Omnivore Atlanta

NUMBNUTS: The Asian meatballs at 30 Tables

It’s easy to see why restaurants are becoming safer and less eccentric. When times are tight, the reflex is to return to simple, nonthreatening food that appeals to the masses. 30 Tables, in the Glenn Hotel, reflects that tendency, both on the part of the hotel and on the part of Concentrics, the group brought in to run the restaurant.

Let’s start with the Glenn, and the space 30 Tables inhabits. The restaurant is the third establishment in this space in three years. The hotel’s tried one outlandish concept after another, starting with the ludicrous and preposterously bad B.E.D., and then Maxim Prime, a collaboration between Jeffrey Chodorow and the men’s magazine of the same name. Maxim Prime was only slightly less garish than B.E.D. in its design and concept, and the food was far more successful. But ultimately, the ’80s-themed den-of-iniquity decor, eggs topped with gold leaf, and Russian waitresses dressed up like “Simply Irresistible” dancers didn’t hold sway over enough diners to make Maxim Prime a success. So what next?

Continue reading “Review: 30 Tables”

(Photo by James Camp)

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DINING ON A DIME: Downtown Atlanta Restaurant Week will offer three-course meals for $25.

Downtown Atlanta Restaurant Week will begin on the 27th of this month. Restaurants in the downtown area will feature $25 dinners that include an appetizer, entrée and dessert. Among the 28 participants offering the three-course deal are 30 Tables, BLT Steak and the Atlanta Grill. The annual event has been extended to last for two weeks this year and will run until August 9th. Reservations are suggested and available via OpenTable.

(Photo courtesy Central Atlanta Progress)

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Remember the ‘70s? Probably not, but if you were dining out then, you remember the revolution in Atlanta’s restaurant scene, courtesy of the Pleasant Peasant. Owners Steve Nygren and Dick Dailey opened the restaurant on Peachtree in Midtown in 1973. It featured creative cooking, an informal atmosphere and theatrical waiters who flashed blackboard menus in your face and recited the menu.

The following year, Nygren and Dailey were joined by Bob Amick (whose father gave his name to Mick’s, the Peasant Group’s retro diners). Eventually, the Peasant Group spawned 40-odd restaurants that were sold in 1989. The chain was so pervasive that both John Kessler and Meridith Ford Goldman, food writers at the AJC, worked for it during their respective restaurant careers.

Continue reading the Grazing on 30 Tables.

(Photo by James Camp)

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After the announcement that Maxim Prime would be moving from its spot in the Glenn Hotel, little was said about what restaurant would replace it (one of the reasons given for the restaurant leaving was to give the Glenn more meeting space). I’ve learned however that Concentrics plans to open a restaurant in the space called 30 Tables. This hasn’t been confirmed by Concentrics, but 30 Tables already has an OpenTable page.

In other new restaurant news, Micropundit reported last week on Atlanta magazine’s blog that Gary Mennie, formerly of the recently closed Taurus, has signed on as head chef at the new restaurant planned in the Georgian Terrace hotel. The restaurant will be called Livingston.

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