Omnivore Atlanta

We visited Top Flr recently and had a great meal, which I wrote about in this week’s Grazing column.

As I mentioned in my column, our server, Patrick Labouff was one of the best servers I’ve ever encountered, and his effect on our experience has had me thinking a good bit about his occupation.

Patrick’s approach wasn’t formal in any way. As a matter of fact, our meal began with what I regarded as a non sequitur. He announced that he was also waiting on a large table celebrating a birthday in the rear of the new downstairs dining room.

“Why are you telling us this?” I asked, fearful it was a way of announcing that we weren’t going to get very good service because of another table’s priority.

He didn’t reply and when he left, I asked Wayne, “What the fuck?”

When he returned, however, he knocked us out with his savvy. (He also said I’d been right to ask him why he was telling us about his other table.)

Wayne has an annoying habit of asking servers for their recommendations. I find that 9 out of 10 times this is a completely pointless exercise. Many servers have not even tasted all dishes on a menu and, even if they have, they invariably make the “safest” recommendations. They rarely know the ingredients.

Of course, this is an infamous problem in ethnic restaurants, where servers invariably assume diners outside their own culture want the most Americanized, blandest dishes possible. But I find the same kind of assumption operating at many mainstream restaurants.

Patrick was just the opposite. He knew the menu in depth, steered us away from some items and directed us toward others, comparing the dishes to one another and the ingredients to those he’d sampled in other restaurants. Along the way, he peppered his conversation with some comments about the Beat poets. (We swapped stories about meeting Allen Ginsberg.) He’s a grad student in economics.

My guess is that some people would find such conversation intrusive. And, had Patrick talked about collecting Hello Kitty items, I’d find the conversation intrusive too. But it was obvious he was responding to us personally rather than inflicting us with information that didn’t interest us.

Maybe the rarity of this has to do with the way servers are regarded in our culture — as temporary workers on their way to something more. I don’t know that I’ve really noticed more passion for food in the work of professional waiters in Europe, but they generally seem more educated about the food they are serving. Maybe that just comes with time. It’s always a shock to go back to a cafe in Madrid or Paris and see the same server year after year.

I don’t have a clue. But it was nice to run into a server with more passion about food than many chefs I’ve met. It really made a big difference in our experience in unexpected ways — by eliciting memories of meals in other places, by connecting good food to a poetic aesthetic, for example. Groovy.

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After 50 years of business, Happy Herman’s has closed. The Cheshire Bridge delicatessen, originally opened by Herman Mitchell, probably provided my first taste of almost-NY-style deli food.

As soon as I got my driver’s license at 16, I began exploring our city in the flashy MG my uncle had given me. During one expedition from our home in Sandy Springs, I discovered Happy Herman’s, to which I ended up returning often for pastrami and corned beef sandwiches.

I also discovered an even better deli owned by Russian immigrants in the old Henry Grady Hotel on Peachtree Street near the Carnegie Library downtown. (I believe it was called the Nosh O’ Rye, but I’m not 100-percent sure.) And I liked Leb’s and Katz’ too. Still, I frequently ended up at Happy Herman’s.

Happy Herman’s was unfortunately also the site of my first experience of being cheated by an adult. One day, I went to the register to pay for my sandwich and handed the cashier $20, which was a hell of a lot of money in the dark ages of my youth.

The man gave me back the wrong change, thinking I’d given him $10. I was adamant that I’d given him $20. So, with a line behind me, he counted every penny in his register plus the coins in an automatic change dispenser. The look on the jerk’s face made it obvious that I’d been right.

But, instead of admitting his error, he blurted some bullshit, claiming that the way coins were stacked in the change dispenser created an optical illusion that coincidentally accounted for the very same amount I claimed he owed me. Or something. The adults in line behind me told him to do the right thing, but he wouldn’t budge. In fact, it was clear he enjoyed cheating me.

I gave up and left. In the ensuing decades, I probably visited the deli five more times with a friend who always insisted we go there. I felt pissed as soon as I walked through the door. Even driving by the place just a few weeks ago still evoked the memory. I earned the money at my part-time job shelving books at the Sandy Springs library for minimum wage. What kind of an adult cheats a 16-year-old?

I don’t take any pleasure in Happy Herman’s closing, but the store has been a lifelong reminder of the way unkind acts, particularly those directed at the trusting, can affect us for years, just as acts of kindness can have longterm salutary effects.

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The best restaurants are the imaginary ones. Last week, Besha wrote about a nonexistent Milan restaurant that won a prestigious award from Wine Spectator magazine.

The New York  Times‘ Stanley Fish has written a column about the matter too.  His first paragraph:

Last week the New York Post’s Page Six picked up on a story that had been widely circulated on the blogosphere. The magazine Wine Spectator was the victim of a hoax when it came out that its “award of excellence” had been given to a restaurant that did not exist. Robin Goldstein, a wine critic who said that he wanted to expose the lack of any foundation for many food and wine awards, had submitted an application that included the menu and wine list of a fictitious restaurant he named Osteria L’Intrepido. Goldstein revealed the hoax within a week or so of the announced award and declared that what he had done proved that “the level of scrutiny” that accompanies such awards is “insufficient.”

Perhaps Goldstein was also in charge of vetting Sarah Palin as John McCain’s running mate.

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I confess I’m a bit cynical about events like Midtown Restaurant Week. The advertised special is three courses for $25 at some very good restaurants. My fantasy, though, is that once I’m seated, the restaurant will find a way to redirect me to spend more money.

That’s not what happened when Wayne and I went to Beleza Wednesday night with our friends Brad and Eric. We were offered three choices for each course and ended up tasting everything. Exotic Brazilian-style cocktails and wine for my companions added to the cost, of course, but there was no pressure to do things differently.

That was not, however, the experience Brad and Eric had the night before when they went to Trois. Things got off to a bad start when an annoying but bearable 15-minute wait stretched out to a famishing 40 minutes.

Then, as soon as they were seated (behind a pillar), the server informed them that while the special $25 menu was available, they might want to know that if they ordered from the regular menu, they would receive complimentary wine.

Rapid arithmetic told the couple they’d save money and eat better ordering from the regular menu. So, when the server came back, they ordered food and selected a bottle of wine.

You know the rest of the story: When the bill arrived, they’d been fully charged for the $45 bottle of wine. They protested and the server said, “Oh, that was for a free glass of wine, not a bottle.” Of course, they would have spent significantly less had they ordered the special menu and a bottle of wine.

Arguably, they should have asked for more details about the wine special. But the details should have been spelled out more clearly to begin with. And when they abandoned the $25 menu and ordered the bottle after hearing about the wine special, the server should have clarified things. Brad writes:

The wine was $45. There was a special wine list that they provided (similar to the small handout menu that is part of the Midtown Restaurant Week) that had all the wines available as part of the promotion. At the top there was a three sentence blurb about how they understood how pinched we all are as a result of the economy and this was their way to help through election day. There was no mention as far as I know of only providing one a glass of wine with one’s entree.

Brad, not the reticent type, got angry and, to Trois’ credit, the cost of the wine was deducted from their meal.

Back to Beleza….

Among the dishes at Beleza I especially liked was a “ceviche blanco” featuring coconut milk, habaneros and cucumber, as well as fish. Roasted beets with oranges, basil and tofu in an orange vinaigrette was also a hit. But my favorite dish here remains the shrimp moqueca, featuring white shrimp in coconut milk with extra-virgin red palm oil, cilantro, cashews and basmati rice.

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ABC News is investigating the role of lobbyists and big-money donors at the Democratic National Convention in Denver. One of its staff was arrested, 1968-style, for photographing senators and their donors as they headed to a private party.

Among ABC’s documentation of excess are pictures of the food the high-rolling Dems are gobbling up. You can check them out here (but you’ll have to scroll through the pictures to find the 3 or 4 pertaining to food). I leave it to you to determine whether the food looks luxuriously decadent.

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Popeyes is re-branding itself. Read about it here.

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Here’s some more good news from the Old Fourth Ward. Cafe 458, whose popular Sunday brunch helps fund programs for the homeless, is opening for dinner 5:30-8:30 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays, beginning Sept. 4.

A spokesperson for the Cafe, whose chef is Johnathan Metellus, said this:

The new dinner menu at Café 458 will feature an eclectic mix of traditional Southern comfort food and American cuisine influenced by tastes from around the world. Dinner patrons can choose a prix-fixe, three-course dinner ($28) or á la carte entrees including Lobster Ravioli, Seared Filet Mignon, and Sunflower- Encrusted Salmon. Diners may bring their own bottle of wine.

On Sundays, Café 458’s will continue to serve signature brunch favorites such as Southern Comfort French Toast, Costa Rican Pancakes, Thai Chicken and Waffles, and the ever-popular Carolina Pulled Pork Eggs Benedict.

During other hours, the restaurant, operated by Samaritan House of Atlanta at 458 Edgewood Ave., provides regular meals to the homeless in a restaurant setting instead of the usual soup kitchen.

I’ve eaten brunch at the Cafe several times. If the dinner menu is as good as brunch, this should be another great dining spot in the same area as Dynamic Dish, Noni’s and Cafe Circa.

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We dined Tuesday night at Stella (563 Memorial Dr., 404-688-4238) and found the place crowded with people playing its weekly trivia game.

For me, though, the big attraction was a special — a thin-crusted white pizza topped with prosciutto and fresh, local figs. It was a bit pricier than the average special — $15 for a single-serving pie — but worth every penny. I could eat one of these daily forever.

According to our very entertaining server, Bria, the special’s appearance is unpredictable, so call ahead to find out if it’s available.

Stella is now open for lunch weekdays, by the way.

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I reported Aug. 1 that the Lamplighter Cafe in Grant Park seemed to be closing.

I now learn from Atlanta Cuisine that Carmen Cappello, the talented chef who left Mix for Sweet Lowdown, which also closed, is now taking over the space. He hopes to be open in early September.

I assume Cappello will be preparing his usual kinky fusion, although I’m told he’ll be featuring — all together now — a farm-to-table menu. Is anyone not doing farm-to-table cooking these days?

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Please stop putting trans fats in the dressing that comes with your pre-packaged chicken Caesar salad. You might also want to provide a fork that isn’t so flimsy that lettuce breaks its prongs.

That is all.

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Vietnamese cuisine is my favorite. I could eat it every day and I’ve been in perpetual mourning since the closing of Bien Thuy, although I like Com very much too.

But Chateau de Saigon (4300 Buford Hwy., 404-929-0034), open only a week, sets a new standard for our city. I’ve eaten there twice already and I’ve barely dented its enormous menu. The chef here grew up with Chinese and Vietnamese parents, speaks both languages and cooks both cuisines. The staff here, including the owner, seems to mainly be American-born Vietnamese, so you’ll get a much more thorough explanation of the dishes here than you do at the usual Vietnamese cafe.

At one dinner, we started with two appetizers unique to this restaurant (top photo). One was strips of spicy pork and a pencil-thin, crispy roll wrapped in rice paper with mint, cucumber and lettuce. The other (foreground of the picture) was ground shrimp fried in a tofu wrapper.

One entree (above, right) was lemongrass beef wrapped in wild betal leaves. (The owner, Jimmy, told us repeatedly that this differed from Com’s dish in that the leaf is “wild, from the vine, rather than from a tree.”) We wrapped the stuffed leaves in rice paper along with vermicelli, herbs and — most wonderful –star fruit and plantains.

We also tried one of the Chinese dishes — flat rice noodles with shrimp, scallops and squid (above, left). The noodles, new to me, were even better than the seafood, although all of it was fresh and flavorful too. There are several pages of noodle dishes, including 17 bun dishes.

If you are going to only one restaurant this week, let this be it. The restaurant is located about a half-mile north of Buford Highway’s intersection with Dresden Drive. It’s in a new strip mall, with several other new Vietnamese cafes and a Latino night club.

I’ll have more to say in “Grazing” soon.

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You’ve undoubtedly heard that Starbucks has closed hundreds of locations and is scrapping its expansion plans.

Meanwhile, Dunkin’ Donuts is going gangbusters, with a massive expansion westward. The company is pushing its coffee, which accounts for 60 percent of its sales, as an inexpensive alternative to Starbucks’ increasingly rococo menu of beverages. Prices overall are 20- to 30-percent cheaper than Starbucks’.

Sunday’s NPR Morning Edition aired a story about the donut chain’s plans. Check it out here.

Meanwhile, next week’s Sunday Morning Edition will feature more donuts:

Have you ever been caught in a sticky situation with a doughnut? Weekend Edition invites listeners to ask questions and share their stories about doughnuts. Paul Mullins, author of the book, “Glazed America: A History of the Doughnut,” will be answering these questions next week, live, on the Weekend Edition Sunday blog. Paul Mullins is an associate professor at Indiana University.

Listeners have already started posting their donut stories here.

Finally, Sunday morning’s show also featured a story on the restaurant Fruition in Denver. It’s expecting Democratic bigwigs attending the national convention to dine there. A restaurant representative gave NPR his menu recommendations for such as Bill and Hillary. Listen here.

*The image was removed from this post.

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We were walking toward Noni’s Italian Deli and Bar (357 Edgewood Ave., 404-915-8679), across from the Executive Car Wash where the staff was spit-shining cars and pumping loud music.

A woman, perhaps 45, dressed in soiled white hot pants and a blond wig askew on her head staggered by us, mumbling.

Wayne turned and said, “Aww, that was sweet. Did you hear her?”

I told him I had.

“It’s not every day a stranger says, ‘How you doin’, darlin’,'” he said.

“Wayne,” I corrected him, “she was drunk and she said, ‘How about a dollar?’”

Which goes to show that if you carry the right attitude and hearing, you won’t mind the rather picturesque folks wandering about this stretch of Edgewood Avenue, four or five blocks west of Boulevard. In any case, owner Matt Rupert has hired a black-clad security man who can protect you from panhandlers in hot pants. Honestly, I find the surroundings entertaining and, in any case, there’s parking behind the new restaurant. Look for the driveway on the west side of the building.

Fair disclosure requires that I report that I’ve known Matt for some years. In fact, he was our server at Cava when we had a knock-down-drag-out battle about remodeling Unabomber Acres, our mountain casita. Matt’s the co-founder of the Big Gay Supper Club and he recently completed a master’s degree in French. He’s a very talented, funny and smart young guy. My recollection is that he also plays piano. Maybe he can perform as Noni’s lounge lizard as well as its owner and chef.

Read the rest of this article here.

(Photo by James Camp)

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Friday was a good day for eating. I met my friends Brad and Todd for lunch at JCT (1198 Howell Mill Rd., 404-355-2252). It’s in the same development that hosts Bacchanalia, Star Provisions, Figo and Taqueria del Sol.

All of the restaurants seemed to be packed, so that finding a parking space was an ordeal. Actually, getting there was an ordeal too. I took 17th Street, which runs from Peachtree through Atlantic Station, to Howell Mill.

As usual, the intersection of 17th and Howell Mill was a damn nightmare, with traffic backed-up all the way to Northside Drive. There’s no stop sign on Howell Mill there, so it can take a good 10 minutes or longer to get through the intersection. It’s another example of terrible planning by the city. The 14th Street bridge over the connector is gone, so a lot of westbound traffic is diverted to 17th Street. You’d think they would have thought to install a light or a stop sign.

Lunch at JCT was good. I had sauteed shrimp over creamy grits (above). Brad had iceberg lettuce with shrimp and Todd ordered a roasted-pork sandwich. Portions were on the small side, so Todd and I ordered dessert — chocolate fried pies for him and gingerbread pudding with lemon curd for me.

We had a great server, a young woman from Latvia.

Friday night, Wayne and I went to Dynamic Dish, where we shared our table with a cluster of pineapples. We’ve been eating here at least once a week and Friday’s meal was as exceptional as usual. An asparagus soup made with celeriac broth and a bit of creme fraiche was tangy and fragrant. We both ordered the day’s sandwich — a Reuben made with tempeh, sauerkraut and Russian dressing. On the side, we had a bowl of local black-eyed peas with butter. They were yet another lesson in the value of simplicity when ingredients are first-rate.

Honestly, I consider Dynamic Dish the best restaurant to have opened in our city in the last year. Owner/Chef David Sweeney’s cooking has no equal here.

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Midtown Restaurant Week kicks off this Saturday, Aug. 23, and runs through the following Saturday. It’s your chance to eat three courses at some of the city’s notable restaurants for only $25.

To see the list of those participating and to make a reservation — and you should make a reservation — click here.

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It takes months to make this fabulous farm-to-table dessert at Zuni Cafe in San Francisco.  I predict that this will become a trend that sweeps the nation’s restaurants. Click here.

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This is from Doug Rosenbloom:

Cliff: To borrow a phrase from one of your recent posts, I ventured from my “usual
intown dining zone” to Buckhead last night for a co-worker’s birthday dinner at Nava. The hostess did not disappoint with Buckhead snobbery, and the kitchen thrice-destroyed my friend’s lamb rack. The third time they brought it out well-done instead of medium-rare as requested, my friend just gave upand ate the overpriced gyro meat. Our hapless server (think Steinbeck’s Lennie) was harmless, but entertainingly aloof.

My first visit to Shaun’s however, exceeded all expectations (except dessert, which was above average). The friendly service, wine selection, and food was so fantastic we overlooked the slow kitchen. I’ll be going back to Shaun’s, which is comfortably in my “usual intown dining zone.”

Oh my! I haven’t thought about the over-sized, foot-dragging Lennie Small of Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men since high school. Lennie, mentally disabled, has a bad habit of killing soft, cuddly things, including women, by stroking them just a wee bit too enthusiastically. His heart’s desire is to tend a flock of bunnies but he ends up taking a bullet instead.

Buckhead is full of such people, of course. Y’all carry your guns.

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What a wonderful errand I had this afternoon. I drove to an endodontist near the intersection of Powers Ferry and Windy Hill roads in East Cobb County to get a root cana