Rising Son and Whoopsie’s owner Hudson Rouse will open Pure Quill Superette on Saturday, June 1.
Pure Quill brings Edgewood a neighborhood market serving everything from chicken and waffles and steak frites to shrimp po’boys and kimchi fried rice. The small building beside Pure Quill will house a bar, which opens later this summer.
Pure Quill takes its name from a song by Pinto Bennett and the Famous Motel Cowboys. Ranchers and cowboys coined the term “pure quill” decades ago to describe something or someone as “authentic” or the “real deal”.
Open daily in the former Chop Shop butcher shop and market, Pure Quill carries on a family legacy through Rouse. His mother’s family ran grocery and hardware stores in Man, West Virginia, for nearly 60 years. His grandfather even sold Vans sneakers in the 1980s at his hardware store because Rouse and his brother loved them.
Rouse asked his son to select the candy sold at the superette. He called the variety of pantry provisions, local products, and grab-and-go items at Pure Quill a “real mash-up.”
“I want to cater to everybody, including kids and the neighborhoods around here. I’ve got everything from Rancho Gordo beans and fresh and dried ramen to Sour Patch Kids and charcuterie,” Rouse said. “It’s a specialty food store with a mix of products I like to use and it’s a snack shack.”
RELATED LINK: Chop Shop transforms into Pure Quill Superette in Edgewood
Like Chop Shop, Rouse and his team will butcher primal cuts of meat on-site at Pure Quill. Look for pork from Riverview Farms and bacon and cured products from Pine Street Market, along with Stone Mountain Cattle Company and Painted Hills Cattle Company beef, game fowl like quail, and frozen-on-the-boat seafood from the Gulf.
Shelves stocked with bouquets of fresh rosemary, Georgia olive oil, and all-natural cologne and bug spray live alongside name brands like Skittles, Duke’s Mayo, Diamond Crystal Salt, and White Lily Flour.
Breakfast will include coffee and espresso and dishes such as vegetable fried rice and a sausage, egg, and cheese sandwich. Rouse will launch breakfast service once the espresso machine for Pure Quill arrives from Switzerland in the next few weeks.
At lunch, expect sandwiches like a shrimp po’boy, a bologna club, and egg salad. The lunch menu also includes dishes like mac and cheese, kimchi and tofu fried rice, and a daily steak frites plate. The chicken frites will feature boneless half chicken cooked on a griddle and sliced like its steak counterpart. Both versions come with fries and sauce made in-house.
“The majority of the food coming out of the kitchen will be hot. But we will have grab-and-go food and things people can reheat at home,” said Rouse. “There will be two salads: a chopped salad with local deli meats and a build-your-own salad with local vegetables.”
People can order food to go or sit inside at one of the diner-style booths beyond the counter. There’s seating for up to 33 people inside the superette.
In addition to beer, non-alcoholic drinks, and sodas, former 8ARM beverage director and general manager, Josh Fryer, helped Rouse curate the wines for sale at Pure Quill.
After sunsetting his pop-up at Georgia Beer Garden earlier this year, Fryer now operates Long Snake wine bar on Wednesday and Thursday nights from Pure Quill. Along with a menu of seasonal dishes, wines sold at the superette are available by the bottle and the glass. Until Pure Quill secures its liquor license, however, Long Snake remains BYOB.
While pitmaster Bryan Furman will continue popping up in the lot between Pure Quill and its future bar, he scaled back his Saturday barbecue gigs here to prepare for the opening of his new Marietta restaurant in August.
“My mom and aunt came in the other day and started talking about how my grandfather was an entrepreneur. He was always thinking about the next thing he wanted to do,” Rouse said of opening the Edgewood superette. “He had a grocery store and a hardware store. He was the town mortician. It was a small town and he carved out niches where he could.”
“I told myself last year that I wanted to say ‘yes’ to more opportunities and make things happen,” Rouse added. “I saw Pure Quill as the next opportunity to support my friends, local farmers, and my community.”
Take a look at the menu for Pure Quill Superette:
1366 Memorial Drive, Atlanta. Open daily. Current hours: 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Regular hours: 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Long Snake wine bar pop-up, Wednesday and Thursday, 6 p.m. to 11 p.m.