'Bizarre Foods' Creator Tapped To Curate Selig Food Hall

Coconut tree grubs, deep-fried tarantulas and Kazakhstan's horse-rib-and-rectum sausage might not sound like classic Atlanta fare, but the curator of the city's newest food hall knows these dishes intimately.

Celebrity chef Andrew Zimmern — whose "Bizarre Foods" show on the Travel Channel has made daredevils out of foodies — has agreed to help curate the eatery lineup for Selig Enterprises' Chattahoochee Food Works.

Zimmern's restaurant consulting firm, Passport Hospitality, is partnering with noted food hall operator Robert Montwaid on a 16K SF international food hall at The Works at Chattahoocee mixed-use project in Atlanta's Upper Westside neighborhood.

Montwaid established New York's Gansevoort Market, a food hall that features vendors such as a steakhouse, Korean fried chicken, a taqueria, and a Japanese noodle soup and rice dish stand.

“Atlanta and the Southeast in general have a thriving culinary scene with some of the most notable restaurants and the most captivating food culture in the country,” Zimmern said in a release. "At Chattahoochee Food Works, we’re recruiting the region’s top chef talent and setting the stage for them to try new concepts or menu items."

This is not Zimmern and Montwaid's first venture together. The duo collaborated on The Dayton's Food Hall and Market in Downtown Minneapolis.

Chattahoochee Food Works will be housed at The Maker Building in the 80-acre adaptive reuse project called The Works at Chattahoochee along Chattahoochee Avenue. Montwaid told What Now Atlanta earlier this year that the food hall could have as many as 30 vendors, and could be open by 2020.

Scofflaw Brewing announced earlier this year it plans to put a 9K SF taproom in The Maker Building. Officials did not reveal any specific vendors set for the new food hall as of press time.