Omnivore Atlanta

THREE'S COMPANY: The dining room at 5 Seasons Westside

When I first became a restaurant critic, someone asked me, “What’s more important? Great technique or great ingredients?” My answer was, of course, that the best food results as a combination of the two. Crappy ingredients in the hands of a fantastic chef can still become something enjoyable to eat. And the best ingredients in the wrong hands can easily go to waste.

David Larkworthy, chef at the three locations of 5 Seasons Brewing, has long been an advocate for great ingredients. Back when locavorism was still a term and movement unused by anyone but the most rarified foodie, Larkworthy was quietly buying up huge amounts of local veggies for 5 Seasons’ original location in Sandy Springs. In our 2006 Food Issue, I wrote, “By volume, David Larkworthy uses more locally grown produce than any other chef in Atlanta.” This is likely still the case, with 5 Seasons expanding to include an Alpharetta location in late 2006, and in the spring of this year, the first intown location opened on the Westside.

Continue reading “Review: 5 Seasons Westside”

(Photo by James Camp)

Bookmark to:

The eco-friendly campus at New Belgium Brewing Company

Fat Tire Amber Ale from New Belgium Brewing Company in Fort Collins, CO is due in stores the first of next week. It will be available in 22-oz. bombers to start, with 6-packs and draft to follow shortly. Fat Tire has myriad fans, and it has propelled the company into the number 3 spot in the nation among craft brewers (behind Boston Beer Company and Sierra Nevada). I find it to be a decent enough beer; it is balanced and has a nutty, toasted malt character that makes it a good choice with food. New Belgium also turns out some other good beers, which will no doubt make their way to Georgia soon (look for the 1554 Belgian Black, Abbey-style Dubbel, Trippel, and if we are lucky, La Folie Flanders Red).

For me, though, the best thing about this company is their commitment to the environment. I don’t think there is another brewery in the world that takes sustainability as seriously as the folks at New Belgium. Their brewery is a model of efficiency. It runs almost entirely on wind power with the remainder from gas generated on- and off-site. The buildings utilize passive solar power and evaporative cooling, and were built using downed timber. The boilers are the most energy-efficient available, and their recycling efforts have reduced landfill diversion to only 15 percent, not including spent grain and yeast, which are also recycled. The company’s employees, who are also its owners, are deeply involved in the effort to reduce waste and save energy, and each receive a bicycle on their 1-year anniversary at the company. The parking lot at the brewery has as many bikes as cars. They also sponsor a number of green-focused events and donate 1% of their revenue to environmental non-profits. That’s commitment I will drink to. For more information on New Belgium’s efforts at environmental stewardship, check out this summary and their 2007 Sustainability Report. (more…)

Bookmark to:

5 chefs, 5 pigs, at 5 Seasons Brewing. Find out who of Atlanta’s kitchen kings will be crowned the “Prince of Pork” or the “Sultan of Swine,” Mon. Sept. 29th from 6-10 p.m. ($60 per person) at 5 Seasons Prado. Proceeds support farmers and chefs attending the Terra Madre Conference in Turin, Italy.

Bookmark to:

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”

Bookmark to:

The much delayed 5 Seasons Westside brewpub is finally on track for an opening early next year, according to a statement by the company. The sprawling, 17,000-square-foot restaurant and brewery in the Brickworks at Midtown West will be the largest brewpup in the Southeast, covering three floors, with three separate bars, private event facilities, and indoor and outdoor seating for 400. David Larkworthy will serve as Executive Chef at the Westside location. Larkworthy has won praise for his fresh, simple preparations from local ingredients at the other two locations of 5 Seasons, and will continue the tradition of the farm-to-table concept developed at those restaurants.

Crawford Moran, brewmaster at 5 Seasons North in Alpharetta, will take over the kettles at the new location, where he will have considerably more room to work. “Since we are building the space ourselves we were able to dedicate a huge amount of space to the brewing part of the equation – over twice the size of an average brewpub,” Moran says. “That will allow us to serve a huge variety of beers, barrel age beers on a regular basis, cellar age our high gravity beers and offer cask ale on a full-time basis. We are going to do some unique things and explore all the different possibilities that beer can offer.”

Jose Tavel of TaC Studios is designing the space with an emphasis on sustainable materials and enviromentally friendly design, while creating a warm, hand-crafted environment that includes a walnut bar, rough-hewn timber beams, and artesian-created light fixtures. The concern for the environment will extend from the waterless urinals to the recycled kitchen oil that will fuel the brewing operations, as well as the Mercedes fire truck that will serve as the restaurant’s catering truck.

The 5 Seasons Westside will be located at the intersection of Howell Mill Rd. and Marietta St. The building itself is a redevelopment of an existing 100-year-old brick structure and former industrial hub that is being transformed into a mixed-use retail center.

Bookmark to:

Not long after the 5 Seasons brewhouse opened at the Prado in 2001, one of the customers came up with the perfect review: This is fine dining, in denim.

The pub not only features the celebrated beers of brew master Glen Sprouse, it has a menu unlike any other bar in Atlanta, with its emphasis on local produce and natural-fed meats.

But 5 Seasons owner Dennis Lange says he has lost more than $600,000 since the Sembler Company purchased the Prado two years ago and began a big-box redevelopment of the property that will bring in a Home Depot, Target and other retail businesses.

The issue? Parking and public access. “A representative from Sembler assured us they would take care of us,” Lange says. “They started gobbling up spaces during construction. And, suddenly, there was no parking.”

It’s true, getting to 5 Seasons can be an adventure. There are normally three entrances to the Prado. With the construction, there is one. And it leads through a construction zone. For a while, according to Lange, Sembler offered a valet service that was so slow, customers got into arguments over who was first in line. Today, customers are supposed to park in a new parking deck several hundred feet away from the brew pub and walk across a pedestrian bridge.

Read the rest of this article here.

(Photo by James Camp)

Bookmark to:

You know it’s a good day when a leather lederhosen-clad man greets you with beer. Such were my thoughts this past Saturday when I spent the gorgeous afternoon at the Country Fair in the City held on a giant concrete slab at 5 Seasons Brewing Company’s newest (and as of yet unopened) location on the corner of Howell Mill Road and Marietta Street across from Octane coffee shop.

Saturday’s event was part of Food & Wine magazine’s Grow for Good campaign, raising awareness for locally produced food and benefiting Farm to Table. The cheery lederhosen man was owner Dennis Lange, ready to go from the daytime festivities to the Octoberfest held that night at the restaurant’s Sandy Springs location. The perfect day was only made better once I had a nice little Bavarian Ecstasy Festbier buzz going.

Chef David Larkworthy of 5 Seasons and his crew aim to “celebrate the connection between each other, our food, and the earth,” according to the restaurant’s website, and prepared a variety of dishes with local and farm-fresh ingredients, from shrimp and sweet-potato grits to butternut squash crab cakes and a whole bunch of other yummy stuff I may not remember but definitely enjoyed. Counter Culture Coffee, CL’s Best of Atlanta 2007 pick for Best Coffee, manned a booth as well, distributing information about its training center in the nearby King Plow Arts Center, and the overall cool things the shop does (like forming personal relationships with growers).

I learned about Muscadine grape varietals and sampled Muscadine beer, which has a fruity taste. I also learned from observation that to hand-tap a keg you should wear a protective helmet at the risk of explosion. But maybe the most valuable nugget of information gleaned came from an anonymous source who tipped me off to the ingenious college nickname of my fiery-haired editor, David Lee Simmons: “The Red Menace.”

Overall, I deem the day a success.

Bookmark to: