Omnivore Atlanta

In this week’s Grazing column I mentioned the April 25 opening of Straits in the building last occupied by Spice on Courtland Street in Midtown. Apparently, I received incorrect information about the location of the Straits of Malacca. This is from Rich Sussman:

Cliff, As a former Peace Corps Volunteer who taught school in Batu Pahat, Johor, Malaysia for 2.5 years, I wish to correct the location of the Straits of Malacca as mentioned in your Grazing column this week.. The Straits of Malacca separate Malaysia from Indonesia (mainly Sumatra). TheStraits of Johor separate Malaysia from Singapore (access over a causeway).Batu Pahat is located about 8km. from Minyak Beku (on the Straits of Malacca) and about 150km from Singapore. Probably more than you wanted toknow, but, why not?

Thanks to Rich. I can never know enough about Malaysian geography.

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I’ve heard rumors that the City of Atlanta is enforcing laws that prohibit restaurant sales of half-price bottles of wine. At least one restaurant has been fined a hefty fee.

The half-price special is a common incentive restaurants offer to increase trade on slow nights, typically Mondays and Tuesdays.

I’ve been unable to confirm this, although it comes from a very reliable source.

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In some restaurants, plating is everything. The original Spice (soon to be Straits) was that way. Each plate was a work of art; unfortunately the components were often rather tasteless.

Then there are others for whom plating seems to have no meaning. That’s not always the case at Grant Central Pizza on Cherokee Avenue, but this dish — risotto with chorizo — has to be the most unappetizing plating I’ve encountered in a long time. I’m not going to say what it looks like to me. I leave it, like a Rorschach inkblot test, for you to make your own associations.

It did taste good, however!

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We dined at the new Vita at Peachtree and Bennett Street Saturday night. This is the new restaurant opened by Tony LaRocco, the original owner of Fratelli di Napoli.

Vita isn’t serving over-sized plates to be shared family-style like Fratelli, but the dish above, chicken scarpariello, certainly would feed two. It’s half a chicken seared in olive oil, then roasted with lots of sausage and served with veggies and potatoes. I couldn’t eat half of it.

We also sampled the gigantic ribeye steak (right), a few appetizers and two desserts. Most of the food was good, the service was better than the usual in town and LaRocco’s redo of the old Mick’s space is luxe.

More in “Grazing” next week.

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Westerners tend to equate Japanese food with sushi, but there is infinitely more to the ancient cuisine than raw fish alone. Hashiguchi Jr. Japanese Restaurant (3400 Around Lenox Road, Suite C520, 404-841-9229) offers a diverse menu of soulful regional specialties that might just divert your attention from the kitschy rolls, tempura and edamame. Located in a strip mall near Phipps Plaza, Hashiguchi is unassuming inside and out, but service is superfast and you’re bound to see plenty of Japanese-American customers — always a positive sign — crowding around the well-worn wooden tables.

Continue reading Cheap Eats.

(Photo and story by Jennifer Zyman)

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Check out William Saletan’s post on Slate to find out how.

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Coney Island Lager
Schmaltz Brewing Company
Saratoga Springs, NY
5.5% ABV

Jeremy Cowan may be dedicated to brewing delicious beer and delicious schtick, but there is nothing corny about Schmaltz’ American amber lager, which breaks the mold of this typically tepid style. Hewing close to the German traditions of Munich and Vienna malts for caramel smoothness and noble Saaz and Hallertau hops for a pleasing floral aroma, this kosher brew is satisfying and delicious. A honey sweetness is perfectly balanced with a fruity tartness of lemon and apple. Easy drinking, as befits a beer celebrating the boardwalk, a portion of the proceeds benefit the Coney Island Foundation.

(Photo by Jeff Holland)

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I bet you didn’t know the Big Mac has become a tool of the homosexual agenda. Now you do. Read the whole story here and, please, forward the link to anyone you know who may be unknowingly passing through a shower of fairy dust as they waddle through the golden arches.

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The good news is that after months of waiting, Holeman and Finch will open tonight at 5 p.m. The bad news is, they do not have their liquor license in hand, even though it was approved last week. So there will be no tasting of Greg Best’s wondrous cocktails, unless by some miracle the license shows up in the next hour. Until that happens, they will be BYOB.

It may be that Shirley just needs to sign the license but she’s too busy. Sign it Shirley, sign it! We want cocktails!

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Remember that scene in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? when Bette Davis (as Baby Jane) prepares Joan Crawford (as Blanche) a big roasted rat for dinner?

It came to mind Sunday while dining at Six Feet Under, which gets this week’s award for the oddest name for an appetizer — “spicy rat toes” (above). We dined at the Memorial Drive location of the restaurant Sunday night and I ate three of these before digging into my usual shrimp and grits (right).

The rat toes are jalapeños stuffed with a whole shrimp and wrapped in bacon. They’re served with a side of ranch dressing, which I totally don’t get. They were tasty enough without salad dressing.

The shrimp and grits were a bit watery but still yummy. They were garnished with some super-fresh asparagus stalks and lots of crispy fried onions.

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Here’s some bad news via an email from “Kali”: “Rare restaurant on Piedmont burned down last night, apparently, and took some of the Midtown Tavern with it. (Which is a shame because the MT was one of those bars that actually cared about having decent food on its menu, and pretty much succeeded.)”

Rare was a charming space that served soul-food tapas. I haven’t been able to get the full story yet, but I hope they’ll be able to rebuild.

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Brad and I lunched on tapas today at one of our high-protein favorites, Eclipse di Luna (764 Miami Circle, 404-846-0449).

Brad, being Catholic, ate only fish, including this tuna, encrusted with black pepper and fennel, served over artichoke salad with caraway oil. He also ordered garlicky sauteed shrimp and a chunk of salmon with roasted red pepper-saffron sauce, topped with crispy slices of serrano ham.

I stuck with land animals: grilled chorizo with figs and honey; a ragout of “pork osso bucco” with white beans and white balsamic molasses; and ribs in a balsamic marinade. Dessert was a slice of key lime pie.

These are still among the best tapas in the city. Our gigantic lunch was barely $30. Ask for Henry, our favorite server.

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Restaurant owners don’t want you shooting their waiters, but they want to be in freedom to covertly poison you with trans fats. Just kidding! Sort of. This is from the Catoosa County News in Ringgold:

The national food fight over forcing restaurants to post nutritional information about their menu items might not make its way into Georgia.

County health departments and local governments would be prohibited from ordering eateries to display calorie counts and fat amounts under a bill awaiting Gov. Sonny Perdue’s signature or veto.

If House Bill 1303 is signed, restaurants will likely breathe a collective sigh of relief over not having to perform costly scientific analyses of their food or negotiate differing requirements in each of the counties they serve.

Restaurant owners make a good case that an analysis of every dish on their menus would be prohibitively expensive and time-consuming, especially with nightly specials. In fact, such ordinances have not fared well elsewhere:

A regulation the New York City Board of Health passed to dictate how restaurants with 15 or more locations nationwide post calorie counts is under a court injunction until April 15, Wolf said. A judge also struck down an earlier version of the New York rule. California and San Francisco have flirted with similar regulations.

But what about an ingredients breakdown? I really would like to know if a dish is made with trans fats or high-fructose corn syrup.

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I don’t get it. Apparently, I live in a state of continual disassociation, because I can’t recall, in more than 20 years of visiting restaurants several times a week, running into out-of-control children. The issue has come up again in the comments section of my post about Tesoro.

I’m guessing part of the problem is simply perceptual. I’m not a parent, so I’m not around children a lot. When I do run into them in restaurants, racing around the room, I find them entertaining and often ask to take their picture. You know: like zoo animals. My presumption is that many people dine out in part to get away from their kids.

My parents took me to restaurants frequently when I was a kid; my mother loved good food. I don’t know that she attempted to cultivate a gourmet’s appreciation, but, hey, I ended up writing about food and one of my brothers owns restaurants. I don’t recall my parents’ practicing any particular behavior to keep me calm. Well, there was the champagne cocktail they ordered regularly for me. Hey, maybe that’s the solution. People should get their kids drunk.

If you Google “restaurants children behavior,” you’ll come up with over 200,000 citations. In fact, ABC news did a piece on the subject just a few weeks ago. A national firestorm occurred after a Chicago restaurateur put a sign on his door that said: “Children of all ages have to behave and use their indoor voices when coming to A Taste of Heaven.”

ABC reports this explanation for the national attention the sign produced:

Meanwhile, Ted, a Taste of Heaven patron who gave only his first name, had his own theory to explain the nation-wide debate touched off by the cafe’s sign.

“It was kinda groundbreaking,” he said. “It’s almost taboo. Children definitely are the one thing that you cannot speak against in our society. They are innately good. It’s like speaking against nuns. You know what I mean?”

The website ehow.com has a list of tips for restaurant owners, parents and other patrons involved in the war to make children more mannerly. One tip goes like this:

Call the restaurant before you go. Ask whether there are high chairs, crayons and a children’s menu. Inquire about their policy for handling noisy, out-of-control children. Explain that you have had bad dining experiences elsewhere because of unruly children. This is also a good time to determine whether the restaurant seems more “child friendly” or more “adult friendly.” Depending on the answers to all those questions, you may want to pick a different place to eat.

Read all of the tips here.

(Photo from http://parenting.eharmony.com.)

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News Flash! Here’s a team we didn’t expect to see: Tom Catherall and Richard Blais. Catherall has hired Blais to take over the kitchen at Home, the new name of Posh (nee Seeger’s) in Buckhead.

Blais started work today. More details as we learn them.

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Buford Highway can be a daunting place to dine if you don’t habla espanol. This is especially true at many Mexican markets on the ever-expanding stretch of ethnic-food nirvana. Sometimes you just have to man up and deal, because these mercados serve some of the most authentic Mexican fare in Atlanta.

Continue reading Cheap Eats.

(Photo and story by Jennifer Zyman)

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Ibiza (2285 Peachtree Rd., 404-352-3081) is hosting flamenco performances on Saturdays after 9 p.m. I suggest you call ahead, since I’ve found the announced time varies from website to website. Here’s a clip of a recent performance. Warning: The noise is more than a little distracting.

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It’s bad enough that fat contributes to diabetes and heart disease, besides diminishing your hotness. Now, according to researchers with Kaiser Permanente, belly fat may also be a contributing factor in the development of dementia:

In the Kaiser study, researchers looked at records from patients in their 40s and 50s who had their abdominal fat measured in the 1960s and ’70s. Of the 6,583 patients studied, 15.9 percent had been diagnosed with dementia by 2006.

Among patients with the most visceral fat in middle age, the rate of dementia was 324.3 cases per 10,000; patients with the least belly fat had a rate of dementia of 214.6 cases per 10,000.

When the data was adjusted for factors that can affect dementia — including age, education, sex, and medical conditions such as stroke or heart disease — people with the most belly fat were 2.72 times more likely to develop dementia than those with the least fat.

Even thin people could be at risk if they have a large pot belly. In the study, patients who were of average weight but in the category with the most visceral fat were 89 percent more likely to develop dementia than people of average weight with little or no belly fat.

Get the whole, depressing story here.

(Image of viscerally fat, demented person from Valid Insanity.)

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Last week, our enlightened General Assembly passed a bill that would allow people with concealed weapons permits to tote their guns into restaurants and other public areas. The bill, which has been in debate for two years, awaits Gov. Sonny Perdue’s signature, but the Georgia Restaurant Association is urging a veto:

Ron Wolf, head of the Georgia Restaurant Association, said his biggest concern is the possibility of more violence.

The bill would allow guns only in restaurants that serve mostly food and bans patrons from consuming alcohol if they are carrying a gun. But Wolf said that is nearly impossible to enforce.

“Are waiters now going to have to ask everyone who orders a drink if they’re armed?” he asked. “Our position is simple. We think it’s inappropriate.”

The legislation also allows restaurants to ban guns, but they must post a sign outlining their policy. Those that do would risk alienating potential customers, said Ron Fennel, director of governmental affairs for the Georgia Hotel and Lodging Association.

“We think it’s worthy of a veto,” Fennel said of the proposal.

Can’t people just stab one another with the knives already on restaurant tables?

(Lovely gun vase available for purchase here.)