Where to start... 

The whole lobster mac-and-cheese?

The sweet tea-braised short rib?

The bourbon list longer than the credits of Ready Player One?

Let's just do this: Yardbird Southern Table & Bar. It's chef John Kunkel's vastly acclaimed, wildly indulgent, farm-fresh, from-scratch Southern restaurant that's earned a James Beard Best New Restaurant nod, among its other laurels. The Miami import opens tonight at Beverly Center. Yay.

It looks like a Craftsman roadhouse collided with someone's Bel-Air vanity barn, with elegant, whiskey-toned furniture below industrial chandeliers, vintage beer taps and walls of reclaimed wood. There's also a big patio for rooting yourself firmly to La Cienega with a big group of friends, which is essentially how we recommend you roll here.

So you can try a lot of different things from the menu. Because the menu has a lot of different things you're going to want to try.

Let's start with a drink, as we so often do around this time. There's an epically long list of bourbons and other U.S. whiskies here and all the ice is hand-cut specifically for the cocktail you choose, whether it be a bacon-infused Old Fashioned (which gets the 2" sphere), a cured Virginia ham-garnished smoked peach cocktail or the Porkchop with bourbon, house dijon syrup, fresh thyme, citrus and unfiltered apple cider (with its 1 1/4" block).

From there, you're going to have to decide which one of the 27-hour brined chicken dishes the table requires. And which of the LA-exclusive dishes you all need to order. For example, there's a whole lobster mac-and-cheese. As well as that sweet tea-braised, long-bone short rib. And a muffaletta salad that gets prepared tableside.

Presumably because we're such a pork town.