Revival Restaurant to Offer Traditional Southern Family-Style Dining

Kevin Gillespie, Atlanta-based chef, restaurateur, cookbook author and owner of Glenwood Park restaurant Gunshow, is bringing his next dining creation, Revival, to Decatur in July. The restaurant will be a nod to Gillespie’s formative years, offering a version of the traditional Sunday dinner served family-style. Following Gillespie’s allegiance to Southern cuisine, Revival will focus on farm-fresh ingredients and a dining experience that reflects the traditions his own family follows.

“I always come back to the types of meals I ate as a child and the significant role that gathering together for family suppers played in my life as I was growing up,” says Gillespie of his inspiration for Revival. “The culinary traditions of the South have always influenced my cooking, but I sense the family-style way of dining is slipping away from us. I want to resurrect the importance of sitting down and truly sharing a meal with loved ones by bringing the graciousness of this experience to Atlanta diners.”

Gillespie’s menus at Revival will mimic what one would find at his grandmother’s house – a classic, Southern spread featuring seasonal options that change daily – but will feature more refined techniques and the highest quality ingredients. “Atlanta is the hub of the Appalachian and the high plantation South. We have a unique version of Southern cuisine here because of the blending of those two influences. My family is half plantation and half mountain people, so the food I grew up with was really both. And that’s what we will have at Revival,” Gillespie said.

Andreas Müller has been named executive chef of Revival. He previously served alongside Gillespie as “kitchen dude” at Gunshow.

Dinner service at Revival, dubbed “full supper”, will include entrées like the following:

• Pastured Georgia chicken based in sweet onions and golden raisins
• Smoke-roasted mountain trout stuffed with cornbread and green onions
• Georgia white shrimp and Terminus City sausage in roasted tomato gravy
• Country fried grass-fed beef round steak with skillet pan gravy

These entrées will be served with the Gillespie family puffy cornbread and four to six sides such as fatback-fried silver queen corn, roasted heirloom baby tomatoes with spicy pepper relish, old-fashioned creamed potatoes, fresh field peas and baby carrots in sweet cream butter and dill.

Lunch at Revival will offer dishes similar to those in the dinner selection but will be served à la carte and will include sandwiches and salads.

“The classic Southern dishes themselves are still relevant to me, but I want to pay homage to my past by executing these dishes at the highest possible level,” says Gillespie of how he will reinterpret the food from his childhood at Revival.

Gillespie likens his restaurants to the different facets of his personality. “Gunshow is the modern, brash side of me, while Revival is the more genteel, introspective side,” he says.

The restaurant’s patio space will eventually house an outdoor bar called Communion that is slated to open by early fall. It will be Gillespie’s take on a Viennese wine garden.

Revival is located at 129 Church Street in the former Harbour House Pub site in Decatur, which was once a house and will be restored as closely as possible to its original condition for a “homey” atmosphere. The revitalized space will feature trey ceilings, crown molding, fireplaces, mixed metal and wood accents and an antique blue and white color palette reminiscent of grandmother’s china. The restaurant, which seats 100, will also have a garden in the front and a spacious back yard.