Omnivore Atlanta

Monday night is your opportunity to try out one of the city’s best bargains right now — Chef Shane Devereux’s 3-course menu at Top Flr for $15. You get you choice of two entrees and two starters.

However, reader Susan Hewitt writes to issue a warning:

Had a good meal at Top Flr recently except for one thing: it was roasting in the upstairs area where we were seated. I normally am cold everywhere we go and even I was sweating. Sadly, it ruined the experience for me. I understand the difficulties with cooling old buildings, but they could at the very least put in a couple of ceiling fans. I won’t be considering a return visit until the weather changes.

I eat downstairs there and haven’t noticed a problem with the air conditioning. So you might want to make a reservation (404-685-3110) for a downstairs table or snag a seat at the bar. …

Tonight is also all-you-can-eat Mussels Night ($15) at the Peasant Bistro. And P’cheen hosts “Mike’s Bone Lick BBQ,” where you can find some mustard-based, South Carolina-style sauce — a rarity in our city. …

OK, people, I’ve been to three restaurants lately whose menus were all but unreadable. No, it’s not just me, because in each case I heard people at adjoining tables similarly complaining. In one case, I loaned them my iTouch so they could use the flashlight application. Low lighting is cool, but how about putting more thought into the font you use for your menu? …

We had an interesting meal at Stella in Grant Park over the weekend. I ordered a caprese salad, anticipating flavorful and fresh summer tomatoes. To my surprise, the restaurant was using oven-roasted tomatoes. They were quite tasty but kind of a shock.

I also ordered a special of wild scallops over white beans. Well, sort of. The “white beans” turned out to be a very watery puree without a whole bean in sight. The scallops had been hacked up and skewered on a sprig of rosemary. It was impossible to remove them without tearing them into even smaller bits.

Wayne made the wiser choice with classic spaghetti and meatballs. We like the pizzas here and hope they will reprise the fig pie they served last summer.

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Tonight, beginning at 10 p.m., is piggy pie night at Varasano’s. For $12.95, you get a slice of every pizza on the restaurant’s menu. Your entire table must participate and — here’s the worst part — the offer is only good for the first 20 people who get there. I’m sure you won’t mind camping at the front door for a few hours with your iPod.

By the way, I notice that Tom Maicon of Atlanta Cuisine is troubled by the inconsistency he finds at the vaunted pizzeria. The very mixed reviews of the restaurant themselves bear witness to the inconsistency.

Tonight is also P’cheen’s “Bone Lick BBQ” night. And $15 buys you all the mussels you can eat at the Peasant Bistro.

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We went — where else? — to the Shed at Glenwood Wednesday night, for the $3 sliders and had another great meal. I’m addicted to the barbacoa but tried a new one made with meatballs, which turned out to be another winner.

The place was packed last night. In fact, we had difficulty finding a parking space.

Speaking of parking, I headed to P’cheen Monday for its “Bone Lick BBQ” night. After 10 minutes, I gave up trying to find a parking space, so I didn’t get to pig out on the Carolina-style ‘cue. Instead, I headed to the Standard for its regular Monday night special of Indian curry. …

As I mention in this week’s Grazing column, we ate at Solstice Cafe twice recently. Today, Erick Newman, a partner in the restaurant who recently assumed management of it, made this cryptic announcement on Facebook: “Erick Newman has signed his separation agreement with Solstice Cafe and thanks all of his friends for the support they provided.”…

The Reynolds Group is this week’s winner of the Florid Writing Award in its announcement of a new pub:

Rí Rá Irish Pub, debuting in mid- July at the intersection of 12th Street and Crescent Avenue in Midtown, will epitomize a true Irish pub experience, building a comfortable neighborhood environment where conversation flows as smoothly as Guinness ebbs in the glass. Constructed from a pub meticulously restored in Ireland then shipped to Atlanta, the location is destined to be Midtown’s latest hotspot, offering an impressive line-up of live music, a comprehensive drink list and fare that defies pub standards. After all, when your name is translated as “celebration and good fun,” it would be blarney to have it any other way!…

How I dearly and futiley wish that well-intentioned PR firms would learn that they can greatly, hugely, impressively increase the chance of their oh-so-very-important news being published by sticking to the facts and leaving out the baroque, frilly, subjective adjectives.

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I received this e-mail from a reader who visited P’cheen Monday for the weekly “Mike’s Bonelick Barbecue Night,” which I recently recommended:

You weren’t kidding about P’Cheen. We had pulled pork sliders and chicken straight from the smoker. It was wonderful! I would like to let you know that the prices of the drinks were outrageous. I happen to work in a pub. One beer that we serve for $6.50 (for the same oz.) was $10. I understand that different places have different prices, but for a two-mile trek down Dekalb I can save $3.50 a beer. Is their food worth it? Undecided.

Actually, I do recall Wayne being startled by the cost of his own drink during our first visit. Y’all should drink water and stop complaining. Just kidding! Sort of. …

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In this economy, nothing succeeds day-to-day like the formula of the neighborhood pub: good food, low prices and lots of booze.

That — and quite a crowd — is what you’ll find most evenings at P’cheen (701-5 Highland Ave., 404-529-8800, www.pcheen.com). The restaurant opened three and a half years ago and, in retrospect, probably deserves classification as one of the city’s first gastropubs.

Continue reading Grazing.

(Photo by James Camp)

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I made it to “Mike’s Bone Lick BBQ” night at P’cheen Monday and I suggest you do the same next week. Sous chef Mike Lasage is dry- rubbing various meats with herbs and smoking them until tender. This is the three-meat combo with chipotle chicken, baby back ribs and pulled pork. Collards and mac-n-cheese are on the side.

The meats are nearly perfect just as they are when they come out of the smoker, but you get your choice of Mike’s Carolina-style mustard- or vinegar-based barbecue sauces. There’s also a ketchupy, sweet Kansas City one.

Look for more about P’cheen later this week in my Grazing column.

(Photos by Cliff Bostock)

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We just had a stunning meal at P’cheen on North Highland Avenue. The restaurant/gastropub debuted a new menu recently and you’re going to want to visit soon.

I started with this spicy lamb merguez, a sausage native to North Africa, over three varieties of sauteed mushrooms. Then I had a big bowl of bouillabaise, followed by a banana-and-chocolate dessert. Wayne ordered ceviche and a special of curried chicken and cauliflower.

Prices are very reasonable, although I should warn you that desserts, recited without mention of price, are $10 and pretty clearly meant for two.

I’ll have more to say in next week’s Grazing column, but here’s a tip: The restaurant has installed a smoker outside and will be serving barbecue on Mondays, starting this week. The menu, “Mike’s Bone Lick BBQ,” will include baby back ribs, pulled pork, chipotle-rubbed smoked chicken and short ribs.

According to our server — actually, one of the owners, I believe — the restaurant’s sous chef is a barbecue fanatic and will be preparing four regional sauces for the meats, including (yay!) a mustard-based South Carolina one. Meats can be ordered alone or in combo platters with sides like pork-braised collards and jalapeno mac-n-cheese.

Besides the really good food, P’cheen (which is Gaelic for “moonshine”) features very smooth music. You can even download some mixes on the website.

(Photo by Cliff Bostock)

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Foodie Face of the Week belongs to Troy Willis, a furniture broker, here exhibiting his finely tuned palate. Troy has been digging the fish and chips at P’Cheen lately. I asked him what he likes about it: “I ate at Captain D’s a lot when I was a kid, so it makes me nostalgic, but it’s a lot better, of course.”

I sure hope so.

P’Cheen probably deserves classification as a gastro-pub since its menu is better than the average pub’s, thanks to one of the owners, Alex Friedman, once being a chef at Anis. He and partner Keiran Neely have created an arty interior that features burnt-orange walls rather than the typical pub’s dark woody look.

I haven’t tried the beer-battered fish that Troy has been eating, but I have liked the burgers here, as well as the pork tenderloin wrapped in bacon and served with roasted cauliflower and risotto. Bar snacks, including coconut-curried mussels and a charcuterie plate, are also good.

After the dinner rush Thursday through Sunday, P’Cheen hosts some of the city’s most popular DJs.

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