I found myself puttering around GA 400 and 285 on Friday around lunch and decided it would be a good time to check in on Cody and Jiyeon at Heirloom Market BBQ. At 12:30, every seat in the restaurant was taken. Cody had a couple new faces working in the kitchen with him. Jiyeon was managing the front of the house, expediting orders and greeting customers. The vibe was exciting and sort of Christmasy. I really like the little faux fireplace. As far as food, the vegetables of the day were tempura sweet potato slices and brussel sprouts. As you see above, I got the pulled pork sandwich, brunswick stew, and tempura sweet potatoes. The pork was smokey and had nice bark. I really like Cody's brunswick stew recipe. Right now it is holding in a tie for second place (Pig n Chik still has my favorite). I really enjoyed the fried sweet potato side. The potoato was sliced thinly, battered and fried. I passed my plate around the community table and let everyone sample them. All agreed they were delicious. My advice is to always sample one of Heirloom's daily vegetable specials when you visit. This is where you get a little taste of Cody's chef background. Probably the greatest part of my lunch was that I opted to try the kitchen BBQ sauce. This sauce is not put out on the table, but you can order it with your BBQ. It is a "fresh" BBQ sauce as opposed to the more standard table sauces. This means it is made with a thicker tomato product. Texturally, it is closer to spaghetti sauce than BBQ sauce. I loved it because it was meaty, smokey, and spicey. It had a noticeable heat to it (from jalapenos according to Cody). From now on, this is the only sauce I'll be ordering at Heirloom.
All in all, things seem to be going very well for Cody and Jiyeon. I still have to swing by for a longer interview and try a few more dishes so I can write up a full profile. I had high hopes for Heirloom after my first visit and everything seems to be going right according to plan. The restaurant seems to be settling into a solid groove. All of the people that I spoke with at the community table loved their BBQ. Most were very surprised at the quality of the sides. This day, the cole slaw and the sweet potato were a big hit. I'm really happy to see that Atlanta appears to be embracing Cody and Jiyeon's cooking. I think they make a great addition to the Atlanta restaurant scene.
Note - if you take a look at the terrible iPhone picture below (apologies), you can spot the kitchen BBQ sauce on the left hand side behind the nice slice of brisket. You can easily see the chunkier texture. Awesome.
