Here’s How to Do Friends and Family Nights Right

In 2011, Drew Belline and Ford Fry, two of Atlanta’s most revered chefs, got together and opened a restaurant. Despite their combined experience, the soft debut of their California-Italian No. 246 did not go well. “Holy cow, what a nightmare,” recalls Belline of their friends and family. They filled the restaurant with guests they didn’t know. Everybody ordered the lobster. “We were basically figuring out the concept [in real-time]...