When chef Kevin Gillespie, who is nationally acclaimed for his Atlanta restaurants Revival and Gunshow, was approached by the Falcons ownership about opening a place in the brand-new Mercedes-Benz Stadium, he jumped at the chance. “It’s such an event for people to go to games, and stadium food deserves to be great,” Gillespie says. Gamechanger, his spot in the 200 concourse’s western end zone, offers just that. “It’s really high-end junk food, but we’re careful about where it comes from,” he says of his popular dishes that include smoked cheddar cheese steaks and Closed-on-Sunday chicken sandwiches that mimic those of a certain chain. “We make everything: the mayo, the pickles. The chicken comes from a farm in North Georgia. It’s all fun and indulgent, but you don’t have to feel bad about it.”
Photo: Andrew Thomas Lee
Chef Kevin Gillespie.
When he’s watching a football game at home, though, he takes a different route, often making Chonchos and Ponchos, a snack that he first created for a party with his employees. “Every year we have a snack-off: everyone brings something to a party, and we vote on the best,” Gillespie says. “I forgot we were doing this until the morning of, so I dug out all the stuff that was in my fridge.” His wife, Valerie, an Alabama grad, had stocked away some Conecuh sausage, which he found alongside a can of Pillsbury dough and some cotija cheese. “I thought I’d do a riff on pigs in a blanket, because everyone loves pigs in a blanket,” he says. (His translation is humorous, although not exact: choncho is Spanish for “chubby”.) Gillespie’s creation won in a landslide. “I’ve never lived that dish down,” he says. “People always ask if I’m going to bring my Chonchos in Ponchos as if it’s this complicated thing only I can make. Now I’m stuck bringing them to every tailgate I go to.”
