Virtual
Gourmet
Have a Great Super Bowl Sunday
Tailgate Picnic!
Photo: Christopher Mariani
THIS WEEK
Oh, ATLANTA!
NEW YORK CORNER ❖❖❖
One of the best songs Allison Krauss and Union Station ever did was an ode to Atlanta, in which she croons, Oh, Atlanta, I hear you calling,
Atlantans seem unanimous in their affection for
the city that forty years ago began a whole new
upsurge of spirit in the South, even if it
demurred at prior stereotypes about the
region. Although New Orleans might argue
with the notion, Atlanta is perhaps the least
Southern of the South's cities, with little of the
old timey about it and enough modern edge to get
Tom Wolfe to write a satiric novel about it,
called A Man in
Full. Still, however cosmopolitan Atlanta
becomes, there is a pride in its Georgian foods,
as evidenced in these new restaurants in town.
The OPTIMIST 914 Howell Mill Road 404-477-6260 http://theoptimistrestaurant.com
75 Fifth
St NW
Richard
Blais, who
runs the immensely popular Flip Burger Boutique,
has gone upscale without sacrificing the kind of
casual, easy-going American ambiance that has
brought equal attention to his new place, The
Spence, which, he
notes, is a synonym for larder. The restaurant is
done up with lacquered
white brick, reclaimed wood, tartans and zinc and
pine tabletops, with a centrally set open
kitchen. It is one of the Concentrics
Restaurant Group that also runs Two Urban Licks,
Tap Gastropub, and others around Atlanta.
I'm not sure Chef Art
Smith is punning on his own name at Southern Art,
but he is definitely a son of the South, and you
can see it from the moment you walk in, with
hanging country hams and evocative works by local
artists lining the walls. This used to be Au Pied
de Cochon, and its high ceilings, bar up front,
and oversized space will remind you that this is,
after all, a restaurant in a hotel, lacking the
intimacy of a smaller room or the excitement of a
large one like The Optimist with more
cohesion.
Southern
Art is pen for breakfast and dinner daily, for
lunch Mon.-Sat., for brunch Sun. First courses
$6-$18, main courses $18-$35.
Alma
Cucina is an excellent modern Mexican restaurant
in an unfortunate location, set within the atrium
Peachtree Tower Building, making it enticing
enough for lunch but a bit off-putting for
dinner. It's a great looking place, complete
with bull's head, a tequila bar, and an atmosphere
that guarantees you'll have a good time. Try
to snag one of the booths, which are roomy and
convivial all on their own, buoyed by good Latin
jazz. Alma Cucina is open
for lunch Mon.-Fri and for dinner nightly.
Dinner appetizers run $6-$9, huaraches $8-$11,
main courses $17-$27.
Like
Alma Cucina, Lure is owned by the Fifth Group
Restaurants Group, Atlanta's most prolific, and
they put a lot of conceptual thinking into
décor and menu. Lure is a seafood
concept, and while it hasn't quite the panache of
The Optimist, it's been justifiably popular since
opening last summer for those who want good
quality and very
reasonable price. Overseen by Chef David Bradley,
a longtime Fifth Group alumnus, the menu is a long
one, broken into "Raw, Chilled & Really
Fresh," "For You or for Sharing," and "Sizable
Servings," but even in this last category nothing
runs above $33 (and that's for a non-seafood item,
the ribeye).
Incidentally, I don't quite understand the menu
note "bread and butter upon request." Is this some
new trend I hope doesn't catch on?
Lure is open for lunch Mon.-Fri., for
dinner nightly, for brunch on Sun. Starters runs
$2.50-$12, other courses $8-$33.
NEW
YORK CORNER
by John Mariani 257 Avenue of the Americas 212-645-0193 eltoroblanco.com To compare El Toro Blanco to Alma Cucina, above, is to understand a little about the difference in real estate in NYC versus Atlanta. I have no idea what either restaurant pays for rent, but in Atlanta the space itself is a pretty big deal, wide open, well lighted, and good for people watching. El Toro Blanco, on the other hand, in NYC's Greenwich Village, is cramped, darkened, extremely loud, and with few sightlines around the room. Prices are higher at El Toro Blanco--$2 to $5 more for most dishes. A "small" order of guacamole at El Toro Blanco was $12, while a generous portion at Alma Cucina was $6. But when it comes to cocktails: at Alma Cucina the margaritas made with Herradura Lay of the Land tequila, poire william, and jalapeño is $9; a blend of Herraduro El Centro resposado with Fiednecio mezcal, ginger, chamomile is a dollar more. But at El Toro Blanco, a margarita made with Herradura añejo and Cointreau cost a whopping $19! So our party of four spent $72 on one round of drinks at El Toro Blanco, about what they'd cost at one of those vast midtown nightclubs like Tao. For a dollar more we could have had a margarita at Restaurant Daniel or a bellini at Harry Cipriani uptown. The reflex to say, "Hey, that's New York for you!" is to suggest that Atlanta is a cheap city, which it is not, and the food at El Toro Blanco was, by virtue of it being in New York, much better, which it was not. The simple thought of four of us spending $307 plus a 20 percent tip--with one bottle and two glasses of wine ($60) and no desserts at El Toro Blanco made me think that something is way out of whack. Yet the place was packed and people were obviously enjoying themselves at this, one of the current downtown hot spots. The cooking is good at El Toro Blanco, although not inspired. The guacamole was all right (not made tableside--there's simply no room to do so), and the chorizo queso fundido was tasty enough. The best of the dishes we tried was a luscious short ribs empanada with Oaxacan cheese and ancho chile barbecue. Two orders of cabrito tacos went fast, but in many of the dishes the flavors were much the same, so that we were asking ourselves, "Is that the cabrito?" "Is that the chicken taco?" Swordfish, not an easy species to get right, was juicy, but shrimp tacos with Cuban slaw, roasted tomatoes and avocado were bland. When I left the restaurant, which got louder as the night wore on, I felt a relief from the noise, the cramped tables, uncomfortable seating, and the thought that I'd learned a lesson. El Toro Blanco is open for lunch Mon.-Fri., dinner nightly; Appetizers $9-$18, main courses $19-$26.
SO, HOW ARE THE
BROWNIES? CALLING ALL CARS--CALLING ALL CARS--BE ON THE LOOK-OUT FOR A MAN DRINKING COFFEE IN THE STARBUCKS PARKING LOT--MAY BE ARMED AND EXTREMELY STUPID. In
Huntsville, Alabama, a Starbucks
employee thwarted a would-be thief by offering him a free coffee instead of
cash, which the man accepted, then walked to the
parking lot where he was immediately arrested.
❖❖❖ Any of John Mariani's
books below may be ordered from amazon.com.
❖❖❖
FEATURED
LINKS: I am happy to report
that the Virtual
Gourmet is linked to four excellent
travel sites: Everett Potter's Travel Report: I consider this the best and
savviest blog of its kind on the web. Potter is a
columnist for USA
Weekend, Diversion, Laptop and Luxury Spa Finder,
a contributing editor for Ski and a frequent contributor
to National
Geographic Traveler, ForbesTraveler.com
and Elle Decor.
"I’ve designed this site is for people who take
their travel seriously," says Potter. "For
travelers who want to learn about special places
but don’t necessarily want to pay through the nose for
the privilege of staying there. Because at the end
of the day, it’s not so much about five-star
places as five-star experiences." THIS WEEK: Switzerland's
Appenzell Region; Montreal in Winter.
Eating Las Vegas is the new on-line site for Virtual Gourmet contributor John A. Curtas., who since 1995 has been commenting on the Las Vegas food scene and reviewing restaurants for Nevada Public Radio. He is also the restaurant critic for KLAS TV, Channel 8 in Las Vegas, and his past reviews can be accessed at KNPR.org. Click on the logo below to go directly to his site.
Tennis Resorts Online: A Critical Guide to the World's Best Tennis Resorts and Tennis Camps, published by ROGER COX, who has spent more than two decades writing about tennis travel, including a 17-year stretch for Tennis magazine. He has also written for Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel, New York Magazine, Travel & Leisure, Esquire, Money, USTA Magazine, Men's Journal, and The Robb Report. He has authored two books-The World's Best Tennis Vacations (Stephen Greene Press/Viking Penguin, 1990) and The Best Places to Stay in the Rockies (Houghton Mifflin, 1992 & 1994), and the Melbourne (Australia) chapter to the Wall Street Journal Business Guide to Cities of the Pacific Rim (Fodor's Travel Guides, 1991).
MARIANI'S VIRTUAL GOURMET
NEWSLETTER is published weekly. Editor/Publisher: John
Mariani.
Contributing Writers: Christopher Mariani, Robert Mariani,
John A. Curtas, Edward Brivio, Mort Hochstein,
Suzanne Wright, and Brian Freedman. Contributing
Photographers: Galina Stepanoff-Dargery,
Bobby Pirillo. Technical Advisor: Gerry McLoughlin.
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