Atlas Dining's next menu journeys to America's South

After spending most of 2019 exploring the food of Asia at his global-roaming South Yarra restaurant Atlas Dining, owner-chef Charlie Carrington will take the menu on a whistlestop tour of America's South.

Carrington visited Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama and Texas seeking soul-food inspiration for his Commercial Road restaurant, which changes cuisines every four months.

Burn City Smokers has lent Carrington a smoker and given him a masterclass in low-and-slow barbecuing.

From September 3, he'll serve smoky Texas-style beef brisket, Polish sausage and barbecued turkey breast, the dish that made a convert of the former turkey sceptic on his travels.

He also plans to serve shrimp and grits with wood-oven cornbread, fried chicken and gumbo and a selection of sweet pies, including pecan, key lime and sweet potato.

"We're going to have a bit of fun with it," says Carrington. "We want it to be a bit unexpected without dropping our standards."

The set menu is $70 a head.

Atlas opened in September 2016 and has already explored nine cuisines, with the food of Thailand and China being the latest examples.

Carrington's side project, serving Israeli street-food, has recently undergone a name change from Colours to Lomah (Land of Milk and Honey, a poetic name for what is now known as Israel).

His first outlet, at 202 Commercial Road, Prahran, will reopen on August 26 after a refit. The sequel, at Melbourne Central's Ella precinct, opened in July.