Hot Dish Review

Few restaurants, other than those in hotels, serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner. That degree of service seems daunting if not a tad overly ambitious. Some restaurants, like Serpas for instance, add brunch after a successful year of dinner service.

Not so for Hugh Acheson of Empire State South. Having gained notoriety in Athens for his farm fresh menus at Five and Ten and The National, his much anticipated Atlanta debut kicked off with three squares a day. I joined BB there for lunch on Friday to discuss his upcoming project and share a bit of industry gossip.

Located on the ground floor of the 999 Peachtree building, the space includes a quaint courtyard with bocce ball. Inside, the space is painted a deep shade of blue with wood floors, accented with brown leather banquettes and rustic country-style light fixtures….modern Southern, like the food.

I wasn’t planning to drink at lunch but very little arm-twisting was required before I was inquiring about the character of each red wine offered by the glass. We settled on a glass of the Branham cab and another of the Le Paradou grenache/syrah blend.

A little jar of pork rillette was a good match with the wine, however I found the toast too greasy. All three of the people seated at the table adjacent to ours had ordered “Super-food”, a silly name for a weird combination of hanger steak, beets, pistachios, wheatberries with feta, roasted Winter squash, mixed local beans and peas, and dressed radishes, all served on a bed of local lettuces. My bet was that BB would follow suit.

Initially he was leaning toward the arugula salad but in the end, I won the bet. Predictably, I ordered the crisp duck leg confit under the heading “Meat and Three”. Next to the heading the menu directs diners to pick two sides and a daily bread. The sides of the day were not thrilling. I was hoping for some preparation of sweet potatoes or Brussels sprouts but none were offered. I chose the collards with ham hock and wheatberries with feta-cranberry.

My duck confit and sides arrived with an enormous slab of Texas toast. I had neglected to choose a “daily bread” because there wasn’t a list of breads on the menu, but I assure you I wouldn’t have chosen this one, so dense it was closer to pound cake than bread.

I was quite pleased with my duck leg, its exceedingly tender meat falling off the bone beneath the mostly crispy skin. I love the toothsome quality of wheatberries. These were served warm, dotted with semi-sweet cranberries. Feta was MIA on my plate, but BB’s wheatberries were topped with a good bit of it.

Then there were the collards, perhaps the best I’ve ever had. Having grown up in the South, that is quite a statement. Rich with chunks of ham, there was a subtle smokiness and a distinct tang of vinegar. Just damn perfect.

BB enjoyed his hanger steak, cooked medium, and the accompanying beets in particular. The steak was nice but my favorite thing on his plate were the dressed watermelon radishes, much like the paper-thin sliced assortment at Miller Union.

Other meats on offer were an airline chicken breast, grilled pork loin, and a pan roasted Carolina trout. Fingerling potatoes, field peas with rice and fennel-apple slaw rounded out the selection of sides.

We ordered two more glasses of wine, intentially confusing which was which, sipping each in turn. I requested a dessert menu, despite seeing an unappetizing slice of red velvet cake on a table nearby. You may already know how I feel about cake so suffice it to say I would not order anything who’s flavor is a color. Sure, red velvet cake is as Southern as fried pie but one would think Acheson’s love of natural and organic produce might discourage his pastry chef Chris Marconi from putting a dessert on the menu that relies on unnatural food coloring. Other sweets included bourbon pecan pie and a buttermilk chess tart that might have been good if we had more time.

Empire State South joins Atlanta’s new breed of restaurants who’s menus evolve with the seasons. If you like that trend, you’re gonna like ESS.

The Dinner Party Atlanta guys never fail to surprise, with their ingenius locations and young culinary talents coming together to create a dining experience unique to our city. In one evening they turn a bare space, warehouse, or penthouse, into the most desired of destinations, a clandestine event only twenty to thirty lucky folks are invited to attend. Imagine opening a restaurant in just one day. That’s what Darren, Patrick, and their kickass staff do almost every other week!

Last Friday was my third Dinner Party event, this one in the partners’ potential new restaurant space, with their new chef, Julia LeRoy, preparing the five course meal. Very appropriate considering my dining companion was BB, another restaurateur on the verge of opening his place in Brookhaven. Two tables draped in white ran the length of the spacious patio. The weather was absolutely perfect for dining al fresco.

Shane Devereux of Top Flr and Sound Table is often the chef of such affairs, but he was out of town, giving the guys the perfect opportunity to showcase LeRoy’s skills.

After a minor snafu with cocktails, service was flawless the rest of the evening.

Her approach is simple and seasonal, with a focus on home-grown produce and humanely raised animals. Our first course was a chicken rillette, served in a little Mason jar and topped with a pickled vegetable and cilantro salad. Much less fatty than most rillettes, it was a solid starter. Only issue….rillette is generally served with bread. A rustic piece toast on which to spread the rillette would have elevated it to a ten.

John Dirga did a brilliant job with the wine pairings, his first not a wine at all but a sparkling ale, Cooper’s from Adelaide, Australia. A perfect match with the vinegary punch of the pickles.

A salad of watercress and baby radish was dressed with a buttermilk dressing featuring small chunks of a creamy feta made locally by Decimal Place Farm, perhaps even from the very goat that LeRoy milked a few months ago! A refreshing sauvignon blanc complimented the simple greens.

Butternut squash bisque displayed a vibrant flavor and color, unadorned except for a drizzle of olive oil. Dirga chose a crisp, light albarino from Spain. I think the squash could have stood up to a red, maybe a pinot noir? Truth is, I was tiring of whites, to hell with pairing.

Leroy’s main course was an outrageously juicy roasted pork tenderloin. The meat’s pinkish color was mirrored in the accompanying stewed pink eyed peas. Roasted baby turnips and braising greens provided a slightly bitter contrast. A cab franc from the Loire Valley in France was less dry than I expected, having been decanted prior to service. Lovely.

An Alsatian gewurtztraminer set the stage for a creative dessert, highlighting a variety of textures and temperatures. LeRoy prepared a homey blueberry Betty, topped with toasted bread crumbs and bits of chewy crystallized ginger, then a dollop of pear sorbet that was pure fruit.

Everyone chatted, exchanging cards and laughs. You never know who you might meet and what kind of business deals can be struck at a Dinner Party!

After yet another visit, this time with a semi-rowdy group of friends actually seated in the dining room, I had to bump my neighborhood Tex-Mex fave El Taco and seedy yet surprisingly healthy Tex-Mex fave El Myr to give Abattoir a spot. Neither seriously deserved spots in the Top Ten, but I so love Mexican food, I just wanted it represented. (lame, right?)

We snacked on chicharrones and the lovely, fatty rabbit rillette (photo above). Crispy bread with real sweet butter and a bottle or two of a deep and spicy malbec (only $36!) set the stage for a hearty meal.

This time I tried the duck breast with cabbage and pear slaw. Served sliced thin and medium rare, the side didn’t have enough sweet to adequately compliment the meat. One friend had the tender and tasty short ribs with sweet potatoes. The rest is all a meaty blur, although no one had anything offal. (did I mention my friends are pussies?)

But it was the dessert that really did it for me. The new hazelnut meringue with coffee ice cream and chocolate sauce stole the show, all of us digging in with spoons clanking against the huge bowl….I can only imagine the scene as a bit frightening for on-lookers! It was chewy, creamy, light, and rich all at once. We also ordered the not-so-special chocolate creme cookie with ice milk and the always amazing maple bacon beignets.