Omnivore Atlanta

Cakes and Ale crosses my mind whenever I head to Decatur. I don’t get to dine here as often as I’d like, but to me it’s everything a restaurant should be: chef-driven to the point of eccentric, highlighting seasonal ingredients and giving foremost attention to flavor.

Favorite Dishes: The gnocchi is always reliable – a great dish for showing off those seasonal ingredients. 254 W Ponce de Leon Ave. 404-377-7994. www.cakesandalerestaurant.com.

We will be counting down Cliff’s Top 10 Favorites every day between now and Oct. 21, the day our Food Issue 2009 launches. Check back tomorrow for Number 3.

(Photo by James Camp)

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Bon Appétit has named Decatur’s Cakes and Ale one of 2009’s top 10 best new restaurants:

At the age of 27, Billy Allin gave up his job as a money manager and enrolled in culinary school. After graduation, his cooking skills landed him gigs at renowned restaurants, including Chez Panisse in Berkeley and Watershed in Decatur. With his farm-to-table cooking philosophy fully established, Allin and his wife, Kristin, decided it was time to open “the restaurant where we would want to eat,” he says.

That restaurant is Cakes & Ale (from a phrase in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night meaning “the good things in life”), located east of downtown Atlanta. The couple’s ideal restaurant turns out to be a 50-seat neighborhood spot where the kitchen staff often answers the phone when you call to make a reservation, and a chalkboard announces the daily menu, which features simple, precise dishes like braised rabbit grits with saba vinegar and spring onion; buttermilk-rhubarb fool; and the addictive arancine here.

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THE WHOLE HOG: Holeman and Finch encourages diners to eat head to tail

Where did the year go? The end of 2008 snuck up so quickly and stealthily, it blindsided me. One thing that helps bring me back to a relatively reasonable pace, or at least not a speed-of-light pace, is to look back the year’s restaurant openings. January might seem like yesterday when I think about the economy, but it feels like an actual year ago when I consider all the new restaurants that have opened since then. Many of those restaurants have contributed to making this otherwise sucky year a little easier to swallow. While the five on this list aren’t strictly the year’s highest rated, they are the ones that made my year better. (more…)

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You’re probably already familiar with Yelp.com. It’s a great source of Zagat-like foodie reviews of local restaurants. There are also occasional reviews of those of us who write about food.

I found this, by Laura W., on Yelp’s review page for Cakes and Ale:

I feel the need to do this one justice, because I’m 90% sure we were sitting next to Creative Loafing reviewer Cliff Bostock at Cakes and Ale on Saturday night. Either that or some other middle-aged guy with his middle-aged male partner taking pictures of every course. But I digress.

Sigh. This is what life comes to, people. As your youth swims down the toilet, you’re just another “middle-aged guy” with a camera.

Actually, I do remember Laura and her boyfriend. They looked very young. In fact, still being hungry after the rather light meal, I wanted to bite their sweet, young necks.

I continue to get mainly good reports about Cakes and Ale, by the way. If you haven’t tried it, go soon….

This, by Kit F, was on Yelp’s review page for Apres Diem:

Cliff Bostock from the Loaf consistently says it’s the best looking wait staff…huh? Maybe for a blind person who has an Oompa Loompa fetish. But what does Cliffy know, he plays for the other team! ;)

A European Vacation this is not…but you’ll still find Clark Griswold sucking down a cold one or nibbling on a pee pee sammie. I have supported Andy’s Apres/Carpe Diem for years. From the DJ’s to the dishwashers. But throughout the years, this European cafe has trickled down to Euro Trash central. Who knew there were that many of them in Atlanta?! I think they’re coming here to steal our wimmen and me Lucky Charms!

Hey, I have played for both teams, which puts me ahead of you, experience-wise, Kit. (In another post, Kit alleges that the new MF Buckhead has the hottest staff in town.)…

Ivan S. has a very funny review of Popeyes Fried Chicken on Yelp. The Boulevard/Ponce location closed recently after a fire. Among Ivan’s notations:

Back in the olden days when I lived off of Ponce, I frequented the Ponce Popeye’s, surrounded as I was by crackheads, shemale prostitutes, and masochistic chicken addicts. I’d stop by for my weekly helping of spicy chicken served up with a generous side of abuse. But now that Ponce is no longer a daily journey for me (and the Ponce Popeye’s most likely set aflame by a deranged Cliff Bostock), I satisfy my craving at the Windy Hill location.

Hurrah! I’m a deranged, middle-aged, gay arsonist! Hurrah!

(Image of middle-aged vampire after dining at Cakes and Ale from Harbor Haunt.)

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We visited Cakes and Ale Saturday night and had the kind of meal that’s hard to find in this city: straightforward, depending on high-quality ingredients from sustainable farms, instead of showmanship.

Chef Billy Allin was most recently sous chef for Scott Peacock at nearby Watershed. You can see Peacock’s inspiration in a starter of simple, creamy deviled eggs with pickled onions, carrots and cauliflower. Our entrees, roasted pork and skirt steak, were deliciously unadorned.

Desserts were equally good. Pastry Chef Cynthia Wong (who formerly wrote “Cheap Eats” for Creative Loafing) designed this take on Baked Alaska, featuring flavors of pistachio and strawberry. The restaurant does not flambee the dessert table-side. The last time I saw that done was over 20 years ago at the Lark and Dove in Sandy Springs, when the waiter turned the dessert into a bonfire that broke the plate on which it was sitting and caused someone to run out of the kitchen with a fire extinguisher.

I’ll have more to say about Cakes and Ale in Grazing. Suffice it to say for now that you should definitely visit.

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Here’s a question we’d love answered: Why do so many restaurants not include their (damn) hours of operation on their website?

Do web designers know something we don’t know? Do people go to restaurant websites mainly to look at the flash graphics and glamor pictures of chefs? Or do they go to hear the sounds of people chattering and raking silverware over plates or to hear repetitive, banal mood music?

Do the people who design websites and the people who hire them have any clue how incredibly annoying it is when basic information is missing?

Sunday, I planned to go to Vita for dinner. I checked out the website and found no mention of hours. So I called the restaurant, thinking, “Well, surely, their voice mail system will state the hours.” Nope, no voice mail at all.

Then I looked up the new Cakes and Ale in Decatur. Same deal. No mention on the website of hours and no voice mail message.

Around 6 p.m., I called Vita again and got an answer! Yay!

“Are you open?” I asked.

“Yes,” the perky person replied.

“What time do you close?” I asked.

“Oh, we’re only open for a private event tonight,” she said.

Whatever!

Vita and Cakes and Ale are just the most recent I’ve encountered that don’t post their hours. The phenomenon is widespread. Stop it!

(Photo from maedeans.blogspot.com.)

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The Starbucks on North Highland Avenue in Virginia-Highland is scheduled to close soon.

Fat Louie’s on Marietta Street has closed.

The Prince of Wales, on Piedmont across from Piedmont Park, has closed after many years in business.

Parish Foods and Goods, the latest restaurant from Bob Amick, will open in the early spring on North Highland Avenue, in Inman Park’s Terminal Building. The three-level restaurant will feature New Orleans-style cooking, along with a specialty market.

Cakes and Ale is scheduled to open soon in Decatur in the space last occupied by Viet Chateau. Taking its name from a line in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, the restaurant provides this description on its website:

Cakes & Ale diners can expect an eclectic, seasonal menu featuring only the freshest organic ingredients, non-endangered fish and the highest quality meats. For those diners who recognize that fresh, unfussy food must take center stage and be enjoyed in a casual, unpretentious atmosphere…

The building that once housed Harvest on North Highland Avenue has become a bridal shop, according to reports on Atlanta Cuisine.

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