Hot Dish Review

LC and his entire family are University of Kentucky alumni, so you can imagine his grief at last week’s horrific showing in the Final Four. However, earlier, in the midst of March Madness, we watched them clobber West Virginia at 8 Traxx with a big UK alumni group. Good times!

Prior to the game, we dined at the neighboring tapas and wine restaurant, Cellar 56. The experience of sharing a variety of small plates is both fun and intimate, one of my favorite ways to dine.

The menu at Cellar 56 offers tastes from garden, land, and sea, ranging from $5 to $7. We started with drinks and a warning to our server that we were anxious to get to the big screen for the game, not that it wasn’t obvious from our bright blue UK T-shirts!

LC and I chose four tapas. Grilled flatbread with duck confit, fig jam, and Cabrales blue cheese came out first, just two triangles. Toppings were generous and flavorful, a great combination of sweet, rich, and tangy, but I could see that four plates might not be enough for dinner.

Luckily, a runner delivered our order of Georgia white shrimp, tasso gravy, and Logan Turnpike grits, along with a seared scallop on sweet corn with applewood bacon, which we did not order. By the time our server came back around we had scarfed down the lone scallop. I’m not a corn lover, so it was just OK for me. Perfectly cooked large shrimp paired with creamy grits were more impressive.

A bowl of baked macaroni and cheese with green chile and prosciutto was next, providing the requisite creamy, cheesy comfort food experience. My dish of lump crabmeat, avocado and grapefruit was a disappointment due to its lack of crabmeat. Apparently, it was so lackluster that I forgot to take a photo.

When all was said and done, we were still left wanting, despite the bonus scallop. Just then, the same runner delivered a second duck confit flatbread by mistake. Voila! Problem solved.

I doubt I will return to Cellar 56, unless I’m attending an event nearby. Not bad, just not memorable.

56 East Andrews Drive 678-344-3600

Three (OK, maybe 5) little words that equal big deliciousness! This recipe comes courtesy of BB, or more precisely his little girl, who spotted the lobster at Costco and suggested making lobster mac ‘n’ cheese. She grabbed the white truffle oil as an afterthought. Oh, and by the way, she is five!

He brought me a casserole dish with a big serving that I reheated in the oven….just didn’t seem right to put lobster in the microwave. Rich, decadent, just plain awesome.

Although he cooks by heart, as trained chefs generally do, I asked him to write down the recipe for me (and you!). Here it is, only slightly edited:

LOBSTER MAC & CHEESE

1 box of medium pasta shells, cooked
1.5 lbs cooked lobster meat (tails and claws)
3 cups of milk
1 cup heavy cream
3/4 stick of butter
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
12 oz. shredded gruyere
9 oz. shredded extra sharp white cheddar
2 oz. shredded extra sharp yellow cheddar
2 oz. shredded fontina
White truffle oil
1/2 cup panko bread crumbs
1 1/4″ slice of pancetta, diced
1 whole nutmeg
Fresh black pepper
Kosher salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cook pasta al dente according to package directions, drain and drizzle with truffle oil to prevent sticking.

In a large saute’ pan, cook the pancetta until brown. Set aside and reserve the fat. Cut the lobster meat into bite-size pieces and squeeze excess water from it.

In a medium saucepan, heat the milk and heavy cream, not allowing it to boil. In a large heavy pot, melt butter along with 2 tablespoons of the truffle oil. Whisk in the flour and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly for 2 minutes. (Chef’s note: “In the past, I’ve made the roux with true truffle butter, but time constraints forced us to improvise with the butter/oil mixture”). Still whisking, add the hot milk and cream and cook for another minute or two until it’s smooth and thickened. Fold in the gruyere and white cheddar, mixing well, until you have a smooth, creamy sauce.

Grate in about 3/4 of the nutmeg and about a teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper, mixing well. Add the pasta, stirring well, then fold in the lobster. Lightly coat the inside of a 9 X 13 casserole dish with oil and pour in the mixture. Sprinkle the top with the shredded yellow cheddar and fontina.

In a small bowl mix the panko with the cooked pancetta and its cooking fat. Top the casserole with the bread crumb mixture and bake uncovered for 25 minutes or until brown and bubbly.

TC is so sweet but it’s already time for her to go back to TX. On the eve of her departure, along with her sis E, the three of us chicks were treated to a great lunch by her Dad LC.

We were going to go to Robek’s but LC veared off to Chequers Seafood Grill on the way, despite TC’s aversion to seafood of every kind. LC was wound up so he got a vodka martini, which in turn influenced me to also drink at 1:30pm during my workday (yes, I am that easily influenced). A glass of zin for me.

The decor of Chequers reminds me of a French brasserie with checkerboard floors, lots of wood, etched mirrors, and brass accents. The spelling of the name drives me nuts, though….makes me think it’s a cheesy chain when it is, in fact, an upscale seafood restaurant that specializes in fresh fish flown in daily.

Like many restaurants, their menu lacks focus to a degree, offering sushi rolls, lobster tamales, and Vietnamese crab spring rolls…..18 starters! Soups, entree salads, sandwiches, and 12 entrees ranging from the benign blackened chicken penne to the more daring San Francisco style cioppino. And this is a lunch menu! So many options had me and LC pondering our choice for quite some time, as we chatted with the girls.

E chose the panko fried shrimp with French fries. Holy shrimp Batman! TC ordered a side salad with carrots, cheese, and a chicken breast. Not on the menu. Our server was very accommodating.

LC and I split a bowl of Creole gumbo to start. Described as spicy, I found the base a bit too thick, and of course, not spicy enough. My spoonfuls contained more sausage than seafood, along with bits of okra, tomato, and white rice.

Once I spotted the green curry mussels I couldn’t be swayed otherwise. Plus a side of lobster mac ‘n’ cheese, it made for a bizarre pairing. Just as strange was LC’s combo of the roasted duck breast flatbread and a tuna sushi roll.

A smattering of cilantro and sweet potato hay added enough interest to the coconut milk and curry broth to make the mussels quite good. My lobster mac ‘n’ cheese, its thick pasta corkscrews great for holding onto sauces, found little to hold onto. What promised decadence was instead dry and only contained a few tiny bits of lobster…..somewhat disappointing. I like my mac baked and bubbling with cheeses. The truffled bread crumbs on top were a nice touch, however.

LC seemed to like his tuna roll. Roasted duck flatbread, another name for mini pizza, was topped with fig barbecue sauce, fontina, gorgonzola, provolone, red onion, and julienned apple. Sounds gooey and delicious, right? But it suffered the same fate as the mac, with little cheese to be found. The absense of gorgonzola’s pungent bite was particularly evident, although the sweet and salty flavors presented did work well together.

E loved her crispy shrimp and fries, sticking her last shrimp on TC’s leftover salad, “contaminating” it before it was boxed up to go. Funny.

Verdict? If variety is the spice of life, this place is over-seasoned! What’s better….to do 10 things perfectly or 50 things just OK?

Nevertheless, I would order the mussels again and certainly try a grilled fish dish or entree salad like the lobster cobb in the future.

236 Perimeter Center Pkwy NE 770-391-9383

Winter is a great time to hibernate with your honey. Although it wasn’t very cold, me and ST decided to stay in and snuggle up to a couple of bottles of red wine, an organic rotisserie chicken from Whole Foods, and some homemade mac & cheese.

In honor of the Australian Open, we picked up a bottle of 2006 Australian red called Yard Dog. It’s a blend of petit verdot, cab, and merlot with a really cool label and a screw top. Pretty tasty. We ended up opening the bottle of 2007 Volver tempranillo I already had purchased, despite its unattractive label, at Ansley Kroger (the best wine store in Atlanta, by the way).

I had pulled a couple of mac ‘n’ cheese recipes out of magazines over the last few months, some with three cheeses, others with cream cheese, ham and spices. There were so many variations it was hard to come up with a solid recipe. I ended up loosely basing mine on a three-cheese pasta bake from Southern Living.

Thankfully, there are no photos of the process….not a pretty sight. It was quite a fiasco. The cheese sauce was absolutely delicious, prior to baking. However, once baked, the dish was rather dry. Maybe more sauce, less pasta? (I only used 3/4 of the pasta that I cooked). Maybe eat it without baking it? Here’s the recipe. let me know if you have a solution to the dry outcome!

SMOKY HOMEMADE MAC & CHEESE

4 oz. macaroni
1 tbsp. butter
1 tbsp. flour
1 cup 2% milk
1/4 cup grated fontina
1/4 cup grated parmesan
1/2 cup grated smoked gouda
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 cup bread crumbs
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. fresh ground pepper
pinch of cayenne

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare pasta according to package directions, al dente. Grease two 6″ individual casserole dishes with cooking spray or butter.

Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in flour, cooking for one minute. Gradually whisk in milk and continue cooking 3-5 minutes. Stir in the three cheeses, garlic, salt, pepper, and cayenne.

Add cooked pasta to the sauce and stir to coat, then pour into the individual casserole dishes. Top with bread crumbs and bake for 20 minutes.

That’s it! I wanted to put bacon in it but didn’t have any (what the fuck, no bacon?). Anyway, the flavor was great. Also, I wanted to use an interesting pasta like cellentani but ended up with regular elbows….I’m sure penne or shells would be a good choice too.

Maybe the mac & cheese didn’t turn out exactly like I expected but I was with ST and that’s always delicious.

Upscale boutique hotels are springing up all over Atlanta, from midtown’s Georgian Terrace to the newly renovated Ellis Hotel downtown. Each one has a restaurant that serves the hotel guests breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It would seem as though that alone would provide automatic success to these restaurants, however, it isn’t enough to serve out-of-town guests, they need to draw in locals to stay afloat.

The Terrace is serious about local, sustainable produce. Much smaller in scale than Mennie’s Livingston, it is probably easier for chef Joel Young to maintain this level of excellence. B and I recently stopped by the W Downtown to see Bill Hallman and his new cocktail dresses for the waitstaff at the Lobby Bar, then proceeded on to The Ellis for dinner.

Our hostess allowed us to choose our table as the place had pretty much cleared out by the time we arrived. The restaurant does indeed have a terrace, probably fabulous for breakfast and lunch, but a bit chilly for dinner so we sat inside in the adjacent intimate dining area. Chef Joel joined us, chatting about his background and love of local and sustainable dining.

Not a difficult task here in Atlanta with numerous farms providing fresh produce and locally grown proteins to our prestigious restaurants like Woodfire Grill, Dynamic Dish, Livingston, and many more. Chef Joel visits the farmer’s markets each day to find the best of ingredients for the menu at The Terrace, which automatically gives the menu a bit of Southern flair despite chef’s Connecticut roots.

B and I were two hungry chicks upon our late arrival. We started with the Terrace crab cake and sweet potato ravioli. Served upon a large mound of sauteed spinach and muchrooms, the ravioli was almost an entree portion for me, sweet and savory. The crab cake was stellar, exhibiting very little filler and very much chunky crab. But it was the accompanying salad that received my adoration…..just a simple citrus vinaigrette with a sweet note, awesome.

A wonderful bottle of Colores de Sol Malbec was spicy, peppery, yet very smooth and drinkable.

We opted for two entrees, the flatiron steak and the Amish chicken, and two more sides, collards and mac and cheese. Their beef is grass-fed….a big deal to me, having interviewed Bill Kurtis (the dude with the kickass internet commercials right now) who owns a grass-fed cattle ranch in Kansas called Tallgrass. Cattle was meant to eat grass, not corn, so the grass-fed beef is totally free of antibiotics to treat illnesses brought on by grain diets and also naturally rich in Omega 3 fatty acids. We ordered it medium rare, served sliced on a bed of caramelized Vidalia and carrot slaw. I loved the slaw. There was a copius amount so I took it home, having it the next day with sausage balls!

The Amish chicken was served with mushroom risotto. With a crisped skin and tender meat, the chicken was flavorful and paired perfectly with the creamy risotto. B said the collards were some of the best she had ever had (hey, this coming from a Southern girl!), they were mellow and smoky with bacon. The macaroni and cheese was topped with bread crumbs and baked with Lamb Chopper from Cypress Grove in California, the maker of my favorite Humboldt Fog. What could be better? Not a damn thing.

Dessert was determined even before the entrees….bread pudding? Yes sir! I love it, as long as it is not covered with a cloying syrup. True to form, Chef Joel presented a dense bread pudding with raisins, sliced fresh pear beneath it to cut the richness. We also tried the apple cranberry crumble which was so delicious. But the serving was definitely for sharing….enormous! The homemade vanilla ice cream on top was great.

I know folks are daunted by going “downtown”. Stop being a pussy! Parking is valet, the food is phenomenal, the setting is romantic. And if you drink too much you can always get a room there.