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Celebrate Your Love At SOHO This Valentine’s Weekend! 💖

31 Friday Jan 2020

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Do you like the hustle and bustle of Valentine’s Day? Perfect! Want to avoid the crowds on Friday night? We’ve got you covered. 

We’re featuring our Chef’s specials both Friday and Saturday so you can choose  which day is best for you, and your love. Our popular regular menu is available as well, so make reservations before we book up!

Please call us at 770-801-0069 for a table, or press here to book online: https://www.opentable.com/r/soho-atlanta

Valentine's Dinner Menu

SOHO’s Executive Chef Zoey Zelinka Is Featured In The Atlanta Business Cronicle!

04 Monday Nov 2019

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Wine & Dine: Soho’s Joey Zelinka learned to love cooking making hoagies

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By   – Contributing writer

 

About 20 years ago, a staffing issue opened up a delicious new world to then-teenager Joey Zelinka.

“Basically when I was 16 or 17 I was a dishwasher at my friend’s mom’s hoagie shop,” recalled native South Floridian Zelinka, now 36 and the executive chef at Soho American Bistro in Vinings. “One day, one of the cooks didn’t show up. I jumped in, and I knew right then this was what I wanted to do. We were super busy. I had been working maybe five feet away from the line, and it never dawned on me to try it.”

Turns out, one person’s absence, along with being in the proverbial right place at the right time, was the perfect recipe to inspire Zelinka to seek a career in a profession that’s proven fulfilling and fortuitous — one he said he can’t imagine life without.

Since that early foray into the culinary world, Zelinka has moved and gained more experience at various restaurants and enterprises over the years, delighting palates and filling bellies in metro Atlanta along the way. His efforts have included pop-up restaurants Junk Food and Babcia’s Fine Polish Food; his executive chef position at The Sound Table on Edgewood Avenue; and his creations at Soho, among others.

He participated in the kitchen incubation program at Joystick Gamebar, also on Edgewood. His Junk Food concept a few years ago included notched-up takes on classic comfort foods, such as the “potato chip taco” featuring a six-hour braised oxtail and other high-quality components, according to the menu posted on Eater Atlanta. The fish in the “fish sticks and shrimp hushpuppies” was bone-in snapper sticks that had been dredged and fried, and included gribiche, described on the menu as “fancy tartar sauce.” One reviewer on Junk Food’s Facebook page proclaimed in 2015 that Zelinka “has an amazing talent and the skills to back it up!”

More recently, five-star ratings and reviews about Soho’s offerings on Opentable.com describe the food as “amazing,” and “absolutely wonderful.”

Zelinka’s culinary education happened in the United States Coast Guard. “I realized that college wasn’t for me and I had to do something.” He started as a food service specialist second class with the Coast Guard, according to his bio on Soho’s website.

Zelinka didn’t have to look too far for inspiration. “I decided the military was the best way to go. My grandfather spent 32 years in the Coast Guard. That made my decision. I think everything was a set-up for what I am today,” he said.

The path definitely has benefits. According to the Coast Guard, the starting salary for food service specialists is $46,595 — that’s more than $11,500 higher than a civilian sous chef — and comes with health insurance, tuition assistance, the Coast Guard’s accredited food service speciality school, and more.

“When I was getting out of the Coast Guard, everyone was telling me ‘Don’t make the Coast Guard your career,’” Zelinka said.

Fortunately, the ingredients for a promising profession came together. “My best friend’s father [the same friend whose mother owned the hoagie shop] was partners with Douglas Rodriguez,” Zelinka said. In the late 1990s, Newsweek had named chef Rodriguez — who claims to be the “Godfather of Nuevo Latino Cuisine” on his website — one of the top 100 people influencing the approaching millennium. Zelinka said he worked as a line cook for about a year and a half at Rodriguez’s OLA restaurant.

While he’s moved on and up since his humble beginnings, Zelinka’s passion for his calling is still as piping-hot as his first stint as a fill-in cook at the hoagie restaurant. The experience “turned the light on for me for sure,” he said.

 

Q. How did you get into the restaurant business? It seemed like the obvious transition when you want to become a chef.

Q. What’s your favorite meal and drink preference, and why? It would have to be a Hoboken Hero with hot peppers at the Hoboken Cafe in Marietta, and a Mexican Coke. It’s just my favorite meal. It’s everything for me.

Q. What are some pantry staples you can’t live without? Hot sauce, from Tabasco to the most obscure Mexican ones.

Q. If you could prepare a meal for anyone in history that you admire, who would it be and what would you cook? [Musician] Brad Nowell, and I’d make burritos.

Q. What career advice would you give to new chefs? Figure out if you love it. If you don’t, get out.

Q. What do you like to cook at home? Breakfast.

Q. Any specific breakfast? Nothing specific, just breakfast.

Name: Joey Zelinka

  • Age: 36
  • Born in: Fort Lauderdale, Florida
  • Lives in: Atlanta suburbs
  • Education: 2002-2003, University of Central Florida; 2003-2007, Coast Guard
  • Current job: Executive chef, Soho American Bistro
  • Prior jobs: participant in the kitchen incubation program at Joystick Gamebar; pop-up restaurant chef/owner of Junk Food and Babcia’s Fine Polish Food; sous chef, American Food and Beverage; executive chef, The Sound Table
  • Family: wife, Jennifer; children, Sophia and William
  • Hobbies: Magic: The Gathering and Warhammer 40,000

Top 5 Ingredients

In order of importance:

  1. Salt
  2. Pepper
  3. Onion
  4. Carrot
  5. Celery

“There’s really no sexy or abstract reason why I chose these. It’s just a matter of functionality,” Zelinka said.

🦞Great Dads Deserve a Lobster Dinner on Fathers Day!

09 Sunday Jun 2019

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Great fathers make the world go round! Don’t they deserve a fabulous dinner to show them how much you appreciate them? There’s nothing better than a delicious, fresh lobster dinner surrounded by those who love you the most!

Celebrate the special guys in your life this Fathers Day with SOHO’s All-American Lobster Boil Dinner!

Enjoy a cup

SOHO’s All-American Lobster Boil is only $30 per person!

Included in your meal:

  • Market Salad with Choice of Dressings
  • 1-1/2 lb live Maine Lobster with Drawn Butter 
  • Corn on the Cob 
  • Bliss Potatoes
  • & Andouille Sausage

We place our order on Friday, fly them in from Maine on Saturday, and serve them to you on Sunday. Please make your reservations by Friday at 5 pm to ensure availability; our lobsters are limited! Call 770-801-0069 for reservations, or please visit https://www.opentable.com/r/soho-atlanta

 (If booking online, please add the number of requested lobsters in the reservation notes.)

 

 

You Loved These Wines So Much, We’ve Brought Them Back For A Second Chance!

13 Thursday Dec 2018

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As we wrap up another amazing year at SOHO, we would like to thank our guests, friends, and family who dined with us and allowed us to be a part of their day to day, and also milestone moments. As a thank you, for the month of December, we bring back the guests’ favorite wines for an encore performance as we close out the end of the year! Will your favorite be a feature?

This Flight Night begins on Wednesday, December 12th, and the wines and their tapas will be available through December 18th.

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First, SOHO will pour a Benton Lane Pinot Noir 2014 from Willamette Valley, OR.  The winemaker offers,

“Our 2014 Estate Pinot Noir is there. The aromatics are smoky cedar and floral notes. They are delicate and not over powering. There is rich, black cherry flavors,  candied fruit sweetness, a slight hint of black licorice, and rose petals. The wine is amazing in its balance. You really have to taste it to get it. I have no idea why some wines are balanced and some not. I do know that this one is…..enjoy.”

Next, SOHO will pour a Piatelli Premium Reserve Malbec 2016 from Mendoza, Argentina. The wine is described by the winemaker,

“Intensely aromatic on the nose. Aromas of blueberries, plums, & blackberries. Extremely well balanced fruit to acidity balance. This is a medium to heavy weight wine. Mouth-filling, and smooth finish.”

Finally, SOHO will pour a Justin Cabernet Sauvignon 2015 from Paso Robles. Notes on the wine,

“Full bodied with bright black cherry, blackcurrant and berry fruit with an underpinning of oak barrel accents on entry. The mid palate shows continued fruit with savory herbal notes, mint and a hint of violet. The finish is clean, long and layered with lingering dark fruit surrounded by soft chewy tannins balanced by crisp acidity and subtle floral notes.”

SOHO’s Executive Chef Joey Zelinka has created a suggested tapa plate to pair with each of the wines!

Benton Lane Pinot Noir 2014
100% Pinot Noir
Paired with: Grilled Prime Sirloin, Smoked Polenta, Beurre Rouge

Piatelli Premium Reserve Malbec 2016
100% Malbec
Paired with: Whipped Goat Cheese Crostini, Plum Jam

Justin Cabernet Sauvignon 2015
100% Cabernet Sauvignon
Paired with: BBQ Lamb & Veal Meatballs, Mint Jasmine Rice

Sample each wine in a flight (three three-ounce glasses) for $14.25. Or, pair the flight with a tapa plate for $19. Try a full glass of wine and tapa plate for $13. Of course, the wines and tapas are available individually as well ($9.50/glass and $6.50/tapas)

We can’t wait to see you!