That blissful man standing beside the opulent cheese, bread, and Ossabaw-hog ham display at Holeman & Finch’s cheese bar in Atlanta? That’s the hometown hero, chef Linton Hopkins: a James Beard Award winner, sure, but also a guy so passionate about food and community, he leaves the kitchen to hand out lagniappe slivers from the dining room’s magnificent fifty-five-pound wheel of Montgomery cheddar at every opportunity. This is the scene he’s setting at the beloved public house’s new location, designed by Hopkins’s wife and partner, Gina, in Atlanta’s Colony Square. (The original has been winning hearts farther up Peachtree Street since 2008.) Hopkins isn’t aiming to invent or redefine. His menu resurrects, preserves, and celebrates historic dishes, from sack sausages to the Crunchy Gentleman (a.k.a. croque monsieur, s’il vous plaît). “I love that timelessness of who we are,” Hopkins says. “And that doesn’t mean living in the past. I think it’s a beautiful future.” holeman-finch.com
Southern Agenda