Hot Dish Review

Opening a fine dining restaurant during the worst of economic times doesn’t sound like a smart business move, but somehow Pacci has survived and thrived. Perhaps it’s chef Keira Moritz who has gained notoriety and respect among her mostly male peers. Maybe its location in one of several new, trendy midtown hotels brings it the automatic business that hotel restaurants rely on, serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner to guests.

Or, it could be that it simply kicks ass. It is fairly common knowledge that I rarely eat Italian food. But I acquiesed on this assignment for AFD because I liked that a successful female chef was running the show.

ST and I valeted the HotDishmobile last Friday and walked in to Pacci. There was Geno! How fabulous, I hadn’t seen him since his days at Spice Market. We sat newlywed style on a banquette with a view of the expansive and dark dining room, lit by sets of enormous globes that hung from the high ceiling, shaded by long black fringe. The burgundy velvet and wood tones of the decor are puncuated by light blue and cream jacquard armchairs, one per table. Elegant.

Geno started us out with a couple of specialty bellinis, one with vanilla liqueur and the other with passion fruit. Then he brought out an amuse bouche of butter lettuce with seafood salad, light and fun.

After some discussion, Geno recommended a wine flight for me….a trio of 2007 pinot noirs from Sequana Vineyard, each with a distinct character. I ended up ordering another glass or two of the spicy Dutton Ranch.

The kobe beef carpacio was our first course, dressed with capers, tapenade, and baby arugula. Their bread service was an assortment of crispy wafers, focaccia, and cracker-like bread sticks. Problem with that is, I love authentic Italian bread and would prefer to have that at an Italian restaurant, with sweet butter please.

For our second course ST chose the lobster and butternut squash bisque with creme fraiche. Smooth and creamy, I don’t recall any chunks of lobster but the flavor was rich, reminiscent of she crab soup.

Naturally, I ordered the duck confit. A perfect example of this cooking method, the meat was succulent, falling of the bones, while the skin was super crispy. Served over soft polenta with bits of gorgonzola and blackberry marmalade, it sounds like a foolproof combination. But somehow, the four main components were not integrated. I found the gorgonzola unnecessary and while I do love a sweet accompaniment to duck, perhaps the dish would have been even better with mascerated blackberries. Nevertheless, it was damn awesome.

Eating our way down the menu, next came pastas. ST tried the shrimp fettucini with creamy pancetta sauce, Spring peas, and a soft fried egg on top, a.k.a carbonara. Rich, rich, and delicious. I ordered the sweet potato ravioli (how predictable!). Four raviolis came topped with gorgonzola and speck with brown butter. Rich, rich, and delicious.

More? Yes. The pork chop with fennel, roasted yam, and pomegranate-basil pesto had my name written all over it. One of the best chops I have had in recent memory, very tender. Pesto provided a little Italian flavor, but it was the roasted yams, sliced into thin disks with crispy caramelized edges that were amazing!

ST got the dry aged New York strip, medium, with a side of cannellini beans. Big steak. Good steak. Guess what we had for breakfast….steak and eggs.

Desserts include the quintessential Italian tiramisu and panna cotta, but we opted for the straightforward sweets, chocolate strata and rum bread pudding. I cannot say no to bread pudding! Pastry chef Elizabeth Matheson’s version is baked in its own small casserole dish topped with caramel and a little dollop of vanilla gelato. Personally, I would drizzle the caramel on the hot pudding so it would remain gooey rather than on the cold ice cream, but no matter, it was fabulous. ST’s chocolate strata was a huge slice of chocolate cake layered with chocolate mousse, served with vanilla gelato. Pretty presentation, pretty chocolately.

We were stuffed! Despite a couple of minor complaints, Pacci made a great impression on both of us.

866 West Peachtree Street NW 678-412-2402

After a Valentine’s party at my office, I was a little down. Newly single (again!), I thought a light dinner served by a gorgeous bartender might help take my mind off of ST, so I headed to Abattoir.

Chef Hopkins changes the menu based upon what is available from local farmers, although there are several standards that have stuck, like the chicharrones. I guess pig skins aren’t too hard to come by at a restaurant that breaks down whole pigs on a regular basis!

Upon arrival I took a seat at the bar, happy to see BS was there. Having already started on cab at the party, he poured me a glass of red (was it the malbec?) as I perused the menu. A salad of lacinato kale with duck confit and farm egg vinaigrette caught my eye. BS confirmed it was awesome and recommended the valencay cheese served with a hot mini baguette from Star Provisions. Perfect.

Valencay is a smooth, dense mold-ripened cheese made of raw goat’s milk from the Loire Valley in France. It was paired with Marcona almonds and honeycomb. Sweet accompaniments with cheese are always my favorites.

The baguette reminded me of my bread debate with JR at Dinner Party last week. Although Star Provisions probably makes the best European-style baguettes in Atlanta, they don’t hold a candle to any baguette you can buy in Europe. Even the ones at the airport in Paris have that heavenly texture and flavor that is unmatched in the states.

Kale can be tough but the local lacinato kale Hopkins uses for this salad was tender, its slight bitterness balanced with a hint of sweetness in the dressing. A quartered hard boiled egg, paper-thin slices of radish, shreds of duck confit, and crisped bits of duck skin topped the greens. Just a terrific combination!

Another glass of wine, maybe the Louis Martini cab, and some light conversation was just what I needed! Thanks for lifting my spirits BS.

Valium will be my Valentine as I try to get some sleep on the flight to Brazil, then I’ll be romancing Rio!

Talk about memories. Pura Vida is one of those restaurants that has stood the test of time for me. The scene of many dates, meeting of friends, and countless pitchers of sangria. It was where me and AD used to hang out with a pack of cigarettes back in the day when you could still smoke in public.

Chef and owner Hector Santiago was one of three Atlanta chefs competing on last season’s Top Chef, and although he went home relatively early, it surely garnered him and the restaurant some appreciated publicity.

The menu has undergone many changes over the years. Originally, Puerto Rican tapas dominated, now it is an amalgam of Latin flavors. Some dishes, like the garlicky mushrooms, the malanga root chips, and the chicken empanadas, are mainstays. The hanger steak pinchos is another, although Santiago has revised the presentation. I always order it and it was among the few tapas ST and I shared for a late night dinner Saturday. Chunks of tender steak are skewered and grilled, then drizzled with a punchy cilantro chimichurri.

Another staple is the sangria. Pura Vida serves both white and red, the best in town! The white sangria is full of fruits like pear, grapefruit, and apple while the red has grapes, orange, and apple, all liquor soaked. I always request lots of fruit and eat it out of my glass with a spoon. Our server, Nathan (or was it Andrew?) was efficient and cute.

Since it was ST’s first visit to Pura Vida and, like, my 50th, I wanted him to try some of my favorites. It had been a while since I had the coctel de camerones. The updated version is called diablo shrimp coctel….same basic ingredients of butternut squash, a creamy sauce and a hot sauce. Still awesome.

My all-time favorite dish is the duck maduros, plantains layered with duck meat. Santiago took it off the menu for quite some time, much to my dismay. Then it was back. Now it has evolved into the duck confit with caramelized plantains. OK, can’t complain! It is basically the same flavor as the duck maduros, a lusty combination of gamey duck and sweet plantains.

For a while, chef explored Latino variations on foie gras, creative, expensive, pretty damn good. These days he is back to basics. the little pork and ham sandwiches called mi media noche (midnight snack) and the burrito are prime examples. A few years ago he began offering goat, slow cooked in coconut milk with green banana mash. It is delicious, although the mash could use more flavor.

The atmosphere is festive. I usually enjoy sitting at the bar but it was late so ST and I snuggled in a booth which usually require a reservation, or at least a wait. Thanks Pura Vida for yet another great memory.

656 N. Highland Ave. 404-870-9797 www.puravidatapas.com