Omnivore Atlanta

Here’s some bad news for fans of the Havana Sandwich Shop on Buford Highway at North Druid Hills. Fire completely gutted the 32-year-old restaurant last night. The owner is blaming arson.

WSB-TV has the story and a slide show here.

Coincidentally, a friend mentioned eating there just a few days ago, which precipitated a wave of nostalgia. I used to go to the restaurant regularly during a brief marriage to a Cuban woman. At the time, it was about the only place in Atlanta you could get decent Cuban food.  Unfortunately, this fire follows the recent closing of Kool Korner, whose Cuban sandwich many regarded as the city’s best.

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NPR tracked down Barack Obama’s favorite Chicago restaurant today and interviewed the owner/chef.

The restaurant is Topolobampo, which chef Rick Bayless opened in 1989 after opening Frontera Grill two years earlier. Before getting into the restaurant business, Bayless was a PhD student in anthropological linguistics. His research took him to Mexico. He realized he was more interested in the food than anything else about Mexican culture, so he dropped out of his program to become a full-time chef.

Bayless’ restaurants, according to NPR, are the first in America to feature gourmet Mexican cooking. Maybe. I was eating gourmet Mexican fare at restaurants in which Diana Kennedy was involved in Austin and Houston just over 20 years ago. But Bayless, who has written a handful of cookbooks, is definitely among the pioneers.

NPR poses the question whether we can conclude anything about Obama because of what he likes to eat. They don’t really answer the question, but Bayless does note that Obama and wife Michelle experiment with the menu, take their time eating and have recently moved to a less conspicuous table in the rear of the restaurant. Undoubtedly, those who revile Obama as an elitist for his arugula consumption will likewise wonder why he’s not content with enchiladas and chimichangas.

You can listen to the piece and get some recipes here. Next week, John McCain’s palate will be on display.

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Technology Square’s grown-up cocktail lounge and restaurant, the Globe, confirms they are closing up shop on October 10. The space is staying under the same management with renovations and revamping in store, but no one is certain what will become of the restaurant after its re-opening in 2009. According to an employee, business has grown sparse, especially in the evenings, and there also have been problems with management, and you know, the economy.

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The metro-area operator of 10 Sonny’s Real Pit Bar-B-Q restaurants has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Four closed yesterday, including the Cheshire Bridge Road, Indian Trail, Smyrna and Austell locations.

The Atlanta Business Chronicle reports that locations in Athens, Conyers, Marietta, Buford, Jonesboro and Lawrenceville remain open. Get the whole story here.

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Not one, but 10 of the burrito joints are planned in our dear city over the next three years. Specific locations include Midtown, Vinings and Buckhead.

What’s Barberitos? Think Willy’s, but with spinach tortillas and fish tacos as added options to the menu.

Hat tip to Joe Guy Collier at the AJC, who has the coolest name of anybody at that paper.

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Here’s some new strangeness brought to you by our federal government:

Beef exporters are banned from testing their cattle for mad cow disease without approval from the government, which has exclusive control on test kits, a divided federal appeals court panel said today.

A Kansas-based exporter, Creekstone Farms Premium Beef, seeking to test its cattle to minimize public fear, challenged Department of Agriculture regulations that block corporations from buying and using kits to test for mad cow disease. There is no cure and no treatment for the neurological disease. It’s 100 percent fatal.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, in a 2-1 opinion, upheld USDA control of the kits. Judges Karen LeCraft Henderson and Judith Rogers sided with the government; Chief Judge David Sentelle dissented.

In other words, if the feds don’t test our beef, nobody else should be allowed to, either, even if foreign markets insist on it. You can read the whole story here.

Meanwhile, the FDA is proposing regulations for genetically engineered animals. The Washington Post has the story. Here’s a sample:

Some of the genetically engineered animals in development, called biofarm animals, are designed to grow faster to reach market more quickly. Others are being developed to make food healthier, Lutter said. “For example, some pigs have been genetically engineered to contain high levels of omega-3 fatty acids,” he said.

Still others are intended to produce drugs. Certain animals are being genetically altered to be used in human transplantations — for instance, providing cells or tissues or organs that are less likely to be rejected by the human immune system, Lutter said.

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A few weeks back, Scott Freeman wrote about the troubles 5 Seasons was having with the Sembler company at their Prado location. It appears the legal part of the disagreement is over — here’s the official statement:

“Five Seasons, Prado, and The Sembler Company are pleased to announce that all disputes between them have been amicably resolved on terms that the parties have agreed to keep confidential. Five Seasons is open for business, and there is ample and convenient parking available. The redevelopment of the Prado is near completion. The parties look forward to many years of working together to provide the public with an outstanding shopping and dining experience in Sandy Springs. Five Seasons, Prado and the Sembler are very excited about the New Prado. Come see for yourself”

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Huh? One magazine’s readers think Atlanta’s a great destination if you’re looking to get laid, basically, but another’s readers think we’re not very attractive? And we’re the worst city if you’re looking for a “destination restaurant”?  Summary story by 11 Alive here.  Food and dining ratings here.

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Hurry!

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I loved David Foster Wallace’s writing, and was dismayed to hear of his death last week. His foray into food writing is probably the best thing I have ever read in Gourmet magazine - imagine getting an assignment to cover a lobster festival and writing a tortured treatise on the morality of eating. Check it out here.

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Greene’s Fine Foods is coming to Decatur.

The sign promises nuts, candy, gifts and fun.

I’m intrigued.

Decatur Metro says it opens October 1.

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OK, here’s this week’s true-or-false culinary quiz. Winners will receive our congratulations.

1. Buckhead Life Restaurant Group is at it again! This time, Pano will open a French- style cafe to be located within the new Sovereign tower on Peachtree Road. Though much of the building itself is complete, little if any interior work has been done, so as of now, the opening is set for Spring 2009.

2. Richard Blais, Atlanta’s celebrity chef, announced that he has temporarily retired from the restaurant business because he has worked for every restaurant in existence on the North American continent. However, he is considering an offer to develop a chain of yak-burger restaurants in Tibet.

3. Thumbs Up Diner, a local favorite for breakfast, opened a third location Monday, Sept. 8, in West Midtown. This new location is situated close to both the M Street Lofts as well as a variety of boutiques. Breakfast is served throughout the day, with whole wheat biscuits and homemade berry preserves, stone-ground grits and “the heap” of fried potatoes.

4. A woman entered a well known Buckhead restaurant today carrying a hand gun with a polished, mother-of-pearl handle. She put the gun on the table and when the server arrived, she said, “I don’t want no tapas. If you bring me even one of them tapas, I am blowing you and everyone else in this restaurant to kingdom-come.” The kitchen was informed and panic ensued, as nobody knew how to prepare anything other than a tapas-sized portion. Police have the restaurant surrounded at this time. More as it develops.

5. Cafe Dupri, located just south of Peachtree on Piedmont Road, has closed its doors, permanently. Having been opened for just over 3 years, it was apparently unable to stay afloat with the poor economy and heavy restaurant competition in the area. Guess having a celebrity owner doesn’t make you immune to closure.

6. Concentrics Restaurants, operators of the fantastically hip One, Two, Three, Four, Five and Six, has purchased Piedmont Park, which it will convert into an organic farm for its new farm-to-table restaurant, FRM, which will take over the space formerly occupied by the conservatory of the Atlanta Botanical Gardens.

7. Zucca, an Italian restaurant currently with three locations OTP, finally makes its cuisine available to those ITP. Taking the space in Decatur Square vacated by the closure of Zocalo, the new restaurant is scheduled to open in the coming months.

8. Holeman and Finch, the super-trendy gastropub that specializes in scrap meat, will be stringing up and butchering a hog on the first morning of a good freeze in our city. The entrails will be read by a high priestess of Voudon, after which they will be cooked up for a special Slaughter-to-Table chitlin’ dinner.

(1, 3, 5 and 7 quoted from Repeat Atlanta.)

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Monday night, I dined at Zocalo on 10th Street. I parked a couple of blocks away and, on my way to the restaurant, I was hit up by four panhandlers — and three on the way back to my car. This was the same day a friend told me he recently outran a couple of would-be muggers on Edgewood Ave.

The tanking economy seems to have increased the incidence of this annoyance. Atlanta now reminds me of San Francisco during the ’90s. I commuted there every month for a few years for training in my other occupation, and often stayed in a hotel on the edge of the Tenderloin district. The panhandling was so bad that at night, the hotel staff would lock the doors and sit their chairs in front of the windows, watching the parade of homeless people as if they were exotic aquarium fish.

Today, Wednesday, Mayor Shirley Franklin (who has already purged the city of sin) announced a new effort to discourage illegal panhandling. The Atlanta Business Chronicle reports:

The plan, known as Give Change That Makes Sense, includes five “donation meters” that will be placed downtown to allow people to give to charities that serve the homeless. The locations include City Hall, the Fulton County Courthouse, the downtown Hilton, Georgia World Congress Center and the Zone 5 police station.

The plan also calls for ramped up law enforcement efforts and a public information campaign to raise awareness about aggressive panhandlers and the services available for those in need.

Aggressive panhandlers often aren’t homeless, Franklin said, and prey on a person’s good intentions to help or a desire to end harassment. But giving in to panhandlers, she said, is “counter-productive” and does nothing to help those with genuine needs.

I find this a bit strange. I can’t quite imagine telling the cracked-out woman who asked me for a dollar Monday night that I had already put $1.50 in a downtown donation meter, so, please, call United Way and leave me alone. I suppose the argument is that if we stop enabling panhandlers by refusing to give them money, they will all enroll in 12-step programs and get high-paying hotel and restaurant jobs.

Police and “ambassadors” working for the hospitality industry will also be used to discourage panhandling. I found this in the Business Chronicle’s story interesting:

Last month, Atlanta Police officers, dressed as conventioneers and tourists, launched undercover stings to nab panhandlers. Police Chief Richard Pennington said the blitz netted approximately 50 arrests, while an additional 50 would-be panhandlers were intercepted before they could harass downtown visitors. Pennington said none of those arrested during the sting were repeat offenders.

An August 2005 law banned verbal requests for money in certain locations downtown. The city has had some difficulty prosecuting panhandlers because of a lack of witnesses. Victims often are visitors to the city and cannot be counted on to testify at trial. Using undercover officers allows for ready-made witnesses, police have said.

The article was not accompanied by pictures of undercover police in their tourist and conventioneer costumes, but I managed to get hold of the picture of two of Atlanta’s finest shown above.

To learn how to make eye contact with a panhandler while just saying no, visit the new program’s website, www.stoppanhandlingatlanta.com.

For more on this latest crackdown, check out the Fresh Loaf post on it.

(Photo: Duane Hanson, Tourists, 1970, from www.westga.edu/…/hansontourists.html)

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Restaurant openings are notoriously uncertain timing-wise, in part because so many licenses have to be granted. But getting a liquor license is often one of the last hurdles before opening day. These places have just been granted liquor licenses, which may mean they will open any minute (unless their contractor screws up, or one of the myriad other hold-ups occur ):

Aja, Tom Catherall’s Asian spot in the old Emeril’s location.

The Porter, a Little Five Points “gastropub” in the old Grandma Luke’s location.

The Bureau at 327 Edgewood Avenue.

The Bookhouse Pub at 736 Ponce de Leon.

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The International Culinary School at The Art Institute of Atlanta is accepting applications for its Best Teen Chef competition, to be held on March 14, 2009. The top prize is a full tuition at one of the The Art Institute’s schools.

Press release after the jump.

(more…)

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You may have already heard, but Richard Blais has resigned as chef at Home. You can read the full AJC story here. As I made quite clear in my review of Home, I never thought Blais’ talent was properly showcased there.

Last week I got a new reason to get excited for whatever comes next for Blais. A friend took me to Eno’s foie gras dinner on Thursday - six courses of foie prepared by six Atlanta chefs. It was an interesting night and I feel as though I’m still recovering. I haven’t wanted to eat much since then - each course on its own would probably have been wonderful, but six courses was a bit much.

The one course that stood out was prepared by Richard Blais, and it made me terribly nostalgic for Element and Blais totally unrestrained. It was classic Blais - very lightly poached lobster tail over sweet corn puree with maple foam, pickled lichee, and shaved foie (it had been frozen and grated, and looked like the shaved chocolate on top of a black forest cake). The flavors together were so bizarre and disorienting and ultimately delicious. The lichee made the dish, despite being the weirdest thing on the plate.

As of this post, Blais’ only definite project is Flip, the gourmet burger joint. But I’ve heard he’s looking for a “small restaurant” space. We’ll keep you posted as we find out more.

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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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There have been many complaints about the downfall of Decatur’s Crescent Moon since ownership changed. It looks as though the original owners may come back though. Read about it here.

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