Eat Athens: These local restaurateurs are going to cook a different cuisine every week

Andrew Shearer, Athens Banner-Herald
Updated ·2 min read
Kat and Felix Ahmed, owners of Basket Catering, pose for a photo during the first Taste of the World Lunches at Athentic Brewing Co. in Athens, Ga., on Friday, Feb. 2, 2024. Taste of the World Lunches will be held every Friday at Athentic with next week featuring Egyptian food and Trinidad and Southern food in the fallowing weeks.
Kat and Felix Ahmed, owners of Basket Catering, pose for a photo during the first Taste of the World Lunches at Athentic Brewing Co. in Athens, Ga., on Friday, Feb. 2, 2024. Taste of the World Lunches will be held every Friday at Athentic with next week featuring Egyptian food and Trinidad and Southern food in the fallowing weeks.

Know what would be cool? A craft brewery with a food court that gave patrons the opportunity to sample food from all over the world.

Athens is a town full of talented visionaries, so it was only a matter of time before a couple of them made such a great idea into a reality. In the case of Athentic Brewing Company's Taste of the World lunch, the visionaries are an actual couple.

On Friday, local restaurateurs Kat and Felix Ahmed hosted the inaugural Taste of the World, a weekly pop-up inside Athentic that on Fridays from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. will spotlight cuisine from a different part of the world.

If there's a type of food that you can't usually find in Athens, chances are good that the Ahmeds plan to feature it.

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If Kat and Felix look familiar, that's because they've been visible members of the Athens community for more than a decade.

Felix is the owner of Munch Hut Deli & Store, which opened on East Broad Street in 2020. Kat is on the board of directors for the Athens Area Chamber of Commerce and co-founded Munch Hut and BasKat Catering with Felix.

"People are sometimes afraid to try new kinds of food," Felix told the Banner-Herald. "By having our weekly lunches at Athentic, it puts them in a familiar place where they will hopefully be open to having a new experience."

Since Felix is from Italy, he chose Italian food for the first Taste of the World lunch pop-up, and the first few weeks will feature menus inspired by his Egyptian heritage and Kat's Trinidadian heritage.

A plate of Italian food at the first Taste of the World Lunches at Athentic Brewing Co., in Athens, Ga., on Friday, Feb. 2, 2024. Taste of the World Lunches will be held every Friday at Athentic with next week featuring Egyptian food and Trinidad and Southern food in the following weeks.
A plate of Italian food at the first Taste of the World Lunches at Athentic Brewing Co., in Athens, Ga., on Friday, Feb. 2, 2024. Taste of the World Lunches will be held every Friday at Athentic with next week featuring Egyptian food and Trinidad and Southern food in the following weeks.

The current Taste of the World schedule includes Egyptian Kosari (rice and noodle bowl with meat) on Feb. 9, Trinidadian brown stew on Feb. 16 and Southern U.S. comfort food on Feb. 23. For March, Mediterranean and Greek cuisines are planned, and Kat noted that vegetarian and vegan diets can be accommodated upon request. Each lunch entrée will include sides from the respective country of origin.

The Italian plate the Banner-Herald had at last Friday's Taste of the World lunch was $14 for one main dish and two sides, and an extra dollar for a can of soda. We had an order of chicken parmesan and meatballs with spaghetti noodles, baked Tuscan vegetables and a garlic bread roll.

Everything tasted homemade, especially compared with typical Italian fare in Athens that is overly salty, and the portions were a bit larger than one person should eat.

Athentic Brewing Company is located at 108 Park Ave., Athens.

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Eat Athens: Local restaurateurs offer world cuisine on a weekly basis