Mereja

Author: John Kessler

  • Burger search — Part II

    dine.1130gwe_02dine.1130gwe_02

    Thanks for all your tips and suggestions. Now let’s narrow this down:

    First off, there are some burgers that must be retired from the search because they have been written about ad infinitum.

    You burgers, you know who you are:

    • Holeman & Finch — this decade’s answer to the Watershed fried chicken craze.
    • Ann’s Snack Bar — Get a Ghettoburger. Spend three hours.
    • The Vortex — We love you. We’ll always love you.
    • Five Guys Burgers and Fries — Thank you, D.C. chain, for blanketing the city with a reliable alternative to nasty fast food.
    • Ted’s Montana Grill — Mmmm…..bison…..
    • Houston’s — A defining moment in Atlanta burgerhood.
    • The Counter — Fine chain. Quality meat. Bodacious choices for garnish.

    Now, here are the ones that most interested me from the descriptions. I want to know: Does anyone second these choices?

    • Bocado — Thin stack à la H&F.
    • Serpas — Ditto.
    • George’s — Best turkey burger around?
    • Muss and Turner’s – Object of adoration.
    • The Nook on Piedmont Park – Stuffed with …

  • Sunday Column: Food writing moves away from health

    Credit: Wikipedia

    Credit: Wikipedia

    For this week’s Sunday Column, I discussed the changing nature of food writing and restaurant reviewing as the discussion moves online, and how today’s food writers seem disinclined to discuss healthfulness and good eating habits. Yeah, yummy burgers this ain’t.

    Should writers promote health?

    Recently I wrote a “First Look” of West Cobb Diner in Marietta — a new American bistro meets meat-and-three restaurant that has proven popular with its neighbors. A friend and I cut a short swath through the menu, focusing on a few appetizers and entrees that came with enthusiastic recommendation from our waitress and seemed like they would give us a taste of the kitchen’s style.

    We ended up with a noodle salad, some mini crab cake sandwiches and three fried items.

    The next day I got this e-mail from a reader:

    “With obesity/diabetes at all time highs, it’s hard to understand why you feel it necessary to promote this type of restaurant. You are not the protector of our …

  • Food News bits: Standard reopens as Young Augustine’s; Davio’s brings Italian steaks to Phipps Plaza

    yaThe recently closed Standard on Memorial Drive in Grant Park has reopened with a new look, new focus, new non-smoking policy and new name. It is now Young Augustine’s — a restaurant devoted to the practice of temperance and monastic restraint.

    Nah, I’m messing with you. It’s a gastropub.

    The good folks over at 285 Foodies have compiled a list of the brews on tap.

    In other news:

    • Davio’s will open sometime during the summer in Phipps Plaza. This small, Boston-based chain bills itself as a “northern Italian steakhouse.” Menu options include big ol’ steaks, pastas, gorgonzola mashed potatoes and Philly cheese steak spring rolls that they’re so bullish on that they trademarked the name. You can look at the menu here.
    • Another local branch of Meehan’s Public House will open soon at 180 Peachtree St. — i.e. the old and too-long-empty Macy’s building. Word is the opening is this week, but I’m still getting shuffled right to the voicemail when I …

  • First Look: Inc. Street Food

    photo 2Canton St. in downtown Roswell is undergoing a renovation from its past as a quaint row of gift shops with a tea room here and a sweet little cafe there, into an urban dining neighborhood à la Decatur or Virginia Highland. Much of this  energy comes from the Salt Factory, a lively gastropub that draws a younger crowd for its good beers and unpretentious pub fare. Now the trio behind Salt Factory — Hicham Azhari, Fikret Kovac and chef Richard Wilt — have opened Inc. Street Food a couple of doors down with a Latin American menu that focuses on tacos and bocaditos (small plates).

    What’s so street about the food? Not much, really. The menu was “inspired” by the kinds of dishes served out of food trucks, but it’s your basic contempo-taqueria with a few nods to actual truck-food classics.

    incjpeg

    Courtesy of Inc. Street Food

    That said, the decor is an L.A.-inspired fantasy. The colorful mural splashed over the long side wall is a riot of faux-graffiti, and the kitchen pass is done up like …

  • Best hamburgers? Let’s do this.

    Beef burger from Jackson Hole Burgers, Lawrenceville (AJC Staff)

    Beef burger from Jackson Hole Burgers, Lawrenceville (AJC Staff)

    The burger scene in Atlanta is gearing up for a serious makeover this coming year. Consider:

    • Shaun Doty’s YEAH! Burger is slated to open this spring in White Provision. I hear they’ve already approached Usher about the marketing campaign. (Kidding…)
    • Across town, Farm Burger will also debut in spring in the Decatur space that was formerly Voilà. Owner George Frangos was working the crowd at the Georgia Organics conference in Athens last weekend.
    • Grindhouse Killer Burgers owner Alex Brounstein is reportedly shopping for a second location for his breakout success in the Sweet Auburn Curb Market.
    • Richard Blais and Barry Mills has been shopping for a Buckhead location for Flip Burger Boutique.

    Which all raises the perennial question: Where are the best burgers in Atlanta?

    To help me prepare for an exploratory burger-thon, I am asking for your help. Please recommend some good hamburgers in the comments section below. …

  • Could it be….seitan???

    IMG_0406Recently I bumped into David Sweeney, the fine chef/owner of almost-vegetarian restaurant Dynamic Dish, at Whole Foods Market. We had a laugh because Sweeney, who is not vegetarian, was buying shrimp for dinner, while I was planning a meal around this blue box of seitan.

    Seitan — a spongy protein made from wheat gluten — has long been a butt of my jokes. Then I tried it, and I have to say, developed a taste for it. I like the mild flavor that brings to mind a bowl of Cream of Wheat. I like the spongy texture that bounces back in your mouth like a Chicken McNugget. I like the way the semi-porous mass absorbs and melds flavors. Seitan is the perfect conduit for a subtle sauce.

    And so it has made its way into the rotation in our house. I’ve learned to appreciate seitan not as a substitute for meat, but for its own gluten-y goodness.

    Has anyone else gone to the gluten side?

  • It’s not Whataburger. It’s What-a-burger!

    center_pieceOh, no!

    I’m sorry to say that a tip I got from the Foodservice Marketing and Research Group about Whataburger opening its first Atlanta-area location seems to be incorrect.

    It seems that instead of the Texas-based fast food chain, we’re getting a Korean-style burger joint — something akin to Fusion YoriJori Burger, I would think — with an extremely similar name.

    A nice reader named Bill sent me this email:

    “I saw your blog post about Whataburger entering the Atlanta market and I thought I’d check out the address in the post since I live nearby, to see if any signs were up. Unfortunately it turns out there is not going to be a Whataburger there (and there are no sites in the shopping center to accommodate one).

    Instead, a What-a Burger! has opened up in one of the suites of the shopping center. It appears to be a total sole proprietorship operation run by a Korean family…

    All that aside, I did stop inside and the menu has burgers (including a bulgogi burger), as well as wings, …

  • Riddle me this: Fried Hominy

    Who knows what area restaurant starts your meal with this awesome bowl of warm, crisp, salty, lightly truffle-oiled, fried hominy?

  • Revisit: Flip Burger Boutique

    photo 4A colleague from out of town was visiting recently, and she wanted nothing more than to go to Abattoir and sample every squiggly bit of offal in the house. Alas, we could only meet for lunch, and the slaughterhouse is now closed midday. So we kept driving up the street and ended up at Flip Burger Boutique.

    As it turns out, this a fabulous place to take out of town guests for these reasons:

    1. It no longer has that insane, last-plane-out-of-Saigon crush of people waiting outside. But it still buzzes loudly.
    2. Everyone who follows food doings knows of Richard Blais and approaches the menu with some sense of context.
    3. The food is still really good.

    In fact, the food is better than ever. The menu has undergone some revisions, and the lineup of burgers, sides and milkshakes are more interesting and varied than ever before. The kitchen has also made the admirable decision to shift almost entirely to grass-fed beef (excluding the Wagyu meat in some of the high-ticket burgers). This …

  • Front Burner: Peter Chang in ‘New Yorker,’ Pano’s no show, Zaza’s Bottle Bar

    changjpegLast night I was sleepily paging through the “New Yorker” while my wife was watching the televised event I call “I Don’t Care If I Ever See a Freaking Ice Dancer Again,” when I came upon an article by the wonderful food writer Calvin Trillin.

    At first I though it was another story about chef du jour David Chang. But, no, it was about Peter Chang — the chef who created such a sensation when he arrived at Tasty China restaurant in 2006. The chef stayed only briefly, but he put this Marietta restaurant on the map. (I revisited it recently.)

    This peripatetic chef has moved throughout the Southeast — from Northern Virginia, to Marietta, to Knoxville, and most recently to Charlottesville, Va. — and his devoted fans follow him everywhere, often driving hours to taste his roasted fish again. It’s a great article, though you’ll have to buy the magazine to read it. Atlantan Steve Drucker, who parsed his first meals at Tasty China in an epic chowhound.com post, is mentioned in it.

    I hear …

  • Revisit: 5 Seasons at the Prado

    photo-5This is a fish.

    It’s kind of hard to tell from the picture, which was taken with only the light of a votive candle, but let me tell you: this is one delicious fish.

    It is a striped bass that was grilled on the bone util the flesh flaked and the skin crisped, then it was showered with slithery pieces of pepper and onion and capped with a flurry of lively, pungent fresh parsley.

    This fish was a special one recent evening at the 5 Seasons Brewing Company at the Prado in Sandy Springs.

    I had not been since the Prado had been refashioned from a weird entity on a hill into a major suburban mall with all the attendant flashy signs, bright lights and massive parking deck. The odd charm of the outdoor setting of the 5 is gone, but thankfully it remains inside.

    I wish I liked the 5 Seasons Westside more because it’s a lot closer to where I work and play. (I’ve never been to the Alpharetta location.) But I find the new construction of the place a bit too sterile and empty — without that …

  • Painted Table Cafe closes

    Farm-to-table omelette

    Farm-to-table omelette

    Painted Table Cafe — the brightly colored and cheerful Grant Park eatery has closed after only a few months in operation.

    Chef/owner Omega Angell announced the closure on Facebook:

    “Due to circumstances beyond our control, Painted Table Cafe is no longer in operation. We would like to extend our deepest thanks all of our incredible Grant Park regulars for making it an absolute joy to serve you the past several months. This decision was agonizing for us, as our heart and soul was poured in to everything we accomplished at the Cafe.”

    I never went, but it seemed like the restaurant had overcome a difficult opening and was starting to attract a regular clientele. Grant Parkers: Will you miss it?

  • Is Pano’s at the St. Regis a done deal?

    regisbiz.0402+bs2For well over a year, one of the most highly anticipated restaurant openings in the city has been Pano’s in the St. Regis Hotel — the reboot of Atlanta classic Pano’s & Paul’s, which closed a year ago.

    But according to hotel sources, it is anything but a done deal.

    “There is nothing under contract,” said St. Regis marketing manager Kimberly Murdock. “Right now, it’s just an empty space.”

    In February of last year the Buckhead Life Restaurant Group announced that Pano’s would open in the St. Regis by November 2009. That date came and passed without any construction.

    But according to Buckhead Life marketing manager Jennifer Boozer, Pano’s will eventually open. “We are working on plans for the restaurant and are looking forward being able to hit the ground running on the new Pano’s in the St. Regis. While it’s taking a little longer than everyone wanted, it’s definitely happening.”

    Stay …

  • Front Burner: Crunchy Bites of News

    Dover sole at Il Mulino

    Dover sole at Il Mulino

    If there’s one entree that really makes me go weak at the knees, it’s an English Dover sole, sauteed on the bone and then  filleted.

    I learned how to prepare this dish in cooking school. You cut off the pin bones and fins with a kitchen shears, make an incision by the tail and rip the leathery skin off like a Band-Aid. Then you dredge the whole thing in seasoned flour and sauté it in a large skillet, finishing it in the oven. Finally the fish can be separated (perhaps tableside) into its four fillets; the backbone peels away cleanly.

    On March 3, BLT Steak will be offering Dover sole and several of its signature steaks for the great price of $33.04. It’s a birthday celebration price: the chain’s flagship branch opened on March 3, 2004. See you there.

    And FYI: The Dover sole pictured above from Il Mulino currently goes for $65 — albeit with all the gratis appetizers that are this restaurant’s signature.

    IN OTHER NEWS:

  • Paces 88 at St. Regis goes casual

    paces-88-atlanta-restaurant-1109-lg-99967667

    Paces 88 American Bistro — the luxuriously appointed dining room in the St. Regis Hotel — bucked the trend away from fine dining when it opened in April 2009 with a high-ticket gourmet menu. Dishes such as the $35 roasted Carolina Squab with hedgehog mushrooms and caramelized pear caught the attention of Esquire Magazine’s roving restaurant-goer John Mariani, who proclaimed it one of the 20 best new restaurants in America. He praised the melding of “French-American and southern culinary traditions into seamless cuisine that befits both the hotel’s deluxe trappings and Atlanta’s eminence as a southern city.”

    Hold that pigeon.

    On Monday the hotel’s general manager, Simon Rusconi, announced that the restaurant will take a turn for the casual beginning March 1. “We’re taking it in a lighter direction, with sandwiches and salads at lunch and dinner,” he said. “We’ll also have a big sharing section on the menu. People love to share these days.”

    Executive chef Mark Alba, who will …

  • Celebrate National Margarita Day…

    AJC Staff all photos

    AJC Staff all photos

    …by, you know, getting ‘faced.

    Let’s put that a better way.

    Enjoy one of these tangy libations at your favorite Atlanta restaurant.

    Here are a few for your consideration:

    bigeasybreezypappaWat dat? The Big Easy Breezy from Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen (right) combines frozen Margarita and the New Orleanean Hurricane in one garishly piebald concoction.

    a la bamba cowtippersGlug-a-rita: The La Bamba from Cowtippers (left) combines Milagro Anejo tequila with Cointreau, Grenadine, pineapple and fresh orange juice in one festive birdbath of booze. You’ll be looking for the nearest karaoke to sing the namesake song in no time flat.

    pure-alpharettaThe De-prickler: Every last prickle will flow from your body after downing this prickly pear margarita from Pure Taqueria in Alpharetta (right).  It contains silver tequila, Cointreau, lime, prickly pear nectar, and the rim is sugared, not salted.

    pozoleNothing less than…Perfect! With house-made sour mix, La Belle orange liqueur, Jose Cuervo and fresh lime, there is no improving …

  • Which is a better dining city: Atlanta or Charleston?

    Atlanta (credit: Wikimedia)

    Charleston (credit Wikimedia)

    The Charleston Food + Wine Festival, which kicks off March 4, has not only become the preeminent gastronomic event in the Southeast, but it also shows off this coastal city’s vibrant restaurant scene to all the top names in the American food world.

    People around the country think of Charleston as the Southern restaurant town. What about Atlanta? How do the two cities compare, and how have they marketed themselves differently? This was the subject of yesterday’s Sunday Column.

    FESTIVAL INSPIRES A DINING DEBATE

    Have you ever had the experience of telling someone you like a certain restaurant and they give you that “oh, -I-thought-you-knew-something-about-food” response?

    That happened to me a couple of years ago when I was talking to a friend from Charleston soon after I had returned from a vacation there and made enthusiastic comments about a popular Italian restaurant in town. “We had a really nice meal at Al di La, ” I said, adding, “It’s always such a pleasure …

  • Revisit: Tasty China

    tcmenuTasty China had me at “hot and numbing rabbit cubes.”

    Look! There! The fourth item on the menu.

    I don’t know why these words warm my soul every time I visit this  Sichuan standby in Marietta. Maybe because they sounds like a line of syllabic verse. Something from Dylan Thomas:

    Hot and numbing rabbit cubes
    Exercised in the still night
    When only the moon rages
    And the lovers lie abed

    I’ve never actually eaten this dish because it figures too highly in my imagination. Plus, there are too many other favorites I have to have every time I go.

    The restaurant has definitely changed since the days in late 2006 (has it really been that long?) since I first tried the fiery cooking of former chef Peter Chang. This chef is long gone, as is bossy former manager Phuong Nguyen. But it is still one of my favorites, serving dragon-breath delectables in the familiar comfort of a tatty Chinese restaurant.

    foodtcspicyfishI can never resist the hot and numbing beef rolls (left) — a julienne of beef made nearly …

  • Polenta Lasagna: A recipe in progress

    photo 3My family can be a tough crowd.

    I prepared this polenta lasagna, pictured at left, for dinner on a recent night. It filled the kitchen with that appealing Italian restaurant smell. When it came out of the oven, none of us could resist its burbly, cheesy, tomatoey, come-hither appeal as it rested on the counter. We gathered around in anticipation.

    I enjoyed my serving quite a lot. I thought the whole package came together — the gooey pockets of mozzarella, the buttery flavor of fresh spinach tucked inside, the bright marinara sauce, the warming familiarity of the flavors.

    “I’m not sure what’s wrong with it,” said my wife. “Maybe the tomato sauce is off. The polenta itself is good.”

    “The spinach is gross,” piped in my 12-year-old. “You didn’t cook it right, did you?”

    “I really like it,” said my 14-year-old, taking a second bite and then cocking her head. “But it could use more cheese. Or maybe a different cheese. Would cheddar be good?”

    The recipe came out of my head rather than …

  • Who knows what this is?

    foodFirst person to identify this dish correctly — where and what — gets a gift card to Tin Lizzy’s Cantina.