happened just last month, I think my enthusiasm translated into the interview itself and we both just fed off of each other’s energy and wit.

I assume Guy Fieri was entertained himself since he nicknamed me his “Sister from another Mister” …. and called himself my “Brother from another Mother!”

Q: Over the past year or so I’m happy to say I’ve gotten to know you. Knowing that you are a true southern belle (Atlanta native) and also have great pride in your latin roots, I can’t help but ask what are your favorite southern restaurants here in town?  And don’t think I’m letting you off the hook there … what are your favorite latino eateries?

A: Well here’s a loaded question.  My answer may surprise you.  Although I’ve been in Atlanta for well over 30 years,  oddly enough—I don’t care for southern food.  Not a big fan.  Isn’t that strange?  I joke around and say its because my mother force fed me peas and squash and okra and corn and other detestable vegetables that all kids hate.  I wasn’t allowed to leave the dinner table until every kernel was swallowed.  As a child, it was a nightmare.  Sometimes I would still be stuck sitting there in misery for 2 hours after everyone else had left, just because I had some black eyed peas still rolling around on my plate.  Who knew that picky eater kid would ironically grow up to become a Food Host?

I still don’t care for southern food though. It must be psychological.  If I HAD to choose, I would say my favorite southern restaurant is my grandmother’s kitchen.  If that didn’t count, then I would say Wisteria, in Inman Park.  Jason Hill is the owner and executive chef, and I really appreciate how he executes his modern twist on traditional southern cuisine.  I found it to be refreshing and creative.  I loved his stuffed peppers as well as the spicy shrimp and grits.  The watermelon shaved ice with mint leaves was definitely my favorite dessert.

As for latin eateries, I have not had much luck here in Atlanta.  My favorites are still in Miami, where the authenticity of regional latin food is incomparable.  Here in Atlanta, there is a Mexican joint on every corner—but I have a difficult time finding the food of my own culture; Puerto Rico.  I have yet to experience one Puerto Rican restaurant that takes me back to the purity of my aunt’s kitchen in Miami, or the recipes handed down by my Abuela.  Feel free to recommend one to me if you know.

I call myself a Pedigree mutt.  Half puerto rican, half white American.  And yet the food I can never get enough of and what I could eat every day of my life …… Italian. Go figure.

Q: Okay, so here you are.  You now have a remarkable food radio show that beat all odds, so what’s next?  Where does the show go from here?

A: Good question.  Every week it seems the possibilites change.  The easy answer is simply—bigger and better.  Syndication is on the menu, as well as more events and community involvement, taking the show from 30 minutes to one hour, going live, video blogging, mainstream marketing, and possibly tv.  The sky is the limit at the moment,  we’re only getting started.  This is just the very beginning.  I am so blessed beyond understanding and deeply humbled by everything that is coming my way.  I could not have possibly gained this much success in such a short amount of time if it wasn’t for the one person who believed in me from the beginning and offered me a talk show as I was passing out recipe cards at our sales meeting. That gentleman is now my business partner, John Stirzaker, who has 25 years experience in radio.  Along with our fellow visionary, Dan Hott, our team is hopeful and excited to make several big announcments at the start of 2010 about the growth and expansion of DwD.  By contract, I’m not allowed to discuss those announcements just yet.  So to formally answer this question ……  STAY TUNED!

Now that the flour dust has finally settled after his highly-charged opening of Varasano’s Pizzeria, I thought it would be a good time to catch up with Jeff Varasano to get his perspective into what it’s like to suddenly find himself in the restaurant business, and instantly under a microscope by the most scrutinizing critics.

I finally caught up with Jeff, and here’s what he had to say.

Q: Never being in the restaurant business how difficult has it been to get your restaurant up and running? …and what has been your biggest challenge?

A: The biggest challenge? Can I just list the top 100, LOL…

At first a lot of landlords didn’t even want to deal with me because I had no industry experience. So it took a long time to find a spot. But overall, as with baking at home, the biggest challenge is the dough. A customer asked my pizza chef Willie if he was the boss. Willie pointed past me towards a rack of dough and said, “No, that’s the boss.”
Without ever switching ingredients or proportions you can make a zillion variations on dough. We use a natural sourdough culture instead of factory produced yeast. A hundred years ago everyone did it that way but now only a handful of pizzerias, even in Italy, still do. Now I know why. It’s a living thing and it can be quite temperamental in a commercial setting. The flavor is much deeper so we keep at it, but it has made consistency our biggest challenge.

The biggest unexpected challenge was the fact that guests eat their pizza with a knife and fork. Coming from NY it’s just a reflex to pick up a slice and fold it. I really want everyone to try pizza at it’s best and a huge part of any food experience is the way it feels in your mouth. A great piece of fresh fried chicken has a nice crunch on the outside that gives way to a juicy interior. Similarly, folding a fresh slice allows you to bite the crust which gives way to the juicy sauce.

This style of pizza has a light crust that is too delicate to retain any crunch after it’s been cut with a knife or if it’s sat too long. We got a lot of early criticism about the texture of the crust and we spent the first two months altering the dough formula to compensate. This was probably our biggest mistake. I know of no pizza with this kind of thin, charred, light airy style that holds up to a knife and fork.

Most pizzerias use flour additives such as potassium bromate, but using all natural ingredients and a sourdough culture for natural flavor, the dough is just too delicate. I think we made our worst pizzas by trying to be all things to all people. After two months we switched back to our original formula, and simply bake it slightly cooler to crisp it up just a bit.

Our main focus is explaining that this style of pizza is different than most you find in the southeast, and is best folded and fresh out of the oven.

Q: Before you even opened your restaurant you received a great article by AJC’s John Kessler, and by the New York Times. How on earth did you ever pull that off?

A: It all came from the parties and the website. The parties started way back in 1998. I moved here from NYC and while I loved it, I was homesick for a few things such as pizza. It seemed such a shame to go through all the work of making dough just to make pizza for a couple of people so I’d call up friends and say I was looking for “pizza victims” to try my latest experiment, many of which were quite bad. Thank god for wine.

In December 2004 someone in an online bread forum asked me for my pizza recipe and I put up a single web page sharing my 6 years of trials. From there it took on a life of it’s own. At first, it gradually spread through a circle of fellow pizza fanatics, but in September 2006 it went viral. It got picked up as a news story on cnet.com, then got passed to fark.com, boingboing.net and within hours crashed my server. Within days I was getting hundreds of letters among them several reporters. Some interviews, such as those in Wired, the New Yorker and Esquire didn’t work out and others like the NY Times and NPR did.

After the site went viral I started getting emails from strangers asking if they could attend a pizza party. These then took on a viral quality of their own, with guests passing the word to their friends. One guest knew Kessler and he happened to call me the day before the NY Times columnist was coming to town for a pizza party. And viola, it all came together at the same time.

Q: You haven’t exactly racked up great reviews from the local critics. Do you believe these reviews were unfair?

A: Every day some customers tell us that this is the best pizza they’ve ever had. Many of those comments come from people that have tried the best rated pizzerias in the world.

We’ve also been voted best pizza in Atlanta by Jezebel Magazine and several online polls. But consistency has been a problem, especially early on. I think that the pre-opening hype eliminated the normal grace period for reviews. A buddy of mine who runs one of the best pizzerias in the country, Apizza Scholls in Portland, OR, wrote me “Chris [Bianco in Phoenix] had himself under a microscope after almost 6 years of doing his craft. I was under a microscope after 1 year of doing mine…. you my friend, are under a microscope before you have ever even opened.” That kind of sums it up.

I think that for some reason there was a lot of emotion surrounding my opening so let me give you my perspective on the pre-opening hype.

First off, it was almost all organic. The website went viral and mostly all I did was respond. Of the nearly 2,500 letters I’ve gotten from my website, only 3 could be described as negative. The rest were thanking me for sharing tons of free information that was largely unavailable anywhere else, and also for promoting the best pizzerias around the world.

The site was about a passion, not about promoting me or any business. Back in 2004 when I posted a list of the world’s best pizzerias and ranked Varasano’s Pizzeria in the top 10, it was just a joke because there was no such place, nor any plans to open one. It was simply a twist on the idea that I had more or less morphed my kitchen into a pizzeria since I had started pizza parties as far back as 1998. Many people asked for invitations and I fed over 700 people for free in 2007 and 2008. Without the website and the parties the business would never have happened.

But when I finally opened, the buzz set expectations very high. Some were really turned off by all the hype and I even got hate mail. Many were reacting to claims I never made or that were written by others. I never said I made the perfect pizza or the world’s best pizza, but rather I celebrated the best pizzerias around the world. Nor did I ever say that running this business was going to be easy or just like making pizza at home.

I’ve spent my career working on process improvements. I talk all the time about how it takes thousands of hours of practice to get good at something, whether it’s a sport, an instrument, or any craft.

I talk all the time about how the goal is to get 1% better every week. Launching into a new industry, there was never a thought in my mind that I would open up and be perfect from day one. Clearly though, some critics were reacting as if I had claimed that. My primary claim is that we learn every day. We don’t go through the motions. We are continually trying new things, as I have for years.

Just as an example, I’ve tasted 33 oreganos since we opened and tried at least 6 different methods of drying them so they retain flavor. Over time I hope those that have been critical will try it again.

Q: Many complain that your menu is too limited. Do you plan to expand the menu any time soon?

A: During our “Slice of Heaven” events that we ran each Monday this summer, we made over a dozen specials including Olive/Caper, Fried Eggplant, Potato/Rosemary, Wild Mushroom/Truffle Oil and Sicilian style. A few of these may make it onto the main menu pretty soon or make it as semi-regular specials.

Also we are adding a couple of big salads and probably 3-4 sandwiches. One of these is the real old-school Italian sausage and peppers, like you get at the street fairs in NY. Talking to my NY customers, this one is really missed. But no matter what we add, I want the focus to remain on pizza.

Q: Some were concerned that you don’t use a coal nor wood burning oven. What if anything do you have to say to these people? …and tell us a little bit about your custom made oven.

A: On my website I list many of the world’s best pizzerias. Interestingly, my top 5 have totally different ovens: gas deck, coal, electric, wood and the biggest surprise, an oil burning brick oven. These 5 vary wildly in fuel source, design and bake time. This is one of the things that makes pizza so interesting. Everyone is looking for the secret, especially one they can buy, like the ‘right’ oven or the ‘right’ flour. But as with any art, the secret is in the balance of all things together at one moment. That’s why it’s so hard to do it right consistently.

Many types of ovens are capable of producing great pizza, but if one little thing goes wrong they are also capable of producing tasteless crackers. The smokiness that is often attributed to coal or wood ovens is more often than not the result of the temperature and not the fuel.

I traveled quite a bit testing different ovens and I had a very clear list of capabilities that I wanted. I found an oven maker in Sweden named Christer Andersson. As soon as we exchanged our first email, I knew that he understood some of the unique challenges that make pizza baking so different than bread making. It’s precisely because many people think it’s all about the coal or wood fuel that makes many ovens perform quite poorly.

Some oven builders sell their equipment based on the fuel and disregard the design, as if any chamber is automatically good if you stuff it with wood or coal.

When I baked at home, I used the cleaning cycle which allows the oven to operate at 800F. But I’d use aluminum foil to alter the distribution of heat within the oven. So while I used the same electric coil, a dozen different foil configurations would produce a dozen different pizzas. Right there I knew that fuel source was not my biggest problem.

After a few disappointing tests out on the West Coast, I headed to a little town called Boras, Sweden. The oven was the clear winner and Christer proved to be as good as I’d hoped. The best thing was that during our conversations it was clear that we both had in mind nearly the same design for a next generation oven that is wildly different than anything on the market now. Yet independently, we had come to very nearly the same design. That oven is off in the future though.

For this round we took his basic design and made a few modifications. There are extra heating elements, and also we had to make many component and design changes to get the oven certified by Underwriter’s Labs. Christer even flew in from Sweden for the final round of inspections.

Q: Any future plans for a second location?

A: We keep telling ourselves how much easier this will be the second time around. We are learning so much every day. It may take a while, but there will be other locations.

A: It was one of the most difficult things to do. Fox Bros. literally went from one day being only me doing a majority of the cooking, with my brother Justin doing the desserts, to being open and having to stand over a staff of folks I barely even know, to take my passion and trust it to them. Another huge obstacle is the amount we are cooking. I was basically cooking small batches of pork, ribs and brisket on my own, it was much easier to control. Today we are opening up with having cooked upwards of 1,300 pounds of pork and brisket on a Saturday morning — and that’s before we even put on any ribs or chicken.

One of the difficulties of that is that each cut is different, one brisket might be 5 lbs smaller than the rest, and will be done well before the bigger ones, and making sure the person running the smoker understands that. Training and trusting that person to basically be like you. Do it how I would do it.

Today, I see several places doing BBQ on the weekends. or only one day a week, It reminds me of how it was when I started, and it is much easier to control the quality on 2, 4 or even 8 pork butts or briskets compared to making sure 64 butts are all falling into the same degree of doneness.

It took some time, but the staff I have right now running my kitchen is the best staff I have had to date. Stephen Bucalo, who is my head chef, really has taken to my vision and instills that into his staff. It really frees me up to focus on things like our BBQ sauce, which was recently put on the shelves of 18 southeastern whole foods stores, while working on our wing sauce next.

I recently got out to a wing competition in Smyrna, which we won best wings. This was great figuring most of the folks had never heard of us!

I love that we are doing things now that I could never do on my own, like smoking our own ham hocks for our veggies. But I will never forget moving from the kitchen in my house to cooking for Smith’s in our new kitchen before we opened, and what used to take me two days to make the sides (Mac and cheese, green beans, stew and collards) took me only four hours!!

So, I learned pretty fast that after we opened, we were not going to be a success overnight, and that what I had worked so hard to build from the catering, wasn’t going to translate to a full blown restaurant without a ton of work.

We got dinged pretty good by all the local press when we opened, which at first I thought was a little unfair. But it made me realize that I had to work harder now — to make this thing I built — become better. And I am still working at it.

Q: Whose idea was the Tominator? …and how much weed did he or she smoke?

A: Ha! The Tominator was the brainchild of my good buddy Tommy. It really sounds like something thought of in a frat house, but was really created while we were sitting at the bar of Smith’s Olde Bar, after a good couple of hours of drinking some beers and several shots.

Justin, my brother, got up and said he was going to the kitchen to get some tator tots, and Tommy chimed in and said to add some cheese to the tots. Shortly after that, he yelled across the room to my brother to add stew to that, and Justin obliged him by bringing out the first Tominator.

We tried it and said, man this works! I think we ran it at Smith’s a few times, but knew it was definitely something that was going to be on our own menu. We recently made Tommy a-one-of-a-kind T-Shirt with our logo on the front and the back says: “I am the Tominator!” He loves it.

Q: I like the fact that you guys keep throwing new creative dishes on the specials board. Where do you keep coming up with the ideas?

A: Cooking the same thing over and over can get a little tiring after a while. Some of the appetizers we come up with are items I used to serve at my house to friends on the weekends, that we can work in from time to time while not keeping it on the menu.

We have to cook for Tuesday starting on Monday, so it is a crapshoot on how Tuesday will actually be. So, two things could come from that, either we will run out or have some left. We serve only the fresh product, so we have to think of ways to get that day’s old product out there.

Items like the BBQ rolls and brisket taquitos are really popular, but we can’t commit these to the menu in case we don’t have meat to do them. A few weeks ago we were running so close to the line that we had to cook extra pork, just to be able to make stew.

I love the brisket meatloaf that we do. We originally started making it the way I make it at home, with beef, pork and veal, and one day decided to make the meatloaf with fresh ground brisket, it is ground in-house and we make it with the same recipe — minus the pork and veal. We have been running that on Tuesdays and it has become very popular.

The beef short rib we sell on Thursdays and Saturdays flies out the door. It’s hard to cook enough. Justin will often spend a few days in the kitchen creating some dessert specials for the weekends that people love and ask for often. We barely have the space to make the chocolate pecan pies let alone have a pastry person follow his lead. By far the most popular has been the red velvet cheesecake. I love the idea of offering something special, it gives me or my chefs the ability to spread our wings a little bit.

Last night I saw a couple slabs of smoked pork belly in our walk in.

Q: Cliff Bostock has been tough on your food pointing out inconsistencies. Do you think he’s here on only the bad nights, or does he just not get your barbecue?

A: Cliff has been documenting his dining experiences for much longer than I have been living in Atlanta. I regularly read his column, and as a matter of fact, his piece about a popular Athens restaurant that opened in Buckhead and the horrible server experience he had there, I made all my servers read it to enforce our demand on how important it is for them to give our guests the best service they can give.

So, I take his columns as a way to make Fox Bros Bar-B-Q better. Cliff loved our take on a burger once, but the next two times it was flawed and he called us out. Well, it was a matter of the way it was being made, so it has totally been re-worked because of his thoughts, and I think it is really a better sandwich because of that.

We make it a point to talk to each table to find out how our guests are enjoying their experience and anything we need to do to make ourselves better. We work everyday to make ourselves more consistent, it just stings a little bit to be called out in print vs. hearing about it firsthand during that dining experience.

We had some really big growing pains when we opened, and we finally feel like we have a great staff that not only loves our food and cares about the product, but also has the pride to make sure that the product they put out follows our main belief, which is to prove ourselves, one plate at a time.

So, like I hope that one day the Falcons will have back-to-back winning seasons, that one day Cliff will also share that he has continually had outstanding meals at Fox Bros. Until then, we will keep working at being the best we can be.

Q: What was the worst customer experience you’ve had?

A: Where to begin? You learn fast that you can’t please everyone. I remember right after we opened, I was talking to an older couple and the wife was doing most of the talking, it seemed that the husband loved the food, but she didn’t, and she was asking me if I had been to “so and so bbq” and had their stew. I say no, and she says, “try it, you should make yours like theirs.”

My brother was called a racist one night for not seating someone fast enough. On one very busy Saturday night at 7pm we were on a wait, and a group of 25 bikers showed up and wanted a large table on the patio. It took a long time and they finally gave up and all got back on their bikes and just sat there revving their engines for 20 minutes out of spite until we finally said, “if you are going to leave, just leave.” We apologized over and over but had the rest of our customers to keep happy as well as the ones waiting.

So, you just try to do your best to make people happy, sometimes it can be frustrating waiting so long for a table or if the kitchen is a little backed up, but we hope by the time they get the food all will be well. If it isn’t, then we go from there to ensure a positive experience.

Q: I’ve heard a rumor or two that you might be looking into a possible second location. Any truth to the rumor mill?

A: We have been looking. One of the things we run into is, that with the size of our kitchen and the volume we do with the restaurant’s business and catering, that it is to much for our current kitchen to handle size wise. On several occasions we‘ve had to turn down catering on the weekends just to be able to satisfy the volume of the restaurant.

It is kind of the curse of Fox Bros., meaning, I started out in my own kitchen with an oven half the size of most normal ovens, and that seems to be still holding true.

We were moving on a location on the north side, but it fell through. It is funny, our current location we found on a Friday and the following Monday we had the building. This last location that fell through, it seemed like two months went by talking back and forth.

We are still looking, it can’t be just any place, it has to feel right for us — not to big and not to small. I guess the “perfect” location. If that even exists.

I am really looking forward to the challenge of opening a new location with a much larger kitchen, and I am very thankful that with today’s economy that we have that opportunity.