Open for 14 years now in the historic Thrasher’s Grocery on Boulevard, White Tiger Gourmet has built a reputation as a special Athens restaurant, smoking pork and tofu and making my personal favorite cheeseburger in town (mayo, lettuce, cheese, onions, no ketchup anywhere near the thing). Now its owners are working on a second location, in Watkinsville.
White Tiger Deluxe (the working name, if not the final one) probably won’t be open until 2022, but it’ll occupy the unassuming building at 64 N. Main Street, just off of Watkinsville’s downtown, that most recently held location No. 2 of Wing House Grill and has been a barbecue place before. Right now, there’s a lot of interior work happening, with Tami Ramsay of Cloth & Kind sprucing it up.
Chef-owner Ken Manring says it’s been a long time since he’s been able to serve food on a plate, and that’s his goal here, without getting too far away from what’s made the original restaurant appealing. The space has a drive-through, which he plans to use, and he hopes to add both frozen adult beverages and French fries to the offerings.
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