McKendrick's Steak House in Dunwoody has a new executive chef. Branden Holte started in June and is rewriting the menu around the restaurant's 31-year-old steak program.

Holte, an Atlanta native with more than 20 years of kitchen experience, was brought in by operating partner Anthony Casiello. The two worked together at Warhorse Atlanta, where they co-opened Seahorse, a 28-seat sushi omakase restaurant.

Holte told the What's Up Dunwoody podcast on Monday, Sept. 7 that the restaurant's signature beef is untouched. "The steak program has not changed at all. Same cuts, same purveyor," he said. McKendrick's still sources Linz Heritage Angus beef from Meats by Linz, which breeds and controls the cattle from farm through its own dry-aging room.

What has changed is almost everything else.

Holte replaced two competing cold tuna appetizers with a single tuna tataki made with wasabi mayonnaise, chili crisp, fried pickled red onions, sesame and shoyu. The dish became one of the restaurant's best-selling appetizers. The old hot appetizer towers gave way to traditional cold seafood towers featuring oysters, shrimp cocktail, colossal crab meat cocktail and fish pâté.

He also introduced a fish preservation program. Unsold fresh fish gets salted on the third night, rinsed, confited and turned into fish dip or tuna rillette. Off-cuts become tuna salad on the lunch menu, made with house tuna mayonnaise from preserved tuna, egg yolks and confit oil.

At the bar, McKendrick's launched a "Rush Hour" menu served from 4 p.m. to about 6 p.m. It includes a burger not available the rest of the evening and rotating test dishes. On the Monday, Sept. 7 podcast, Holte said he ran a steak fry topped with bulgogi-style steak charred on the wood-fired grill, finished with kimchi, scallions and cilantro.

Holte grew up in Gwinnett County and trained under Chef Pano Karatassos at Kyma before developing a whole-animal butchery and charcuterie program at Bull & Beggar in Asheville, N.C. He spent five years as executive chef at Under the Cork Tree in Sandy Springs and rose to culinary director and director of operations for Succulent Hospitality. His mother used to bring him to McKendrick's when he was in culinary school because it was close to her work, Rough Draft Atlanta reported.

Rough Draft Atlanta reported on Aug. 2 that planned additions include in-house butchery, house-made bread and closer ties to local farmers and producers. A dry-aged steak is already on the menu as a test run, and a rotating steak of the day changes based on supply, Holte said on the What's Up Dunwoody podcast.

Claudia and Doug McKendrick founded the restaurant in 1995 at 4505 Ashford Dunwoody Road in the Park Place shopping center, according to a Metro Atlanta CEO report marking the restaurant's 30th anniversary. The core kitchen and front-of-house staff stayed through the chef transition. McKendrick's has won the Wine Spectator Award of Excellence every year since 2003.

McKendrick's serves lunch Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and dinner Monday through Thursday from 5 to 9 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 5 to 10 p.m. The restaurant is also adding a pre-packaged Thanksgiving takeout option for 2026, with pickup the Wednesday before the holiday.