Omnivore Atlanta

Here’s yesterday’s lunch — bean sprouts wrapped in tofu skin from the Green Sprout. I’ve written about this dish before and it looks much better not compressed into a take-out container.

Why am I eating this? Wayne and I decided to experiment with not eating meat for a week. Part of the experiment is to keep within our normal dining zones in Grant Park, Midtown and Little Five Points. It’s been a roller-coaster ride, to say the least.

Monday night, I stopped at Whole Foods and bought extra-firm tofu, which I sauteed and combined with kim chi, an over-priced mild version I also found at the grocery. I also added some “succotash” to the dish. It was surprisingly good.

It’s been mainly downhill ever since. I love the Standard, but the “vegetable burger” I ate there was one of the most unpleasant things I’ve tasted in months. It was dry, sandwiched in a dry bun and had the usual harsh seasoning that typifies so much vegetarian cuisine.

I couldn’t eat but a few bites of the thing. I was so embarrassed to eat so little of it that I hid the leftovers under my napkin.

We also hit Ali Baba’s in Little Five Points. They had no air conditioning and it was suffocatingly hot on their patio, too. So we took home wraps made with falafel and various vegetable salads. They were decent, but left me hungry.

I’ve mainly been eating some cheese and roasted vegetables for lunch.

I’ve been struck by a couple of things in this experiment, which has included visits to a few other restaurants:

It’s not that easy to find decent vegetarian cooking in the average meat-serving restaurant. Unless I drive to Decatur or Buford Highway for Indian food or go to Dynamic Dish on Edgewood Ave., I’m stuck with the average restaurant’s vegetarian offerings, which are usually dull afterthoughts, over-seasoned with boredom.

I don’t feel the least bit healthy eating this way, even allowing myself eggs and cheese. Maybe that changes with time. What is clear is that to eat well — by which I refer to taste and health — you have to do a lot of planning.

Also, the experiment is teaching me that I need to be a lot more conscious in my usual eating.

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Don’t forget: This is Downtown Atlanta Restaurant Week. All week, through July 27, you can have a three-course meal for $25 in some good restaurants (including Spoon, Cafe Circa and French American Brasserie).

The event coincides with the National Black Arts Festival, so you should definitely make reservations before heading out. For full details, go here….

Paging Miss Ann. You have competition! Best burger in town? As if….

Slate, the online magazine, is tracking the closing of 600 Starbucks stores. It’s issued an invitation to readers to participate in a memorial project:

We want to hear from you. If you frequented a Starbucks that’s soon to be closed, write a testimonial about it for the map. What’s the history of the place? Did it force a mom-and-pop joint out of business? Or was it the kaffeeklatsch of the community? Did the service suck? Was there a certain demographic (hipsters, old folk, caffeine-addled yuppies) who swarmed the premises? Pictures and video are all welcome, as well.

Get the whole story here. You can read some of the submissions here….

The Standard in Grant Park is toying with its Wednesday night specials. For weeks, it was Korean barbecue, which didn’t really rock my palate. Last week it was a Thai curry whose appearance on another table immediately convinced me not to order it. This week it was a very strange and quite tasty “South African curry” made of ground beef served like meat loaf over rice….

It’s a hassle to find a parking space in the booming Luckie Marietta District downtown, right? Stop your complaining and go whirlybird…..

Nathalie Dupree re-emerges….

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I noticed that a “Japanese gastro-pub,” Miso, is opening on Edgewood Ave., not far from Krog Street. (I don’t think Miso is the full name. When I stopped to gawk, rush-hour commuters began honking like hell at me.)…

The Standard continues its Wednesday night special of Korean barbecue. This week’s plate featured especially good thin-sliced beef, strongly marinated, served with rice wrapped in an omelet. A cucumber salad, which I disliked, was also on the plate….

I’ve been back to Cafe Solstice a few times lately. My favorite dish remains the chicken breast roasted with a coat of Ritz crackers and served with a marsala sauce….

Be on the lookout for the opening of Red Salt in Roswell. It’s a project of the owners of the popular tapas venue, Little Alley….

The dates for this year’s Midtown Restaurant Week have been set — August 23-30. All participating restaurants will be offering three-course meals for $25 (excluding tax, tip and alcohol)….

Expedia.com has put together some domestic and international culinary adventures. Actually, they just look like your usual flight-and-hotel discounts in another guise. I’m easy to please. Just take me to Paris. To buy our tickets, click here….

Do you dream of chucking it all for life in Green Acres? Before you do that, read Kathy and Josh Gunn’s story about moving from downtown Atlanta to the family cattle farm in Tennessee, where they are raising grass-fed gourmet beef. The story is in Money Magazine online….

They might kill you! Really, they might!:

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As I reported earlier this week, The Standard on Memorial Drive is now offering Korean barbecue on Wednesday nights. We gave it a try last night.

Honestly, I can’t say it’s as impressive as the Indian specials on Monday nights, but we enjoyed ourselves. About $10 buys two thick slices of tastily sauced pork placed on two rice cakes (that almost seemed like rice pudding) and a serving of kimchi. The latter did not measure up to the usual around town. I’m not sure if the restaurant is actually fermenting the stuff or buying it at one of the many Korean markets in town.

You’ve probably seen jars of kimchi at Publix, Kroger and Whole Foods, where it costs more than double, probably three times, the price at Buford Highway markets.

Spotted at The Standard: Tom Houck, everyone’s favorite gossip.

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Here’s a tip for this Wednesday night. Head to the Standard (327 Memorial Drive, 404-681-3344) for Korean barbecue. I haven’t tasted it yet, but I know the owner is kind of a barbecue freak; other varieties he’s cooked in a smoker on the premises have been very good. The Korean ‘cue will be available every Wednesday night.

We still show up most Monday nights there for the curry special. If the Korean food is as good and as cheap, it should be a great bargain…

A COUPLE OF OPENINGS: Artistry is opening Sunday in the recently vacated Sweet Lowdown location on Peachtree in Midtown. All I know is that the menu will feature “American contemporary cuisine.”…

The Mick’s on Ponce de Leon in Decatur will be replaced by a steakhouse, Parker’s on Ponce.

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We’ve eaten three Indian meals in a row. The winner by a mile was Saravanaa Bhavan, in the former location of the similarly named Madras Saravana Bhavan, long regarded as the city’s best Indian (and vegetarian) restaurant.

But we also ate at Zyka, whose dish pictured above, 65 Chicken, is one of the city’s favorites. Why? Because it’s fried chicken nuggets that have been marinated in Indian spices, of course.

Zyka was absolutely packed when we visited and there was a lengthy wait at the counter and for food afterward. I have to say, either my palate has changed or the food has deteriorated here. The chicken dish is as irresistible as ever, but a goat biryani, supposedly the specialty of the region featured at the restaurant, was very disappointing.

The restaurant is using Styrofoam cups and plates, by the way. That is so not green.

We also had our regular Monday night Indian meal at the Standard in Grant Park. A huge bowl of chicken curry, it was as delicious as ever. Unfortunately, the pub’s new smoke eaters were operating at low speed and, between the hot spices in the curry and the unfiltered smoke, I had a virtual crying fit at the table and — gross — a major nosebleed.

More on Zyka and Saravanaa in an upcoming Grazing column.

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OK, maybe it’s not a miracle. But we hit the Standard for a late dinner Thursday night and — praise the Lord! — two voracious smoke eaters have been installed. I didn’t cough once and my shirt doesn’t smell too bad. I feel so good, I may take a brisk walk around the block.

We ordered the evening special — a slab of house-smoked ribs with tangy baked beans and coleslaw, about $10. (Watch your back, Daddy D’z.)

Owner Chris Johnson, who once upon a time managed the Stein Club (mentioned in my recent Moe’s and Joe’s post), was on hand this evening to try out the fresh air between drags on his own cigarette.

The Standard will be open Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, but only to drown your sorrows during the happiest time of the year. The kitchen will be closed.

(Photo from www.traditioninaction.org)

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The Standard is one of the best things to happen to my neighborhood, Grant Park, in a long time. It’s full of personality, has a great staff, attracts a personable clientele and serves good food, especially Monday nights when it offers a dirt-cheap, delicious curry as a special. Other specials, such as last night’s penne marinara, are usually good, too.

Unfortunately, on a cold night like last night, when you have to eat inside, it’s like impersonating meat that’s being cured in a smoker. By the time I got home my eyes were watering and my clothes smelled liked the cigarettes the table of three next to us was chain-smoking.

Now, this is not a rant about the Standard in particular. I smoked for 12 years myself. I called my ever-present cigarette my 11th finger – and I could not operate a keyboard without it. So I know how compelling the habit can be. There’s nothing like wasting your brain with booze and ruining your lungs with a cigarette.

Quitting smoking was one of the most difficult things I’ve ever done. I was editing Creative Loafing at the time and my brain turned into a monkey – no focus, jumping all over the place. I continued to crave cigarettes for a year and didn’t really completely lose the craving for several years.

One of the things that kept me devoted to quitting was embarrassment. I’d only quit a week when I walked into my closet and nearly passed out from the odor. Later, I kissed a smoker. Ewwww. Then we had sex. Oh my god! Head-to-toe nicotine. I didn’t want to turn into a typical reformed smoker, because I know what really motivates their self-righteousness is wanting everyone else to be as miserable as they are while they’re withdrawing from their habit. But I gotta tell you: If you smoke, you stink.

Non-smokers are generally spoiled in America, really. Most restaurants are smoke-free. You can’t smoke on public transportation. But go to Europe, especially France, and the idea that polluting the air with smoke is rude and unhealthy is still an eye-roller to many. I only complained to someone once and it became a duel about what causes more misery in the world – George Bush or cigarette smoke?

In actuality, the French, like the Italians, have had a ban on smoking in public places for a few years, but it has not been much enforced. The ban becomes effective in restaurants and bars in January. We’ll see if they actually enforce it. They do promise to.

Georgia law, since 2005, bans smoking in bars and restaurants that admit or employ anyone under 18. Thus the Vortex decided to consider itself a bar rather than a restaurant in order to preserve the filthy habit. It’s too bad that minors can’t enjoy the food at the Standard or the Glenwood. It’s also too bad that the General Assembly ignores the reality of the hazards of second-hand smoke to adults.

I suppose the idea is that, as an adult, you can choose not to patronize a smoky gastro-pub. But if the General Assembly feels right in adopting blue laws to limit alcohol consumption on Sundays, it’s odd they won’t ban a behavior, smoking, that is more directly hazardous to others. Other states and cities have. And, please, don’t bother to tell me second-hand smoke isn’t hazardous. If the French have decided it is, it is.

The very least that smoky bars can do is provide decent ventilation. The Standard does not seem to have any filtration system at all. There are a couple of tiny fans stirring up the hazy clouds of smoke but, as far as I can see, nothing to actually remove the smoke.

Please feel free to recommend your own nominees for Smokiest Place in Town.

(Graphics from http://ricketyclick.com)

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A month ago, I wrote about the Standard (327 Memorial Drive, 404-681-3344), a pub in Grant Park with better than average food. Last week, I stopped by and experienced fried collard greens for the first time. (Imagine radiantly green, featherlight chips.) This week, I visited for the chef’s regular Monday night special of chicken curry — the South Carolina low-country version called “Country Captain.”

I suggest you make it your business to be there next Monday. Unlike the thousand versions of this dish I ate as a kid — my mother was from South Carolina — this was piquant (but not fiery), the chicken moist and not overwhelmed by rank seasonings. It was served with green-pea dal, mango chutney and white rice. Our server winced when Wayne and I both ordered it. She said that it was a big serving and that a lot of people share a single dish. Well, we’re not like other people. We’re professional plate cleaners, dammit, and we didn’t leave a drop. (Besides, it’s cheap, under $10.)

How good was it? So good that this dog whined pathetically at my feet for a taste.

By the way, a similar pub will be opening in the 300 block of Edgewood Avenue in January.

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Get yourself to the Standard (327 Memorial Drive, 404-681-3344) in Grant Park this Sunday for the pub’s daylong “Swine and Wine.” The bar has purchased a big outdoor smoker and this will be the first of regular barbecue feasts. (You might want to call ahead for exact hours.)

I dined at the bar Thursday night and got a preview of the ‘cue — thinly sliced, lean pork rubbed with spices and gently smoked, served with a smoked tomato and jalapeño. Our server Mary told us that the kitchen plans to experiment with different spices throughout the summer.

During the warm months, by the way, the Standard is not serving regular entrees, like its fried chicken. But the menu of salads and sandwiches is still an inexpensive winner. Try the fruity, peppery arugula salad with steak added. The Angus burger is one of the best around.

Monday night is especially popular at the restaurant. The chef prepares the classic low-country version of Indian curry called “Country Captain.” I’ve not tried it, but Christiane Lauterbach raved about it in the April issue of Knife & Fork. I remember my South Carolina mother cooking that dish from the recipe in the Joy of Cooking.

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