Team behind Illegal Foods opening new restaurant and other top metro Atlanta dining news from the week

Here are the stories that made a splash in the Atlanta food world this week.

 The Hank at Illegal Food / Photo: Todd Brock

Credit: Bob Townsend

icon to expand image

Credit: Bob Townsend

After the sudden closure of Illegal Food last year , the team behind that Virginia-Highland restaurant is gearing up to open another eatery.

Steven Lingenfelter confirmed in an email that Mouth of the South is opening at 186 Carroll St. in Cabbagetown, in the former Cabbage Pie space, this spring.

The menu will include items such as porchetta, meatball and pastrami sandwiches and tacos and tortas prepared with house-made carnitas, chorizo and barbacoa. The restaurant will also serve a weekly rotating vegetable plate using produce from local farms, as well as salads and other seasonal specials.

"This new restaurant concept is an evolution in (Lingenfelter's) mission to bring together locally sourced ingredients, in-house butchering and hand made components, and will utilize a gas fired brick pizza oven," Lingenfelter said in the email.

Mouth of the South will open with lunch and dinner service and a full bar offering a selection of local beers, with plans to expand into brunch service in the near future.

Illegal Food will continue to operate as a pop-up around the city, including appearances at Mouth of the South, featuring favorites such as The Hank burger, okonomiyaki fries, and Korean fried chicken sandwiches.

The White Bull -- one of the AJC's most anticipated restaurants of 2018 -- is set to open early next month at 123 E. Court Square in Decatur.

The restaurant, which will offer a "menu of simple, farm-forward American fare," will be overseen by executive chef and partner Pasquale "Pat" Pascarella, who previously served as execuitve chef of Ford Fry's West Midtown restaurant The Optimist and also served a stint in the kitchen at Le Bernardin in Manhattan. Gabriele Besozzi, who previously served as service manager at The Optimist, will serve as partner and general manager. He has also worked at restaurants in London, New York, Miami and his native Italy. Read more about The White Bull here.

The Alden is set to open next month at Parkview on Peachtree, which will be located at the intersection of Peachtree Road and Clairmont Road.

More metro Atlanta dining news:

Read more stories like this by  liking Atlanta Restaurant Scene on Facebook , following  @ATLDiningNews on Twitter  and  @ajcdining on Instagram