Omnivore - NOW OPEN: Snapshots from Staplehouse

? Staplehouse (541 Edgewood Ave. SE, 404-524-5005. www.staplehouse.com), the supper club-turned-brick-and-mortar restaurant that’s been in the works since 2009, has finally opened. After a few weeks of preview dinners and informal patio dining, many months of (still not quite complete) license wrangling, and years of planning by Jen Hidinger, Kara Hidinger, chef Ryan Smith, and the man whose legacy Staplehouse celebrates — Ryan Hidinger — Staplehouse officially opened its dining room for business Oct. 2. The opening is particularly noteworthy because Staplehouse directly supports the Giving Kitchen, the nonprofit dedicated to providing emergency assistance to those in need in the Atlanta restaurant community (in the interest of full disclosure, I have volunteered for and supported the Giving Kitchen in the past). Staplehouse is a restaurant, but it’s also a physical embodiment of the Giving Kitchen’s effort to promote solidarity across this city’s restaurant community.
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? Beyond its charitable ties, Staplehouse’s launch is also noteworthy because it is the first Atlanta restaurant to use the Tock ticketing and reservations system that has been adopted by many of the country’s top restaurants. All reservations for Staplehouse’s main dining room are basically tickets that you pay for in advance online. The five course tasting menu with several additional surprises thrown in is going for $85 per person, plus tax and service charged at time of ticketing. In addition to the Tock tickets, Staplehouse accepts walk-ins for an 8 seat bar in the dining room, where you can choose to order a la carte or take the full tasting menu. There’s also walk-in-only patio dining (covered) with a completely different menu (and its own little kitchen, employing a few Big Green Eggs to good aroma-effect). 
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? I went to the very first guest chef special dinner that Staplehouse hosted three weeks ago, and as soon as I saw on Twitter that Staplehouse had opened up spots in the dining room via Tock, I booked a table for four for their second night of service — this past Saturday night. Whenever a notable restaurant opens in Atlanta, I want to see it do welI. But Staplehouse, with its link to the Giving Kitchen, is a special case. I want to see it do well not only for the restaurant’s sake, but also for the Giving Kitchen’s sake, for Atlanta’s sake. So don’t take this as the typical critical evaluation, but based on one dinner, one night, it is evident that Staplehouse has the opportunity to do something special in this town. Given Smith’s background at Empire State South, Restaurant Eugene, and Bacchanalia, Staplehouse easily qualifies for any conversation on best new restaurants to open in Atlanta in recent years. 
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? Staplehouse is still BYOB, pending final licensing, and they certainly have some work to do in making sure the service aspects of the meal match up to the food. The price point for the full tasting menu is exactly on par with Bacchanalia and Restaurant Eugene, so diners’ expectations will be high. Below are a few more pics from our Saturday night dinner that illustrate the types of high-finesse dishes on Staplehouse’s initial menu. Smith says the five-course tasting menus will likely change every two weeks, so if you want to catch these particular dishes, try to get your ticket for this coming week. And if you do make it to Staplehouse, tell us what you think in the comments section below.
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