Omnivore Atlanta

The guy leaning up to the bar at BLT Steak can’t wait to be sat to place his drink order. It’s 9:50 p.m., 10 minutes before the kitchen closes, and “Jones” here, as his companions are calling him, has just arrived at the hostess stand and announced, “There’s seven of us, we don’t have a reservation.” Without waiting for a response, he turns to the bar and barks, “I’ll take a Grey Goose, splash of cranberry and some lime.” (Clearly his time hanging out with sorority girls has influenced his taste in beverages.) “Roberts!” he says to one of the other blue-tooth adorned, square-jawed balls of machismo in his party. “You need a drink?”

Groups of these men make up practically every table at BLT Steak, Laurent Tourondel’s eponymous high-end steakhouse that first opened in New York in 2004 and now has outposts in L.A., Miami, Hong Kong and four other locations.

Tourondel aims to bring French sensibilities to classic Americana, and in New York BLT Steak is highly acclaimed, one of the city’s best-loved steak houses. In Atlanta, BLT has found a home in the new downtown W Hotel. The space exudes confidence, both manly and homey, exhibiting all the right shades of brown accented with oil paintings that lean to art’s safe side.

Apart from the swank man-friendly location and décor, the main reason cabernet- (or cosmo) swilling CEO types populate BLT is because they’re the only people who could possibly afford to eat here. In the hierarchy of Atlanta’s current ignore-the-recession, über-expensive restaurant trend, BLT wins top spot. Entrees, which are served a la carte and meant to be ordered with sides, hover between $30 and $45. Appetizers are mainly in the over-$15 range. It’s mighty hard for two people to get out of here for under $250. (more…)

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The pigs in a blanket at Serpas

It’d be silly to assert that restaurant critics don’t come to the job with a certain set of prejudices. Over the years, I’m sure mine have become clear. If a chef stakes his money and reputation on a place of his own, if he gambles on a real neighborhood rather than a gleaming skyscraper, if he finally gets the opportunity to cook his own food rather than something a corporate boss dictates, chances are I’ll be rooting for him. These are the stories I relish telling; the success stories where substance wins out over artifice.

It was with this attitude that I approached Serpas True Food. The restaurant is Scott Serpas’ first solo venture after stepping out from under the Concentrics umbrella where he worked for three years as chef at Two Urban Licks. While I love the outrageous drama of Two Urban licks as much as the next proud Atlantan, I always found Serpas’ cooking there a tad too gimmicky for truly serious consideration. So I was excited to see what the chef could come up with on his own terms. Add a renovated old industrial building in the Old Fourth Ward and PR touting the chef’s passion for the “authentic tastes of single ingredients,” and I was ready to believe the hype.

Indeed, the space, in the Studioplex building at the tippy top of Auburn Avenue, is lovely. Exposed brick walls and warm lighting create the base for features such as an open kitchen with bar seating, a wall-sized photo of cotton blossoms, and a convivial bar hugging the corner of the room.

Serpas’ “true food” claim is a tad more confusing. The chef is experimenting with the idea of American cuisine as a melting pot. Much of his menu nods to his Louisiana roots, but there are many flavors represented, including Asian, Southwestern and classic French. Serpas finds the most success when he sticks to one influence per dish. (more…)

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LIKE BUTTAH: The slow-cooked salmon at Market

It takes a special kind of openhearted restaurant critic to see “Tuna and Wasabi” pizza on a menu and keep her cynicism under control. At Spice Market, Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s first Atlanta project in the W Hotel in Midtown, the menu focuses on Asian street food and avoids frivolity like wasabi pizza. But at Market, Vongerichten’s second Atlanta venture, it’s as if the chef and his staff are aiming to see exactly how far they can push our discombobulation. As I sat and stared at Market’s menu for the first time, I realized it was gonna take a lot of celebrity chef magic to overcome fusions this silly.

The theme of confusion begins as soon as you exit the bar area (which is basically the lobby of the new W Hotel in Buckhead) and funnel through the restaurant’s claustrophobic entrance. Step out of the tiny wooden passageway and into a room that hides its largeness around curved walls and partitions. Designer hot shot Karim Rashid created the interior, which consists of amoeba-shaped recesses lit with neon-colored lights, and large, screen-saver-esque lined walls that could be accurately described as “trippy.” It’s hard to get a handle on the space and how it’s put together, and therefore hard to decide how to feel about it.

The same is true for the menu. Tomato soup with sourdough and cheddar is followed by truffle pizza, with a detour for sashimi spring rolls before going back to crab cakes and then into the more solidly Asian-influenced entrees. Maybe it’s stodgy of me to ask, but Why? Why throw all these things together on a menu? Just to see if you can?

(more…)

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THROW ANOTHER PIG ON THE BARBIE: A selection of meat on the grill at Honey Pig

I’m convinced there are those of you out there who still haven’t ventured to the corners of the city to seek out Atlanta’s dizzying variety of ethnic food. Not only that, I’m convinced it’s not for lack of wanting. The reasons hardly matter. It might be the intense American fear of appearing out of place. I suffer from this affliction myself. What if I can’t read the menu? What if I’m the only white girl in the building? What if the food is too weird, I can’t eat it, I offend my hosts, and I’m chased out into the parking lot by an angry mob??? Obviously I’ve overcome these self-doubts for professional reasons, and also because the payoff is so huge. But my guess is that many of you haven’t.

Well kids, this one’s for you. If the above set of totally understandable anxieties describes you at all, or if you’ve never ventured into a Korean barbecue restaurant but have an inkling that tons of grilled meat cooked in front of you might be fun, then get thee to Honey Pig. It’s about the most delicious, least intimidating Korean restaurant imaginable. In fact, it’s downright upscale. “I could bring my parents here,” my husband observed, somewhat impressed and somewhat disgusted. (He adheres to the skuzzier-and-weirder-the-better ethos when it comes to ethnic eating). The stone and black lacquered-wood accents and comfortable, fat leather chairs create a calming atmosphere that would please almost anyone. (more…)

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HOW SWEET IT IS: The sweetbreads with kumquats at Craft

In June of last year, I ate at the original Craft during a trip to New York City. To say it was the best meal of my year doesn’t really do the experience justice. Everything was exceptional, from the imposing old windows overlooking 19th Street, to the pleasingly understated masculine décor, to the expansive wine list that still had room for quirks, to the simple, perfect food.

I’m not planning to do a compare and contrast essay here, although it is tempting (the hen of the woods mushrooms in New York — a juicy hedge of crispy and soft flavor; the hen of the woods mushrooms in Atlanta — a desiccated scattering of yummy oily bits). But many have questioned whether upscale restaurants can work as chain operations. Chefs who leave primary kitchens in the hands of staff members and set out to create empires do so with a fair amount of skepticism following them, and rightly so. Quality is often diluted, and the focus becomes celebrity and the money that follows it. Just ask anyone who dined at the recently deposed Atlanta Emeril’s, and you’ll hear just how bad the translation can taste.

But after my meal in New York, I had high hopes for Atlanta’s outpost of Craft. If chef/restaurateur Tom Colicchio could bring even a part of New York’s feel, precision in cooking, and quality wine list to Atlanta, then I figured we were in for something pretty damn good. (more…)

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JUST DESSERTS: The mango parfait at Aja

Walking into Aja, Tom Catherall’s newest restaurant in his Here To Serve restaurant group, I felt a little like the main character in the ABC series, “Life on Mars.” In case you’ve missed it, the premise is that this cop falls down or something and when he gets up it’s 1973. Except in my version of the show, I’m a restaurant critic who gets bonked on the head and when I come to it’s 1989.

I uneasily take in my surroundings, looking for clues as to where and when I might be. Paula Abdul is blasting overhead. I make a mental checklist of everything needed for a late ’80s culinary hotspot. Red and black décor? Check. Attractive Asian hostess? Check. Lychee-tinis? Check. Menu of sushi/Chinese/Thai/Vietnamese/Indian/American/pan-Asian flavors? Check. Wasabi mashed potatoes? Well, no, there’s none of those — but there is a wasabi-crusted steak! Close enough.

The 10-foot golden Buddha in the center of the dining room — flown in by Catherall from Thailand — has nothing particularly ’80s about it, but it fits with the era’s disconcerting ostentation.

I would expect all this from Catherall. But I was also expecting exciting food from chef William Sigley (who previously blindsided me at Aquaknox, where I’d expected mediocre food and was happily surprised by his “global water cuisine,” whatever that means).

But Sigley seems to be flexing far less culinary muscle here. Offerings are broken up into sushi, dim sum, and the standard poultry/seafood/meat entrees. Very little jumps out as unexpected. (more…)

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STEP OFF: Workers remove animal hooves in 'Our Daily Bread.'

In his famed 2004 film Super Size Me, documentarian Morgan Spurlock went on a monthlong all-McDonald’s diet that wreaked havoc on his health. One of his doctors told him the steady intake of Big Macs was essentially turning his liver into paté — a rare case of junk food producing a gourmet dish, assuming a market existed for Spurlock Paté.

Super Size Me took a gimmicky but effective approach to the serious theme of American eating habits and whet the appetites of documentarians for more films on the subject. Twin motivations drive today’s culinary-minded nonfiction cinema: To decry the industrialization and mass marketing of what we eat, and to celebrate the Slow Food movement and other healthier, more sustainable approaches. Specific documentaries offer diverse perspectives, in contrast to our monolithic food production practices.

January 13 marked the DVD release of Our Daily Bread, an award-winning, head-spinning, at times stomach-churning glimpse at the mechanics of industrial food processing. Director Nikolaus Geyrhalter doesn’t editorialize, but lets the images speak for themselves. For 90 minutes, Our Daily Bread simply shows of vast machines and bored human operators raising produce and harvesting livestock. You’d think Our Daily Bread would be as exciting as watching vegetables ripen, but it’s a weirdly engrossing experience. There’s always something happening in Geyrhalter’s artfully arranged shots.

Our Daily Bread almost resembles a science fiction film the way it shows familiar foodstuffs such as apples dwarfed by sterile, utterly alien environments, or baby chicks on assembly line conveyor belts, or the huge, freaky machines that suck fish from the ocean or scoop up live chickens and launch them into crates. Geyrhalter frequently cuts to workers chewing their meals on break. They seem so bored and disengaged, it’s like they’re part of the automatic routine, too. When the film unexpectedly shows two workers making a huge pot of rice, it’s a shock to see such “normal” cooking.

Our Daily Bread isn’t just an intellectual exercise. It also preys on viewer sensibilities by including slaughter scenes (although they’re probably less than a fifth of the film’s content). (more…)

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BUN IN THE OVEN: Shrimp burger with Nutella shake and fried rutabegas

At a time when restaurants are struggling, when many people’s dining budgets are severely curtailed, it’s quite a feat to be the guy who’s drawing a two-hour wait on a Monday night.

That guy is Richard Blais, molecular gastronomist, reality TV star, inventor of the foie gras milkshake, and now, purveyor of hamburgers so pedigreed they require a “boutique” to sell them.

Flip Burger Boutique is Blais’ first project since leaving Tom Catherall’s Home, where he stopped by for a while after almost winning Bravo’s “Top Chef.” There’s a vast difference between Home’s forced nature and boring Buckhead sensibility and Flip’s freewheeling nuttiness. Located on a congested strip of Howell Mill Road between tire shops and used car lots, Flip’s clean modern lines and playful aesthetic are apparent before you even turn into the parking lot. Once inside, it’s obvious that fun is the objective. (more…)

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HE'S CRAFTY: Tom Colicchio gets around

New York chefs are invading Atlanta and taking over! Assemble the villagers and light the torches!

Why does this seem to be the reaction of so many once they hear big name chefs have chosen Atlanta as an outpost for their iconic restaurants?

Recently, we’ve seen an influx of New York chefs opening restaurants in our fair city, including Tom Colicchio (chef/owner of Craft, Craftbar and ‘wichcraft and a judge on the hit Bravo reality series “Top Chef”), Laurent Tourondel (chef/owner of BLT Steak, BLT Fish, BLT Prime, BLT Burger and BLT Market) and Jean-Georges Vongerichten (the man atop an empire of restaurants including Jean Georges, Spice Market, Market and Matsugen).

Supporters of local chef-driven restaurants worry these big names divert business from local restaurateurs and chefs. Cynics argue the food and experience simply cannot be replicated away from the restaurant’s home turf without the chef regularly overseeing quality.

But what is the real story? Why are these chefs here and how should we feel about their arrival? We spoke with chef Tom Colicchio and chef Laurent Tourondel to get their side of the story. (more…)

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THE THE: A selection of tacos at the Original El Taco

“Consulting chef” is a slightly confusing term. Generally, it means that the chef in question has designed the menu and perhaps spent some time training the kitchen staff on how to execute his dishes. It rarely means that the consulting chef is actually spending any time in the kitchen during service. But the question is, if a good chef consults, can we expect the food to be on par with what that chef would deliver in his own restaurant?

Shaun Doty, arguably one of the city’s best chefs, is making a cottage industry out of consulting at other people’s restaurants. Last year he put his name on the menu at Midtown’s now defunct Spotted Dog. I stopped in there one afternoon and had a somewhat sad version of Doty’s East Village-style chicken livers, which resembled the original in concept but not execution. He is currently acting as consulting chef at the Original El Taco, Fifth Group’s new Tex-Mex restaurant in Virginia Highland (although the restaurant’s website lists him as Executive Chef), and there’s talk of other consulting gigs in the works.

The Original El Taco (roughly translated to “The Original The Taco”) has been an instant hit — there’s a wait for tables almost any time of the night on any night of the week. The crowds bring a party atmosphere, ramped up with large, well-made margaritas. There’s also a colorful mural painted by SCAD students that depicts, among other things, somebody who looks an awful lot like Hitler carrying a giant taco on his back.

You can see Doty’s touch on the menu of tacos, “Mexican pizzas” and Tex-Mex entrees: a pork belly taco here, a fried egg atop a stack of tortillas and chili there. But can you taste his influence? (more…)

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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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LOVE ME TENDER: The grilled octopus at Veranda Greek Taverna

“Tell them that Yanni is their host!” Yanni Kasarhis says jubilantly. I’m talking to Kasarhis on the phone, trying to get the backstory of Veranda Greek Taverna, the Roswell restaurant where I’ve just had some astonishingly good Greek food. I’m getting a little information and a lot of enthusiasm. Hospitality is high on the priority list at Veranda.

Here’s what I did find out: Kasarhis (who, along with his wife Mary, is originally from Athens, Greece) was one of Taverna Plaka’s original owners. After he sold Taverna Plaka, he worked as a server at his sister’s restaurant, the Peachtree Diner, where he met Pete Pukish. Pukish had a pool hall in Roswell that wasn’t doing too well. He wondered if Kasarhis might want to go into the Greek food business again. And so Veranda was born about a year ago using Pukish’s space, Kasarhis’ management and Mary’s family recipes. Chef Clifford Tukes, who Kasarhis first met at Taverna Plaka, was brought in to execute those recipes. (more…)

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BAR CODE

Whatever happened to the word “bar”? Where’s the respect for good, old-fashioned bar food? These days, the new generation of business owners do not open bars. They open gastropubs.

The gastropub concept turned up in Atlanta last year with Concentrics’ TAP, followed most notably this year by Holeman and Finch, along with a host of other spots. In recent months, three places in particular have garnered a lot of attention: the Porter in Little Five Points, the BookHouse Pub in Poncey-Highland, and the Bureau in the Old Fourth Ward. I wondered what made these places that different from any other bar in town that serves food. How would they compare to say, Atkins Park – arguably the oldest bar in the city?

At the Porter Beer Bar (1156 Euclid Ave., 404-223-0393, www.theporterbeerbar.com), the main difference is the beer. The Porter has around 200 beers, from hop-heavy American microbrews to gueze to Belgian tripels and quadruples, and not one watered-down domestic among them. For beer lovers, the list is a true joy to behold.

So, that covers the “pub” aspect, but what about the “gastro”? The main claim to the Porter’s foodie fame is the résumé of its owners. Nick Rutherford and Molly Gunn both worked at Seeger’s, the now closed Atlanta temple to haute cuisine. Rutherford went on to make a splash at the Chocolate Bar in Decatur. (more…)

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1. If you are making instant couscous (and I always do because I am a lazy cook) all you do is microwave water and dump in the grains. After that, leave the work to science and couscous magic. The granules are fast absorbing and in less than three minutes a tasty, fulfilling dish appears right before your eyes! I make couscous almost everyday and the instant absorption never ceases to amaze me. Like, I don’t have to do ANYTHING.

2. It is better than rice. Hands down. Someone should invent sushi wrapped in couscous because it would become more successful and taste one hundred billion times better.

3. Couscous is not thrown at weddings and stepped on. Why? Because it is AWESOME and deserves respect…bitches.

4. The texture: moist, fluffy, rough, ridiculous esophageal fun.

5. You can pair it with most anything; gravies, stews, meat, birds, broth, cinnamon and sugar, and steamed veggies. Scarf it down for breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert or a midnight snack!

6. There’s a nightclub named after it in Manchester, UK and it is a hit French film.

7. The Egyptians ate couscous. And they built the pyramids.

8. When used instead of beans in beanbags, it produces a softer, safer toy for children to throw at each other, making eye, ear, and groin injuries less frequent.

9. It basically inherits any flavor it’s mixed with, but maintains its individuality with grace.

10. Couscous is universal. Everyone loves it. Moroccans, Africans, Europeans, slacker college students, Democrats, Republicans, the Olsen twins, koala bears, and Thor God of Thunder.

11. I ate it for breakfast this morning and that is why I’m writing this.

(Photos from Wikimedia Commons)

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