BACCHANALIA

Original Post: May 2007

He says:
Ever since coming to Atlanta, Uptown Girl and I have been in search of a truly excellent restaurant. We’ve been to beautiful bistros with awful entrees and ugly diners with wonderful comfort food, but we still had not found that one place that could execute a creative, elegant dining experience from start to finish.

Enter Bacchanalia.

We’d heard about this restaurant from several sources, like Atlanta magazine and Citysearch, where it perennially tops the fine dining lists. But the label “Best restaurant in Atlanta” is thrown around far too loosely these days, and we’ve been burned one too many times to trust such sources. My parents were visiting Atlanta for the first time, however, so I figured we might as well give Bacchanalia a shot. I’m glad we did.

She says:
I will say up front that Bacchanalia is fabulous. The food (which we will get to in a moment) is clearly the star of this culinary show, with the setting and service merely there to highlight it. The restaurant is elegant and unimposing, with one window-filled wall providing a direct view into the bright and bustling kitchen. The wait staff, dressed in white tunics and black pants, appears purely utilitarian, almost stoic, and delivers impeccable service.

Of course, when we set out to Bacchanalia, we didn’t know quite what we were getting into. In other words, we weren’t expecting the $72/person prix fixe menu (sans wine). Fortunately, with a party of four ordering a different dish at each of the four courses, I can confidently say that we tasted much of what Bacchanalia has to offer.

Or should I say had to offer, considering that the menu changes frequently. Bacchanalia’s menu is comprised completely of seasonal, organic ingredients, much of which actually comes from the farm of chef duo Anne Quatrano and Clifford Harrison.

He says:
The quality of Bacchanalia’s ingredients came through right away in the appetizers. The pickled wild ramp risotto was creamy and indulgent, the Gulf white shrimp particularly savory. And the gulf crab fritter was marvelous, by far the finest crab cake I have ever tasted. The exterior is flash-fried so that it yields with a touch of the fork, and the shredded crab within is so fresh it actually reminded me of the open ocean.

She says:
I agree… the crab fritter was possibly the best dish of the entire meal. Unlike many other crab cakes, there is little filler to drown out the crab meat. It has a Thai pepper “essence” that makes it slightly sweet, slightly spicy, and completely delicious. My least favorite appetizer was the California snails… they seemed bland in comparison to the vivid flavors of the other appetizers.

For the main course, Downtown Boy’s mom and I avoided the red meat and shared the Florida black grouper and cured duck breast. The grouper was the best of all our entrees. It was cooked to perfection… the delicate white meat seared just enough to leave the outside slightly crispy. The accompanying artichokes, rainbow chard, and fennel were so tasty that I saved them for my last bite. The duck breast was also good, but again, the accompaniments (wild onions, morel mushrooms, and ramp broth) really brought the flavor. It goes to show that using local, seasonal ingredients makes a huge difference.

He says:
The pan-roasted lamb loin I ordered was tender but a bit too polite for my taste. Red meat should be unruly and bloody, and Bacchanalia’s pretty, slender medallions were not at the same level as that excellent black grouper. The same went for the prime tenderloin; it was tame when it should have been adventurous. Additionally, the roasted marrow served with it was a flavorless spoonful of melted fat, which left us all rather puzzled. All this said, both my father and I cleaned our plates.

She says:
While I didn’t taste the lamb or tenderloin, I think one of Bacchanalia’s strengths is the subtle complexities of its dishes. This does not translate into the “unruly and bloody” meat you might find at a steakhouse, but rather the quiet undertones of garlic and onion imparted to duck by ramp broth.

Next we moved to the “cheese and contrast” course. I wish this course were always a part of meals! The fresh goat’s milk cheese came with local beets in a variety of styles: roasted, macerated, raw, and most creatively, sorbet. Who knew that beets could be so interesting? The soft and mild Stracchino came with strawberries and balsamic vinegar, and could have been a dessert by itself. My favorite was the Parmigiano-Reggiano and Medjool date pairing. The dates were meaty and sweet, a perfect contrast to the salty parmesan.

He says:
And the Manchego and white anchovies were a phenomenal pairing, the smoothness of the former mitigating the intense saltiness of the latter. The cheese platters matched the appetizers in their execution and surpassed them for their innovation.

She says:
And then dessert. Ahhh… I had the warm Valrhona chocolate cake, which is pure chocolate decadence. Molten chocolate cake is a great dessert for restaurants to serve, as it seems impressively difficult and is deliciously rich. However, knowing how simple it is to make (and easily improved by using high quality chocolate) I wouldn’t give this one my top vote (although I will pick up their pairing of mint ice cream). In terms of pure deliciousness, the winner was the banana cream pie. It was neither heavy nor overly sweet, with a fairly dominant banana flavor. And the cornmeal crust was of perfect consistency… similar to the crumbliness of a graham-cracker crust, but less sweet and buttery. My least favorite was Downtown Boy’s dessert.

He says:
Hey, I really liked my orange creamsicle panna cotta! Perhaps you need to be a true popsicle fan to enjoy this novel take on a Good Humor favorite. The two-tiered egg custard had a cream bottom layer and a bright orange top… it really did taste like a creamsicle. The poached rhubarb on the side added some bite to this offbeat dessert. My father’s chipotle chocolate pecan tart was the most creative dessert of the night. The attack was sweet but the finish quite spicy as the pepper kicked in, a complex trick that left our mouths buzzing.

She says:
Of course, this wasn’t the end of the meal. Following dessert, the waiter dropped off a sampling of cookies and truffles from the pastry chef. And even as we walked out of the restaurant, the attached bakery handed us a couple of small bags of cookies for the road.

He says:
And this is on top of all the palette cleansers delivered between each course, each one better than most entrées in any other restaurant. My favorite was the asparagus soup. It was cool and refreshing, the light notes of asparagus carefully distilled and accented with a touch of crème fraiche. Delicious.

We say:
Bacchanalia is the real deal. It rises above the culinary clutter of the Atlanta restaurant scene to provide a true fine-dining experience. Until further notice, it deserves the title “Best Restaurant in Atlanta.”




Update: December 2008

She says:
Second time around for Downtown Boy and me, and it’s just as fantabulous. The appetizers are probably Bacchanalia’s strongest suit… I was dying to order the Gulf crab fritter again (still on the menu!) but instead I chose the potato gnocchi. The dish was uber creamy and delicious, the gnocchi was tender without being gummy and adorned with a pile of delicate chanterelle mushrooms.

He says:
I too was tempted by the crab fritter, but eventually decided to go for the veal sweetbreads. Served atop a bed of lentils, the gaminess of the veal liver came through in robust, unctuous notes. The sweetbreads could have been softer though, as I suspected they were slightly overcooked.

She says:
Remembering Bacchanalia’s forte for fish, we split the Gulf Red Snapper entrée and the Nantucket Bay scallops. The small bay scallops were wonderful – mildly sweet, tender, the tops seared and salty enough to perfectly compliment the sweetness. Unlike other entrees, the sides weren’t much to speak of… a few slivers of carrots didn’t add much.

As for the snapper, I was very disappointed in this dish -- it was really dry and tasted cheap. I let Downtown Boy eat most of my portion.

He says:
I didn’t have a major problem with the snapper, but I agree with Uptown Girl that this dish was unremarkable. It was prepared simply to let the fish do to the talking, but it lacked any genuine flavor. Alas, it appears Bacchanalia doesn’t do everything perfectly!

For the cheese and contrast platter, I had a wonderful pairing of pears, Point Reyes blue cheese, and candied walnuts. The marvel of this dish is that I don’t care for any of these ingredients by themselves, but when taken together the resulting combination is a playful swirl of sweet, salty, creamy, and refreshing notes. Terrific!

She says:
I went with the dates and parmigiano-reggiano, which I loved on our previous visit.

As for dessert I chose the chipotle sweet potato fried pie, which was as interesting as it sounds. Little wonton-like pastries were filled with pureed sweet potato and served with a sprinkling of spicy chipotle. I’m not sold on sweet potato as a pie filling – it wasn’t sweet enough, for one – but the pastry was wonderful, with a lightness that reminded me of a sopapilla. Mexican chocolate ice cream and toasted meringue (aka marshmallow) sat on the side, which added some of the missing sweetness from the potato.

He says:
I wanted to see what Bacchanalia could do with a pistachio pear butter tart, and they didn’t disappoint. The overwhelming “butteriness” of the crust was this dessert’s main highlight, which served to accentuate the brown sugar crumbles and the soft, fresh pears within. It’s easily one of the best tarts I’ve ever had.

We say:
While the breathtaking magic that comes with eating at Bacchanalia for the first time has ebbed somewhat, this restaurant still operates at a level that few other Atlanta eateries can match. The city’s best restaurant in 2007, it retains that crown in 2008.




Bacchanalia
1198 Howell Mill Road, Atlanta, GA 30318
http://www.starprovisions.com/