Or so you are mostly instructed to do at The Family Dog, Ron Eyester + Jason Chenette’s (Rosebud dudes) relatively newish watering hole + cozy eatery in Morningside.
The Family Dog, located directly across the street from Rosebud, offers creative, farm-to-table pub cuisine + an innovative fare of handcrafted beers and cocktails.
We all know who Ron Eyester is, right? Or at least heard about his Twitter handle: The Angry Chef. I’m assuming so, but if not, catch up on your Atlanta chef-related social media scoop here: Ron’s angry at you…that’s right, YOU.
ron eyester
While Ron may regard his tweets as comical or witty, Slick and I often find them pretty offensive. Both of us follow him on Twitter + I’ll admit that we will chuckle every so often, BUT while recently dining at The Family Dog, we asked ourselves how we’d feel if Ron was tweeting about one of our mothers altering the preparation of her order or asking for the kitchen to substitute something. His tweets were no longer all that funny.
We understand what he’s trying to do – drawing attention to the ”absurdities” that happen every day in the restaurant industry, but whether he likes it or not he has chosen to enter the service industry AND the customer IS always right, right??
Ron’s tweets haven’t stopped me from going to Rosebud. In fact, I dine there regularly. I will say, though, that they never give me the warm fuzzies about the restaurant. And, no matter how uncomfortable my server looks (and they always hesitate) when I order my usual (the Breakfast Bowl) and ask for the grape tomatoes to be switched out for sun-dried, I plan to continue to do it. I may even do it tomorrow…
Soooooooooo, that’s all I have to say about that. (If Ron gets to rant, I get to, too.)
Moving on to The Family Dog. 
Slick + I had ourselves a nice little Easter Sunday lunch on The Family Dog’s patio. We watched Ron walk back and forth between his restaurants several times + assumed that both establishments were going to be very busy on the holiday. And, good for them.
On the patio, The Family Dog lists a number of rules for patio eaters to follow. No doubt this is Ron’s restaurant… I think the “no dogs within the patio area” rule is kind of silly for a place called The Family Dog, but I’ll admit that I’d rather see the house rules painted on the side of the building than commented about in a snarky tweet.
As we expected, our server was exceptionally knowledgeable about the menu + we very much enjoyed our meal. To start, we ordered the Pimento Cheese w/ Spicy Saltines and practically licked the dish clean. It was particularly refreshing while sitting on the patio on a warm day.
Our lunch was on the earlier side for a Sunday, so we had to wait until the GA-approved time to order drinks. When that time came, Slick selected a fancy beer + I ordered The Morningsider: Boodles gin, fresh squeezed lemon + Luxardo maraschino liqueur. It was pretty much a basic Aviation + I enjoyed it.
Peeking out from the back of that photo you’ll see my entree, The Burger: it’s made with Riverview Farms beef + it only comes 1 way… It didn’t have me doing cartwheels, but it was a solid burger. Slick got the Peekytoe Crab Melt w/ White American & Pepper Jelly and he was very pleased with his order.
There are a number of menu items that I’d like to go back and try. These all sounded particularly delicious to me:
Housemade Cheetohs (Of Course They Have Pork In Them)
“Billy Bob’s” Fried Bologna Sandwich w/ Pickles, Cheese + Crushed Fritos
Noodle Bowl w/ Smoked Chix, Vegetables, Hamhock-Shrimp Broth + Soft Poached Egg
Mussels Steamed in Beer w/ Serranos + Leeks
Korean Style Duck Quesadilla
Disco Fries w/ Marrow Gravy, Pickled Japs, American Cheese + Fried Egg
(And believe me, there are more.)
The Family Dog is going to do well. (Did I mention that I love its name?) It’s a bar scene that I appreciate in The Highlands – more of a laid back feeling than that of the Emory students running around The Cavern + Highland Tap on the corner of Virginia and N. Highland Ave. The food is good, very good, in fact. And the large menu is sure to keep you coming back to try more + more of it. I may not personally be down with Ron Eyester’s sarcastic/ pointedly rude comments about his paying customers who are currently dining in his restaurant and driving him nuts, but again, they’re not exactly keeping me away.
Try The Family Dog. Just be sure to shut off your Twitter account before you sit down…
xx, L
The Family Dog
1402 North Highland Ave.
Atlanta, GA 30306
404.249.0180
www.thefamilydogatlanta.com
