Downtown picks up a new all-day brunch spot on Sunday, March 2, when Bryant "Chef Baul" Williams debuts Betty Sue's at 20 Broad St. The restaurant takes both its name and its inspiration from his grandmother, and it sits at Five Points Plaza right beside Binky's Eatery, the other downtown restaurant Williams already operates.
His résumé includes private-chef work for famous clients, with Tyler Perry, Kendrick Lamar and Cardi B among the names Rough Draft Atlanta cites. He frames this project differently. Betty Sue's is the personal one. His grandmother was the family matriarch and the person who first sparked his interest in cooking, and he remembers how much she loved feeding relatives at her home in Atlanta. What he hopes to recreate is the comfort and nostalgia of sitting down at your own grandmother's table.
What the couple plans to serve
Daniella, his wife, is his partner again here, as she is at Binky's. The couple plans a menu that blends breakfast and brunch classics with Southern and soul food dishes that point back to his grandmother's cooking. Among them: salmon croquettes, chicken and waffles, and grits topped with oxtail and shrimp. The bar program starts with coffee, juice and nonalcoholic cocktails, and alcohol is planned for later.
Not his first Atlanta kitchen
Williams has run restaurants in the city before. His earlier soul food spot, Chef'd Up, opened in 2019 inside the Highland Walk Apartment complex at Highland Avenue and Sampson Street and closed in 2021. That corner space had previously held Last Word and Cast Iron, and a Donnie's Donuts location operates there now.
Binky's Eatery, the takeout soul food spot the couple opened at Five Points Plaza two years after Chef'd Up closed, carries his father's nickname. Betty Sue's now extends the family theme one generation further back.
Opening day
The grand opening is scheduled for noon to 4 p.m. on Sunday, March 2. The event will feature live music, and Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens is scheduled to appear. Rough Draft Atlanta lists the restaurant's hours as Tuesday through Sunday, 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Original reporting by Beth McKibben for Rough Draft Atlanta.