Hot Dish Review

Me and B must be the most optimistic bitches on the planet. Enduring 12 hours of trauma and drama, barely escaping injury, we still managed to laugh our asses off and made it home alive.

On our way to Helen to meet my Mom and go to the Taste of Sautee this chick opened her car door as we were driving by, effectively ripping off my passenger side mirror and scraping the shit out of my car doors. Awesome. Great start to the day!

I called the police to make a report. Her neighbor, who was not even a witness, kept trying to imply that I might be at fault. Ugly lesbians vs. hot blondes….guess who won. After obtaining a police report that clearly showed her at fault, B duct taped the mirror back on so it wouldn’t be flopping around as we drove north on GA400.

No more than ten minutes later, some dude had a blowout and was swerving out of control almost rear-ending us. We finally got to Helen and made our way to the Taste of Sautee.

Like a mini version of Atlanta’s many “taste of” events, Sautee’s weekend of food and wine featured tastings from several local wineries and restaurants.

Yonah Mountain Vineyards, Habersham, and Sautee Nacoochee each offered tastes of their white and red varieties. I really liked Habersham’s muscadine and I always enjoy their reisling. The best red was Yonah Mountain’s Genesis, a heavy spicy blend of merlot, cab, and mourvedre.

Entrance to the festival was only $15. We were hoping small bites were included but they were not. In fact, full-size sandwiches were for sale from Sweet Breads Bake Shop, tapas-size dishes from Bernie’s and Nacoochee Grill.

My Mom got the bean salad and pasta salad with cheese, olives, and bread from Bernie’s. B started off with a pasta salad from Sweet Breads, and I ordered the BBQ duck tacos from Nacoochee Grill. I didn’t care for the flavor of the sauce and there was too much of it, not to mention they were served in what seemed like store bought hard white taco shells. A dollop of slaw drenched with mayo topped the shredded duck. A smattering of cheese and lettuce was lost somewhere in between. My Mom’s plate looked like the best choice of the three.

Me and B sampled every wine, then we all shopped a bit. SS was blowing up my phone which was a bit odd. Turns out his 4 year old son had passed away the night before. He was crying and I was miles away sweating my ass off in the blazing hot sun in Sautee, of all f*ckin’ places.

A bit more food and we’d call it a day. B got the bean salad dish my Mom had earlier, while I tried a steak and caramelized onion sandwich on a mini baguette. Problem was the bread was hard and the plate was slippery. Each bite was a disaster, squirting the beef with copious amounts of sauce (seems to be a theme here) all over my hands, then to top it off the beef was hard to chew. Again, the bean salad dish had more flavor although it didn’t blow me away.

There were lots of artist booths with everything from jewelry to wooden birdhouses. B got one of those for her sister-in-law.

We had to pace ourselves on the drinking since B and I would be visiting Montaluce Vineyard for a tasting and a tour later in the afternoon, then dinner at their restaurant, LeVigne.

Sautee was just the beginning of our food and wine adventure….here we come Dahlonega!