Omnivore Atlanta

PRETTY IN GREEN: The dining room at WaterHaven

It’s hard to believe that restaurants are still opening in Atlanta. The withering economy has devastated many, especially fine-dining spots, but newcomers keep popping up.

Two such restaurants are WaterHaven (75 Fifth St., 404-214-6740, www.waterhavenatl.com) in Technology Square and 5 Seasons Brewing Westside (1000 Marietta St., 404-875-3232, www.5seasonsbrewing.com). Both feature menus of “contemporary American” cuisine at fairly moderate prices. Both make noises about organic food and sustainability. And both were open less than two weeks when I visited.

I’ll save the best for the last. That means I’ll start with 5 Seasons, which is the spawn of a popular restaurant and brewery of the same name in Sandy Springs. Owner Dennis Lange and chef/owner David Larkworthy, with the help of brewmaster Crawford Moran, also opened a location in Alpharetta two years ago.

Continue reading “First Look: 5 Seasons Westside and WaterHaven”

(Photo by James Camp)

Bookmark to:

In this economy, nothing succeeds day-to-day like the formula of the neighborhood pub: good food, low prices and lots of booze.

That — and quite a crowd — is what you’ll find most evenings at P’cheen (701-5 Highland Ave., 404-529-8800, www.pcheen.com). The restaurant opened three and a half years ago and, in retrospect, probably deserves classification as one of the city’s first gastropubs.

Continue reading Grazing.

(Photo by James Camp)

Bookmark to:

BIRD'S-EYE VIEW: The roast chicken at Sweet Auburn Bistro

“Happy Cinco de Mayo,” the apparent manager of the restaurant said to us soon after we were seated.

“Where’s the mariachi band?” Wayne asked.

“I’m afraid I have no Mexican food and no mariachi band – just Sirius Radio,” he replied. We cheered. In years past, we’ve paid big bucks to convince mariachi bands to cease performing their 500 verses of “Besame Mucho” at our table. We could handle the radio’s salsa tunes.

Actually, we were at the new Sweet Auburn Bistro (171 Auburn Ave., 404-525-5810) to avoid the Cinco scene altogether. We were much happier eating executive chef Glenn Law’s Southern cooking than the miserable Tex-Mex crap slung around the city’s kitchens every Cinco de Mayo. When the music turned to jazz, we were happier still.

Continue reading “Grazing: First Look: Sweet Auburn Bistro”

(Photo by James Camp)

Bookmark to:

Here’s a question and some tales of days gone by.

In last week’s Grazing column I mentioned that Calavino Donati has opened Calavino’s Soul Kitchen inside My Sister’s Room, a lesbian bar, in East Atlanta Village.

That prompted Calavino to respond:

Yes, we are serving my menu out of My Sister’s Room in East Atlanta (right next to the Glenwood) but, it is no different setting/atmosphere/food wise than the Roman Lily Cafe was. I am gay, my restaurants are not, they have and will always be for anyone that’s hungry and wants me to feed them.

I am curious if people think it was inappropriate for me to mention that the setting is a lesbian bar during hours the restaurant is not in operation. I would not, analogously, mention that a restaurant was mainly patronized by black people, but I have rather frequently noted that people whose first language is English may find themselves alone at an Asian or Hispanic restaurant.

Years ago, when I was spending nearly half my time in San Francisco, I wrote about a taqueria near the Castro District. It was full of life-size sculptures in the Day-of-the-Dead style and served really great food.

I received several enraged e-mails from readers who took me to task for not warning them that it was a restaurant mainly patronized by gay people.

Closer to home, a full-service restaurant operated inside a gay bar in Midtown Promenade for a while. At the time, I was doing a weekly gig on WGST Radio and I joked that it might be a good place for Rev. Charles Stanley, the pastor of First Baptist Church, to visit since he could dine there without worry of being sexually harassed.

The good Reverend, as head of the Southern Baptist Convention, had called AIDS God’s plague on homosexuals. He was also at the time living a quite hypocritical life. His wife had filed for divorce because of his alleged sexual indiscretions. Stanley did not permit divorced people to serve as deacons in his church but refused to step down when his own divorce, which he fought for three years, occurred.

My comment caused an avalanche of angry calls to WGST. Sean Hannity, who was working at the station then, replayed my comment throughout his show, milking the controversy for every drop of homophobic Christian venom he could. I ended up quitting the gig after I began getting calls to appear on shows all over the country. It was not my idea of a fun career move.

So, I’ve wrestled with the question whether to mention a restaurant’s gay setting ever since these two experiences.

Should I have mentioned that Calavino’s Soul Kitchen is inside a lesbian bar? Is this now a non-issue, as Wayne argues?

Bookmark to:

GREEN WITH ENVY: The pea soup at Livingston

Atlanta is not a city that’s been kind to its own past. Having made the mythological Phoenix its logo to describe its own recovery from the fire of the Civil War, the city has been on a constant rebuilding campaign ever since.

I’m not talking about antebellum architecture alone – most of that was indeed destroyed in the war – but much of the architecture of the early 20th century has been razed, too. I well recall in the 1970s that Southern Bell planned to purchase and destroy the Fox Theatre to build its headquarters. Only a last-minute effort by an organization of preservationists, Atlanta Landmarks, saved it.

The hotel across the street, the Georgian Terrace, is actually older than the Fox, which opened in the ‘20s as a Yaarab shrine. The Georgian Terrace opened in 1911 and is famous for hosting guests of the 1939 premiere of Gone with the Wind.

The hotel has been up and down over the years, at one point becoming apartments. It is now at the end of an expensive renovation that has turned public areas, at least, into breathtaking spaces. This includes the new restaurant, Livingston (659 Peachtree St., 404-897-5000), named after Livingston Sims, Atlanta’s mayor from 1901 to 1903. According to press material, Sims was an avid gastronome and the Georgian Terrace was built on the site of his home.

Continue reading “Grazing: First Look: Livingston”

(Photo by James Camp)

Bookmark to:

I was beside myself. The woman behind the counter at Taqueria El Sori inside Fiesta Foods (2839-2863 Buford Highway) extended me a little Styrofoam cup, repeating the words “rico, rico.”

I took the cup and speared a piece of the meat with my fork. The outer layer of skin was slightly springy and covered with a relatively thick layer of fat that melted in my mouth as I chewed. But there was also a bit of meat clinging to the morsel. It was moist with peppery broth and slightly chewy, flooding my mouth with the taste of fresh pork. I speared a chunk of green chile in the broth in which the meat was cooked. It was mildly hot and almost sweet.

Continue reading Grazing.

(Photo by James Camp)

Bookmark to:

LOOKING FOR A DONOR: Tierra's Dan Krinsky

I’m back to pizza this week, but first, I want to cite some important news in Atlanta’s culinary community. Dan Krinksy, co-chef and owner of Tierra with his wife, Ticha, is in need of a kidney donor.

Krinsky was diagnosed with polycistic kidney disease, a genetic disorder, about six years ago. He has been seeking a donor for two years and although he’s had seven offers, none of them turned out to be a match. He is now undergoing dialysis three times a week.

His blood type is O, the most common, so the competition for a donor kidney, including a cadaver organ, is intense. He prefers a living donor because, he says, cadaver kidneys are not as reliable over the long term. Recent research has concluded that donating a kidney does not affect health or life expectancy.

All donor costs will be paid by Krinksy’s insurance company. Recovery from the laparoscopic surgery is usually about two weeks.

Continue reading “Grazing: Tierra’s Dan Krinsky needs a kidney”

(Photo by James Camp)

Bookmark to:

MMMMM, CHARRY: The Margherita pizza at Varasano

Enrico Liberato is the new chef, the pizzaiolo, at Fritti. Like everyone else obsessed with pizza in our city, he had to visit Varasano’s Pizzeria (2171 Peachtree Road, 404-352-8216) in the new sky-scraping Mezzo building in Buckhead.

Varasano’s, in case you’ve been living contentedly under your homemade Chef Boyardee pizzas, has received more media buzz than any restaurant in memory. Jeffrey Varasano, the restaurant’s owner, became something of an Internet celebrity after he moved to Atlanta and began blogging his efforts to re-create the pizzas he ate regularly in New York City.

Food bloggers have been singing his praises for at least a year. And the New York Times and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution both ran major feature stories about him on July 2, 2008, after the writers attended one of the private parties he frequently hosted at his home.

These parties were rather like public scientific experiments in which Varasano attempted to make perfect pizzas with his electric oven. They also, of course, were brilliant marketing for the restaurant, creating such anticipation that Varasano’s Pizzeria was effectively given rave reviews before it even opened.

Continue reading “Grazing: First Look: Varasano’s Pizzeria”

(Photo by James Camp)

Bookmark to:

“Excuse me while I go to the restroom,” I told Wayne.

“Again?” he replied.

It was my third visit during our meal at Spoon (749 Moreland Ave., 404-624-4713) in East Atlanta. This Thai restaurant has been opened by the same people who operate Spoon on Marietta Street in West Atlanta.

My continual visits to the bathroom had nothing to do with the usual reasons. I was already weeping and sneezing 24 hours a day because of pine pollen. But Spoon’s very spicy food had caused my sinuses to evacuate and my eyes to water even more. I had to run to the bathroom repeatedly to blow my nose with the intensity of a trumpet solo.

Honestly, I love hot food and I wince when I hear diners whining to servers that they don’t eat spicy. (“Then, why are you here?” would be the appropriate response.) But this Spoon, like the original, challenges my own tolerance. You have three choices – “medium spicy,” “hot” and “Thai hot” – and even the medium is capable of causing your mouth to sizzle.

Continue reading Grazing.

(Photo by James Camp)

Bookmark to:

HERE COMES THE SUN: The sunchoke agnolotti at Restaurant Eugene

It’s been about five years since Linton Hopkins opened Restaurant Eugene (2277 Peachtree Road, 404-355-0321). During my first visit — before the restaurant had received much press — I showed up dressed in my usual slothful way, direct from the gym, as I recall. Wayne was similarly attired.

As soon as we walked through the door of the restaurant, we felt out of place. Nearly every man in the dining room was in a coat and tie. We were jetted to a table in the bar area, where we would not spoil the view for the crowd of old-line Buckhead residents. (OK, actually, we didn’t have a reservation and the hospitable Gina Hopkins, Linton’s wife, fit us in.)

I’ve only returned to the restaurant a few times since then, switching my allegiance to the wonderfully zany Holeman and Finch, the gastro-pub that Hopkins opened next door for drinking and snacking. Not the least of my motivations, too, was price. The menu at H&F is mainly small plates of Southern-inspired comfort food while Eugene’s pricey menu offered more traditional meals made with brilliant, wallet-draining attention to detail

Continue reading “Grazing: Restaurant Eugene reinvented”

Bookmark to:

INSERT SCATOLOGICAL HUMOR HERE: The chocolate spasm at Social Vinings

There are certain things one doesn’t expect to see these days and among them are new, huge restaurants with fairly pricey menus. But that’s exactly what Social Vinings (3621 Vinings Slope Dr., Suite 4100, 770-432-9772) is.

Of course, it’s true that Paul Albrecht (of Pano’s and Paul’s fame) and his son Patrick have struggled to get Social open for a year – before the economy began its unprecedented dive toward Ramen noodles and canned soup. Social joins their other restaurant, Paul’s, as part of their Great Food Group. (A third is planned next year, like Paul’s, in Peachtree Hills.

The new restaurant is located in the Vinings Main development. It is 6,500 sq. ft. with a large bar space, a dining room replete with a sushi bar and several private dining rooms. It was open only a few days when I visited and a sign had not even been installed.

The restaurant’s website describes the décor as “a combination of old European style such as heavy wood and plaster-like textures to burgundy-colored glass and some iron work.”

Um, okay, but to me, it looked like a gigantic, relatively barren hotel restaurant with more windows than the Crystal Cathedral. It’s nice that you can tuck yourself away in a comfy booth and have a conversation, but the ambiance is really chilly. Perhaps the fact that the place was virtually empty when we visited contributed to that effect.

Continue reading Grazing: A first look at Social Vinings

(Photo by James Camp)

Bookmark to:

Decades ago, in my early 20s, I lived around the corner from Peachtree Battle Shopping Center. I was married, paid $85 a month to rent a house and drove a VW bug, whose upkeep I could not afford. I remember regularly rolling the battery in a grocery cart to a nearby service station for recharge.

Peachtree Hills was in the early stages of “gentrification” at the time. In the years since, it’s become basically a suburb of Buckhead and the shopping center, home to a lot of restaurants, now seems quaint in its design, compared to the mixed-use brick developments that are popping up everywhere.

And “quaint” is a word I’d use to describe Café Lapin (2341 Peachtree Rd., 404-812-9171), which could be a cross between the Magnolia Tea Room at Rich’s and the original Violette. Walls are peach, cakes and other desserts are displayed in the center of the restaurant with flowers, and most of the crowd during my two visits has been very old-style Buckhead. I’m talking pearls, mellifluous Southern accents and gales of compliments whenever anyone from the kitchen visits a table.

They have the fake cut-glass plates, too. The only thing missing is a baby grand piano.

Café Lapin has been opened by Mattie Hines who also owns Le Lapin Café in the Atlanta Decorative Arts Center. The restaurant serves all three meals every day of the week, except Sunday when only breakfast and lunch are served.

Continue reading Grazing: Cafe Lapin.

(Photo by James Camp)

Bookmark to:

It’s always something. There we were at Shaun’s (1029 Edgewood Ave., 404-577-4358), enjoying a three-course meal for $12, when the Most Obnoxious Human Being on the Face of the Earth presented himself to his friends at a nearby table.

He was about 100 years old trying to look 25 – the approximate age of the companion he had in tow. Inebriated, he was a high-volume, seething mass of contradictions. One moment he was whining about the recession and then, as if trying to practice positive thinking in the next moment, he boasted about a new client. A woman rushed over and, gazing at the whiner’s young companion, gasped, “You’re just stunning…..stunning. You’re just…”

I looked at Wayne. “You’re stunning,” I said. “Give me one of those meatballs.”

So it always seems to go when I visit Shaun’s. I love the food and hate the people. Actually, I always run into people I do like, along with fugitives from the photo sections of magazines like Jezebel. Are you going? Wear black, dental veneers and hair gel. Drink lots.

As far as I can figure, Shaun Doty must be depending on wine sales to make money at his new Sunday pasta night. At $12 per person, for a big plate of pasta with salad and dessert, it’s the best recession-busting meal I’ve encountered in our city. And this ain’t the spaghetti supper you ate in the church basement cafeteria on Wednesday nights as a kid. (more…)

Bookmark to:

SMOKE-FREE: The Glenwood's new dining room

The advent of the gastro pub has brought us good food and lots to drink under one roof for usually good prices. But it’s also created a health hazard. I’m talking about second-hand smoke.

Because most of these places qualify as bars, smoking is permitted under the law. Indeed, there’s even the case of the Vortex, which converted its official designation from restaurant to bar in order to let people respire carcinogens. Every gust of laughter in such places turns into a fit of coughing.

Of course, this isn’t much of an issue where the food is really secondary to boozing. But there are places, like the Glenwood (1263 Glenwood Ave., 404-622-6066), where the food is good enough that they attract serious diners who would rather not have to shower and wash their clothes as soon as they get home.

The Glenwood, happily, recently opened a smoke-free dining room that also includes a new wine bar. This is not a grudging accommodation. The new area is separated by sliding glass doors and has its own ventilation system. You won’t catch a whiff of smoke once you’re inside. (more…)

Bookmark to:

FILL 'ER UP: The dining room at Leon's Full Service

Every time I go to Decatur, I feel like I’m an extra in a movie set in a small town. Friendly people pace the sidewalks with their friendly dogs or head to friendly coffee shops like Java Monkey, where a poetry reading was underway Sunday night when we passed by. Really, in Decatur, I feel like Mr. Rogers.

Please, won’t you be my neighbor? I’ll buy you big mugs of draft beer at Leon’s Full Service (131 E. Ponce de Leon Ave., 404-687-0500) and feed you slightly strange food. It’s a beautiful night to get wasted in this neighborhood.

Actually, I don’t drink, but Wayne makes up for that. And he had plenty of company during our Sunday night visit. Leon’s, open about 10 days, was packed with a 30-minute wait for a table.

This new gastropub has been opened by the same folks who own the nearby Brick Store Pub. The name derives from its original use as a gas station. Although at least two retail businesses preceded this latest use, there’s still a faint ambiance of the filling station, mainly in the large windowed garage door. But most gas stations don’t have a boules court right outside the door, as Leon’s does. (more…)

Bookmark to:

MISO HUNGRY: The dining room at Miso Izayaka

I received a small but noisy flurry of emails last week from foodies who went to the opening of Miso Izakaya (619 Edgewood Ave., 678-701-0128), a Japanese gastro-pub that has seemed to be on the verge of opening for months.

But when it finally opened last week, first-timers were disappointed to find that the izakaya, which takes its name from “sakaya” for “sake shop,” didn’t yet have a license to serve alcohol and was only serving sushi. Before I visited later that week, I called the restaurant and asked if it was serving its full menu yet. I was told that it was.

When I got to the restaurant, I asked again at the front door. “Are you serving your full menu?” I was again told “yes” and so we were seated. I did indeed find that small plates, the main feature of an authentic izakaya, were being offered, along with two entrée-style dishes. But I did not find the promised grilled, skewered items – the yakitori – or any ramen dishes. (more…)

Bookmark to:

TORTILLA FLAT: The tacos at Luna Nueva

“I am from India,” the man who owns Luna Nueva (1150-B Euclid Ave., 404-521-3555), a new Mexican restaurant in Little Five Points, announced by way of introducing himself. “And my wife is from Iowa.” He whipped out his iPhone and showed us her picture.

He explained that the two of them were in Mexico City when they dined at a very popular restaurant that, it turned out, had lost its lease. “So,” he said, “I asked the chef, ‘Why don’t you come back to America with us?’” The chef, Jorge Villarreal, had worked in the States before, and accepted the offer.

Luna Nueva would be a strange place even without its odd multicultural management. It’s in the original space occupied by La Fonda and was Miro’s Garden after that. The latter turned La Fonda’s sunny decor gloomy with dark paint and very low lighting, and little has changed in that respect. The space makes me sad, anyway, because it features a fountain by Christine Sibley, the late artist who was my neighbor for several years. (more…)

Bookmark to:

COMFORT ZONE: The boneless beef shortrib with horseradish cottage cheese at Serpas

“May I see your ID?” our server, Jason, asked.

Wayne and I looked at one another, incredulous. “Are you kidding?” I asked. We were paying for our meal — not buying alcohol — and in more than 20 years of reviewing restaurants and paying with a credit card, I’ve never been asked for my ID.

Jason grimaced and said, no, he wasn’t kidding. We handed him our IDs and he studied them closely, comparing them to our credit cards. Then he announced that all was well. Yay! We got to pay for our meals and we didn’t have to go to jail!

We were at the newly opened Serpas (659 Auburn Ave., 404-688-0040) in the mixed-use Studioplex in the Old Fourth Ward, which has become a favorite location for new restaurants. This may be the most ambitious undertaking in the neighborhood so far. (more…)

Bookmark to:

HOW SWEET IT IS: The peekytoe crab cake at Market

Remember when “chain restaurant” referred to McDonald’s and Burger King? Stand on any corner in just about any city and you’ll see at least two members of fast-food chains facing one another. These days, they all seem to be competing by offering lunch specials that will feed a family of 10 for $3.50.

Now you can stand in Buckhead and see expensive gourmet chain restaurants staring one another down. Among the latest to open is Market in the W Buckhead (3377 Peachtree Road, 404-523-3600). It’s across the street from Craft. Both restaurants are part of New York-based chains owned by big-name chefs — Tom Colicchio in the case of Craft and Jean-Georges Vongerichten in Market’s case.

This is Vongerichten’s second Atlanta restaurant. His other venue here, Spice Market, opened in early 2008 at the W Hotel in Midtown and features mainly Asian flavors. (He also operates a Market in Paris.) The newbie’s menu, while also includes some Asian flavors, is described as a compendium of “greatest hits” from Vongerichten’s popular New York restaurants including JoJo, Vong and Jean Georges.

Market’s interior was designed by Karim Rashid, well known to New Yorkers for his ultra-modern, slightly Jetson work in multiple disciplines. The operative word here is curvilinear. I’m sure you’ll find a straight line somewhere in the two-level restaurant, but it won’t be easy. Some of the super-graphics remind me of those biomorphic psychedelic projections you used to see on stage when groups like Jefferson Airplane performed. You remember those, right? Picture yourself inside a very colorful lava lamp. (more…)

Bookmark to:

GROUP EFFORT: It was a packed house at the new Tin Lizzy's in the days following John Henderson's murder.

The Grant Park community has been in a mixture of sadness and anger since the killing of bartender John Henderson at the Standard on Memorial Drive Wednesday, Jan. 7.

As has been widely reported, John was closing the bar with fellow bartender Ashley Elder when four young men broke through the front door. They shot John once in one leg and, as they were leaving, fired shots through the door of the office where the two bartenders were left. A bullet struck John in the head. He died a few hours later at Grady Memorial Hospital.

Wayne and I are regular customers at the Standard and John waited on us many times. He was a funny, energetic man. Like many others in the neighborhood, we felt like we were in a nightmare during the few days following the shooting. We were at the Standard last Monday for its regular curry special and the mood of the pub was subdued but it was good to see it busy. The front room was filled with flowers, candles and notes commemorating John.

Apart from the sheer grief, there’s also concern about the increasing crime in Grant Park and the city in general. Wherever we dined in Grant Park last week, people were talking about John and the need for better police and private security. The murder at the Standard was exceptional but the armed robbery was not.

One thing seems certain, though. The event isn’t keeping people from dining in the neighborhood’s restaurants. In fact, we’ve had waits at the newest spot to open, Tin Lizzy’s Cantina (415 Memorial Drive, 404-554-8220). Tin Lizzy’s, the child of a Buckhead restaurant with the same name, is located in the space recently vacated by Six Feet Under, which has moved to a larger space half a block away.

Not much has changed about the space that I noticed. There’s still a large and very crowded bar. The interior architecture is unchanged. The restrooms are still too small.

I was prepared to hate Tin Lizzy’s. (more…)

Bookmark to:

LET THEM EAT PIE: The "Founder's Pizza" at Pizza Fusion

“Are you here for gluten-free pizza?” the young woman at the door of Pizza Fusion (2233 Peachtree Road, 404-351-9334) asked us.

“Of course,” I said. “Isn’t that the main selling point about this place?”

“Well,” she said, “I need to tell you that we have sold out of the gluten-free crust.”

Wayne and I looked at one another and gasped. The young woman tilted her head and cooed, “I’m so sorry.”

Actually, neither of us has celiac disease, the intestinal disorder for which a gluten-free diet is prescribed. It’s common. As many as one in every 133 Americans can’t digest gluten, a protein in wheat, barley and rye. Gluten also occurs frequently as a secondary ingredient in all sorts of products.

The increasing diagnosis of the disease has caused many restaurants to add gluten-free dishes to their menus or, like Shaun’s, to sponsor regular dinners for people with celiac disease.

But Pizza Fusion is, as far as I know, the only restaurant in town to offer gluten-free pizza, at least when they have it. Two days after our visit, the restaurant was still waiting for a shipment of the mysterious flour necessary to make the gluten-free crust.

But Pizza Fusion, a franchise out of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., also advertises itself as “green.” Vegetables are mainly organic. Meats and poultry are free of chemicals. The restaurant’s interior is built from recycled this and that. You can recycle your pizza boxes. The toilets are “low-flow.” Food is delivered in “hybrid, electric and fuel-efficient vehicles.” I could go on. In short, the restaurant calls itself “the greenest restaurant in America.” (more…)

Bookmark to:

BITTERSWEET: The brown sugar cake with grapefruit at Craft

Here is what William Grimes, former dining critic of The New York Times, wrote on June 27, 2001, not long after the opening of Craft:

“Craft invites diners to take a trip. The destination is a simpler, cleaner, more honest America, a place where the corn is bright yellow, the bread exhales clouds of yeasty sweetness and the fish swim in water as pure as Evian.”

What is it about Americans that we are always engaged in utopic yearning? Grimes’ words seem almost trivial until you read mention of the year 2001 and unavoidably think of the nation’s apocalyptic loss of innocence in the attack on the World Trade Center.

And yet, even now, in the midst of the worst economic times since the Great Depression, we are looking more zealously than ever for purity and transcendence at the dining table. We have become Proust, munching on a madeleine whose first taste prompts him to write: “And at once the vicissitudes of life had become indifferent to me, its disasters innocuous, its brevity illusory – this new sensation having had on me the effect which love has of filling me with a precious essence; or rather this essence was not in me, it was me.”

I can’t lay claim to a either Grimes’ or Proust’s experience after my first meal at the new Craft Atlanta (3376 Peachtree Rd., 404-995-7580). Undoubtedly, this will cause some to gasp. We’re talking a major pedigree and, dammit, I wanted to transcend the vicissitudes of life and become a precious essence. (more…)

Bookmark to:

EAT IT AND WEEP, POLLAN: Beet soup at Dynamic Dish

Trends of the last year?

Slow-roasted meats. More tapas. Local produce. Organic meat. Fancy burgers. Gastropubs. Fixed-price menus. Chocolate. Mainstreaming of molecular cuisine. Yummy scrap meat. Gluten-free dining. Tea. Chef-driven steak houses.

And then, looking ahead: poverty and bad health. No, they’re not exactly dining trends but they’re certainly beginning to play a significant role in our food life.

This hit home with me recently, when Michael Pollan, author of “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” and “In Defense of Food,” appeared on the PBS program “Bill Moyers’ Journal.”

“People with more money generally have healthier diets,” he said, “but affluent people who don’t cook are not as healthy in their eating as poor people who still cook….If you don’t have pots and pans, get them.”

Pollan, whose research is first-rate, didn’t cite a source for the statement, but, as someone who has eaten out most days of the week for over 20 years, the space where my gall bladder used to be certainly intuits the truth of his statement. Fast food like McDonald’s is just about universally recognized as unhealthy. (See the film “Super Size Me.”) But we increasingly learn that what passes for “fine dining” may be anything but fine from our health’s perspective, too.

(more…)

Bookmark to: