Hot Dish Review

No, that’s not a typo. Breakfast for dinner was the theme of Atlanta Eats’ first media gathering celebrating the conclusion of the show’s first season. The event, held at Room & Board in the Westside Provisions complex, featured restaurants from season #1 of the show including chef/maniac Mike LaSage of Bone Lick BBQ and Tyler Williams, newly appointed executive chef at Woodfire Grill.

About fifty writers and bloggers arrived for complimentary drinks and breakfast inspired dishes, like Bone Lick’s fried quail egg, spicy sausage, pulled pork, and cheese on a mini bagel….finger lickin’ good! I chatted with the show’s founders, Cody Hicks and on-air personality Steak Shapiro while waiting for my first mimosa of the evening.

I also tried a crostini from Salt Factory topped with pimento cheese, crumbled bacon, and an awesome green tomato puree that provided just the right amount of acidic bite. The mimosas went down quickly as we mingled, then sat for a very informal talk from Steak and the chefs.

Myrna from Lotta Frutta was there too, serving mini paletas (popsicles) with frou frou drink umbrellas for handles….so creative! She also had lulo helados, ice cream made with an exotic fruit rich in B vitamins. She is so passionate about fruit, even admitting to chasing customers down the street throwing bananas at them in front of her tiny restaurant in the Old Fourth Ward when she first opened seven years ago. I don’t she has to chase anyone down these days, as she prepares to open a location in Hartsfield Jackson International Airport’s concourse B. That’s B for banana.

Season #2 of Atlanta Eats kicks off on April 6th with segments on Antico Pizza, Heirloom BBQ, and Woodfire Grill, so bring your appetite and tune in to Atlanta’s first and only show dedicated to dining out!

The Kentucky Derby fell on Cinco de Mayo this year….an unfortunate coincidence. LC and I were the only two of our group going to the track for The Derby, however, we wanted to enjoy breakfast with the gang before donning our hats and throwing our (I mean his) cash away.

Our Derby trip hostess TH, a college friend of LC’s, often visits Wild Eggs for breakfast, and suggested we go there. The decor was bright and modern, with a partition cleverly made of plastic eggs encased in glass. We weren’t necessarily in a hurry, but the 45 minute wait for a table was a bit lengthy. The girls enjoyed mimosas and the gentlemen bloody Marys while we waited.

As a regular, TH knew our server well. Once seated, he delivered an enormous complimentary cinnamon roll for us to share, however we had to wait an additional 30 minutes for our coffee. Not a good start.

Folks love to recommend their favorite dishes to me when they discover I’m a food writer. Usually I go with my instinct, but on rare occassions, I take their advice….and then regret it. Unfortunately, my breakfast would prove to be a perfect example of the latter.

Several menu specialties have a Tex-Mex flavor including Kalamity Katie’s Border Benedict which TH said was the best thing she ever ate. I was in the mood for a benedict smothered with rich hollandaise so why not try it with a Mexican twist?

The menu described the dish as “green chili cheddar corn cakes, topped with chorizo, two poached eggs, queso fundido, pico de gallo, sour cream, green onions, and avocado”. Visions of crispy corn cakes, juicy slices of spicy sausage, poached eggs with creamy yolks, and chunks of avocado whirled in my head. I wasn’t sure about the queso sauce, described as “sauce like you put on nachos” by our server so I requested it on the side along with a side of hollandaise.

When the plate arrived, 80% was covered with potatoes. I have no use for potatoes and didn’t realize they accompanied the benedict or I would have made a substitution. Sadly, the corn cakes were thick and dry, there was a tablespoon of very salty crumbled sausage scattered on top, and my poached eggs were overcooked. The bits of avocado could have fit in a thimble and the queso was disgusting but, of course, there was no hollandaise. I had to wait another ten minutes for that. It was impossible to hide my dissatisfaction. Meanwhile, another damn cinnamon roll came out.

Like the horses racing by us at Churchill Downs, much of the food we ate was also a blur. We enjoyed decent boxed lunches from Lotsa Pasta on Oaks Day. During The Derby itself, LC and I got a lobster roll at one of the snack bars near the betting windows. Among all the ladies with hats were a couple of dudes with sombreros, reminding me that it was Cinco de Mayo.

In a futile attempt to have a decent bite of Mexican food, LC and I decided to stop at Senor Iguana’s on the way home. All we wanted was a table outside, a decent margarita and a few tacos. Too much to ask? You bet. There were no tables available on the patio so we sat at a hightop in the bar. LC ordered skinny margaritas, but the bartender had clearly never made one before, filling the tall plastic cup with soda after a shot of tequila and a squirt of lime juice. Horrific.

We fared better with the starters. Chips were quite good dipped in freshly made guacamole and queso (much better than the queso at breakfast) and there was a lovely dish of jalapenos to spice it up. Tacos were not offered individually so we got one order with fish and another with carne asada, all on corn tortillas. I requested cheese on the beef.

Our server brought out pork instead of beef but quickly remedied the error, although the advertised diced onions and cilantro were absent. Each taco was made with two somewhat soggy tortillas. I peeled off the unnecessary tortillas and added guacamole. An unexpected bowl of tasty red chili sauce was served with the carne asada which did a decent job of covering up the chewy, flavorless meat. Shoulda gone to Chuy’s.

Uncharacteristicly, LC didn’t win at the track. And Wild Eggs and Senor Iguana’s didn’t place.

A rerun….hoping me and B don’t feel like this tomorrow!How appropriate. No food and no sleep (OK, B claims I slept for three hours but I think it was only one) makes me hungry and sleepy. After Widespread Panic on Saturday night, which was at the Verizon Ampitheatre in Alpharetta, me and B piled into a vehicle that was headed to the after party.

It rained. We danced. But we didn’t eat or sleep. The next morning found us in Cumming. Happily headed back to civilization around 12:30, B and I needed to get our cars. The catch? CL was holding our keys hostage at Hobnob.

In the rain and against our will, we met him there for brunch. The warm space and inviting patio would be great on a sunny Summer day. Mimosas all around and a concise menu of heart-stopping cholesterol-laden goodies seemed appropriate on this chilly, dreary day. For me, the “hangover helper” was a no-brainer. Two poached eggs served over fried green tomatoes and toasted English muffins, topped with tomato Hollandaise and goat cheese. I added a side of bacon.

Breakfast potatoes accompany every brunch entree at Hobnob. They are as appealing to me as sauteed cardboard, so I offered mine to B. Along with my potatoes she would have two fried eggs, a biscuit, and cheese grits, all a la carte.

My eggs were perfectly poached, however I would have preferred regular Hollandaise. I love goat cheese but it somehow didn’t work here. The fried green tomatoes were rather thickly breaded, but the tangy flavor was terrific. Three big slices of chewy bacon made me smile. Another mimosa please!

B ate about half of her meal and took the rest home for her animals. I rarely have leftovers, not that The Bunny would consider eating them if I did.

Their regular menu includes soul-satisfying dishes like Southern Spring rolls filled with pork and collards and Belgian endive boats with dried figs, goat cheese, candied pecans, crisp prosciutto and tobasco honey. Hobnob deserves a try one evening soon!

1551 Piedmont Avenue 404-968-2288

For the second year in a row I ended up at Shaun’s during the Inman Park Festival. Last year I made a reservation. My previous experiences at Shaun’s were not spectacular so I thought this was a prime opportunity for the restaurant to redeem itself, despite the burden of the festival crowds.

I’ve yet to be impressed. In fact, neither last year’s or this year’s visit was nearly as good as my first visit. I remember having the shrimp and grits then, seated in the front room by the bar when it was still used as a dining room. The dish was so incredibly rich that it almost made me nauseous. But it was impossible to deny that the shrimp were perfectly cooked, the flavors were pure Southern comfort, with a stick of butter.

Last year my companion and I, seated in the main dining room opposite the semi-open kitchen, shared the Sardinian flatbread that Doty has become known for since his Mumbo Jumbo days. Basically a huge cracker topped with arugula, cheese and olive oil, with occasional variations. Our flatbread was supposed to have goat cheese but we got parmesan instead….not even a reasonable substitution, but I chalked it up to their being so busy. We also ordered the Berkshire pork buns….sliders with pork. I can’t remember if it was shredded pork but I do remember that they were rather uninspired. Our entrees were so boring I don’t recall them at all. But I do remember the dessert, the sticky toffee pudding. A dry clump of cake doused with a cloying sweet (and I guess sticky) toffee syrup. Just plain bad.

Doty was one of the first young Atlanta chefs to re-introduce diners to liver. After 3 1/2 years in business (I swear it seems like 7) he still serves his chopped liver, East Village style, and the chicken liver fettuccini. I hate chicken liver so I won’t be sampling those dishes, although it is possible that my companion last year ordered the chopped liver, after all, he is a New York Jew.

This year LG and I stopped by purely by chance, hoping to score a table outside for a drink. It took me 20 minutes to get her mojito and my mimosa, but the weather was great and the people watching was entertaining. Promptly at 5:00 we were asked to move, so we took a table in the pretty, yet secluded, back patio. Seated on mod plastic chairs next to a wall of jasmine, the setting was very pleasant.

We ordered a bottle of Lambrusco bianco. Sold out. LG ordered a prosecco and I ordered another Mistral Mimosa. Sold out of anything sparkling. After years of being centrally located during the festival you would think they would have their shit together by now. How about a glass of tempranillo for me and the simply red for LG? Our server inadvertantly switched them, but we figured it out. She had already delivered a delicious sesame bread basket with butter.

It was Sunday which is pasta night at Shaun’s. For a mere $12 guests can dine on salad, pasta, and dessert. Chopped salad with buttermilk dressing, celery, and sprouts and your choice of goat cheese raviolis with wild nettle pesto, rigatoni with organic turkey bolognese, or spaghetti with marinara and pork meatballs. I almost went with the goat cheese raviolis. They did look good at a nearby table.

But instead, I ordered the roasted chicken. The menu description says “Benton’s smoked ham, black trumpet mushrooms, grilled ramps, smoked olive oil”. So I’m thinking it is perhaps a half skin-on roasted chicken with mushrooms and ramps. Uh, no. I asked if the skin was crispy and our server said “well….not really. But I can request that for you”. Bad idea. The chicken was boneless breasts stuffed with the mushrooms and ham served over a huge plate of polenta and turnip greens. WTF? The beige skin on the chicken was mushy….the farthest thing from crispy imaginable.

The overwhelming issue at Shaun’s is the misrepresentation of dishes on the menu. Or rather, unclear descriptions, substitutions, and missing ingredients. There’s just no excuse, really. Shouldn’t the chicken dish be described as “stuffed chicken breast with polenta and turnip greens”? Even the ramps were missing, but delivered in a side dish. They were scallions.

LG’s burger was ordinary. With Doty’s Yeah! Burger opening any day one would think the burger here would be kickass. Not so much. It was a thick hunk of meat on an ordinary bun with ordinary cheese. Even the promise of duck-fat fries fell flat. I can name lots of trendy restaurants with better fries, regardless of the type of fat they are fried in. I’m not looking forward to reviewing his new burger joint which is on my roster for an upcoming issue of Atlanta’s Finest Dining.

What’s good about Shaun’s? Doty is a trend-setter with his gluten-free dinners and an early supporter of Slow Food and Georgia Organics. That’s about it.

The service wasn’t bad. The food wasn’t bad. It’s just consistently mediocre.