Lights, Camera, Eat!
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MARCH 2017 VOL 6, ISSUE 6 LIGHTS, CAMERA, EAT! How restaurants and chefs are taking a starring role in Georgia's booming film industry + Wines of South Africa RestaurantINFORMER.com | 1 Join Gas South for an awesome Shindig on March 23rd at SweetWater Brewing Company! Enjoy food, beer & music while helping us to raise funds for Gas South’s 6th Annual Charity Cornhole Challenge that will take place at the 2017 SweetWater 420 Fest on April 23rd at Centennial Olympic Park. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook for updates and information! Follow us: #GScornhole Contents 18 March 2017 DEPARTMENTS 3 Editor’s Note 4 GRA News 11 Quick Bites 12 ACF Update 29 Snapshots 31 Industry Events 32 Restaurant Report 22 26 FEATURES Locally Grown 6 Meet the six selected this February to be the 2017 Georgia Grown Executive Chefs. GRA Taps Brian Bullock 8 as 2017 Board Chair A look at this year’s GRA Chair plus 11 new board members. Georgia Heavily Represented in This Lights, Camera, Eat! 9 Year’s James Beard Award Semi-Finalists 18 By Candice Dyer Find out which 14 chefs and restaurants made the Movies and TV are big business here in Georgia, and cut this year. restaurants are taking a starring role. 4 Ways to Handle Drink Garnishes Safely Modern Wines From Old Roots 10 Drink garnishes may look good, but they also need to be 22 By Lara Creasy handled safely to protect your guests from foodborne If you don’t already have some South African wines on illnesses. your menu, it’s time to set up a tasting. Plus, 7 recommendations to get you started. When Fake News Gets Real 14 By Ellen Hartman 25 Years of Wine 3 lessons learned from Pizzagate – when a gunman opened 26 The High Museum Atlanta Wine Auction has raised more fire in a D.C. restaurant last December – to protect than $26 million in proceeds over 24 years. This year your brand against false information. promises to be another winning event. MARCH 2017 VOL 6, ISSUE 6 Publisher: John Sawyer Restaurant INFORMER is the official Editor: Christy Simo magazine of the Georgia Restaurant Graphic Designer: Scott Bagley Association and is published by Sawyer Direct, LLC at P.O. Box 49053, Contributing Writers: Karen Bremer, Colorado Springs, CO 80949. Lara Creasy, Candice Dyer, Ellen Hartman © 2017 by Sawyer Direct LLC. All rights reserved. LIGHTS, CAMERA, Cover Design: Tanya Shaw Jeffrey, EAT! For subscription or advertising How restaurants and Ginseng Creative chefs are taking a information, call 719.599.7220 or starring role in Georgia's booming film industry email [email protected] + Wines of South Africa RestaurantINFORMER.com | 1 RestaurantINFORMER.com | 1 POS so easy, even zombies can use it. Garry Easterling Sales Director [email protected] RDS. 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WE DO THAT dedicated to your success. rdspos.com Setting the Scene ou’ve no doubt spotted those mysterious yellow signs with the state has welcomed movies like the Oscar-nominated Yblack block letters and an arrow around your town. But if Hidden Figures, Captain America: Civil War – the biggest you haven’t seen the cryptic signs that point cast and crew to blockbuster of 2016 in the world – several of The Hunger a film set yet, you certainly will soon, because Hollywood has Games movies, and shows including Golden Globe-winner come knocking on our door. Atlanta, last year’s surprise hit Stranger Things, and of course, It may be hard to believe, but Georgia is actually the third the No. 1 most-watched show on TV, The Walking Dead. most popular state to film in in the country – behind only But why is Georgia’s film and TV scene booming? Back in California and New York – and is tied for third in the world. 2008, the state’s Entertainment Industry Investment Act began We’ve even earned a few nicknames, like Y’allywood and providing tax credits to help entice film, TV, commercial, Hollywood of the South. music video and video game productions to Georgia. Couple Last year Georgia played host to 245 feature film and TV that with ease of transportation – Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta productions, which generated an economic impact of more International Airport is the world’s most traveled airport – than $7 billion. That’s no small potatoes. relatively mild weather year round and a state full of rolling And you, as a restaurant owner, caterer or chef, can get in on mountains, coastal waters and big city lights that can sub in for the action. You can open your space up for filming scenes for a practically anywhere else in the world, and you have a thriving movie; you can provide food on location to the cast and crew; industry that shows no signs of slowing down. or you can even prep and style food for the scenes themselves. If you’re interested in getting involved in the film and TV It can be arduous work and long hours, but it can also be a world or just want to see what it’s like, check out “Lights, lot of fun. In other words, it’s a lot like the restaurant industry. Camera, Eat!” by Candice Dyer on page 18. And welcome to These aren’t small productions either. In the past few years, the Hollywood of the South! Christy Simo Editor 25 offices across the country, our RestaurantINFORMER.com | 3 NEWS MESSAGE FROM THE CEO New Administration, New Policies, New Strategies t’s full steam ahead as we’re adjusting to some of the major changes we’re seeing on follows through on President Trump’s Ithe new Trump Administration and the issues of importance to our industry. campaign promise to increase border 115th Congress. The Georgia Restaurant • Minimizing the Economic Burden of security by planning, designing and Association (GRA) supports the National the Patient Protection and Affordable constructing a physical wall along Restaurant Association’s (NRA) efforts to Care Act Pending Repeal, Jan. 20, sets the U.S.-Mexico border. educate the new administration and con- the stage for ACA reform by granting • Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior gress about the issues that impact Amer- federal agencies leeway to change, delay of the United States, Jan. 25, calls for the ica’s restaurant industry. There are lot of or waive certain provisions of the law if removal of undocumented immigrants items at stake this year, from healthcare to they deem them to be overly costly. who have been convicted or charged with tax reform to legal challenges facing our • Expediting Environmental Reviews and a criminal offense, or who pose a risk to industry, so there is plenty to dig our feet Approvals for High Priority Infrastructure public safety or national security. into in the first half of this year. Projects, Jan. 24, calls for quicker envi- • Protecting the Nation from Foreign Since President Trump has taken office ronmental review and approval time for Terrorist Entry into the United States, on January 20, he has signed several Exec- high-priority infrastructure projects. Jan. 27, establishes an “extreme vetting” utive Orders, Presidential Memoranda and • Border Security and Immigration protocol to prevent foreign terrorist Proclamations. Here is a quick rundown of Enforcement Improvements, Jan. 25, attacks on U.S. soil. It suspends the U.S. 2017 Board of Directors and GRA Staff Georgia Restaurant Association Staff Executive Committee Mike Dixon, Focus Brands, Inc. Karen I. Bremer, CAE, CEO Chair - Brian Bullock, Legacy Ventures | Restaurants Jamie Durrence, Daniel Reed Hospitality Yvonne Morgan, Executive Assistant Vice Chair – Kelvin Slater, Slater Hospitality, LLC dba Nine Stuart Fierman, Fifth Group Restaurants Katie Jones, Public Affairs Coordinator Mile Station - Skyline Park Stephanie Fischer, Hojeij Branded Foods Daniel New, Public Affairs Assistant Secretary - Archna Becker, Bhojanic | Owner Matt Hansen, KBP Foods Ryan Costigan, Director of Membership Treasurer - Perry McGuire, Smith, Gambrell & Russell, LLP Shawn Hooks, Firehouse Subs Tandelyn Daniel, Member Development Executive Past Chair - Paul Baldasaro, Home Grown Industries of Ellen Hartman, Hartman Public Relations Chris Hardman, Member Development Executive Georgia, Inc. dba Mellow Mushroom Kevin Jones, Jones Restaurant Consulting Group Rachel Bell, Director of Marketing & Communications CEO - Karen Bremer, CAE, Georgia Restaurant Association Julie Kritz, Chick-fil-A, Inc. Melissa Ledford, Marketing Coordinator Charles Kuck, Kuck Immigration Partners Board of Directors Nils Okeson, Arby’s Restaurant Group Alexis Aleshire, Fork U Concepts, Inc. | Taqueria Tsunami, Advisory Board Staci Parker, Gas South Stockyard Burgers, Pressed Panini Bar Patrick Cuccaro, Affairs to Remember Caterers Vipul Patel, US Café Lisa Allen, Wine Insite Philip Hickey, Miller’s Ale House Ryan Pernice, Table & Main | Osteria Mattone Floyd Anderson, Cowabunga, Inc. dba Domino’s Pano Karatassos, Buckhead Life Restaurant Group Jay Bandy, Goliath Consulting Bill Ray, US Foods Alan LeBlanc, Brewed to Serve Restaurant Group Will Bernardi, Bloomin' Brands, Inc. | Carrabba’s, Krista Schulte, The Coca-Cola Company George McKerrow, Ted's Montana Grill Bonefish Grill, Outback Steakhouse Mitch Skandalakis, Waffle House, Inc.