Becoming a chef
“I’m from Houston, but I’ve lived in Atlanta for the past 16 or 17 years,” says Ford Fry. Having studied at the New England Culinary Institute in Vermont, Fry moved on to fine-dining positions in Florida, Colorado, and California before landing in Atlanta as a corporate chef—and opening his first restaurant, Jct. Kitchen, in 2007.
Impressions of the Atlanta dining landscape
“The scene really started going through a transition maybe five years ago,” Fry says, noting that he’s seeing the same thing happen in other cities, including in Houston. “People understand food a lot more now than they used to. They also want to go to restaurants off the beaten path.”
Shifting trends in restaurant design
“When I first started, it was very glitzy, and it’s molded into very vintage-y,” he says, while acknowledging that he’s not necessarily out to lead the path. “If anything, I’m trying to play off the trends but play it more authentic, [more] classic. I love that feeling when you go into the flagship Ralph Lauren store. Even as a kid, I always bought Polo. Look at what he’s done with his company and the clothes. It’s all just super classic. I want to have that approach with restaurants, where they don’t trend out.”
The Austin-inspired bar and dining room at Superica, crafted by
Parts and Labor Design. Photo by Erik meadows.
On the intersection between cuisine, design, and overall experience
Referencing a book called The Experience Economy, Ford says it’s all about the overall experience and how a person feels in a space. “I’m a chef at heart, so it all starts with the food. And I’m very casual, so I like high quality but I don’t like formality. When I go out to eat I want to feel comfortable, I want it to be fun, I want the food to be great, I want the service to be unobtrusive and relaxed. Everything really falls in together with the food, the style of service, the design, and how you feel.”
On his first Mexican restaurant, Superica, in Atlanta’s Krog Street Market
“I love Tex-Mex food done well,” he says. “I also like the feel of going into an Austin Tex-Mex restaurant where it’s not decorated with sombreros or piñatas hanging around all over the place.” Rather than being part of the food stalls that make up the market, Superica is a distinct entity, though connected to the venue. “Hopefully, [the market] turns into a place where people can go and buy food to bring home and cook,” he says, “to really give the community access to all the cool stuff the restaurants buy.”
The Austin-inspired bar and dining room at Superica, crafted by
Parts and Labor Design. Photo by Erik meadows.
Up next
Bar Margot—a small plates-style bar inside the Four Seasons Atlanta designed by New York’s Meyer Davis Studio—opened in September. “It has a real lounge-y feel—a Soho House vibe,” Fry says. Inspired by Margot Tenenbaum from the movie The Royal Tenenbaums, “it has a little humor to it. We’re wanted to create that cool hotel bar for people from the outside to go to. Atlanta has some, but they’re more stuffy.”
The chef will return to his roots with Houston’s State of Grace, set to open this fall. Then it’s back to Atlanta for the two-level sister restaurant to the Optimist seafood joint, opening in November, called Beetlecat. “One floor is an oyster bar with a woodburning oven—we’re also roasting shellfish so you can order them hot or cold, which gives it a little more of a Northeast Coast oyster bar feel,” Fry explains. Then guests move downstairs to a bar area he calls the Den that’s reminiscent of a 1970s basement hangout for surfers. “Low ceilings, paneled walls, maybe a reel-to-reel recorder playing music—very retro with cocktails like a Tequila Sunrise.”
