January 2012
4 posts
4 tags
5 tags
cardamom hill
This is the latest hot restaurant opening in Atlanta. Chef Asha Gomez turned her Spice Route supper club into a restaurant focusing on South Indian cuisine. It’s located in a stip mall off of Northside Drive, but she’s made the interior feel much more luxe. It smells like an upscale spa when you walk in to Cardamom Hill, and the hostess is extremely soft-spoken. The message is...
4 tags
vino
Alex built a wine cellar in our basement this past fall, and we’ve started to amass quite a collection. To help fill the cellar, I joined a wine club at Perrine’s Wine Shop. Each month we get four wines from her, along with tasting notes, recipes, etc. This chardonnay from Italy was one of the first wines we’ve tried from the wine club. I haven’t ever had an Italian...
5 tags
red iguana (salt lake city)
My family often heads to Utah in the winter to ski. We prefer Salt Lake City (we like to ski at Alta- no snowboarders). We stay down in the valley, and love trying new places around town. A new favorite this year is Red Iguana. It’s no secret- it is listed as one of the top restaurants in the city on Yelp. Phenomenal Mexican food in the heart of SLC, yes please!
When we got there,...
November 2011
3 posts
5 tags
octopus bar
Ok, bear with me on this one. This is a restaurant inside of another restaurant. It’s only open from 10pm-3am, Monday-Saturday. It has no sign. And it’s amazing.
Octopus Bar is a partnership between Angus Brown (formerly at Miller Union) and Nhan Lee (the chef at So Ba, where Octopus Bar is housed). The food was described by one blogger as “Restaurant Eugene meets Buford...
3 tags
Sierra Nevada Beer Dinner at The Porter
After thoroughly enjoying the last beer dinner we attended at The Porter, we were quick to make reservations for the Sierra Nevada event. This time, all of the beers came from one brewery. They were showcasing some of the special brews they made for their 30th Anniversary.
(The menu)
(First beer of the night, with swag in background)
Overall, our impressions of this beer dinner were more...
October 2011
1 post
3 tags
bootleg beer dinner at the porter
This past weekend I went to a beer dinner at The Porter. The theme of the beer dinner was “bootleg beer” which meant The Porter was serving beer that isn’t distributed in GA. The Menu:
Starter Beer: 2nd Self Beta Red
Amuse Bouche: Salmon Tartare (Skull Coast Scallywag Pale Ale)
Sweet Potato Soup (Short’s Humalupalicious, Strawberry Short Cake, Black Substanace)
Grilled...
September 2011
2 posts
no. 246
Decatur has received an unfair share of the latest “it” spots to dine. The most recent opening: No. 246, a collaboration from Drew Belline (formerly of Floataway Cafe) and Ford Fry (owner of JCT Kitchen). The restaurant is a loose adaptation of Modern Italian housed in a bright black and white space with huge windows overlooking the street.
The space (formerly Eurasia) has been...
3 tags
cakes & ale moves
Cakes & Ale (one of my top 5 restaurants in Atlanta) has moved. It’s still in Decatur, but now it’s directly on the square, adjacent to the MARTA station. I went in last week to check out the new spot.
They now have a bakery in addition to the restaurant. Dave Sweeney (formerly of Dynamic Dish) has taken over the operation. They offer sandwiches and salads for lunch, as well as...
August 2011
3 posts
in case you ever go to australia...
Here is a list of places I ate:
Sydney:
The Rocks Street Market
The Glenmore Rooftop Hotel
Melbourne
The Hardware Societe
HuTong Dumpling Bar
St. Ali
Cumulus, Inc.
Izakaya Den
MoVida bar de tapas
Brother Baba Budan
Mamasita
Cookie
Completely fun trip, ate incredibly well. Definitely email me if you’re planning a trip to Australia and want to know where to eat.
July 2011
1 post
5 tags
leroy's fried chicken
First thought: a take-out fried chicken spot in my neighborhood is going to be dangerous.
Yes it is. LeRoy’s Fried Chicken (note- Chef Julia LeRoy, no one named Leroy is involved) opened recently on Howell Mill Road. The Westside has been positively blowing up recently, and the hits just keep on coming. So far I’ve read mostly negative press on this place (but that’s Yelp for...
June 2011
3 posts
4 tags
hankook taqueria
One of my favorite parts of moving to my new neighborhood has been discovering my new local restaurants. Possibly the best one so far has been Hankook Taqueria. It’s been open for a little over two years now, and they specialize in Korean-style tacos. To the best of my knowledge, the Korean taco trend started in LA with food trucks. Hankook has a food truck here in Atlanta, the Yumbii...
3 tags
big tex cantina
The two men behind Fox Brothers BBQ, the Fox Brothers themselves, have opened a new Tex-Mex restaurant in Decatur, Big Tex Cantina. I visited it this past Friday, one week after it opened. Decent wait at 8pm, but expected for a hot new restaurant. We grabbed some seats at the rich, newly varnished bar…and waited 20 minutes to get a drink. All new restaurants experience growing pains, but I...
May 2011
4 posts
April 2011
3 posts
March 2011
4 posts
4 tags
young augustine's
This was my second visit to Young Augustine’s, but the first time I had food there. The bar/restaurant reminds me of what The Brick Store was probably like before it got insane. YA has a great beer list with about a dozen different quality brews on draft in any given night. The dining room is small enough to feel cozy, but large enough where you can usually walk in and grab a table.
...
February 2011
9 posts
5 tags
el burro pollo
I finally visited Hector Santiago’s burrito stand, el Burro Pollo, this past weekend. Unfortunately, Fulton County conducted a bust of the street food vendors along N. Highland that morning. Luckily for us, Hector was still serving, just inside his sandwich shop, Super Pan.
Word has definitely spread about these delicious burritos. We ended up waiting about 30-40 minutes in line. But the...
5 tags
buford highway adventure (quoc huong and super h...
Two weeks ago my friend Rob and I went on a Buford Highway adventure. I’m embarrassed that I haven’t explored Buford Highway (Atlanta’s authentic Asian community) more thoroughly, and vowed to do so this spring/summer. I figured a good place to start would be Quoc Huong (known for the best banh mi in town).
It’s a stark little shop that probably does more lunch business...
AJC's dining critic provides helpful guidelines... →
I rarely send anything back to the kitchen unless it’s god-awful or cooked wrong. I usually assume it came out as the kitchen intended, and if I don’t like it, that’s bad ordering on my part. Or I just won’t go back to the restaurant. I think the last thing I sent back in memory was a salad that was absolutely drenched in dressing. I got a replacement with the dressing on...
5 tags
krog bar
It’s been around forever, and somehow I had never stopped in. Krog Bar is tucked away in the same complex as Rathbun’s, and is owned by the same people. It’s a small space, but I liked that it felt like a secret. It wasn’t very crowded on a Tuesday night, so I had no problem getting a table. About half the space is a patio, so if the weather’s bad, it might be tough...
January 2011
9 posts
4 tags
fage yogurt - new flavors!
I eat this yogurt almost every morning, so I’m excited to see it with 0% fat and some new flavors.
New flavors include: cherry pomegranate, blueberry acai, mango guanabana, & strawberry goji. Yum! I tried the strawberry goji this morning and it tasted like candy. Which sounds gross, but it worked really well with the yogurt.
If you’ve never had this brand of yogurt before, I...
4 tags
local three
I thought I was kind of over the “upscale southern” food trend. But then I went to Local Three. Housed in the former Joel space, the owners have completely transformed the restaurant from a hall of European elegance to a modern barn with velvet Elvis portraits on the walls. The place is a bit hard to find, but was packed when I visited on a recent Friday night.
The thing that struck...
3 tags
snowed in with beer
I was temporarily confined to the house during Atlanta’s snow storm in early January, but I had luckily just visited Ale Yeah!, so I had plenty to keep me busy. Here’s some of what I was doing:
Hitachino Red Rice is a Japanese beer that tasted unlike anything I’ve ever had before. There’s a strange, but not altogether unpleasant, hint of strawberries in there. Nice and...
3 tags
3 tags
4th & Swift - holiday gift
When I got home from holiday break, I found this lovely surprise waiting for me. 4th & Swift sent me a present (does that tell you how often I go there?).
They sent me an Indian Spice rub and some Himalayan Pink Salt. Both can be used to season roasted meats or fish. Vert excited to try these out in a recipe soon. Also- wanted to give props to one of my favorite restaurants for showing...
4 tags
fox bros bbq
This is another review which is completely unnecessary. Fox Bros is an Atlanta institution, and my opinion is just a drop in the bucket. This is, however, hands down the best BBQ I’ve had in Atlanta. (Sorry Community Q, you’ve been bumped).
No pretense here, it’s an old-school BBQ joint, complete with a smoke shack out front. The casual vibe and extensive menu of bbq classics...
4 tags
ale yeah!
Ale Yeah! is a new craft beer store in Decatur. I stopped by last week to check it out, and was pleasantly surprised. It’s a small space, so they don’t have the selection or variety that Hop City provides, but I don’t have to drive across town to get great beer anymore. (Don’t worry Hop City, I still love you.)
The beer is arranged on high, narrow shelves along the sides...
December 2010
9 posts
5 tags
sister louisa's church of the living room and ping...
If you were to actually design a bar calculated to appeal to hipsters, this might be it. Sister Louisa’s Church of the Living Room and Ping Pong Emporium is the newest bar in the Old 4th Ward (Edgewood/Boulevard intersection). They took over the Danneman’s Coffee space (RIP) and have completely transformed it.
The bar is downstairs, along with old high school chemistry tables and...
4 tags
miso izakaya
This place has been lingering on my “to try” list for quite some time. It initially opened to mediocre reviews, but lately reports have been coming in that the chef is killing it. This past week I decided to finally pay a visit.
Miso Izakaya is located in the strip of new restaurants and bars along Edgewood/Boulevard. The area is definitely not gentrified yet, and the only complaint...
6 tags
holiday baking
After finishing my seminar paper yesterday (the only thing standing between me and Break), I was suddenly surprised by all of the free time I had today. I finished all of the chores I’d been procrastinating, and then decided it was time to do a little holiday baking. My family doesn’t really do gifts for Christmas, so instead, I decided to bake some goodies to take to Florida with me.
...
