Stories
Empire State South
by Kate Kiefer Lee
photography by Andrew Thomas Lee
Atlanta's Empire State South makes Southern food with a modern twist. Executive chef Ryan Smith features seasonal dishes like summer–squash casserole, veal sweetbreads, potato gnocchi, and golden–beet butter—all with the best local ingredients. Founding chef and partner Hugh Acheson is a judge on Bravo’s Top Chef, and his cookbook, A New Turn In The South, is in stores now.
We love Empire State South's lunch–box program. Tiffins are traditional Indian lunch boxes, meant to be filled and reused every day. You can purchase your own Tiffin from the restaurant, and they'll wash and refill it whenever you want, or you can pick up lunch and return the Tiffin up to two days later. The daily menu has two types of lunch boxes: a sandwich with sides, and a superfood—which has bigger portions and extra nutrients. Here are two of Empire State South's delicious Tiffins, which we promptly ate after the photo shoot.
Tiffins
- Fresh peach pie
- Local figs, blackberries and citrus
- Potato salad
- Citrus and dressed field peas
- Local radishes, peach, melon and heirloom tomato salad
- Adobo grilled hanger steak, medium rare
- Dressed farro salad
- Salad of local fresh beans and fennel
- Mix of nectarine, pluot, blackberry, fig, radish
- Dressed farro salad
- Local radishes, peach, melon and heirloom tomato salad
- Fresh arugula frisee
- Housemade city ham sandwich with Cabot white cheddar and arugula
