Ben Watters: Blue Atlas

Ben Watters and Rachel Best. the couple behind Blue Atlas
Restaurant and Market in Richmond, Virginia, started their
business and their family during the pandemic.


For Watters, Blue Atlas was born out of his passion for food and
learning how other cultures eat.


"I love being a food dork," Watters told Scott Wise and Robey
Martin during his Eat It, Virginia podcast interview. "If I find
something on Instagram that I've never heard of before, like the
Georgian flatbread we now serve, we both do the deep dive on why
they make it the way they do, why they're using this certain type
of yeast, why they do this with the cheese, and all these cool
components. So that we're learning along."


It's that curiosity which has shaped Blue Atlas into its current
mission.


"We're a shared, small plate experience of global cuisine,"
Watters said when asked to describe Blue Atlas. "We have the menu
broken up into the four regions of the world and we try and
represent them to the best of our ability."


Learn about the couple's journey toward opening a restaurant
during the pandemic, their attempt to balance restaurant
ownership with parenthood, and the meal that helped Ben win
Rachel's heart.


Also on this episode, Scott and Robey share their Best Bites of
the Week, Robey's at Parterre Restaurant in Richmond and Scott's
at Fine Creek Brewing in Powhatan.


See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.