Omnivore Atlanta

It’s always something. There we were at Shaun’s (1029 Edgewood Ave., 404-577-4358), enjoying a three-course meal for $12, when the Most Obnoxious Human Being on the Face of the Earth presented himself to his friends at a nearby table.

He was about 100 years old trying to look 25 – the approximate age of the companion he had in tow. Inebriated, he was a high-volume, seething mass of contradictions. One moment he was whining about the recession and then, as if trying to practice positive thinking in the next moment, he boasted about a new client. A woman rushed over and, gazing at the whiner’s young companion, gasped, “You’re just stunning…..stunning. You’re just…”

I looked at Wayne. “You’re stunning,” I said. “Give me one of those meatballs.”

So it always seems to go when I visit Shaun’s. I love the food and hate the people. Actually, I always run into people I do like, along with fugitives from the photo sections of magazines like Jezebel. Are you going? Wear black, dental veneers and hair gel. Drink lots.

As far as I can figure, Shaun Doty must be depending on wine sales to make money at his new Sunday pasta night. At $12 per person, for a big plate of pasta with salad and dessert, it’s the best recession-busting meal I’ve encountered in our city. And this ain’t the spaghetti supper you ate in the church basement cafeteria on Wednesday nights as a kid. (more…)

Bookmark to:

SMOKE-FREE: The Glenwood's new dining room

The advent of the gastro pub has brought us good food and lots to drink under one roof for usually good prices. But it’s also created a health hazard. I’m talking about second-hand smoke.

Because most of these places qualify as bars, smoking is permitted under the law. Indeed, there’s even the case of the Vortex, which converted its official designation from restaurant to bar in order to let people respire carcinogens. Every gust of laughter in such places turns into a fit of coughing.

Of course, this isn’t much of an issue where the food is really secondary to boozing. But there are places, like the Glenwood (1263 Glenwood Ave., 404-622-6066), where the food is good enough that they attract serious diners who would rather not have to shower and wash their clothes as soon as they get home.

The Glenwood, happily, recently opened a smoke-free dining room that also includes a new wine bar. This is not a grudging accommodation. The new area is separated by sliding glass doors and has its own ventilation system. You won’t catch a whiff of smoke once you’re inside. (more…)

Bookmark to:

FILL 'ER UP: The dining room at Leon's Full Service

Every time I go to Decatur, I feel like I’m an extra in a movie set in a small town. Friendly people pace the sidewalks with their friendly dogs or head to friendly coffee shops like Java Monkey, where a poetry reading was underway Sunday night when we passed by. Really, in Decatur, I feel like Mr. Rogers.

Please, won’t you be my neighbor? I’ll buy you big mugs of draft beer at Leon’s Full Service (131 E. Ponce de Leon Ave., 404-687-0500) and feed you slightly strange food. It’s a beautiful night to get wasted in this neighborhood.

Actually, I don’t drink, but Wayne makes up for that. And he had plenty of company during our Sunday night visit. Leon’s, open about 10 days, was packed with a 30-minute wait for a table.

This new gastropub has been opened by the same folks who own the nearby Brick Store Pub. The name derives from its original use as a gas station. Although at least two retail businesses preceded this latest use, there’s still a faint ambiance of the filling station, mainly in the large windowed garage door. But most gas stations don’t have a boules court right outside the door, as Leon’s does. (more…)

Bookmark to:

MISO HUNGRY: The dining room at Miso Izayaka

I received a small but noisy flurry of emails last week from foodies who went to the opening of Miso Izakaya (619 Edgewood Ave., 678-701-0128), a Japanese gastro-pub that has seemed to be on the verge of opening for months.

But when it finally opened last week, first-timers were disappointed to find that the izakaya, which takes its name from “sakaya” for “sake shop,” didn’t yet have a license to serve alcohol and was only serving sushi. Before I visited later that week, I called the restaurant and asked if it was serving its full menu yet. I was told that it was.

When I got to the restaurant, I asked again at the front door. “Are you serving your full menu?” I was again told “yes” and so we were seated. I did indeed find that small plates, the main feature of an authentic izakaya, were being offered, along with two entrée-style dishes. But I did not find the promised grilled, skewered items – the yakitori – or any ramen dishes. (more…)

Bookmark to:

TORTILLA FLAT: The tacos at Luna Nueva

“I am from India,” the man who owns Luna Nueva (1150-B Euclid Ave., 404-521-3555), a new Mexican restaurant in Little Five Points, announced by way of introducing himself. “And my wife is from Iowa.” He whipped out his iPhone and showed us her picture.

He explained that the two of them were in Mexico City when they dined at a very popular restaurant that, it turned out, had lost its lease. “So,” he said, “I asked the chef, ‘Why don’t you come back to America with us?’” The chef, Jorge Villarreal, had worked in the States before, and accepted the offer.

Luna Nueva would be a strange place even without its odd multicultural management. It’s in the original space occupied by La Fonda and was Miro’s Garden after that. The latter turned La Fonda’s sunny decor gloomy with dark paint and very low lighting, and little has changed in that respect. The space makes me sad, anyway, because it features a fountain by Christine Sibley, the late artist who was my neighbor for several years. (more…)

Bookmark to:

COMFORT ZONE: The boneless beef shortrib with horseradish cottage cheese at Serpas

“May I see your ID?” our server, Jason, asked.

Wayne and I looked at one another, incredulous. “Are you kidding?” I asked. We were paying for our meal — not buying alcohol — and in more than 20 years of reviewing restaurants and paying with a credit card, I’ve never been asked for my ID.

Jason grimaced and said, no, he wasn’t kidding. We handed him our IDs and he studied them closely, comparing them to our credit cards. Then he announced that all was well. Yay! We got to pay for our meals and we didn’t have to go to jail!

We were at the newly opened Serpas (659 Auburn Ave., 404-688-0040) in the mixed-use Studioplex in the Old Fourth Ward, which has become a favorite location for new restaurants. This may be the most ambitious undertaking in the neighborhood so far. (more…)

Bookmark to:

HOW SWEET IT IS: The peekytoe crab cake at Market

Remember when “chain restaurant” referred to McDonald’s and Burger King? Stand on any corner in just about any city and you’ll see at least two members of fast-food chains facing one another. These days, they all seem to be competing by offering lunch specials that will feed a family of 10 for $3.50.

Now you can stand in Buckhead and see expensive gourmet chain restaurants staring one another down. Among the latest to open is Market in the W Buckhead (3377 Peachtree Road, 404-523-3600). It’s across the street from Craft. Both restaurants are part of New York-based chains owned by big-name chefs — Tom Colicchio in the case of Craft and Jean-Georges Vongerichten in Market’s case.

This is Vongerichten’s second Atlanta restaurant. His other venue here, Spice Market, opened in early 2008 at the W Hotel in Midtown and features mainly Asian flavors. (He also operates a Market in Paris.) The newbie’s menu, while also includes some Asian flavors, is described as a compendium of “greatest hits” from Vongerichten’s popular New York restaurants including JoJo, Vong and Jean Georges.

Market’s interior was designed by Karim Rashid, well known to New Yorkers for his ultra-modern, slightly Jetson work in multiple disciplines. The operative word here is curvilinear. I’m sure you’ll find a straight line somewhere in the two-level restaurant, but it won’t be easy. Some of the super-graphics remind me of those biomorphic psychedelic projections you used to see on stage when groups like Jefferson Airplane performed. You remember those, right? Picture yourself inside a very colorful lava lamp. (more…)

Bookmark to:

GROUP EFFORT: It was a packed house at the new Tin Lizzy's in the days following John Henderson's murder.

The Grant Park community has been in a mixture of sadness and anger since the killing of bartender John Henderson at the Standard on Memorial Drive Wednesday, Jan. 7.

As has been widely reported, John was closing the bar with fellow bartender Ashley Elder when four young men broke through the front door. They shot John once in one leg and, as they were leaving, fired shots through the door of the office where the two bartenders were left. A bullet struck John in the head. He died a few hours later at Grady Memorial Hospital.

Wayne and I are regular customers at the Standard and John waited on us many times. He was a funny, energetic man. Like many others in the neighborhood, we felt like we were in a nightmare during the few days following the shooting. We were at the Standard last Monday for its regular curry special and the mood of the pub was subdued but it was good to see it busy. The front room was filled with flowers, candles and notes commemorating John.

Apart from the sheer grief, there’s also concern about the increasing crime in Grant Park and the city in general. Wherever we dined in Grant Park last week, people were talking about John and the need for better police and private security. The murder at the Standard was exceptional but the armed robbery was not.

One thing seems certain, though. The event isn’t keeping people from dining in the neighborhood’s restaurants. In fact, we’ve had waits at the newest spot to open, Tin Lizzy’s Cantina (415 Memorial Drive, 404-554-8220). Tin Lizzy’s, the child of a Buckhead restaurant with the same name, is located in the space recently vacated by Six Feet Under, which has moved to a larger space half a block away.

Not much has changed about the space that I noticed. There’s still a large and very crowded bar. The interior architecture is unchanged. The restrooms are still too small.

I was prepared to hate Tin Lizzy’s. (more…)

Bookmark to:

LET THEM EAT PIE: The "Founder's Pizza" at Pizza Fusion

“Are you here for gluten-free pizza?” the young woman at the door of Pizza Fusion (2233 Peachtree Road, 404-351-9334) asked us.

“Of course,” I said. “Isn’t that the main selling point about this place?”

“Well,” she said, “I need to tell you that we have sold out of the gluten-free crust.”

Wayne and I looked at one another and gasped. The young woman tilted her head and cooed, “I’m so sorry.”

Actually, neither of us has celiac disease, the intestinal disorder for which a gluten-free diet is prescribed. It’s common. As many as one in every 133 Americans can’t digest gluten, a protein in wheat, barley and rye. Gluten also occurs frequently as a secondary ingredient in all sorts of products.

The increasing diagnosis of the disease has caused many restaurants to add gluten-free dishes to their menus or, like Shaun’s, to sponsor regular dinners for people with celiac disease.

But Pizza Fusion is, as far as I know, the only restaurant in town to offer gluten-free pizza, at least when they have it. Two days after our visit, the restaurant was still waiting for a shipment of the mysterious flour necessary to make the gluten-free crust.

But Pizza Fusion, a franchise out of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., also advertises itself as “green.” Vegetables are mainly organic. Meats and poultry are free of chemicals. The restaurant’s interior is built from recycled this and that. You can recycle your pizza boxes. The toilets are “low-flow.” Food is delivered in “hybrid, electric and fuel-efficient vehicles.” I could go on. In short, the restaurant calls itself “the greenest restaurant in America.” (more…)

Bookmark to:

BITTERSWEET: The brown sugar cake with grapefruit at Craft

Here is what William Grimes, former dining critic of The New York Times, wrote on June 27, 2001, not long after the opening of Craft:

“Craft invites diners to take a trip. The destination is a simpler, cleaner, more honest America, a place where the corn is bright yellow, the bread exhales clouds of yeasty sweetness and the fish swim in water as pure as Evian.”

What is it about Americans that we are always engaged in utopic yearning? Grimes’ words seem almost trivial until you read mention of the year 2001 and unavoidably think of the nation’s apocalyptic loss of innocence in the attack on the World Trade Center.

And yet, even now, in the midst of the worst economic times since the Great Depression, we are looking more zealously than ever for purity and transcendence at the dining table. We have become Proust, munching on a madeleine whose first taste prompts him to write: “And at once the vicissitudes of life had become indifferent to me, its disasters innocuous, its brevity illusory – this new sensation having had on me the effect which love has of filling me with a precious essence; or rather this essence was not in me, it was me.”

I can’t lay claim to a either Grimes’ or Proust’s experience after my first meal at the new Craft Atlanta (3376 Peachtree Rd., 404-995-7580). Undoubtedly, this will cause some to gasp. We’re talking a major pedigree and, dammit, I wanted to transcend the vicissitudes of life and become a precious essence. (more…)

Bookmark to:

EAT IT AND WEEP, POLLAN: Beet soup at Dynamic Dish

Trends of the last year?

Slow-roasted meats. More tapas. Local produce. Organic meat. Fancy burgers. Gastropubs. Fixed-price menus. Chocolate. Mainstreaming of molecular cuisine. Yummy scrap meat. Gluten-free dining. Tea. Chef-driven steak houses.

And then, looking ahead: poverty and bad health. No, they’re not exactly dining trends but they’re certainly beginning to play a significant role in our food life.

This hit home with me recently, when Michael Pollan, author of “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” and “In Defense of Food,” appeared on the PBS program “Bill Moyers’ Journal.”

“People with more money generally have healthier diets,” he said, “but affluent people who don’t cook are not as healthy in their eating as poor people who still cook….If you don’t have pots and pans, get them.”

Pollan, whose research is first-rate, didn’t cite a source for the statement, but, as someone who has eaten out most days of the week for over 20 years, the space where my gall bladder used to be certainly intuits the truth of his statement. Fast food like McDonald’s is just about universally recognized as unhealthy. (See the film “Super Size Me.”) But we increasingly learn that what passes for “fine dining” may be anything but fine from our health’s perspective, too.

(more…)

Bookmark to:

ON THE FLIP SIDE: A selection of Blais' burgers

Pity Richard Blais. The brilliant runner-up in Bravo’s “Top Chef: Chicago” has a local history of jumping from one restaurant kitchen to the next.

Critics – by which I mean average foodies – grouse repeatedly about Blais’ peripatetic ways. They want him to stick to one kitchen for a few years, pushing out the same menu night after night, refining his skills, holding his nose to the grindstone, learning to be miserable, laboring under owners who wave market receipts in his face and scream, “Less liquid nitrogen! I beg you! It’s eating up our profits!”

My guess is that Blais would stick around a restaurant that (a) gave him enough freedom to experiment fully and (b) attracted the kind of business his work deserves. In the meantime, who can blame him for enjoying himself by following his bliss? Go, Richard.

His title at Flip (1587 Howell Mill Rd., 404-352-3547) is “creative director.” He has designed a menu for owner Barry Mills that features wacky and mainly delicious takes on the classic American burger. I’ve visited the restaurant twice and found Blais cooking both visits. While I’m all for this concept, I think it would be ridiculous for Blais to devote his talents exclusively to this undertaking, no matter how much foodies think he should chain himself to one stove. (more…)

Bookmark to:

STEAK IT OR LEAVE IT: The Kansas City strip steak

Last week, Our Fearless Leader finally uttered the “r” word: recession. Never mind that anyone who has rolled a cart in a grocery store or coasted to a gas pump has known the word has been applicable for months. Now it’s an official part of reality. We’ve been in a recession for a year.

Given that, it’s surprising that restaurants, especially higher-end restaurants, continue to open. My bank account says “burger,” not “steak,” so it felt almost decadent to show up at a new steakhouse last week. Parker’s on Ponce (116 E. Ponce de Leon Ave., 404-924-2230) is located in the former Mick’s building across from the courthouse in downtown Decatur.

The restaurant seems huge – all restaurants look huge to me these days, owing to their epidemic emptiness – but Parker’s space is broken up into several dining rooms. We ate in the front room, where a few other tables were seated.

It’s been years since I was in the building, so I’m not sure how much remodeling has occurred. The space is warmly lit, almost minimalist in décor, and features a few glowing fireplaces. I saw my first Christmas decorations of the year here – a few poinsettias and a silvery stocking.

Our server gave us the scoop. The restaurant, more than a year in planning, has been opened by brothers JT and Chris Scott, who earlier worked at Mick’s. (They are the sons of the late Tom Scott, DeKalb County’s longtime tax commissioner.) Chef is David Hartshorn, who earlier was the chef at Einstein’s in Midtown. (more…)

Bookmark to:

Our Special Ale
Anchor Brewing Company
San Francisco, CA

Anchor’s Christmas ale is one I look forward to every year. Although the recipe changes each year, the evergreen hops and winter spices always evoke the best holiday memories. The dark walnut color with garnet highlights and sparkling clarity are typical hallmarks, as is the one-of-a-kind aroma of spruce, allspice, nutmeg and clove. A brown sugar, cola-like base props up the spices. A balanced palate of rich, earthy spices, toffee, chocolate, cherry, spruce tips, juniper, molasses, and a hint of vanilla cascade from beginning to end. The body seems a bit lighter than in years past, with a spicy tingle and a dry, crisp mouthfeel. There’s some orange zest and a piney bitterness in the finish, along with some drying alcohol. This is an iconic holiday beer and is perfect with any kind of meal or with dessert afterward. Aromatic, warming and clean, with just enough sweetness to complement the herbal potpourri.

(Photo by Jeff Holland)

Bookmark to: