Photograph by Adrienne Bruce
I love to play restaurant at Chow Club Atlanta. The monthly pop-up dinner series, cofounded by Amanda Plumb and Yohana Solomon, features local chefs with international roots: Some are home cooks learning the ropes of feeding more than 50 people, while others are professionals with their own restaurants, such as chef Amal Alaoui of Marrakech Express.
The Chow Club cofounders met in the 2010s, when Amanda, a creative strategist and author of Unique Eats and Eateries of Atlanta, volunteered at Yohana’s Atlanta Underground Market, where Yohana and other emerging chefs served meals at “secret” locations. Yohana then prepared a traditional Ethiopian meal for Amanda’s friends, to rave reviews; afterward, the two brainstormed how to keep connecting these two worlds. What if Yohana invited chefs she knew to cook for Amanda’s friends and other culinary explorers? The monthly Chow Club was born, starting at Amanda’s house in 2017 and ultimately expanding to Uptown Test Kitchen near the Lindbergh MARTA station. Today, Yohana also runs Chow Á La Carte there, a micro food hall that features small menus offered by weekly rotating chefs.
I heard about Chow Club four years ago while attending Amanda’s book talk. I was intrigued, but the upcoming dinner was sold out. Instead, Amanda suggested I volunteer. Since then, I’ve helped to serve meals or plate dishes every month I’m in town.
On a memorable evening several Chow Club dinners ago, I arrived at Uptown Test Kitchen to assist with a Botswana Chow, helmed by chef Keletso Thaga, aka Chef Kepla. He perfected his peri-peri wings at his former West End ghost kitchen and now pops up regularly at Chow Á La Carte.
Yohana waved me into the kitchen to start prepping 55 small plates. Like a golfer’s caddie, she assisted Chef Kepla through the first of his five courses of Botswanan cuisine, acting as his kitchen expeditor.
Meanwhile Amanda, who oversees Chow Club’s front of house, called all of us volunteers—ranging from high schoolers to baby boomers—to the dining area to set the tables while she explained the evening’s flow. I teamed up with another volunteer, Raven, to fill ice water glasses before ushering guests to their assigned tables. At Table Four, I stopped to reminisce with a few regulars about Yohana’s Friendsgiving potluck, discussing what we’d make next time.
Chow Club is the best of Atlanta. It’s a foodie’s paradise: Chef Wellington—that’s Wellington Onyenwe, a veteran chef who won Food Network’s Supermarket Stakeout—once prepared a Nigerian-Japanese fusion menu, including thick ramen served in a Nigerian pepper soup, blending his ancestral heritage and travels to Japan. Guests sit at communal tables, arriving as strangers and leaving as friends. Chefs often explain to diners how each course reflects their own family’s culture or traditions.
I prefer to take this all in from the back of the house. From this vantage point, I watched that night as Amanda worked her clipboard like an air traffic controller, directing servers with full platters; as Yohana set up an assembly line to plate each course; as guests cheered on Chef Kepla.
After the dining area emptied, fellow volunteers and I paused to enjoy the leftovers together. I helped clean up, filled Tupperware for tomorrow’s lunch, and left with a full belly and a fuller spirit, already looking forward to my next Chow Club shift.
This article appears in our January 2026 issue.
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Joe Reisigl
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