Omnivore Atlanta

We dined at Sotto Sotto this evening and got a mouth full of wonderful food and an ear full of news.

First, the meal: It was the last night of Inman Park Restaurant Week and the restaurant was packed with diners taking advantage of the restaurant’s $25 three-course meal. I actually skipped that but I did take the server’s suggestion that we “say goodbye to this year’s Heirloom tomatoes” by ordering dishes that featured them, like the Caprese salad above.

The salad included a very good bufala mozzarella and yellow, purple and red Heirlooms. The yellow, which I don’t recall encountering anywhere else this year, was especially good, with a slightly sweet flavor that Wayne called “watermelony.” For my entree I chose the restaurant’s classic dish of tortellini stuffed with ricotta flavored with fresh mint under a tart sauce of red Heirlooms and basil.

Wayne ordered the three-course meal, starting with the cantaloupe and prosciutto shown here, followed by a risotto topped with chopped tomatoes and basil. He spooned down a bowl of chocolate soup for dessert.

Now the news. We ran into Riccardo Ullio, owner of the restaurant, along with Fritti next door and Beleza in Midtown.

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This from Riccardo Ullio’s Facebook page:

On Monday, April 6, a 6.3 magnitude earthquake devastated the Abruzzo region of Italy. At least 260 people lost their lives and more than 28,000 people have been left homeless by the disaster.

Please join us in the effort to raise funds for the people affected by the earthquake. On Tuesday, April 21st U Restaurants will host the Dine Out for Earthquake Relief.

All profits from dinner at Sotto Sotto, Fritti, Cuerno and Beleza will go to provide relief for the victims through the International Red Cross.

In order to raise additional funds, U Restaurants will hold a raffle featuring an array of great prizes, worth over $4500, from U Restaurants and other local retailers. Raffle tickets can be purchased at all U Restaurants.

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I’ve been craving pizza all week, so we visited Fritti Thursday night. While I got my favorite Napoli — made with bufala, wild oregano, capers and anchovies — Wayne ordered the calzone, which arrived at the table looking like a gigantic crab, larger than the plate on which it was served.

Wayne admitted that it put the first calzone he ever tasted — when he was 10, in Columbia, S.C. — to shame. Light, crispy and creamy, it was filled with ricotta, mozzarella, salame and cotto ham. He accepted the offer of a dish of marinara on the side. It didn’t need it, but he never says no to extra food.

We also ordered my favorite starter, the fried mushrooms.

As we finished our meal, restaurant owner Riccardo Ullio arrived on his motorcycle. (Yes, we know one another.) Riccardo also owns Beleza, the groovy Brazilian cocktail lounge. He said that he is in the process of changing the menu there to all raw food. It won’t be just vegetarian food. Ceviche, carpaccio, tuna crudo and such will be on the menu, along with vegetarian dishes like the grains the spot is already serving.

Meanwhile, Cuerno, next door to Beleza, is featuring live flamenco at 7 p.m. Sundays. The show features guitar, dance and singing. If you’ve never seen authentic flamenco, you need to go. As far as I know, Cuerno remains the only Spanish restaurant in our city and the paellas estan fantasticas.

(Photo by Cliff Bostock)

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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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Here’s a cool way to try out Beleza and Cuerno, Riccardo Ullio’s new Midtown restaurants, without breaking the bank. There’s just one stipulation besides the $35 charge. You need to be gay. I bet you can do that for a few hours. I’ve seen it done.

The Big Gay Supper Club convenes at Beleza at 7 p.m. March 11. For more information and to make a reservation, call 404-668-5649. The monthly dining club’s website is here.

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Cuerno, Riccardo Ullio’s long-awaited Spanish restaurant, opens Sunday night after an invitation-only preview this evening, Friday.

The new restaurant is located next door to Ullio’s latest, Beleza, which we visited to try out the new chef, Ken Bouche, who has kind of de-weirded the menu. The sous-vide fish is gone and some much more substantial dishes have been added, including oxtail stew and a Brazilian shrimp stew that features the very unique taste of extra-virgin red palm oil.

The reason for the changes is mainly about cost. Ullio said people complained that the menu of small plates was too expensive and not filling enough. So he’s cut back the effort to make everything organic, as well as adding the more filling dishes.

Still, the comparatively light grains, such as the farro with heirloom beans and smoked San Marzano tomatoes pictured here, are delicious. A black rice dish is even better.

Of course, I had to try the new dessert of chocolate aphrodisiacs. You’ll have to read next week’s Grazing to learn what a sexual savage I became after eating the stuff.

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Beleza is offering an “erotic chocolate menu” by master chocolatier Kristen Hard. The restaurant joins Top Flr and the Chocolate Bar in offering such a menu. Hard specializes in chocolate aphrodisiacs and boosting the addictive substance’s alleged wellness properties with supplemental ingredients such as St. John’s Wort.

Hard’s company is K Chocolat. Says her website:

We put our money where your mouth is. We do not take short cuts with ingredients or techniques. By hand-making each piece, we can guarantee the quality and and integrity of our products.

Our chocolate begins with a very special heirloom cocoa bean grown under the lush canopy of the Ecuadorian rain forest. The Rain Forest Alliance certifies these beans to be pesticide-free, sustainably grown and responsibly harvested.

By equally prioritizing taste, health and ecological concerns, we have created a truly conscious chocolate.

…This is no ordinary chocolate. The gourmand K Chocolat experience is therapy for the body, seduction for the senses and satisfaction for the soul.

I thought chocolate was all those things without added ingredients, so I can’t wait to taste this.

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Wow, here’s a roundabout communication. Over the weekend, one of our interns came across an open letter to me, posted on Atlanta Cuisine’s site, in a thread about this blog. Phew!

But the nature of the letter was quite interesting, and I’d like a chance to respond. The post read:

Besha- I read your review of Beleza in CL this weekend, and loved it for all of it’s insight into the challenges of the menu. What I find interesting though is the continued classification of Riccardo Ullio as the “chef” of his restaurants Sotto Sotto and Fritti; however you do in you article name Michelle McKenzie as the chef at Beleza. As an employee of Mr. Ullio for over a year, I have yet to see him actually work in one of his kitchens, or plan one of his seasonal menus. When I am working, and a guest asks to speak to Chef Ullio, we are told to reply that “the Chef has the day off, and to please look for him in his kitchen tomorrow”. I would think that Riccardo Ullio would be more befitting of the description of a restaurant visionary here in Atlanta, finding great themes and concepts, and bringing them to life in his great restaurants. However, in my time working in his restaurants, it would be a dishonor to credit the great food of Sotto Sotto and Fritti to Riccardo Ullio. The real credit goes to the talented daily management, as well as the kitchen staff (many of whom have been working for Riccardo for 7+ years).

Having worked in restaurants myself for many years with “executive chefs” who are never around, I understand the letter writer’s frustration. Believe me, I know how valuable the team of cooks, sous chefs and chefs de cuisine are, which is partly why I did my Food Issue this year focusing on cooks rather than chefs. But I think in the restaurant industry, it is somewhat understood that owners who are chefs by trade are often going to get that executive chef title, whether or not it’s deserved. It’s something that comes up a lot, and even more so when the supposed chefs don’t even live in the same city as their restaurants. Should we assume that the flurry of celebrity chefs who are about to open restaurants in Atlanta are not actually the chefs, or should not be credited as such? I suppose that remains to be seen, as some chefs are very involved in all their projects (I recently met Jean Georges on site at his Minneapolis restaurant, Chambers Kitchen, despite that he most certainly does not live in Minnesota), while some are not (Emeril’s anyone?).

As far as Riccardo Ullio and Beleza go, I know that Michelle McKenzie is the chef and is credited as such, that Ullio is the owner, and that’s how I defined him in the article as well as how he defines himself, and that he is incredibly involved in the project. Every time I visited for the review he was there, acting as owner, not as chef. When I spoke with him on the phone, it was obvious that the overall direction of the restaurant, menu included, would eventually be his call.

As for his other restaurants, I have done no direct reporting on them. But I know that chefs come and go at Sotto Sotto (Jose Rego recently left to become chef at Allegro), but the menu does not change in any significant way. I can only conclude that Ullio is behind the overriding direction of the menu, thus making him deserving of the title “executive chef.” If I was a staff member who had been directed to tell white lies to customers about an owner’s involvement, it would annoy me as well. But then again, working for chef/owners who spend every waking moment of their lives in their own kitchens can be difficult, too. I think most chefs hope one day to set their kitchens on a steady course, step away from the stove, and put their faith in a well-chosen staff. Should that mean they have to give up their title as chef? I’m not so sure.

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We just got an e-mail from Riccardo Ullio, owner of Sotto Sotto, Fritti and Beleza, with the news that one of his managers, James Smith, has just lost his newborn son to SIDS.

Tomorrow night, Oct. 3rd, all proceeds from dining at any of Ullio’s three restaurants will benefit a memorial to the short life of Ramse Hunt Wilson, who was only 37 days old. Fritti and Sotto Sotto will close at 9 p.m., and a celebration of the life of Ramse will begin at 10 p.m. at Beleza.

Our thoughts go out to James and his family.

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I’ve been getting a lot of raves about Beleza, Riccardo Ullio’s (left) new Brazilian cocktail lounge and restaurant. This really is the most unusual restaurant to open in our city in memory and, as a commenter on my earlier post says, it’s going to be hard to get a table when Ullio actually puts a sign on the place. Make a reservation now. …

My apologies to Erick Newman, the owner of Lamplighter Cafe, whose name I misspelled here and in my review. …

Zocalo, the popular taqueria in Midtown and Grant Park, has debuted some new menu items — a couple of burritos and a few other dishes. Honestly, the one burrito I’ve tried was a hodgepodge of flavors and not very well assembled. I’m still waiting for the promised new menu of tacos, not that I will ever tire of the al pastor here. …

Dale writes: “What’s the story on Spice? I walk past it several nights each week and see lights and tables set, but never any actual people.” It’s been closed for some time and, as far as I know, there are no plans to reopen right now. … Another reader writes that the popular Ali-Oli in Around Lenox seems to have closed. Indeed, I’ve tried to call numerous times and the voice mailbox has been full for a week. I hope it’s temporary!

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