Bread & Butterfly & Chef Demetrius Brown

Located in the heart of Atlanta’s bustling Inman Park neighborhood, Bread & Butterfly is led by executive chef Demetrius Brown, who co-owns the restaurant alongside his partner, Atlanta restaurant industry veteran Brandon Blanchard. The restaurant offers French-inspired breakfast and lunch menus alongside dinner service exploring the foods of the African diaspora, specifically the Caribbean. Born into a Trinidadian and Jamaican family and raised in Rhode Island and Georgia, Brown is also founder of the acclaimed Afro-American pop-up Heritage Supper Club.

THE STORY

Brown and Blanchard first worked together at The Hill at Serenbe in Chattahoochee Hills, Georgia and again at The Pinewood in Decatur. Amidst the pandemic, Brown decided to found Heritage Supper Club, a project aligned with his quest to explore Caribbean and Afro-American culture, tradition and cuisine. In 2022, Brown was ready to evolve the idea into a full-blown restaurant and reached back out to Blanchard about becoming an official partner in the endeavor. From there, the two went to work finding places for Heritage to pop up around town while searching for a permanent location.

In early 2023, Brown and Blanchard hosted Heritage Supper Club in the evening at Bread & Butterfly, the French cafe that chef Billy Allin (Cakes & Ale, Proof Bakeshop) originally opened in 2015. The pop-up dinner was a tremendous success and sparked conversations that eventually led to Brown and Blanchard acquiring the restaurant in August 2023. Paying homage to Bread & Butterfly’s roots, the duo have kept many beloved breakfast and lunch dishes on the menu as mainstays while infusing Brown’s signature culinary style and building upon strong relationships with small, local farms.

As part of the restaurant’s next chapter, Brown has opened the restaurant for dinner featuring a new menu serving French cuisine as seen through the lens of the African diaspora. The experience takes guests on a culinary journey traversing continents. “This is the first step in our purpose of educating our patrons and community about the origins of cuisine throughout Africa, the Caribbean and the Americas,” says Brown.

THE FOOD

Brown dives into his heritage with the dinner menu, reimagining traditional recipes and rooting the selection in hyper-seasonality. Each dish taps into flavors and ingredients from local farms and purveyors, including Moore Farms, Woodland Gardens, Narrow Way Farms and more, alongside Caribbean staples like sustainably produced Haitian chocolate and mushrooms.

Highlights on the menu include:

• Tasso featuring grilled lamb belly, plantain, pikliz & epis

• Djon Djon with Carolina Gold rice, peas, epis & local & Haitian mushrooms

• Plantain Buns served with Georgia cane syrup butter

Hearty dishes like the Poulet (Chicken) Mafe with roasted chicken, peanut, sweet potato & plantains and the Beef Bouyon with plantain gnocchi, sweet potato & collards are also favorites. Sweets include Beignets De Banane with coconut custard, guava, papaya & caramel and Haitian Chocolate with Single Origin chocolate several ways & coconut ice cream that bookend the globally-inspired journey.

THE BEVERAGE PROGRAM

Led by beverage director Jessica White, Bread & Butterfly’s beverage program is known for its thoughtfully curated collection of balanced cocktails, an expansive wine list comprised of varietals from smaller producers, natural wines and those with sustainability in mind, after-dinner drinks and digestifs. While the beverage direction stands on its own, every concoction aligns seamlessly with a distinct cuisine while leveraging the team’s relationships with local farms to showcase a revolving door of in-season ingredients. Rooted in the classics, standout cocktails include the Maduro Old Fashioned, a Caribbean spin on the classic made with Plantain infused Ten to One Spiced Rum, Giffard Banana Liqueur and HooDoo Chicory Liqueur & bitters and the Bare Bone Espresso Martini made with Bare Bone Vodka, Borghetti, fresh espresso & maple. Aligned with the concept’s heavy focus on mindful consumption, the menu also dons a selection of noteworthy Zero Proof and Low Proof options.

CHEF DEMETRIUS BROWN

Growing up, Brown fell in love with food at an early age due to his late great grandmother’s cooking. When he was in high school, his grandfather noticed his passion for cooking and drove him past Johnson & Wales University during a trip to Providence. Brown ultimately enrolled in culinary school, and upon graduation, returned to Atlanta where he worked in the kitchens of some of the city’s best restaurants.

Following time at The Hill at Serenbe in Chattahoochee Hills, Brown joined The Pinewood in Decatur, Georgia as executive chef, a role which garnered him an Eater Young Guns award in 2020. The next year, in the midst of the pandemic, Brown spearheaded Heritage Supper Club, a project aligned with his yearslong quest to explore Caribbean and Afro-American culture, tradition and cuisine.

Brimming with creative dish ideas spawned from memories cooking alongside his great-grandmother, Brown was left with more time to cook at home. He officially launched Heritage Supper Club as a pop-up concept in 2021, hosting the experience at local spots including Georgia Boy, Condesa Coffee and Bread & Butterfly. Since its debut, the venture has been recognized by numerous publications and was awarded “Best Food Pop-Up” by Atlanta magazine in 2021. In addition to his efforts in the kitchen, Demetrius is a Food Network Chopped Next Gen finalist and winner of Food Network’s Beat Bobby Flay.