Monday, March 26, 2007

DUSTY'S BARBECUE

He says:
“I think this is the wrong place,” said Uptown Girl.

A good friend of mine had popped into town, and when he mentioned he loved barbeque, Uptown Girl and I sprang into action. We researched the best BBQ joints in Atlanta, found Creative Loafing’s top pick for 2006, and drove over to Daddy D’z for the best ribs the South had to offer.

Unfortunately, there was a mix-up.

The bright yellow sign in the parking lot said “Dusty’s Barbecue.” And the menu, from which we had just ordered several platters, also said “Dusty’s Barbecue.” Somehow, in our rush and ravenous hunger, we had ended up in the wrong restaurant on the wrong side of town. “Who knows?” my friend said. ‘Maybe it’s better than Daddy D’z.” Alas, we were not so fortunate.

The Brunswick Stew that kicked off dinner tasted like the over-sweetened tomato base of Spaghetti-O’s. The Baby Back Ribs were dry and tiny; it was like chewing on twigs. They weren’t covered in BBQ sauce either; you had to squeeze your own from a squirt bottle supplied on the table. The pulled pork wasn’t bad, though only following a generous dollop of BBQ sauce to give it some kick.

To be fair, Dusty’s is not trying to surprise you. It is what it is—a little barbecue shack at a big intersection. It has low prices, a friendly staff, and a red checkered tablecloth at every table. The food isn’t very good, but that’s probably not a surprise either.



Dusty’s Barbeque
1815 Briarcliff Road, Atlanta, GA 30329
http://www.dustys.com/

DADDY D'Z BARBECUE JOINT

He says:
After a subpar dinner at the wrong barbeque joint (see “Dusty’s Barbecue” review) I still had a hankerin’ for some quality ribs. Although Uptown Girl and my friend were both quite full, I made the executive decision to seek out Daddy D’z Barbecue for Dinner #2. We were on a mission for excellent barbecue that night and I’d be damned if we didn’t find some.

We drove across town, passing some of the sketchiest shopping-cart-strewn neighborhoods in Atlanta until we reached the corner of Memorial and Hill. Daddy D’z looked like a depressing roadside bar from the outside. The inside wasn’t much better. The uncomfortable booth seats, rickety tables, and mismatched chairs look like they belonged to five different diners blown apart in a tornado and inexplicably reassembled in East Atlanta. And what, exactly, is that abandoned flower garden doing in the dining area?

Even if Daddy D’z décor makes you scratch your head, it’s kitchen will blow your mind. If you love meat, this is the place to be. Their menu features ribs, pulled pork, chopped pork, pork chops, half chicken, quarter chicken, chicken tenders, hickory wings, shrimp and fries, chopped beef, and more, all in every portion size and combination imaginable. In contrast to Dusty’s, the ribs at Daddy D’z are huge, tender, and slathered in a rich, smoky barbecue sauce. I gnawed them down to the bone. And the pulled pork sandwich that followed may have been even better. The pork had been smoked to perfection, the tangy sauce wondrously complementing the awesome richness of the molten fat. My barbecue-loving friend, full as he was, took one bite and groaned from pleasure. Is there any better endorsement than that?

Daddy D’z is an ugly restaurant in an ugly part of town, but who cares? It’s barbecue nirvana.



Daddy D’z Barbecue Joint
264 Memorial Drive, Atlanta, GA 30312
http://daddydz.com/

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

VINOCITY






















He says:
When a swanky restaurant like Vinocity is practically empty on a Saturday evening, the red flags usually go up. And when your waitress voluntarily tells you the owners are moving the restaurant to Kirkwood in April and changing the mood from “hi-end Midtown” to “suburban casual,” that’s a pretty good sign to head for the exits. But sometimes looks can be deceiving.

I’m not surprised that Vinocity hasn’t found its niche in Atlanta. It is a stone’s throw from several other prominent high-brow eateries at 12th and Crescent, and yet Vinocity is unhappily situated between two municipal parking lots and a row of abandoned townhouses. The restaurant itself occupies a former two-story residence. The first floor is an “upscale” lounge playing NCAA basketball behind the bar. The dining room is on the second floor, a modest space with dark blue walls, dim lighting, and Frou Frou on the stereo.

She says:
Things seemed a little off that night. Maybe it was the emptiness, maybe the fact that we had three different servers over the course of the meal, none of whom seemed to be aware of the others. Anyway, I think the move to Kirkwood is just what the doctor ordered; losing some of the pretension and concentrating on good wine and food is a smart idea.

Vinocity’s wine list is both manageable and appealing. I tried the “Magnificent Wine Co.” red house blend, which was a decent sipping wine, but nothing spectacular.

For dinner I decided to go with the soup of the day and a few small plates. I wasn’t impressed with the cream of asparagus soup—it didn’t taste particularly asparagus-y. The small plates were pretty good, though. My favorite was a fried egg roll packed with duck confit and served with a sweet “Thai” chili sauce. The sauce overwhelmed the dish a bit, or maybe the duck confit was underwhelming? (Although it’s hard to believe that meat cooked and preserved in fat could be bland.) The second small plate was the Ahi tuna tartar, raw cubes of tuna tinged with a light teriyaki sauce served with crisped wontons and drizzled with wasabi crème fraiche. The dish was creative, but what stood out is the fact that I have never seen so much raw tuna on one plate in my entire life. I’m not sure that the $14 they charged was even sufficient to cover the cost of the tuna piled on my plate. I love tuna, but as Downtown Boy and I obligingly ate the last few raw cubes, I was wishing for a $7 version of this plate.




He says:
I was more than pleasantly surprised by my main entrée. I’ve been burnt by so many bad entrées in Atlanta that I’ve begun to treat appetizers as the apex of the meal. But the pork shank that arrived on a bed of risotto must be seen to be believed. It was the size of a football with the bone sticking out of both ends, like the Platonic ideal of Meat itself. Taking my first bite, I suddenly felt like Fred Flintstone, gnawing on the femur of a mastodon. And yet there was nothing silly about this dish – this was a serious hunk of pig prepared by a serious cook. The pork had been slow braised to perfection, and it fell right off the bone with a touch of the fork. It was rare and gamy and perfect. The accompanying broth added a nice zing and offset the risotto, which was a tad creamy for my taste. Still, neither distracted too much from that pork shank, a truly remarkable beast that just may have set the standard for all pork shanks to follow.

We say:
On the whole, Vinocity is average among upscale restaurants. The prices are rather high, the setting is less than optimal, and the service is, well, weird. Hopefully this will all change once it moves to Kirkwood. However, one thing that should not change is the pork shank. It is exactly where it should be.

He says:



She says:




VINOCITY
36 13th Street, Atlanta, GA 30309
http://www.vinocitywinebar.com/

Monday, March 12, 2007

WEST EGG CAFE

















She says:

One thing that Atlanta does really well is brunch. This weekend we had the pleasure of adding West Egg Café to our growing list of favorite breakfast spots. The café makes the most of a dynamic, warehouse-like space near Georgia Tech in the west end of the city. In the back half of West Egg, you have the option of sitting on a comfy, old couch to sip your coffee and browse the internet using their wireless connection. Or you can enjoy brunch with your friends in the main café/bakery or the converted garage, with sun streaming in and a warm breeze blowing through the raised door.

He says:
It really is a pleasant space, with a bright blue ceiling, amateur animal paintings covering the walls, and an ethnically diverse crowd of 20 and 30-somethings. The food matches the atmosphere well. I started off with the Eggs Benedict on Salmon Cakes, a variation of Norwegian Eggs Benedict. The eggs were perfectly poached and the salmon cakes – salmon chunks mixed with red onion, rosemary, and other herbs – were quite intense. Perhaps even a bit too intense, since the salmon overwhelmed the hollandaise sauce. Still, the dish gets points for originality. The grits were wondrously creamy, as good as the grits at Flying Biscuit. And the biscuits & gravy I ordered as a side were delicious. The biscuits themselves are nothing out of the ordinary, but that white sausage gravy … damn!

She says:
I tried one of the brunch specials… banana bread French toast, which really is made from banana bread. Topped with a yummy caramel sauce and fresh banana slices, it tasted great, but was far too dense and sweet to finish. I ate two-thirds of my French toast and still wasn’t very hungry until 8pm that night.




He says:
I actually loved her French toast; the density and texture of the banana bread made it better than most French toasts I’ve had. It was rather sweet though …

She says:
The drip coffee was only so-so. The cupcakes, on the other hand… whatever you do, don’t leave West Egg Café without a cupcake!

He says:
Very true. The cupcakes are moist and the frosting is velvety. They come in several flavors too; my favorite is carrot cake.

We say:
Everyone should have a West Egg Café in their neighborhood.




WEST EGG CAFE
1168-A Howell Mill Road, Atlanta, GA 30318
http://www.westeggcafe.com/

Sunday, March 11, 2007

MARY MAC'S TEA ROOM






















He says:

There are few restaurants in Atlanta as famous as Mary Mac's. Ever since it opened in 1945, Mary Mac's Tea Room has maintained the décor, cooking, and traditions of the Old South, and for this reason it has become a destination for both native Atlantans and tourists alike. On any given night you can walk down Ponce De Leon and see middle-aged folk in Hawaiian shirts happily pouring out of a Greyhound bus for some good ole' meat and three.

Boy, are they in for a surprise!

The reason Uptown Girl and I visited this past fall is the same reason everyone goes to Mary Mac's: for real southern cooking. None of this "New South" or "fusion" cuisine with grits sculpted into a skyscraper and topped with portabella mushrooms--we wanted the real deal. Plus, Uptown Girl's parents were in town for the weekend and they were shocked to learn we hadn't tasted fried green tomatoes or collard greens from a proper restaurant yet. So off we went to satisfy our collective curiosity and appetite.

She says:
Wow. After eating at Mary Mac's, fried has taken on a whole new meaning for me. We ordered the "Southern Special" family style dinner (3 entrees, 3 sides, 3 desserts), and out came platter after deep-fried platter--fried chicken, fried okra, fried green tomatoes--all mediocre and pretty much indistinguishable from one another other. The one non-fried thing I remember was the mac 'n cheese, the worst over-cooked pasta and curdled cheese mixture I have ever tasted.

There were a few more dishes which I can't recall right now. Why, you ask? Because after vomiting all of that fried food back up early the following morning, I've tried to erase the entire experience from memory. I won't go so far as to say Mary Mac's poisoned me. I just think that after years of eating a pretty healthy diet, my stomach just couldn't handle all that grease.

He says:
I totally agree with Uptown Girl's assessment. Normally I like greasy food. I'm the guy who buys a bucket of chicken at KFC and leaves nothing but bones. And yet even I couldn't stomach Mary Mac's "food."

Besides the inedible mac 'n cheese, the roast turkey entrée came straight out of the Swanson's TV dinner playbook--thick, goopy, and tasteless. The meatloaf was moist but bland. The fried chicken was the only acceptable dish in my opinion, and even then the exterior was seriously over-crisped, the meat dry and stringy.

As for the desserts, Mary Mac's managed to botch those too. The word "cloying" doesn't do justice to the saccharine-blast that is the Banana Pudding. And the peaches on the Georgia Peach Cobbler may have been Georgian at one point, but they were clearly from a can.

We say:
"New Southern" has erupted across Atlanta for a reason. We'll take a skyscraper of grits or lightly sautéed green tomatoes with a dollop of goat cheese over Mary Mac's deep-fried platters any day of the week. This is one Atlanta institution you definitely have permission to skip.



MARY MAC'S TEA ROOM
224 Ponce de Leon Ave, Atlanta, GA 30308
http://www.marymacs.com/

Saturday, March 3, 2007

VORTEX at Little Five Points


He says:
What can I say about Vortex that hasn't already been said? This Little Five Points burger joint is a true Atlanta institution. For some reason I end up there every few weeks, sometimes on a lazy Wednesday afternoon, other times during the Friday dinner rush, and my experience is always the same: I get a fantastic burger and a bottomless glass of Coke served by a waitress dressed for an S&M party. With food this good, the wait staff can dress however they want.

The Vortex's aesthetic can best be described as Hells Angels meets the NYC subway system circa 1976. It's a grungy warren of tables set so close together you'll bump elbows with a tattooed neighbor several times over the course of your meal. Trust me, he won't mind; it's a casual place.

She says:
So true. The last time we were there, a guy in a leather vest came around with invitations to the Clairmont Lounge to celebrate his tattoo parlor's anniversary. This kind of wackiness makes Vortex a fun place to bring out-of-town visitors. They have a great selection of beers, including local brews like my new favorite, Sweet Georgia Brown. With the memory of walking in through a giant glowing skull, reading the no-nonsense rules on the front of the menu (such as no whining, no idiots or jerks allowed, and "tip or die"), your friends won't soon forget this place.

He says:
For starters you can go for the onion rings or fries, but I would recommend the tator tots. They're the best I've ever had -- perfectly crunchy on the outside, delicate in the middle, and infinitely superior to those sorry dregs I ate back in public school. The chili and Caesar salad aren't bad either. The Vortex has so many hamburger choices on their menu that it's hard to know where to start. Do you keep it simple and go for the straight-forward Original Burger? Or do you order the Black and Blue (a burger blackened with Cajun spices and blue cheese)? It doesn't matter. I've tried enough of them at this point to know they're all awesome. The Chili Cheeseburger is a delicious mess that will have you licking beef fat and turkey chili off your fingers. The Coronary Bypass (fried egg, American cheese, bacon) will give you a heart attack, but only after you've gone to burger heaven.

She says:
And if beef isn't your thing (definitely not mine), substitute it with a turkey, veggie, or black-bean patty, grilled chicken breast, or even an ostrich burger. I always opt for the veggie burger, as they're better than most. I just wish Vortex served milkshakes. But I swear I'm not whining.

We say:
There are better burgers in America, but none as good in Atlanta.



VORTEX
438 Moreland Avenue, Atlanta, GA 30307
http://www.thevortexbarandgrill.com/TheVortex/index.htm

MA LI

She says:
Our party of three showed up without reservations at MaLi, a cozy Thai restaurant/sushi bar in the Highlands. It was 8pm on a Saturday, and although the place was packed the hostess managed to seat us right away. Such service! A round of sweet Thai iced-teas took the edge off our hunger as we pondered the authenticity of ethnic food in the U.S. (Our fellow foodie friend had recently visited Bangkok and claimed that American Thai is just like the real thing; this quelled my doubts about MaLi's odd absence of Asian customers.)

The Moo Shu appetizer that started things off was incredibly tasty--fresh steamed rice rolls stuffed with chicken, shrimp, and vegetables and complimented by a tangy "homemade" sauce. The chicken satay starter featured perfectly cooked strips of chicken, tender on the inside and practically sizzling from the grill. However, the three of us had differing opinions on the two chicken curry entrees. I found the Masaman chicken too sweet for my taste, although I loved the chunks of ripe avocado that were mixed into the dish. My preference was for the subtle spiciness of the Panang chicken (a red coconut-based curry with basil).

He says:
The chicken in both of the curries was disappointing in my opinion. It appears the kitchen sears their chicken breasts ahead of time and only adds it to the curry as a last step. This is problematic. Unlike the fresh-cooked chicken satay, which was outrageously tender, nearly all the curry chicken pieces were dry and overcooked. Additionally the thickness of the meat did not allow it to soak up any juices when finally added to the curry base. Such is the price of expediency. I found the Panang curry itself quite good, with greater intensity and complexity than the Masaman.

She says:
What we all agreed upon was that the Pad Kee Mao (rice noodles stir-fried with chicken, vegetables, and hot pepper) was totally delish--think comfort food with a kick. And the entrees were plentiful ... even with Downtown Boy around we still had lots of leftovers.

We say:
MaLi is a restaurant that seems to concentrate on its food first and foremost (a great quality in a restaurant!), but doesn't lack in ambiance or service. Although we've had better Thai elsewhere, it's a great date spot with reasonable prices, and we look forward to spending a future spring evening on MaLi's patio, sipping Thai iced-tea and chowing down on Pad Kee Mao.




MA LI
961 Amsterdam Ave, Atlanta, GA 30306
http://www.geocities.com/themali2001/