Before I became like the 5 billionth Atlanta restaurant blogger, I went into Heirloom Market BBQ when they first opened. I noticed some Korean stuff in their place, and Chef Cody remarked that he used a couple of Korean ingredients as his secret ingredient.
Too bad I didn't have a blog at that time to break that story. But I guess the cat's out of the bag now on Heirloom's Korean influence. Chef Jiyeon is their Korean co-chef, and you can tell Chef Jiyeon brought her Korean flavor into Heirloom Market BBQ.
Although, I don't know if I should consider Heirloom an American-Korean fusion place. You can definitely tell the Korean influence in there. But I still consider it a traditional, good old-fashioned, Southern BBQ place with a touch of Korean.
Heirloom BBQ definitely cares about their food. You can tell they put a lot of thought into every piece of edible item the have. For example, they have Mexican Coke, which I consider to be superior to the corn syrup filled American Coke. They have sausages from Patak's, one of the more authentic European meat places in Georgia. They smoke the meat for many hours using one of their two huge smokers (each smoker has different types of wood in it). They make their sweet and un-sweet tea from good quality green and jasmin tea. And they have other examples of their attention to detail on their food quality, but it's too numerous to mention.
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| Mexican Coke: me gusta. |
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| Great homemade unsweet tea and lemonade. They have great homemade sweet tea too. |
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| Even their complementary tap water bottles are unique. |
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| Sausages from Pataks. |
I tried almost everything at Heirloom. And I'm confident to say all of their smoked meats such as pulled pork, brisket, chicken, turkey, ribs, etc., all taste very good. Their chicken and turkey seem underrated. Most people go for the fatty goodness of pork or brisket, and who can blame them? But their smoked birds taste equally as good.
They offer 3 types of American styled BBQ sauces: table, kitchen, and settler sauce. But I pick KB sauce–AKA Korean BBQ sauce–as my favorite. The KB sauce tastes sweet and spicy. Although I noticed some of my non-adventurous American friends think it tastes a bit weird. If you feel adventurous, however, you should try it.
The sides used to be their weak point when they opened, but they have improved. Now their sides taste awesome. Some of the sides have that blatant Korean influence such as Korean sweet potatoes, tempura sweet potatoes, kimchi cole slaw, and others.
I think Chef Jiyeon has a secret plan to convert all traditional, Southern Americans to eat Korean food. I think it's working.
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| Half a rack of ribs with kimchi cole slaw. |
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| Pulled pork with tempura sweet potatoes. |
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| Chopped brisket with tempura sweet potatoes. Tempura sweet potatoes seem quite popular. |
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| Pulled pork, bratwurst, and Korean sweet potatoes. |
One of the few weakness I find for this place is the small space. They have a moderate-sized comunal table in the middle and some bars to sit on. I think they can sit about 12-15 people. That's about it. Lunch time can be killer. You will not have a place to sit during lunch unless you come at 11 AM or come past 2 PM. They need to figure something out for the space issue. It may turn into another Antico with people eating standing up and the parking lot filling up. Heck, it's already like that. The good thing is, I don't think they'll get obnoxious as Antico since Chef Cody and Jiyeon (and Jackie) are very cool people.
Another weakness is their burgers. They taste mediocre. I think they tried to be fancy with their burgers adding all sorts of flavorings to it. I like my burgers juicy, simple, and with a great meaty taste. Although I have talked to some customers there who think they have the best burgers in the world. I think they're smoking crack, but hey, it's their opinion.
You can definitely tell the passion of Chef Cody and Chef Jiyeon for BBQ, cooking, and food. I feel the food is a great value too. One entree can definitely stuff you silly with protein. This is probably one of my favorite restaurants in Atlanta. Mr. Kitty gives this place 5 paws up.
Heirloom Market BBQ
2243 Akers Mill Rd Ste 110
Atlanta, GA 30339
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