Chido & Padre's Reopens This Spring With New Executive Chef Thomas Goss

Southern Proper Hospitality is excited to announce the reopening of Chido & Padre’s at the end of March and the arrival of the Buckhead restaurant’s new executive chef Thomas Goss. Previously at La Cosecha Mexican Table in New Braunfels, Texas, Goss is passionate about working with local farmers to create a menu of traditional Mexican dishes featuring seasonal and heirloom ingredients.

“I found the idea of bringing an authentic Mexican concept with a fresh twist to Atlanta appealing and I’m looking forward to introducing our guests to the culinary history of different regions of Mexico,” says Goss of his new role.

With Goss helming the kitchen, guests will enjoy a menu of authentic Mexican dishes that hail from the country’s interior states rather than Tex-Mex cuisine. Goss is focused on using ingredients available in Georgia and North Carolina to put a modern spin on traditional dishes from states such as Oaxaca, Puebla and Sinaloa. His dishes include fun twists on traditional recipes like duck sopes, octopus tostada, smoked beef cheek barbacoa and whole fish al pastor. Goss also is offering four different types of scratch-made moles, which he became well versed in after training in Oaxaca, and sourcing his corn and masa flour from Masienda, a company that partners with traditional Oaxacan farmers to grow the highest quality single-origin ingredients.

“When I think of Mexico, I think of it being very lively and colorful and fresh. That freshness is what’s inspiring to me; every dish is created according to what’s available at the moment in that specific region,” he says of his cuisine.

The completely overhauled menu will now feature the following sections: Verduras (vegetables), Cold and Crudo (aguachiles and cold appetizers like guacamole), Antojitos (warm appetizers such as grilled oysters, snapper collar and fundido), Masa (tacos and sopes), and Fuertes (heavier entrées).

Born and raised on a cattle ranch and farm in Colorado, Goss learned to appreciate organically grown ingredients and heirloom seeds at a young age. He worked for several chefs throughout Denver and Fort Collins to pay his way through Colorado State University, where he was studying finance and marketing, but says he truly honed his skills by traveling and staging in other countries.

“I would seek out different chefs with specific skill sets or techniques that I wanted to learn, and that’s how I expanded my knowledge in the kitchen,” he recalls of his time staging in at La Azotea in Sevilla, Spain, and under chef Ana Garcia in Morelos, Mexico.

After college, Goss moved to Texas to work for Landry’s steakhouse division for eight years, opening more than 30 restaurants across the country and a Golden Nugget Casino in Lake Charles. In 2017, he became the executive chef of Fixe Southern House in Fort Worth, Texas, earning several accolades for the eatery, including Fort Worth Magazine’s Best New Restaurant in 2018. He went on to join Wiggins Hospitality Group as a multi-unit executive chef for La Cosecha Mexican Table and McAdoo’s Seafood and Oyster. During this time, Goss also worked in multiple cities in Mexico to learn authentic techniques and develop the menu for La Cosecha. He also trained in craft butchery and charcuterie at Salt & Time in Austin, Texas.

Goss’s travels and culinary training have not only heavily influenced his style of cooking but also how he approaches staff education at Chido & Padre’s. “We are putting a lot of time into training the staff to truly understand this food and the traditional techniques behind each dish, so this level of understanding can be passed along to our guests,” he says.

Chido & Padre’s is located at 128 East Andrews Drive in Atlanta. The restaurant opens at 3 p.m. Monday through Friday and at 11 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday. Free self-parking is available on site. For more information, call 404-848-9100 or visit chidoandpadres.com.