With comfort season upon us, channel our neighbors across the pond with a visit to English pub, The Duke. The recently opened Dunwoody pub marks the most recent addition of the Dunwoody Restaurant Group, which has been in the area for more than 25 years.
“We’ve been doing fish and chips for 24 years in Atlanta. We were doing fish and chips when no one was doing fish and chips, and now everybody’s doing fish and chips,” Huw Thomas told At the Table ATL over a discussion of English fare. “The British community comes for our fish and chips, and we also do bangers and mash and shepherd’s pie.”
But today, the focus is on the well-known (and beer-battered) English favorite.
“How does this dish represent England?”
“We’re very seafaring, we have a huge Navy, and we do a lot of fish,” Thomas said. “We used to eat fish and chips in a newspaper, ‘cuz they didn’t have paper plates.”
For Thomas, there’s a right way and a wrong way when it comes to cooking fish and chips.
“A lot of people use flat fish and the wrong fish. We use Icelandic cod, which is what fish and chips is, not flounder or anything like that,” Thomas said. “We don’t do [fish and chips] ‘to go,’ because we don’t believe it’s a good product in a box. It’s better in a newspaper.”
Here's a tip should you want to enjoy fish and chips like the Brits: forgo the ketchup.
“I don’t know why we have ketchup, ‘cuz the British don’t eat ketchup,” Thomas said.
The Duke, meant to a reflection of a London pub, also features decorations from England including authentic pieces, some of which are from Thomas’ families’ collection.
Thomas, who once ran a pub in his home country, before moving to the U.S., now helps bridge the gap between British fare and metro Atlanta.
“The British have always had a bad reputation for their food, which is unfair. Everybody loves bangers and mash, Shepherd’s Pie, pasties, fish and chips. They all love it, and the Americans have adopted it,” Thomas said, adding the fondness for the food has kept the pub’s tables full.
“They keep coming back,” he said.
At the Table is a digital series produced by 11Alive's Matt Pearl and Liza Lucas. Metro Atlanta features the food of dozens of nations. We want to eat through them all! Follow us on Facebook and share your favorite food stories.