“BEST FALAFEL: This colorful spot puts a modern spin on traditional Middle-Eastern cuisine and features fresh, seasonal ingredients and well-seasoned, generous portions. Omnivores, vegans, and vegetarians alike can rejoice in the abundance of delicious options.”
“Ben and Jennifer Johnson, Todd Ginsberg, and Shelley Sweet have six-going-on-seven restaurants, and they’re nowhere close to being done. The team debuted The General Muir in 2013, focusing on deli favorites, and the concepts kept flowing: TGM Bread, sandwich-focused Fred’s Meats, Yalla for fresh Middle Eastern fare, and TGM Bagel (and it’s a damn good bagel). What the Johnsons, Ginsberg, and Sweet understand is that diners want exceptional food and polished service at all kinds of price points and locations. They crave community, consistency, and pastrami-spiked biscuits. And that’s what team TGM delivers through all-day dining, a wholesale bakery, fast-casual counters, and its very own micro-food hall. Barbecue is up next. We doubt there’s a format that they can’t tame, monetize, and improve upon, all the while strengthening Atlanta’s and the national restaurant scene.”
Rising Star Restaurateurs, StarChefs 2018 Atlanta Rising Stars
2018
“BEST FALAFEL”
“Falafel at Yalla. Yalla! Let’s go! We’ve got hot falafel here! Chef Todd Ginsberg and crew work wonders with these freshly fried balls of ground chickpea, rightfully bright green thanks to strong doses of cilantro and parsley mixed in.”
100 Dishes to Eat in Atlanta Before You Die, Creative Loafing
April 23, 2015
“Immediately next door to his Krog Street Market sandwich stall, Fred's, is another success from Ginsberg, who's rendering some of the best Middle Eastern food in Atlanta. Soft pockets of pita bread stuffed with shawarma and tender lamb kebabs rolled in flat laffa bread are stunners in this assembly-line setup where customers pick from a host of accoutrements and sauces.”
Christiane Lauterbach, “Fresh on the Scene: Fred's Meat & Bread...”, Atlanta Magazine
February 2015
“I am completely enamored with Yalla in Atlanta—a sandwich counter in the Krog Street food market that does the most amazing shawarmas. The chef is a badass young guy named Todd Ginsberg. Love it. Makes me dream of fast food in all the right ways—in a real food way.”
“The dish didn’t have a name, but the ingredient list read like a head-on collision of a Southern soul food truck and a pita delivery man... This type of collision is not one that would be found in Tel Aviv, or Turkey, or Timbuktu for that matter... only in Atlanta, and only from the mind of a chef trying to make sense of serving Middle Eastern standards in the South in a way that respects both sources of inspiration.”
Brad Kaplan, "Get in Ma Mouth: Pita Edition," Creative Loafing
December 11, 2014
“Falafel made fresh in-house has a crunchy outer shell and a tender mash of garbanzo beans, mint, cilantro, and parsley inside.”
Angela Hansberger, “First Look: Yalla and Fred’s Meat and Bread,” Creative Loafing
January 14, 2015
“I’m a sucker for effervescence: wines that sparkle, mineral waters with lots of bubbles, ginger ales that tickle my throat, Cheerwine. But in general, I detest fountain sodas with secret formulas including chemicals and sweeteners I don’t understand. I have found a kindred spirit in Kathryn Fitzgerald, though, the occasional bartender at the General Muir who spearheads the creative soda program at the restaurant’s Krog Street Market relative Yalla, an Israeli sandwich shop that doesn’t serve alcohol. Fitzgerald makes everything herself, from the raw simple syrup to the cold-pressed juices she puts through a fine-mesh strainer and infuses with fresh herbs such as bee balm, chamomile, basil, sage, and mint. I wouldn’t call what she does mocktails - an industry term for nonalcoholic drinks - because her lively elixirs with yellow watermelon, sea salt, and honey or banana, lime, and vanilla are clearly meant to quench a thirst rather than fuel a bar scene.”
Christiane Lauterbach, “The Christiane Chronicles: Rave-worthy craft sodas,” Atlanta Magazine
December 15, 2014
