Chris Hall
Local Three Kitchen & Bar
Hi, I’m Chris, the most rakishly handsome & debonair of the three Unsukay Partners. My story begins right around the corner from Local Three at the Pizza Hut on Collier Road, where I worked as a teenager. Somehow, the magic smell of pepperoni & yeast lured me in and 25+ years later I’m still at it. Either that or I’m just too dense to figure anything else out……So I threw some pizzas and moved up the proverbial ladder, eventually landing while in college at Philadelphia’s famed Lec Bec Fin where I was begrudgingly taught to cook by an angry Frenchman & his minions. It was a kitchen ripe with talent & I was too dumb to be scared so I set off to learning and taught myself how to cook. Some folks, including a few dining critics, claim I never learned to cook, but oh well, I still keep trying. I eventually headed home to Atlanta in search of bourbon and a southern belle, both of whom I'm still in love with to this day. I landed at Canoe on my return to Atlanta & cut my teeth with Gary Mennie, George McKerrow, Ron San Martin & the gang by the river. It was an amazing time at an incredible restaurant and the most formative of my cooking years. But I always knew I wanted my own place. So after meeting Ryan & Todd a fast friendship formed & we began talking about a partnership; the seed for Local Three was born. Years later, we opened Local Three to a swell of critical & guest acclaim & the rest, as they say, is history.
Now I still occasionally cook but I’m in charge of the day-to-day operations of our restaurants. What’s on the menu, who is cooking & serving it, how we’re buying it, along with a multitude of other things. In all honesty, I’m just trying to figure it all out. Really, I’m here to help people much the same as people in my career helped me. I love to coach & mentor and am still entranced by the machinations of the restaurant business.
I’m incredibly honored to participate actively at the Atlanta Ronald McDonald House, the High Museum Wine Auction, and as a founding board member and Vice Chairman of The Giving Kitchen Initiative.
I outkicked my coverage by a long way and have been married to my wife Julie since 2000 and her alter ego Polly Atomic since 2010. I’m a roller derby husband……We live in Smyrna and when I’m not at the restaurants, I’m golfing, crashing around the woods, shooting at things, and generally acting the fool. I like Dusty Rhodes, the Dude, a great bottle of wine, a fine cigar, brown whiskey, pina coladas and getting caught in the rain……But most of all, I’m incredibly grateful for the staff, guest, and friends, old & new, who keep our company going.
Join Chef Hall starting at 4:30 PM Thursday evening during the Club Magnolia's Flying Foods & Cocktails Party for a special array of his specialty items, including Roast Pig at the Magnolia Grill. The Flying Foods & Cocktails Party is a special event held during the Masters Golf Tournament exclusively for daily club members. See the menu for more information.