Omnivore Atlanta

Lambert Bridge Winery dinner at the Shed at Glenwood, Nov. 17, The winery will bring a five-course meal and wine pairings to the Shed at Glenwood. The main course will include wild boar ragout, winter vegetables and yukon gold potatoes. Cost $85 per person. 475 Bill Kennedy Way. 404-835-4363. www.theshedatglenwood.com.

Slow Food Atlanta presents a “slow taste of Tuscany,” Wednesday, November 18, 2009, 7 p.m. at Valenza and La Pietra Cucina. A celebration taking place across America of slow food and Douglas Gayeton’s new book Slow: Life in a Tuscan Town. $120 all-inclusive.

Atlanta Wine School’s For Beginners Only, Nov. 19, For the wine novice who is looking to expand their knowledge. The course is meant to expand wine vocabulary, learning what goes best with what foods and what to choose at a restaurant. You will also learn about tasting as you sample several wines. The class cost $50 per person and begins at 7 pm. 1570 Holcomb Bridge Road. 770-668-0435. www.atlantawineschool.com.

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La Pietra Cucina is my favorite restaurant, and my default when I’m in the mood for fine dining. Bruce Logue’s thoughtfully conceived “progressive Italian cooking” makes the restaurant chef-driven — what I find most appealing — but with a distinctive edge.

Favorite Dishes: Mainly, I lunch here and the dish that most often draws my attention is the crispy fish with caponata and salsa passato. (But I never ignore the specials…or the porchetta salad.) 1545 Peachtree St. 404-888-8709. www.lapietracucina.com.

See the rest of Cliff’s Top 10 Favorites and don’t miss our Food Issue 2009, out today.

(Photo by James Camp)

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This week has been what Wayne and I call a “Freedom from Food Week.” That means we didn’t have to eat anything for first-time review. The reason is that I wrote the list of my 10 favorite restaurants instead of Grazing for next week’s paper. That put me a week ahead.

By the way, some people don’t seem to distinguish between the “best” and a “favorite” restaurant. A favorite restaurant is one that I go to regularly because the food is consistently good, it’s fairly inexpensive and it’s relatively convenient to where I live.  I would, for example, consider Restaurant Eugene among the best restaurants in the city but it’s not a favorite for regular dining week in and week out.

I’ve had several terrific meals this week at favorites. Above is the gigantic pickle we brought home from the Shed at Glenwood Wednesday night after our usual indulgence of $3 sliders. Wayne asked for an extra slice of pickle and the waiter brought him this dinner-plate-sized monster. It seems owner Cindy Shera bought an entire barrel of them, thinking she was buying the usual size.

We had two excellent newbie sliders — fried oysters and coleslaw, and pork belly with pork and beans.

I lunched Friday with my friend Frank Miller at La Pietra Cucina, where I haven’t been in nearly a month. Our meal was flat-out spectacular, starting with a large bowl of soup featuring octopus and chickpeas with a bit of escarole and delectable Olivastro oil. That was followed by lemony tagliatelle with chunks of Dungeness crab, which was followed by porchetta paninos. No, I did not take a nap in the car after lunch, but I sure felt like it.

Last night, Thursday, I scored a seat at the bar at the always-crowded Dynamic Dish for an amazing-as-usual meal: creamy, slightly crispy aubergine croquettes over San Marzano tomato sauce with steamed kale and crowder peas. I followed that with owner-chef David Sweeney’s interesting take on bread pudding — more like toast pudding — topped with whiskey sauce and toasted walnuts.

Last Monday, I visited the new Antico Pizza for another Naples-style pie, this time the San Gennaro topped with sweet sausage, bufala, cippolini and sweet pickled red peppers. Like the week before, I carried the pizza home in a box and it was way too gooey by the time I arrived, but nonetheless a really stimulating play of sweet flavors. I wish the restaurant included seating — there is one table where you can stand and eat — because the pizza is really not suited for travel. It’s not on my list of favorites yet, but it’s only been open a few weeks and I’ve been twice!

(Photos by Cliff Bostock)

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If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook, you know that I’m a fig fanatic, having eaten my favorite summertime fruit three meals in a row last week. One of those included this dish of figs stuffed with melted gorgonzola cheese and topped with prosciutto.

I shared the dish with my friend Brad at our near-weekly Friday lunch at La Pietra Cucina.

Chef Bruce Logue is playing with some new Abattoir-esque dishes, too. The most intriguing is pig’s feet, cooked Milanese-style. He said he wasn’t expecting to sell more than one or two a night, but instead has been selling eight. The dish is served at Babbo in New York, Logue’s previous employer.

Logue is also cooking veal tongue and, for the less squeamish, Dungeness crabs. I would be very happy if he served the lamb tongue that Babbo prepares, too.

(Photo by Cliff Bostock)

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In her review of La Pietra Cucina this week, Besha mentions Chef Bruce Logue’s calamari-shaped penne.

Besha ate it with a classic pomodoro, but my friend Frank Miller and I sampled it (right) at lunch last Friday with troia, a spicy sausage the kitchen is now making. The dish included pickled peppers of several varieties that were cooked down until their sweetness was as powerful as their heat.

The effect was just as Besha described much of Logue’s food: an almost confusing collision of flavors that somehow reconcile themselves in your own sweet mouth.

Above is a closeup of my favorite sandwich in the city these days — Pietra’s porchetta panino.

(Sandwich photo by Cliff Bostock, pasta photo by Frank Miller)

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OCEAN COMMOTION: The salmon with shrimp gnudi at La Pietra Cucina

Be careful what you wish for.

Last November, in my original review of La Pietra Cucina, I complained about the strangeness of the dining room, which was a small room adjacent to the massive space that once housed MidCity Cuisine. I hoped for a grander space to showcase chef Bruce Logue’s irrepressible Italian cooking. Then, in May, the restaurant closed for a short while and reopened using the entire footprint, repurposing the original dining room as a private dining space.

So what, then, could my hypocritical (and apparently hypercritical) heart possibly find wrong with that? Wait for it … I hate the new space. I miss the slightly disjointed but quirky feel of the original room.

I know, I know. It isn’t so much that the space has been redesigned, but how. Deep maroon with gold accents make up the palette — walls the color of Elvira’s lipstick; heavily gilded picture frames holding weighty paintings of monarchs and horses; chairs swathed in dark yellow velvet. Frank Sinatra croons through the speakers. It’s like someone’s rococo fantasy of what a fancy Italian restaurant should be — which is fine, I guess, except that once again, it doesn’t match Logue’s cooking in the slightest.

Continue reading “Review: La Pietra Cucina”

(Photo by James Camp)

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Steve Harper of Alpharetta writes to report on a meal at one of the city’s best gastro-pubs:

Thought I’d drop a quick line about the excellent meal I had at the Porter Beer Bar in Lil Five Points last night…a meal as unhealthy as it was delicious.

I started with the duck rillette special appetizer…rich, toothsome shredded duck topped with a crust of strawberry preserves and served with toast points…absolutely wonderful!

I tried the entree hamburger from the regular menu. What struck me was that each element was clearly made with great care: the pickles tasted homemade; the delicious soft red onion had been marinated in something slightly sweet; the red pepper and garlic roll actually held together; the burger itself cooked to perfection. The garlic fries were not half bad, either. (A lady at the table next to mine kept exclaiming that fact with her mouth full.)

I finished with the carrot cake dessert special — a deconstruction of the typical, with the thick, nearly sour, cream cheese icing served beside the cake. Sprinkled atop the (ubiquitous) oblong of vanilla ice cream were a few tasty flakes of fried carrot, and diced pecans added a nice crunch. A lot of fun to eat.

I shouldn’t review my meal at the Porter without mentioning the beer. If you’re into that sort of thing, this place is heaven. I had a sampling of the Golden Belgians on draft, and chose the LaChouffe to drink. (They have an overwhelming list to ponder.)

Service was excellent and attentive.

Not an inexpensive place to eat, depending on what you order, but, last night, actually worth the money.

I’ve had nothing but great food here myself. Check out its website for regular weekly specials. …

Say it isn’t so: I’ve received my first complaint from a devoted foodie about the expansion of La Pietra Cucina. I’ve only been once since the change and although I preferred the smaller, virtually makeshift dining room, I did not find the food changed at all. This reader writes:

Renovation not to my liking but I can get past that. But food was not as good. Oily, flavors muted, bread old. I was a big supporter and hoped for consistent results after expansion but was disappointed tonight. Have you any other feedback-did we just hit an off night?

I’m hoping it was an off-night. Anyone else found changes there? (You can, by the way, see pictures of the new space on Foodie Buddha’s website.). …

A bit of a rant: A reader recently inquired about a rather obscure ethnic restaurant. It was recommended to her by a friend who grew up eating the restaurant’s particular type of food. I always appreciate these tips, but I’ve been recommended this restaurant before. I visited it several years ago and thought it was dreadful.

A lot of people seem to presume that if, say, a Mexican or Indian native likes a restaurant specializing in his heritage’s cooking, it must be “authentic” and “good.” The fact is that ethnicity may confer knowledge about a culture’s food but it doesn’t automatically confer good taste (or talent in the kitchen).

Obviously, too, factors beside the food itself attract everyone to their favorite restaurant. An Indian friend insisted I accompany him to his favorite restaurant a few years back and I could not believe how awful the food was. Toward the end of the meal, the owner of the restaurant came to our table and, of course, he turned out to be a pal of my friend. Also, the place was patronized by some of his co-workers.

“So you really like the food here?” I asked my friend.

“No,” he said. “It’s my favorite restaurant, but not my favorite food.”

That actually makes complete sense, especially where neighborhood restaurants are concerned. /end of rant.

(Photo courtesy of the Porter Beer Bar website)

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La Pietra Cucina has reopened after three weeks of remodeling the main dining room. It’s hard to communicate what a startling difference there is in this rather formal-feeling space and the original, which was ensconced in the private dining room of the original tenant, Midcity Cuisine.

The new dining room is absolutely huge and rather darkly lit, with walls painted a reddish-brown that looks purple in darker areas. As soon as we took our seats in rather throne-like wingback chairs, my friend Frank Miller remarked that he felt like we should be swirling brandy snifters and puffing on cigars.

The wait staff has more than doubled and Chef Bruce Logue has added a former associate to the kitchen staff. The food is as good as ever — at least at lunchtime Friday when the Memorial Day weekend kept the crowd sparse.

The menu is about the same for now but Logue will be adding more dishes as the staff hits its stride. I ordered this slice of Tiella Gaetana (top), which is two layers of unleavened pizza dough stuffed with escarole, capers, olives and ricotta cheese. The crust is deliciously crispy and the filling slightly acidic and a bit sweet too. I’d never had the dish before and was expecting something more like traditional pizza (because I only half-listened to the server’s description).

When I asked Logue why he wasn’t doing pizza, he replied, “I wouldn’t even attempt to compete with Varasano’s. There should be no other pizza on Peachtree Street.” In other words, he loves Varasano’s — especially the dough — and called it the closest thing in Atlanta to the pizzas he ate in Italy. That’s quite an endorsement.

I also ordered this salad (above right) of porchetta with pickled fennel, baby arugula and aged piave. It was a huge portion, especially with the tiella, and Frank helped me finish it. His own entree was classic trenette al pesto, which included potatoes and wild nettles as well as pesto Genovese.

(Photos by Cliff Bostock)

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I lunched Friday, as usual, at La Pietra Cucina with my friends Brad and Todd.

I started with this salad of arugula, pickled vegetables and tender eggplant slices folded over dollops of chevre. I followed that with a panino of speck and sundried tomatoes. Give me salty sweetness any time.

The restaurant is now closed until May 18, when it will move into the much larger remodeled space next door. Chef Bruce Logue, pictured here listening to Brad talk about olive oil, says he is both excited and anxious about the move.

On the one hand, the much larger space will put increased strain on the kitchen, but he’ll not have to hear about how unattractive the dining room is any more. Many foodies have raved about the food but complained about the ambiance of the restaurant, which has been operating out of what was the private dining room of the previous tenant, Midcity Cuisine.

The room will still be used for spillover and large parties.

Logue is heading to Puerto Rico on vacation for part of his hiatus from cooking.

(Photos by Cliff Bostock)

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Morels, one of my favorite edible parts of the planet, are coming into season. Bruce Logue of La Pietra Cucina had them on the menu last Friday, sauteed and tossed with tagliatelle.

Check out Morels.com for reports from people all over the country of their first sightings of this delicious mushroom. Some of this year’s first sightings have been reported in Georgia. One lucky guy harvested 35 lbs. of them in North Georgia, where he was fishing.

(Photo by Cliff Bostock)

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My pal Brad Lapin has been in Los Angeles the last two weeks, but returned home in time for us to lunch Friday, as usual, at La Pietra Cucina. Thanks to Facebook, we had a reunion lunch with our friend Frank Miller, author, professor, stage director and Funniest Person Alive.

Frank and I both ordered the porchetta panino (right), stuffed with thin-sliced, roasted, buttery pork and arugula, while Brad ordered the calamari (in the background).

But the highlight of lunch was the slimming portion of housemade gelati sent out by Chef Bruce Logue. I’ve never seen spoons move quite so rapidly as Brad and Franklin engaged in a virtual sword fight to get at the last dollop of the stuff.

Logue says plans are still on for the restaurant to expand into the larger adjoining space by May 18. The present space will revert to its original purpose as a private dining room.  Business has picked up considerably lately, in part due to AJC critic Meridith Ford Goldman’s recent four-star review. Hey, maybe they’ll even put up a sign and create a website one of these days.

I have no doubt the restaurant will continue to be first-rate, but I suggest you visit before the expansion. For now, it’s open weekdays for lunch and for dinner Friday and Saturday.

(Photos by Cliff Bostock)

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Savor, the popular gourmet grocery and sandwich shop, has added panini to its menu, according to Brad Lapin, my perennial Friday lunch companion. …

Cafe Lapin (no relation to Brad) has opened in the same shopping center. You can order breakfast, lunch or dinner there (no dinner on Sunday). …

AJC critic Meredith Ford Goldman’s review of La Pietra Cucina is due out this week. Brad and I lunched there Friday (surprise!) on arancini (below) suffused with marjoram and a seafood risotto (above) turned velvety black with squid ink. It contained snapper, rock shrimp, mussels and calamari.

Members of the Atlanta chapter of the Accademia della Cucina Italiana ate at La Pietra recently and grilled Chef Bruce Logue within an inch of his life, since his cuisine neither complies with usual notions of authenticity nor regionality. He calls his cooking “progressive Italian,” since he must depend on locally available ingredients. …

Serpas has begun serving Sunday brunch, 11 a.m.-2 p.m.: “Menu items include New Orleans beignets with confectioner dust, house made granola with yogurt and fresh fruit, cast-iron sunny-side up eggs with hashbrowns and andouille, raspberry marscapone-stuffed French toast with crispy bacon, slow-roasted pork loin with smoked cheddar grits and creamy collards and fried oysters-eggs benedict with Tabasco hollandaise.”

(more…)

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Brad Lapin, my regular Friday lunch date, is too Catholic to eat meat on Fridays. So, in order to sample the special of bollito misto at La Pietra Cucina this week, we moved lunch to Thursday, and his partner Eric Varner joined us.

Unfortunately, Chef Bruce Logue had delayed offering the Italian classic of boiled meats until Thursday night. So we were forced to eat this special of a thick lamb chop over gnudi and a parsley-based salsa verde with capers and some anchovy. I also had half an order of ravioli and a mocha-flavored dessert that was something like a cross between a flan and pana cotta. I ate all that to console myself for not gettting the bollito misto.

I note that the Buddha of food also showed up when the bollito misto was unavailable.

You’d think with a lunch like that, I’d skip dinner or content myself with some celery and a rice cake. But Wayne was hungry and needed food desperately, so I joined him at The Flying Biscuit’s original location in Candler Park. It was an instant hit when it opened in 1993 with its creative but homey cooking and cathead biscuits. Then, two or three years ago, it was sold to a franchise operation and quality started to teeter.

Last night’s meal was not good. The problem is a failure to change with the times as much as anything else.  Wayne ordered a dish that featured three eggs scrambled with chicken sausage, pasta, spinach mushrooms and cheddar cheese. It was not pretty. He ordered an oatmeal pancake for his side. It was tepid and thick, topped with an unpleasantly glutinous epach compote.

I chose salad — a ridiculously gigantic salad — with some grilled chicken over field greens with rosemary-roasted potatoes and blue cheese. The chicken was good enough but the greens were absolutely sopping wet with the dressing. My whole-wheat biscuit was stone cold and crumbled into bits when I took a knife to it.

Service was great. The ambiance is still cozy but almost creepily from another era. And — come on — get a restroom door that actually closes.

(Photo by Cliff Bostock)

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Our frequent commenter Kali asked us a few weeks back to come up with a list for her of 10 things she should eat in Atlanta before she deserts us for the Great North. She wrote:

Besha and Cliff,

I am sure I have hinted, if not outright said (and I know I have!), that I am leaving my beloved Atlanta for Canadian climes in 8 weeks now. Please give me a list of 10 tastes I should have before I go. Atlanta is a city of foods, cuisines, and delicacies I am glad to know are out there. It makes me proud. My only caveat is this: I don’t eat beef. It’s something weird with me I am sure. Pork is fine, lamb is so-so, fish is ace, and there you go. But please: I would like recommendations.

So here we go – Cliff and I came up with five each. Cliff’s list first: (more…)

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Brad Lapin and I had our regular Friday lunch today at — you’ll never guess — La Pietra Cucina. Chef Bruce Logue is planning a four-course Valentine’s meal for $85 Saturday night. But here’s even better news: next week he’s preparing the classic boiled Italian meal, bollito misto, including ingredients like cotechino and veal tongue.

It will be offered Thursday-Saturday at lunch and dinner. This is basically the Italian equal of the Spanish cocido that Ecco prepares Tuesday nights. Be there.

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This dish at La Pietra Cucina is the best thing I’ve eaten in a few weeks — and that includes meals at Craft and Market.

It’s agnolotti, a ravioli-like pasta stuffed with house-made sausage, submerged in a mild broth with bits of winter chestnuts and garnished with sliced truffles.

Chef Bruce Logue offered the dish as a special on Friday.

It’s perfect in just about every way. Texturally, it ranges from juicy, melt-in-your mouth, to crisp. Flavors were mainly earthy, from the sharp sausage, to the musky truffles. But they were interrupted here and there with an explosion of sweetness in the chestnuts.

Do not fail to order this if you find it on the menu!

(Photo by Cliff Bostock)

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You’ll never guess where we went for dinner on New Year’s Eve.

La Pietra Cucina, of course. Chef Bruce Logue prepared a five-course menu of his “progressive” Italian dishes. Among them was a third course of risotto with shellfish (above) and a fourth of braised American buffalo shortribs with fregula and kale (right).

The first course was roasted chestnut crema with seared scallops and porcini dust. The second was house-made cotecchino sausage with Umbrian lentils and quince mostarda. The dish represents good luck and money.

Our friends Brad and Eric, the part-time residents of Rome, said Logue’s cotecchino demonstrated the way his cooking deviates from heavy Italian style. While the sausage — creamy and fatty — is a classic New Year’s dish, they said Logue’s version was far lighter than the cotecchino they’ve eaten in Rome. “If you ate this much of it in Rome, you wouldn’t be able to eat another thing,” Brad said.

I’ll take his word for it. Still, after a dessert of warm panettone with amarena cheries and Sicilian pistachio gelato, I was in an altered state — I think you call it “bloated” — and could hardly wait to get home and expand for the New Year.

(Photos by Cliff Bostock)

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THE OFFAL TRUTH: Foie gras and buttermilk pancakes at Home

We love lists – especially at the end of the year. And so, in no particular order, here are my top 10 picks for the best dishes I had in 2008.

The almond croissant at Parish.

Mussel and salami salad at Cakes and Ale.

The Proscuitto de Parma at La Pietra Cucina.

Fesenjan stew at Falafel Café.

The vegetable plate at the National in Athens

Buttermilk pancakes and foie gras at Home.

The burger at Holeman and Finch.

Apple and beet soup at Dynamic Dish.

Korean BBQ at Hanil Kwan.

Monkfish liver at Sushi House Hayakawa.

(Photo by James Camp)

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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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I’m sure you’ve noticed that a lot of restaurants are offering recession-fighting prix fixe menus these days.

I’m a sucker for them much of the time. These menus usually tempt diners by offering them an extra course, usually dessert, basically for free. If you stick with just ordering an appetizer and an entree from the regular menu, nine times out of 10, you’ll end up spending about the same amount of money — sometimes less — and getting a better range of choices. And, of course, if you just ordered an entree, you’d save even more money.

Oh well. We visited The Shed at Glenwood recently and both of us ordered the $24 prix fixe menu, mainly because we wanted the restaurant’s excellent profiteroles made with Valrhona chocolate sauce and espresso ice cream. The rest of our meal was great, too: a pan-seared, free-range chicken breast with butternut squash for me and (cod)fish ‘n’ chips for Wayne.

The restaurant posts its special menu on its website daily … .

I returned to La Pietra Cucina with friends last week and, as usual, had a phenomenal meal. I ordered the short ribs, but this amazing snapper with caponata and a creamy tomato sauce (left) also made its way to the table.

A dish of brussel sprouts with butternut squash puree and gnocchi (below) was, hands down, the best treatment of the vegetable I’ve ever encountered … .

Note to Publix: Find a new supplier of Fuji apples. Kroger’s are about 10 times better than yours. While you’re at it, put cherries back in your nuts and dried fruit bins … .

Flip is open! Everywhere I go, people are taking bets about how long Richard Blais will remain at the restaurant. His technical title is “creative director,” so I’m not sure we’re even supposed to expect him to remain there as chef … .

I had probably the worst meal and service I’ve had in years at a new Buckhead restaurant last week. We’re talking entree side dishes served literally in little butter cups and service so bad that my annoyance turned into resigned embarassment. You’ll have to wait for next week’s Grazing column to learn the identity.

(Photos by Cliff Bostock)

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Christiane Lauterbach has reviewed La Pietra Cucina on the front page of the November issue of Knife and Fork.

Like Besha, she gives the food a very positive review and the space a strongly negative one. (I might add that she incorrectly reports that the restaurant is open for dinner Saturday nights only. Actually, it is open for dinner Monday through Saturday.)

The current issue of Knife and Fork, which is published monthly, also has a lengthy guide to eating in ethnic grocery stores and a round-up of Latino restaurants that serve arepas, the tasty corn patties eaten like a bun stuffed with your choice of fillings.

Knife and Fork, which I consider the best dining resource in the city, is offering special holiday subscription rates, starting at $26. Call 404-378-2775 to subscribe. (The publication does not have an online site.)

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I’ve had the cold from hell for a week, so I’ve only eaten comfort food like Dynamic Dish’s stew of great northern beans and heirloom peas from Whippoorwill Hollow Organic Farm. I drank a glass of freshly made carrot-ginger-Fuji apple juice with it.

We ate at the restaurant’s new bar counter. It has five seats and, at least to me, is more comfortable than sharing the end of a table whose other end is occupied by complete strangers. Here, you can eat with strangers, but stare at the cookies and dates stuffed with chocolate and almonds between intervals of conversation.

David Sweeney, the restaurant’s chef/owner, says he’s not going to open for Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner. Bummer.

Brad Lapin and I made our weekly trip to La Pietra Cucina where I ate short ribs over mashed potatoes. Brad ordered this (more photogenic) fish stew. Being sick, I figured I deserved the dessert, a chocolate-mousse-like concoction with hazelnuts. We’re returning for dinner this week with a visiting foodie friend from Rome.

I ran into Jennifer Zyman, CL’s cheap-eats writer, at Pietra. She reports on her own meal on her blog. Jennifer and her dining companion find certain flavors — salty and bitter — too strong in two dishes. Bitterness is a flavor I can’t get enough of, generally. (No comment necessary from the sweet peeps.) But I’m hypersensitive to saltiness and don’t recall getting an over-salted dish at Pietra.

I gave Jennifer a hug. I hope she didn’t wake up with my cold.

My final comfort food was pizza at Stella. The fall specials menu includes this white one topped with smoked prosciutto and streaked with balsamic reduction. I mainly enjoyed it, although too much of the prosciutto was stringy.

Wayne ordered another special pizza, featuring cherry tomatoes, anchovies and capers — similar to Fritti’s Napoli, but with a crispy crust instead of the billowy, melt-in-the-mouth one at Fritti.

I also sipped a good bit of juice from Arden’s Garden. During the sore-throat phase, the straight-up ginger- root juice was almost anesthetic. Of course, the price, over $10 for 10 oz. or so, is kind of numbing too.

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I’m looking for office space in the Midtown area. The Ansley Starbucks’ Internet access has been totally f***ed up for months, so I need to find a place that won’t boot me off-line three times an hour…or charge me more than the cost of a few shots of espresso.

The problem, this time, began after Starbucks introduced sort-of-free WiFi through AT&T. I still pay $30 monthly for Tmobile’s service there, but neither service works half the time. No matter how much people complain, nothing happens.

My theory is that because the service is basically free now, nobody in the upper echelons of their corporate office, including the alleged AT&T liaison, feels the need to really do anything about the complaints. Further, I learned today, that allegedly nobody besides me calls to complain. As if. But it’s certainly true that many have become virtually acclimated to the WiFi dysfunction, like Baghdad residents who have become accustomed to having electricity only half the day.

Please don’t tell me it’s what I get for patronizing the corporate coffee culture. The shop’s baristas are great and the store is located next door to my gym. I tried Octane, which I love, but it’s out of the way….

La Pietra Cucina opens Saturday nights for the first time tomorrow. I’m happy to learn that the restaurant is booked except for one two-top. As usual, I lunched there today with my pals Brad Lapin and Todd Doane.

We had a gigantic meal, including tortellini al brodo (the popular Italian Christmas soup), a wild boar ragu with chitarra and a sorbet made with fresh huckleberries, olive oil and a touch of sea salt. My entree was pork slices over a thyme-laced salad of chopped red beets, placed over sliced yellow beets, with a dollop of blueberry confit spread about the plate. I could go on, but you’d do better to go sample the food yourself….

Speaking of pork slices, I have been ruminating a dish I sampled at Taqueria del Sol on Cheshire Bridge yesterday. Chef Eddie Hernandez offered me a taste of an off-the-menu dish — slices of roasted pork with a sauce made of New Mexico green chilies. The fiery sauce contained large chunks of the smoky chilies. I want more! It reminded me of the old Sundown Cafe days when such items appeared on the menu regularly….Eddie was headed to the Original El Taco last night. He promised to give me a report….By the way, the Athens Taqueria del Sol is scheduled to open within a few weeks….

Bill Pruitt writes to recommend the new Mai Thai (4394 Hugh Howell Rd., 770-493-8002) in Tucker. He likes the masaman curry with chicken, the basil rolls and the coconut soup. Prices range from $6.95 to $14.95….

News Flash from the Melting Pot in Kennesaw:

It’s time to bring out the kids for a day of fun, while teaching them the importance of giving back. From 11 a.m. until 3 p.m. on Saturday, Nov.r 8, The Melting Pot in Kennesaw will join forces with Bears-4-Hope Charity for Fondue Festival! This will be a day filled with entertainment for the whole family, including music from The Tom and Chad Show, jewelry, a moon walk, face painting, a magic show, a “special” spiced cider for the parents and, of course, fondue for everyone. Guests will indulge in creamy cheese and rich chocolate fondues from The Melting Pot while supporting a worthy cause.

Admission is $20 for adults, $12 for each additional adult and $7.50 for children under 12. Proceeds will be donated to Bears-4-HopMa Charity and will be used to purchase blankets and pillows for children in the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Seating is limited; please call 770.425.1411 to make a reservation. The Melting Pot is the country’s premier fondue restaurant franchise. Visit www.themeltingpot.com for details…..

More than 5,000 homeless men, women and children inhabit our city’s streets every night. Support Samaritan House by attending a benefit photography exhibit and reception 6-9 p.m. Thursday, Oct., 30, at Cator Woolford Gardens on Ponce de Leon Ave. Call 404-446-4691 or write GJenkins@SamHouse.org for more information and to purchase tickets, which are $55 each.

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Brad and I returned to La Pietra Cucina for lunch today and we were knocked out as usual. We split a salad made with lobster mushrooms, seldom seen on Atlanta menus.

Then Brad had grouper over creamy, diced eggplant in a tomato sauce with shrimp. I ordered the day’s risotto, full of prosciutto cotto, chives and bits (and slices) of fresh figs.

There’s some news about the restaurant. It will begin opening Saturday nights on Oct. 25. The restaurant’s owners have also decided not to expand into the huge, adjoining space until next year.

Chef Bruce Logue says he’s happy with the more intimate-sized dining room and most diners concur that the present space — actually, the private dining room of the original occupant, MidCity Cuisine — is just right.

Nonetheless, Logue says he is deliberating whether to open a small Italian steakhouse on the left-hand side of the space. That would be a definite first for our city.

(Photo by Cliff Bostock)

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I’ve revisited three new restaurants during the last few days. You may be sick of hearing about it, but the first was La Pietra Cucina. Look at this special (above) I had for lunch last Friday.

It’s veal hanger steak, sliced and placed over Swiss chard and polenta, surrounded by oven roasted tomatoes and some kalamata olives. How many veal hanger steaks have you run into in our city? The contrast of the chard and sweet tomatoes really made this dish.

We also returned to Noni’s Italian Deli and Bar. We had a great meal that included this New-York-Italian-style eggplant and chicken parmigiana (above, right). The chicken was a flattened breast, lightly coated in flour and fried, then topped with homemade mozzarella and a thick slice of eggplant and tomato sauce. The chicken was still crispy, a very nice effect not normally encountered in this dish. Wayne had the house-made tagliatelle with a very savory, bright lemon-anchovy sauce.

Our appetizers were a fritto misto and a caprese salad made with thick slices of beefsteak tomatoes. Yes, they are still serving the dish with some reduced balsamic vinegar, despite the objections of purists like Elisa Gambino of Via Elisa. “I know it’s not ‘authentic’,” owner Matt Ruppert told me. “But everyone expects it.”

Finally, I returned to the new location of Joli Kobe. I ordered the day’s special — two crepes filled with chicken and mushrooms, topped with melted cheese and salad (above, left). The dish felt quite retro to me as I ordered it — I haven’t eaten crepes in years — but it was ideal. The kitchen makes two fluffy, almost pancake-like crepes, stuffs them and folds them neatly. The chopped cubes of chicken and the button mushrooms were fresh.

I also couldn’t resist buying a sugar cookie and some croissants, including an almond one. The pastries are still among the city’s best — part of what has made the Sandy Springs location so popular for more than two decades.

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