Omnivore Atlanta

Last Friday was an all-tapas day. Eclipse di Luna (lunch) and Pura Vida (dinner) have both added many new items.

Pura Vida’s additions, like the ice cream show above, exhibit increasing complexity in presentation and ingredients. This is red-wine ice cream with bits of salty, caramelized feta.

The ice cream borders on the edgy, but “mango y foie” (right) journeys to another galaxy. This is a quivering terrine of foie gras and green mango with a molasses center.

We also sampled a “pizza” made of coconut bread and topped with arugula and palm hearts, along with cheese and several other ingredients. Also: duck cracklings with warm yuca dumplings, pomegranate seeds and cabbage rolls.

Elicpse’s menu changes are not as complex. They are hearty and straightforward for the most part.

A good example (left) is this bowl of white bean stew with chorizo. (In the background are new lamb meatballs with a mint-almond chimichurri sauce.) My favorite newbie was the mofongo — plantain dumplings stuffed with artichokes, in tomato-fennel broth.

Pura Vida, by the way, has not yet opened its planned new downstairs dining room. A peek through the window revealed that it looks ready to roll, however.

(Photos by Cliff Bostock)

Bookmark to:

On Oct. 9, Cafe 458 welcomes Pura Vida’s Chef Hector Santiago to prepare a three-course meal for $28. Santiago will be cooking Thursday night from 5:30-8:30 p.m. Reservations ARE required people, so call now: 404-525-3276 or go online: http://www.cafe458atl.com.

Bookmark to:

Hector Santiago is used to surprising people. The highly acclaimed chef had to change Atlantans’ perceptions when he opened Pura Vida (656 N. Highland Ave., 404-870-9797) eight years ago.

Not only were diners still getting used to tapas, but they were used to Spanish-style tapas, and Santiago was experimenting with a variety of Latin American approaches to small plates. Now Pura Vida is considered one of the best tapas restaurants in town.

This time around, Santiago wants to change the way we think about Sunday brunch.

“I wanted to do a brunch menu but didn’t want to do one like the ones you can get everywhere,” says Santiago, who started his tapas-style Sunday brunch in May. “I wanted some familiarity, but not like you were going somewhere to have brunch all over again. I wanted to make it exciting to have eggs so many different ways, not poached eggs over easy.

“Eggs Benedict and french toast were not what I wanted to serve.”

Read the rest of this article here.

(Photo by James Camp)

Bookmark to:

Mr. Steakhead accepted my challenge to compare the brisket at Rolling Bones and Fox Bros. B-B-Q. I was sure that if he did this, he would find the former’s superior. It is usually moist and delectably tangy. Steakhead reports the results on his Atlanta Eats blog here. Of course, he found Fox Bros.’ better. He writes:

[Fox Bros.'] brisket may be served dry (without sauce), but the meat is moist and tender. The flavor is much smokier than RB. Nick, my partner in crime for this all day fiesta, raves about the sides at Fox Brothers, and he is right. The baked beans here put to shame the pintos offered at RB. Fox Brothers also offers a bigger selection, including brunswick stew. So, in the end, it really wasn’t that close. Fox Brothers won on all three areas I was judging- brisket, sides, atmosphere.

Alright. I agree that Fox Bros. has the better atmosphere. I don’t like eating-in at Rolling Bones. I also agree with his assessment of the side dishes. But I have yet to taste “moist and tender” brisket at Fox Bros.

Mr. Steakhead reports that following his St. Patrick’s Day progressive dinner, he went to Limerick Junction where he drank “several (maybe more) pints.” Following his colossal bender of barbecue and beer, he stumbled in the parking lot and injured his knee. Granted, this followed his taste tests, but can we be sure of his sobriety prior to eating?…

Dua, a Vietnamese restaurant has opened downtown at 53 Broad Street, according to Mr. Micropundit’s March 24 post on E Gullet. He also reports that Dish, which closed a few months back, will be home to a new project called Diesel. (Original plans for Dish to continue under the ownership of a former chef fell through.)…

Matt, who writes the incomparably hip Rowdy Food blog, has fallen in love with Corner Pizza. He sings:

The crust is better. It is evolving. It is slowly becoming a more uniformly thin pie. The crispy bottom is consistent. Then the bite, when the tooth penetrates the crispy crust and enters an immediate zone of chew. Now we can look at cheese and sauce. This most recent pie had a much better ratio of cheese to sauce to crust. At this rate, we may catch New York?

Matt apparently shares my preference for thin-crusted pizza. Read his entire review here. It includes a link to his You Tube video about the place.

Matt also has a post with some gossip, including this welcome news about Pura Vida:

Hector Santiago will apparently be opening up a new restaurant downstairs from his current restaurant Pura Vida. When Pura Vida gets full, they have occasionally used this space for over-flow dining. In the next month or so, this space will become an small upscale restaurant with a chef’s table. Sounds pretty cool.

We reported this six months or more ago. I hope it’s actually gonna happen now. Read the rest of Matt’s gossip and see some photos of the much anticipated Holeman & Finch here….

Cathy of Live to Nibble reports on a visit to Cypress Street Pint and Plate, which has replaced Toast. Read her comments here.

Bookmark to:

Pura Vida (666 N. Highland Ave., 404-870-9797), where you’ll find probably the best tapas in town, is now open Saturday and Sunday for lunch. I dropped by last Saturday and was a bit disappointed to find that chef Hector Santiago has not developed a lunchtime menu.

“I assumed it would a new menu,” I told the server.

“Actually, so did I,” the server replied.

That doesn’t mean you won’t eat well off the regular dinner menu. We sampled a special of duck with black beans in a molelike sauce (top photo), yuca croquettes with honey (above) and itty bitty Cuban sandwiches with adobo-roasted pork, smoked ham and white cheese.

Bookmark to:

Pura Vida (656 N. Highland Ave., 404-870-9797), probably the best tapas restaurant in town, is opening weekends for lunch, beginning Dec. 1. Hours are noon-5:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. According to press materials:

To kick it off, on Dec. 1, Pura Vida will feature roast puerco, a traditional Puerto Rican-style pig roast, as the weekend special. Naturally grown Berkshire pork, from Gum Creek Farms, a local Georgia farm, are grown on pastures that include grasses and clovers. The pastures are not treated with insecticide or herbicide. Rotational grazing methods are used for disease management and better forage nutrition. These animals are raised without growth hormones or preventative antibiotics.

The restaurant is also offering chef Hector Santiago’s hot sauces and adobo spice mixes for sale, along with a Puerto Rican coffee blend.

Bookmark to: