Hot Dish Review

It’s hard to believe I haven’t reviewed Bluepointe until now. The restaurant is an Atlanta staple and the scene of so many memorable (and crazy!) evenings. Like crashing (former) Dallas Maverick’s Steve Nash’s private birthday bash upstairs and my own private birthday bash several years later, complete with champagne and lobster.

As I’ve said in a recent post, I’m a sucker for tradition. Or perhaps I’m merely a creature of habit. I always get the lobster at Bluepointe. In my many visits I have tried practically every dish until I discovered the lobster. Since then, I’ve been loyal to the 2lb. shellfish in curry.

The peanut crusted grouper is awesome and so are the scallops. The calamari appetizer used to be very spicy and amazing but it has become increasingly boring over the years with the predominant flavor being soy.

And ever since me and AD attended a Veuve party at Bluepointe I can’t seem to order anything else to drink there. Many bottles have been consumed since then.

My visit to Bluepointe last night was an exercise in irony. Or deja vu. I was wearing the blue dress, the same one I wore to my birthday dinner. I had champagne and lobster. And I was with LC….just a different one.

Seated at one of the more intimate tables near the bar where me and AD used to sit, LC was somewhat intoxicated and rather ravenous. I asked for a dish of the rice crackers they used to have at the bar but was disheartened to learn they no longer serve them. I would have dumped the snacks in my purse just for old time’s sake!

We started off with edamame and ordered two more appetizers to share. Wanting to try something different I chose the calamari salad. Although it has been many years, I always associate fried calamari on greens with one of my favorite neighborhood restaurants in New York called OG (Oriental Grill). Theirs was a perfectly assembled dish of impeccable field greens, fried calamari, and a slightly sweet Asian dressing.

I was impressed with Bluepointe’s version, with tempura calamari, arugula, sweet mango, crispy apple, cashews, and razor thin radish slices, lightly dressed with a subtly sweet Asian vinaigrette. A perfectly balanced composition, both in flavor and texture.

LC wanted to try the short rib wontons in umami broth. Umami is the culinary buzzword de jour, loosely translated as indescribable deliciousness. The Japanese are so cerebral. Three wontons filled with beef swam in a brown broth. Sorry, no umami, just a fistfull of salt in the overwhelmingly soy based broth. More champagne.

We had much better luck with the dependably delicious curry lobster. Served with baby asparagus, bok choy and Asian long beans in a slightly spicy yellow curry, it was as succulent as ever. The enormous lobster makes two generous entree portions. As a side, LC couldn’t resist the corn mash, yellow corn with lots of butter, which turned out to be his favorite dish of the evening.

For dessert I went back to my usual chai creme brulee. Not a fan of lemon sorbet I asked to substitute the orange sorbet which came out in a fun cube shape. The candied ginger on top of the crispy sugar really makes it special. We scarfed it down, along with another glass of champagne.

Now we were ready to dance!

After our enlightening educational tour of the winery with Bill, B and I chose to be seated on the beautiful deck outside at the restaurant, LeVigne, just next door to the tasting room. Views of the vineyard provided a stunning backdrop for our meal.

Chef Steven Hartman creates a special Sunday Supper menu each week. The restaurant serves lunch and its regular menu the rest of the week. On our visit the menu was a collection of small plates, ranging in price from $7 to $14.

Me and B are city chicks. We get the small plate concept. But this place is in Dahlonega. I don’t know if most diners here understand that a menu item described as short ribs at $14 isn’t a substantial entree. Maybe I’m just not giving them enough credit. Or perhaps Chef Steven Hartman is a touch out of his element here.

For a Sunday evening, the restaurant was far from packed, but there were quite a few tables occupied, especially outside.

We continued with more of the wine we had tried during the tasting, the Tormaresca from Italy, and proceeded to order two of the smaller plates to start. B was determined to try the Columbia River salmon tartar with chicharones, Meyer lemon, and red ribbon sorrel. Fancy sounding but when it came out B was perplexed about the sprinkling of crunchy stuff on top of the raw chopped salmon. It was the chicharones. They had no flavor but did provide textural interest. The dish was heavy on lemon for me, but I am not a salmon lover anyway.

Pea soup was a vibrant green matching the lush landscape of the vineyard. It’s flavor was unfortunately mediocre, the worst part being the mitake mushrooms on top. Seems like someone forgot to reconstitute these. Have you ever eaten dried mushrooms? I have. Difference is, these have no hallucinogenic effects. Too bad!

Chef Hartman does have my favorite, foie gras, on the menu but it is unfortunately prepared au torchon so I didn’t even go there. Instead we opted for the scallop, the Painted Hills beef short ribs, and the moulard duck breast.

The short rib was the most substantial of the trio. It’s hard to fuck up short ribs but I didn’t like the sauce on this dish and it was seriously salty. The sunchoke puree, asparagus, and morel mushrooms did little to balance it out. B really liked the scallop. I let her have most of it as it too was drowned in salt. The presentation was certainly beautiful, though, with its artichoke puree, bright radishes, and rainbow trout roe to garnish (maybe the roe added the extra saltiness?).

Cooked medium and served atop creamed leeks, fiddlehead ferns, and orange confit, the duck was my favorite dish of the three. Personally I wouldn’t pair citrus with duck but rather a sweeter fruit. What I really liked was the restraint used with the salt shaker.

After the cheese and charcuterie at the wine tasting followed by the five small plates, we still had enough room for a little dessert. We ordered the pear frangipane tart and the blueberry clafoutis. Both servings were huge compared to the savory dishes.

Served warm with vanilla ice cream, the rustic pear tart was absolutely delicious! I got turned on to clafoutis at Trader Joe’s. Somewhere between a custard and a cake, with fruit, they have a frozen cherry one that you bake at home. Although three times the size of the Trader Joe’s dessert, LeVigne’s version was fantastic, topped with sauce Romanoff and some whipped cream.

The two desserts turned out to be the best dishes of the meal. I needed the sugar-high to counteract the sleepy effects of a whole day of wine so I could find my way out of the Montaluce maze. And it was dark too. They don’t believe in street lights in small towns.

With B’s navigational assistance we made it back to GA400 and back to the city!

It has been a while since I’ve dined at Serpas, so I was thrilled to get a chance to go with AD, on her last night in Atlanta, accompanied by her injured dude NC.

The restaurant was packed at 8:45 on a Friday night. Modern industrial chic describes the space, with a huge mural of cotton on one wall, exposed brick on another, all cozied up with soft lighting. Chef Serpas can be seen expediting orders and chatting with customers in a non-frenzied manner.

Tuna is not my thing. However, AD loves it. Contrary to all logic, I love it at Serpas too, having tried it at the media dinner. Diced ahi, green apple, and onion are dressed with a chile sesame dressing, the perfect marriage of sweet and spicy, served with huge homemade potato chips, and a big serving of gratuitous cleavage.

A bottle of cava was well-priced so we started off with a sparkling toast to AD’s upcoming worldwide travel adventure. I will be meeting her, perhaps in Chile, so we decided to follow up the cava with a bottle of pinot noir from Cono Sur.

We also agreed on the crispy duck rolls. I’ve had them on every visit and always love them, filled with rich and flavorful pulled duck, each piece resting in a sweet and spicy chili syrup. I wish we could have had the eggplant hushpuppies and Scott’s signature oysters too, but I had to save room for the house salad and entrees, who’s descriptions define comfort food.

Chef Serpas has a knack for sauces and dressings. The Serpas house salad is a perfect example, just simple fresh field greens, candied pecans, and goat cheese, dressed with a blistered grape vinaigrette….a little sweet, a little tangy, just plain awesome!

Although chef Serpas is from Louisiana, he includes a few Asian inspired dishes, like the duck spring rolls, that are extremely successful. I’ve had the jumbo sea scallops served with bok choy on a perfectly executed panang curry.

On this visit the three of us decided to split two entrees. The duck breast, stuffed with Andouille sausage was served with an “open faced vegetable relleno”. I’m still confused about that, but I can tell you it was made with Brussels sprout leaves, chilis, mushrooms, and raisins. All sat upon a slightly sweet and savory sauce that complimented the crispy skinned duck and vegetables.

The short ribs with pappardelle reminded me and AD of the amazing dish we used to get at The Globe (R.I.P), but its presentation was entirely different. The beef was not pulled but served as a chunk atop the large paste squares with a scrumptious sauce with roasted shallots, asparagus, and sunchokes. The meat was so tender it easily fell apart as we dug in with forks, making “yum” sounds as we cleaned both plates.

Bread pudding you say? Hell yeah! I like mine not drenched in sugary sauce so I requested the bourbon cream sauce on the side. Not too sweet….just right!

I just love Serpas. Scott Serpas is a genuinely nice guy and, in my opinion, ranks among the top five chefs in Atlanta (possibly even the best?). There’s no pretense with the food, the chef, or the location. Perhaps it’s his play on sweet and spice that I love so much. Or his masterful sauces and dressings. It certainly lives up to his “True Food” name.

659 Auburn Avenue at Studioplex 404-688-0040