Omnivore - New Latin bistro opens

We dined at Chiloé Latin Bistro (1950 Howell Mill Road, 404-355-0555) recently. The restaurant, named after an island off the coast of Chile, is located in the building that was most recently Ryan Aiken’s Misto and, before that, Burrito Art. This newest tenant’s menu features food from throughout Latin America, like the ceviche with fried yucca pictured above.

I had my usual experience in Latino restaurants with my camera. Except for two other people, nobody was in the restaurant. I took a couple of snapshots of our food and it wasn’t long before the owner was tableside asking me why I was taking pictures.

“I just enjoy taking pictures,” I said.

“Yes, but why?”

“Does it really matter?” I asked.

“You did not request permission. This is my restaurant,” he replied.

“Well, I’m going to pay for the food. Does it matter if I take a picture, as well as eat it? But, fine, I do it for a blog,” I said, getting very annoyed, as was he.

Then it developed that he’d never heard of blogs. I explained what a blog is.

Wayne, sensing the real problem, interjected that I was not there to steal his menu. This seemed to calm him down. But I was on the verge of leaving.

It didn’t help that our food was mainly mediocre. We both ordered steaks, one Chilean-style and one Argentine-style. The restaurant is also open for lunch. Read more in an upcoming issue of the paper.