Bomb Biscuit leaving Old Fourth Ward for new location
Credit: Andrew Thomas Lee
When it comes to her popular and widely acclaimed breakfast restaurant Bomb Biscuit Co., Erika Council has never been afraid to put things in motion.
Launched as a pop-up in 2016, Bomb Biscuit has moved from pitmaster Bryan Furman’s now-closed B’s Cracklin Barbecue to Irwin Street Market in 2021, where it operated from a food stall.
Credit: Chris Hunt
A year later, Council moved to a bigger location at 668 Highland Ave. NE, which immediately attracted lines of customers flowing out of the front door.
Since getting its own brick-and-mortar location in 2022, Bomb Biscuit has become one of Atlanta’s most acclaimed restaurants. In 2023, the restaurant was listed among the best restaurants in America by The New York Times. Later that year it received a Bib Gourmand distinction from the Michelin Guide, which it also received in 2024.
Council’s leadership of Bomb Biscuit’s kitchen also earned her a semifinalist nod for the James Beard Foundation’s Best Chef Southeast award last year.
Credit: Handout
It’s been a good run by any measure, but Council is saying goodbye to Bomb Biscuit’s current home. By the beginning of June, she will relocate to the Larkin on Memorial shopping center in Grant Park.
“I’m excited about it. I feel like all things happen for a reason and when God has a plan for you, nothing can get in the way of that,” Council said in an exclusive interview with UATL.
The celebrated baker and cookbook author said she always planned to open more Bomb Biscuit locations on her way to franchising the company. Because of unexpected changes in ownership at her leased space in Old Fourth Ward, the move to 519 Memorial Drive will be a relocation instead of an expansion.
“We tried to buy this building,” Council said while on duty at the Highland location Wednesday morning. She said she made a generous offer but the property was sold to a different buyer.
“That’s why I’m leaving, because we couldn’t come to an agreement with the new landlord and what he wants for the building.”
Council and her husband, Charles, who is also a partner in Bomb Biscuit, immediately looked for a new space. They were shown the former space of Woodward & Park, which closed in 2023, and decided it was the ideal venue for the restaurant’s next iteration.
Credit: Wendell Brock
The new space is bright and airy thanks to wide windows which bounce sunlight off the white-painted brick — part of an overall color scheme that puts one in the mind of biscuits, which Council said was intentional. An elevated seating area sitting on a platform just beyond the front door has dark diagonal wood planks lining its center wall and wraparound bench seating, whose yellow cushions are what Council calls her “butter leather.”
Shelves above the kitchen are stacked with white mixing bowls and yellow Bundt cake pans. She said family photos and HBCU college flags will also be hung on the walls.
Credit: Courtesy of Bomb Biscuit Co.
It’s all part of a design aesthetic that honors her grandmother, who inspired Council’s love of cooking and ethos of building community through food and hospitality.
“My grandmother used to paint her kitchen yellow and she used to feed people who’d come to the house. I always want that yellow to do that, to help establish that sense of comfort for people,” she said. “At breakfast you want to wake up to light and sunshine.”
At 2,600 square feet, Council said Bomb Biscuit’s new home is slightly smaller than the Highland location. With 65 seats in the dining room, it means 10 less guests inside at capacity, although there will be outdoor seating for at least 20 diners in an enclosed courtyard space.
Despite the smaller footprint, she expects to get more value from the increased kitchen size, which is double what she and her line chefs have worked inside since 2022.
“During the week, I have three people who work every day. On the weekends we have two or three extra people come to handle the workload. This will be different because everything’s out in the open, which helps people work all together, and they can probably turn tables faster,” she said.
Credit: Andrew Thomas Lee
The menu is expanding to include lunch options, including her famous “Glori-fried” chicken which will now be available on house-baked brioche rolls. She also plans to offer a “shoebox lunch” special with fried chicken and two sides on Fridays, inspired by meals Black families would pack during road trips to minimize the need to stop while commuting through “sundown towns” in the Jim Crow South.
The new restaurant will also open an hour earlier, partly to be open for parents dropping off their children next door at the Primrose School. While the restaurant has historically closed at 2 p.m., she hopes to stay open until 3 p.m. on weekends when they regularly draw larger crowds than during the week.
Council advises regulars and new customers to arrive at Bomb Biscuit early, or call ahead to minimize wait times.
“It’s a scratch kitchen. That’s why it might take a little longer. That won’t change.”
Credit: Andrew Thomas Lee
She also expects certain menu items to remain harder to get for stragglers who move at biscuit-like speed. “My gluten free biscuits are very popular,” she said, “but if you come at 1 p.m., you’re pretty much out of luck any day.”
She anticipates logistic challenges with their strong takeout business in the beginning, since unlike the Old Fourth Ward location there is not a dedicated area for carryout customers. To accommodate, she plans to hire a few more staffers, including a new bartender to manage a beverage menu with more options, from mocktails and juices to breakfast cocktails like French 75s and mimosa flights, in a variety of flavors made using her own seasonal jams.
Council plans to keep the Highland location open while preparing the new site. But once it opens — she’s planning for the first week in June at latest — she will close the old space and move on to the new. She doesn’t plan to stop there.
“My ultimate goal is to have franchises and not just be like my grandmama who only had one spot,” she said of her grandmother Mildred Cotton Council, who had a popular North Carolina restaurant called Mama Dip’s Kitchen for decades.
“And that’s still in the plans. We’re looking at additional buildings,” she said.
Credit: Andrew Thomas Lee
In the meantime, while plotting to build a biscuit empire, Council continues to rise and shine like her signature recipe. She still plans to spend time in the new restaurant, greeting and interacting with customers.
On Wednesday, between answering interview questions, Council would pause to thank customers as they left and listen to their suggestions.
One customer made a request for more honey butter and gravy on her next biscuit visit. Council said she would oblige.
“When you come back tell them you want extra. I’m gonna remember your face,” she told the customer before returning to focus on the interview.
“She comes here often, and brought her mom and grandmother. I had to make sure they were good. Treat your grandmama right.”
About the Author
Mike Jordan is senior editor at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Black culture brand, UATL. A longtime culture journalist, his work has been published in The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, National Geographic, Rolling Stone and others. Jordan won the James Beard Foundation’s 2024 Jonathan Gold Local Voice Award and was a 2023 finalist.
