Buddha says ‘Howdy, y’all’
November 19th, 2008 by Cliff Bostock in Restaurants
No, it’s not a Buddhist temple. It’s a view of the dining room at Aja (3500 Lenox Rd., 404-231-0001), Tom Catherall’s newest restaurant, located in the space vacated by the disappointing Emeril’s.
The 10-feet-tall, brass Buddha is from Thailand, where Catherall went shopping before the restaurant opened. Interestingly, before the makers would ship it, they held a ceremony to “un-bless” it. Then, when it was installed at the restaurant, local Buddhist monks newly blessed it in a special ceremony pictured in a slide show on Aja’s website. (Go here, skip the intro and then click the Aja button.)
The actual design of the restaurant is by ai3, the same group responsible for Holeman & Finch and 4th and Swift. Aja, named after a Steely Dan tune from the 1970s, follows the design trend set by Buddha Bar, Buddakan and Tao in New York. And menu-wise, it follows the recent explosion of pan-Asian cooking in our city. For Catherall, that’s a return in some ways to his first restaurant, Azalea, which brought our city its first and best taste of Pacific Rim fusion cuisine.
The chef here is William Sigley, whom Catherall hired away from Aquaknox (which Besha reviewed positively in February). Sigley earlier worked in one of Wolfgang Puck’s pan-Asian venues.
We had a terrific meal of some classic Chinese dishes, like rice noodles with pork belly and vegetables (above, right). There are plenty of items from other areas of Asia too. (Sushi and dim sum are available for light eaters.)
Desserts, including this hollowed young coconut with lemongrass granitas and coconut ice cream (above, left), are pure wit and great taste.
I’ll have a full “first look” in next week’s paper.
(Photos by Cliff Bostock)
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