Yankee’d up southern fare at The Feed Store
Two years ago I visited The Feed Store (3841 Main Street, College Park, 404.209.7979 ) to try new chef Peter Golazsewski’s cooking. Admittedly, I wasn’t expecting much from a yankee chef trying his spatula at southern fare for the first time. Besides, it’s difficult to take a place with a cutesy chicken door handle seriously.
But when all was said and eaten, it turned out to be the most memorable meal I’d ever sat down to in College Park — and that includes several lunches and dinners at Oscar’s, the most revered restaurant in College Park history. Read more
Where the heck can I get a beef on weck?
Beef on weck at Barkers Red Hots
Beef on weck is a sandwich indigenous to Buffalo, NY. It’s a beef sandwich (most use roast beef) with a smear of fresh horseradish on Kummelweck bread, which is unusually dense, adorned with caraway seeds and kosher salt.
Unlike the fiery Buffalo chicken wing, beef on weck never really took off in the south, for whatever reason, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a place or two right here in the ATL that serves a version of this Buffalo favorite. In fact, here are three such places: Read more
Living edibles, Indian pizza and pho
For the past six years or so, I’ve played judge at Taste of Alpharetta’s culinary competition. I will say, since the event’s organizers revamped the cooking battle a couple years ago, the dishes submitted by restaurants are far more skilled and daring than ever before.
The craziest dish ever served during my tenure was in 2009 by a Japanese restaurant called Akina (5815 Windward Parkway, Alpharetta, 770.663.0630). So long as I live, I will never forget the moment four steely-eyed Japanese men wearing cold stern faces entered the culinary stage from our left and gently placed a mystery platter just out of sight.
With merely a quick crack, twist and single synchronized motion — the men proudly present their dish before us. Engulfed by thick plumes of smoky dry ice, swinging tentacles and skinny red legs flail through the foggy haze. Oh, my. Live lobster sashimi.
Three squeamish judges turned six different shades of green as two of us shared in what was certainly the edgiest dish ever offered in the event’s illustrious 20-year history.
Some believe “real” carnivores consume their prey raw and at, or very near time of kill, in an effort to gain the other animal’s electrical frequency, which is thought to die with the animal. Still think you’re a carnivore? Read more
Pie Hole gives pie a chance in Roswell
This quirky Roswell pie house is getting a lot of Internet play lately. I first read about The Pie Hole (1025 Canton Street, Roswell, 678.461.3776) here late last year.
Pie has never prevailed as a gastronomic worm for me, so despite numerous drive-bys on my way through Roswell, it took nearly 7 months before I finally hung a right into the bouncy gravel parking lot.
I’m no Nostradamus, but I predict several Roswell waistlines will inflate due this store’s proximity. Seriously, if you are on a diet run the other way, like NOW. Consider moving across town.
I’m not kidding, I’ve already warned a slew of nearby waist watchers. Read more
Yeah! Burger enters city-wide burger wars
Yeah! Burger with bacon and cheese
According to him, a hamburger cooked on a flat top is an imposter, he believed — and, still does to this day — that real burgers should be cooked over an open flame.
When I was a defiant, pimple-faced teenager it was one of the few things we agreed on.
But evidence that dad and I are a dying breed can be felt at our city’s newest burger joint, Shaun Doty’s highly anticipated Yeah! Burger (1168 Howell Mill Road at White Provisions, Westside). Doty’s patties are quickly scorched to oblivion on a hot flat top grill, and arrive thin enough to swipe through a credit card machine. Read more
You bloody, sexy thing!
Medium rare grass-fed burger at Muss & Turner's
Flip Burger Boutique (1587 Howell Mill Road, Atlanta, 404.343.1609) was the first full blown burger concept in town to exclusively offer this form of humanely raised beef when culinary director, Richard Blais, made the switch to 100% grass-fed from a unique blend of corn-fed beef that included brisket.
Recently opened Farm Burger (410 B West Ponce De Leon Avenue, Decatur, 404.378.5077) is the first of two trendy burger joints to open this spring claiming to strictly serve locally raised grass-fed burger meat. The other is Shaun Doty’s highly anticipated Yeah! Burger, slated to open this month in White Provisions on the Westside — probably already slinging burgers by the time you’re reading this. A second location is already under construction in Virginia Highland.
Food is like sex; you don’t forget your first time — good or bad. And based on my meals at Flip and Farm Burger, two major grass-fed players feeding a whole bunch of first-timers, grass-fed virgins are getting, uh, shorted. Read more
Meyer’s Deli Makes “Authentic” Claim
If I had it in me to open a deli in Atlanta, you couldn’t pay me to use the term “New York” anywhere near the restaurant’s name or marketing material — and, I certainly wouldn’t be bold enough to use the word “authentic.”
Pastrami on rye is serious business for most hard-edged New Yorkers.
To live up to the claim “Authentic NY deli” here in the south, one would have to pile 4 pounds of corned beef stoutly between two thin sheets of rye — to fill those whiny New Yorkers’ voice holes just enough so they can’t eek out the word “skimpy,” though they’d probably choke trying. Read more
Sushinobo In Vinings: First Glimpse
Today, it seems as if there’s a sushi bar on every corner. This wasn’t so 23 years ago when business partners Jennifer Chong and Don Tsunafuji opened Mt. Fuji Restaurant on Cobb Parkway near the Big Chicken. At that time, consumption of raw fish was considered way edgy eating by Atlanta standards.
While the 7000-square foot restaurant relied heavily on what I call the “hibachi grill thrill” to pay the bills, the sushi bar quietly built a small cult-like following of hardcore sushi enthusiasts.
After failed lease negotiations with the landlord, Chong and Tsunafuji recently closed Mt. Fuji and opened a cozy sushi bar called Sushinobo In Vinings (4500 West Village Ste 1005, Smyrna, 678.401.7322), serving high quality sushi, some traditional Japanese dishes, and yakitori (dinner only). Those expecting no-handed high flying shrimp acts and other cheesy hibachi trickery will be disappointed. No hibachi grills here. Read more
Parker’s on Ponce: Ribeye Throwdown
I originally planned to fill the real estate on this page with a review of Parker’s on Ponce (116 E. Ponce De Leon Ave., Decatur, Tel: 404.924.2230). I was fully prepared to get down and gushy over a sweet, earthy Irish “Guinness” onion soup with aged cheddar.
I planned to give chef a small slap on the wrist for a somewhat flighty menu, yet praise him for putting out wallet-friendly, finely aged steaks.
I also had every intention of dishing out kudos to chef, along with owner brothers Christopher and John-Thomas Scott, for casually employing some “local” ingredients — and for doing so without all the pushy, annoying marketing jargon. Read more
Arepas de Choclo: Sweet Colombian Corn Cakes
The arepa is a corn-based bread that traces back to the Northern Andes of Colombia and neighboring Venezuela. It’s served in one form or another with nearly every dish in Colombian restaurants.
My absolute favorite arepa is the arepa de choclo, a sweet corn arepa griddled with white farm cheese on a round pan called asador de arepas. I first experience this sweet corn cake as a teenager. My good friend’s grandmother — a Colombian native who didn’t speak a lick of English — would cook them for us as hot snacks.
I get my fix on at two local eateries. Read more
Poll
Have chefs quite being chefs during this bad economy?
- Some, but not the majority (79%, 22 Votes)
- No, none of them (11%, 3 Votes)
- Most, but not all (11%, 3 Votes)
- Yes, all of them (-1%, 0 Votes)
Total Voters: 28
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