Festival Food

So what's a self-proclaimed "foodie" like me doing writing about festival food? Serioiusly, does festival "food" count as food? Isn't it just offered to absorb the booze consumed?

Well, those are good points. Here, in Atlanta, spring is upon us and with it brings an outdoor festival each weekend. We, Atlantans, love to party outdoors under the guise of appreciating arts and crafts and live folk music. And what culinary delights are offered at these weekly festivals? Well, there's no escaping the ubiquitous chicken gyro. Don't forget the corndogs. Oh, and my personal favorite: "ice cream of the future," something called Dots. Man, that's some weird stuff.

But in New Orleans, they have a different way of doing things. L, A, and I just returned from a weekend in NOLA, celebrating Jazz Fest, the outdoor festival to end all outdoor festivals. Now, the music at Jazzfest is spectacular to be sure. But the food! I think I can safely say that we go for the food. We enjoy the music, but we make the 7 1/2 hour trek for the food.

And there's so much to choose from! Leave your diet at home and sample as much as you can. This year I opted for jambalya (ok, it had the shortest line, but it's always a safe bet!), a duck confit po'boy (mmmmmm!), and crawfish monica (can't go wrong there!). Little A had some crawfish bread which is like some delicious grilled cheese only w/ crawfish in it. L had a muffaletta and God knows what else (that man can eat!) Honestly, we barely scraped the surface. I missed out on the pheasant and quail gumbo, which my friend Jen said is her favorite thing. I resolve next year to make that a priority! Cajun sushi sounds scary to me, particularly if it's been sitting in the hot Louisana sun (but I am a little curious about it!) I always plan on getting the cochon po'boy, but the long line always scares me away. Next year, I may try the catfish almondine. That looked pretty good, too. There are desserts, too. Bread pudding, anyone...

So Atlanta, step up! Next time Paul McCartney is performing in Piedmont Park, do you think you could offer some food befitting the occasion? Look to the west, maybe New Orleans can cater the event.

Livingston

As long as I've lived in Atlanta, I've been enamored with the Georgian Terrace. Such a beautiful building, gracing the corner of Peachtree and Ponce de Leon. For the longest time, it sat, not quite abandoned, but not thriving either. Certainly, not living up to its potential either. I believe it was a hotel. But, was it? It seemed....empty.

Then, about a year ago, I drove by and noticeed a steel sign on the terrace announcing "Livingston." I thought "what's that?!? Is a cool new restaurant finally opening in that gorgeous building??" I was right. I also learned that the whole building had been renovated and was now a swank hotel, with a swank new restaurant.

I've been there now four or five times. It never disappoints. I just love dropping the car off at the valet and being escorted through the revolving door by the bellmen. I love strolling through the white marble lobby, making my way to the restaurant.

My first visit to Livingston was last Mother's Day. L was working so Brad & Eric graciously offered to take A and I to brunch. It was beautiful Sunday in May. A perfect day to sit on the magnificent terrace that overlooks Peachtree. Somehow, even though the terrace sits on Peachtree and Ponce, not the most "genteel" part of the city, sitting there, one can't help but feel peaceful, relaxed and in another time. My mind wandered to a time when trolleys rang down Peachtree, when the red carpet adorned the Fox Theater and the Georgian Terrace hosted the premiere of "Gone With The Wind." When you sit on that terrace, it's like you are there.

I remember that day, too, because A was so much fun. I got dresed in a pretty blue dress which A ruined by smearing his greasy little fingers all over it. But I didn't mind. I remember him laughing and feeding me french fries. Giggling and cooing at me. Brad & Eric, who have no kids and are very proper, tried desperately to ignore the toddler love-fest.

Livingston lives up to the grandeur of its surroundings. The food is elegant. The restaurant timeless. On the bar sits a white marble bust of the restaurant's namesake, a former mayor of Atlanta who lived across the street and was known for his flamboyant lifestyle. Cocktails at the bar include ingredients like absinthe. Now that takes you back, no?

I had dinner there again last Saturday night. Luckily, the weather was perfect and we sat on the terrace. It was beautiful. Like a fairy tale.

Disney Dining

We recently took a little family vacation to Disney World. It turned out to be a really fun little trip. Somehow, this was unexpected to me. We also had some good dining experiences. Not in the parks, mind you, there you are pretty much limited to burgers, pizza, fries, ice cream (not even frozen yogurt!), and cotton candy. So, leave your diet at home.

Here's a little recap of the restaurants where we dined (all of which are located in the Swan/Dolphin resort).

Todd English's Blue Zoo

On our first night in Orlando, we had dinner plans to meet my dear friend Buzz and his lovely wife Karen and their 2 kids. I was very excited to check out Blue Zoo and Karen graciously made reservations. A & I got there first (L was on the phone). We checked out the restaurant and then made our way to the (largely empty) bar. I pulled out a stool to sit down, and planned on putting A in a stool next to me. (I wasn't entirely sure that this would work, but I thought I'd give it a shot.) Well, before I could sit down, the hostess came running over and informed me that "kids were not allowed in the bar area." Seriously? Did she understand that she was on Disney property? Now, let's be clear. She did not tell me that we could sit at one of the many empty tables in the bar area, just not sit at the bar itself (which I would have understood.) She said kids were not allowed in the entire bar area. So, I walked out.

When L & our friends arrived, we headed back into the restaurant. This time the hostess said we could sit at a table in the bar area while we waited for our table. Even though we now included 3 kids. Huh?

Anyway, dinner was great, albiet extremely expensive. The food was excellent, no one had a single complaint. I personally thought the bubble gum martini was a bit much, but Karen loved it. We had a great time catching up. I had not seen Buzz in many years, and he had not yet met my son. However, the atmosphere was not so friendly. (The little kids rolling around on the floor probably didn't help.) Whatever. I had my back to the the dining room so I was little oblivious to what was going on around me. Moreover, I enjoyed the company I was with very much. I recommend it, but probably leave the kids at home.

Next up: Il Mulino

Il Mulino is an Italian restaurant out of New York that has opened several outposts through out the country (including Atlanta.) We decided to there our second night at Disney. We didn't have reservations, and even though, they were very busy, they squeezed us. There were lots of families dining. And lots of happy noise and activity. The place was beautiful and had a great atmosphere. No one seemed to mind that A was not on his best behavior. It was just...fun. We ordered pizza for A. L & I shared an order of bucatini amatriciana and an order of veal saltimbocca. They brought out limoncello at the end of the dinner. Everyone was so pleasant and accommodating. We had a wonderful time. But as we took our last bites of food, L & I looked at each other and said "the food wasn't very good, was it?" Not that it was bad, just not great. Sort of mediocre. And we hadn't even noticed it. Lesson learned: atmosphere can take you a long way.

Last night: Kimonos

On our last night, we went to Kimono's, the sushi restaurant. This was definitely the riskiest place to take A, what with all the tables close together, cluttered with small plates, and bowls, water glasses, wine glasses, etc. A disaster waiting to happen. It didn't help that A was exhuasted after a long day at Magic Kingdom. He threw more than one fit in the short time we were there. The sushi was excellent, as were the cocktails. But dinner was cut short by our over-tired child.

So overall, our Disney dining experience was pretty good. Blue Zoo has great food, but needs to work on their atmosphere (or at least come to terms with the fact that they're on Disney property and can expect kids in the restaurant). Il Mulino has a great atmosphere, but needs to work on punching up the food. And Kimonos really had both.

Dining with Child Revisited

The last time I discussed dining with our son A, he was still an infant. As you may recall, L & I brought A to a very sleek restaurant (Dolce) and he proceeded to expel a thick green vomit all over himself and the floor around him. Nice. Well, now he's nearly 3. The perils of dining with a three year old are considerably different than those of dining with an infant.

Case in point: recently, we had dinner at Bistro Niko, a new restaurant here in Atlanta. Now, as I have previously confessed my love of French bistros, you may imagine that I've been dying to check out Bistro Niko. I would have preferred using my first Bistro Niko experience as an excuse to get a sitter and have an "adults-only" dinner with L. The problem was I just didn't kow when we'd be able to do that. The schedules are so difficult.

So I made 5:30 reservations for 3 on a Sunday. That particular day was quite busy. We took A to the circus at noon, followed by an hour or so playing in the park. We had enough time to clean up, before heading back out for dinner. A had no nap and very little lunch. All this is to say, that upon arriving at the restaurant, A was bouncing off the walls.

They sat us at a table for 4 which had 8 crystal wine glasses across the middle. I avoided disaster by asking Rashid, our server, to remove them pronto! A just would not sit still. He was loud, whiny, bored and agitated. I thought to myself (but did not say aloud) "maybe this was mistake..." L ran out to the car to get A's toy cars for him to play with. And I walked, or rather chased, A around the restaurant. Although I usually say that "A is for adorable," that night "A" was for annoying. I concluded that we'd have to make it a quick dinner so we could get out of there without bringing too much shame and embarassment upon ourselves.

When Rashid came to take our order, we quickly ordered A a croque monsieur and frites (grilled ham and cheese with fries) and ordered ourselves escargot and a pate charcuterie. We felt defeated but were determined to try to salvage the dinner.

And then a miracle happened. Rashid brought the bread course. We gave A some bread and butter. Then we gave him more. Apparently, the poor child was starving. He happily and quietly ate several pieces of bread. In fact, he finished the bread basket. When his sandwich came, he devoured it. All this food cause an immediate transformation. He returned to his usual fun, funny, sweet self. A was for adorable, once more.

This allowed L & I to enjoy our delicious dinners (beef bourgonnone for him, skate wing for me). We shared a bottle of red wine and had pistachio profiteroles for dessert. While we ate, A laughed, played, sang and kissed and hugged us. We did not have to rush. It was lovely. In fact, it was a blast. My friends never believe me when I say it, but in all honesty, dining out is more fun when A is involved.

The Stone Kitchen

My childhood in Boston was not marked by alot of great fine dining experiences. Mostly, I remember the torture of being force fed canned vegetables and my mother's uninspired, bland meals. When we did go out to dinner, it was always Italian. This was Boston, after all, a city divided by the Irish and Italians. If the Irish controlled the political machine, the Italians controlled the gastronomy.

As an adult, I just don't gravitate to Italian restaurants. Sure, Ecco is one of my favorite restaurants, but it is not so much "Italian" in the italicized sense of the word. At least, it's not the Italian food of my childhood. But there's a (relatively) new restaurant in Atlanta that has re-ignited my love for Italian food. I've only been there twice: the first time with the previously mentioned, always entertaining Brad and his partner, the disarming scholar, Eric. Now, when Brad & Eric aren't in Atlanta, they reside in Rome...Italy (not Georgia). So, when they start raving about a new Italian restaurant in Atlanta, you better take it seriously.

La Pietra Cucina opened in a tiny spot in midtown and quickly earned a reputation among foodies as the "go-to" restaurant in town. The Chef, who previously worked at Babbo in New York, is known for his simple, Italian cooking, done with a modern edge. On our first visit, I was blown away by everything I had, but particularly by the spicy black spaghetti with rock shrimp.

It took us a year to return. And in that time, the restaurant closed, renovated, and re-opened in a much more grand space. We had dinner there a few weeks ago with our new friends Bob and Norma. Norma is my gym buddy who, like me, divides her time between eating out and then working it off at the gym. Bob, the wine guy, earned a special place in my heart when he came over to our house for dinner one night and brought a vintage bottle of Billicarte-Salmon Rose Reserve!

Back to our fabulous dinner, we ate proscuitto with a pineapple coulis; burrata - a soft mozzarella in olive oil and sea salt. We shared an arugula and pistachio salad. For my entree, I could not resist getting the black spaghetti once more. Both Bob & Norma had the pappadelle and L had the buccatini amatriciana. It was all house made pasta and each bite was a savory explosion. Although three of us made our pastas our entrees, L, the bottomless pit, also ordered the waygu skirt steak. (Actually, I told him to he had to order this so I could have a bite!) It was literally like butter. I know you hear that expression alot, but this actually was. It was like eating butter; soft, velvety deliciousness.

We ate too much food (including dessert) and drank too much wine, but really good wine (Thanks to Bob) and argued about politics (alas, Bob leans to the right!) What a great night we had.

BLT Steak

As I told you all in my last post, my husband is great at the "romantic surprise." A friend recently said that L "sets the bar" for husbands everywhere. Well, it's true, but let's keep that our little secret. We don't want it to go to his head.

I was cursed with being born on New Year's Eve. As a child, my birthday was never celebrated on the actual date. My parents wanted to go out that night. As an adult, it masquerades as a fun birthday, what with the whole world celebrating and all, but truthfully it's always a letdown. For everyone else, you screw up New Year's Eve, and you still have your birthday to redeem yourself and salvage your year. Not for me. It's all or nothing on that one day. And then I made the mistake of marrying someone who works in the restaurant business. Now for the rest of my life, every year on my birthday, my husband will have to work.

But L manages to make it special nonetheless. For example, this year. First, he totally faked me out by telling me for weeks in advance that our plans were to celebrate on Saturday January 2; and then at 5:30 pm on Friday January 1, he announced, that I better get dressed and "pack a bag!"

The surprise was cool. But what was in store was even cooler. He took me to BLT Steak, a New York transplant located in the ultra-swank W downtown. I had heard it was good, but it really exceeded my expectations. Certainly, this was partly due to the company. Our closest friends (the always entertaining Brad and the incomparable Arthur & Zhenya) joined us and we had a blast.

The room was beautiful, the service: excellent, and the food was amazing. Before we ordered anything, they brought us pate which was velvet-y deliciousness smeared on bread, pickled vegetables and charcuterie. And we hadn't even ordered anything. It was all amazing. Then we ordered appetizers, including roasted beets, a new favorite of mine, and snow crab. We were all panting for more. The server advised us to "save room for the bread." And I thought "I'm not going to eat the bread!" But then they brought it out. A giant platter of just-out-of-the-oven popovers. I couldn't resist. And I'm glad I didn't. These were truly amazing. Delicious, light, airy, warm, with melted cheese on top and melting butter inside. If the meal had ended there, I still would have given it 5 stars. The bread was awesome.

For the sake of all of our waistlines, it probably should have ended there. But alas, still up: our entrees. We ordered more food than we could possibly eat. I had Dover Sole, which was exquisite. There were lamb chops, filet mignon, Alaskan cod, creamed spinach, tomatoes provencal, broccolini. It was an orgy of food, accompanied by champagne (Billicart-Salmon Rose) and red wine. Finally, there was dessert. It was a marathon of eating, drinking, laughing, and celebrating.

We ended the night in a corner suite on the 11th floor overlooking downtown Atlanta. Floor to ceiling windows surrounded us. It was a spectacular night. Thank you, L. All my love.

The Eiffel Tower

In February 2005, before L & I were married, we took a weekend trip to Las Vegas. I have to admit, I'm not a huge Vegas fan. I don't particularly care for gambling (and I suck at it!) But we had never been to Vegas together and we thought it would be fun. Well, it was more than fun. It was one of the most memorable trips of our lives.

We stayed at the Paris Hotel, which, if you're not familiar with it, has a giant replica of the Eiffel Tower as its calling card on the famous Strip. The hotel is charming, with various homage to the true City of Lights. Amidst the casino, there was a little creperie serving crepes with nutella, and several French-themed restaurants including Mon Ami Gabi, a most excellent and authentic French bistro. But the best restaurant in the place was The Eiffel Tower restaurant. It was located in the middle of the faux Eiffel Tower, above the riff raff in the casino. We decided to have dinner there on Saturday night.

I remember that whole day, L was acting, well, busy. I took a long nap while he went to the gym. When I woke up, no L. He came back an hour after I woke from my 2 hour nap. I asked him where the hell he went and he made some vague excuse about working out "really hard" and then getting a steam. Then we got a strange phone call and he told me it was his boss who wanted to tell him to enjoy his weekend off. That really seemed strange. Why the hell would his (now ex) boss call and say that? Something seemed amiss, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it.

As we were getting ready to go out to dinner, I called an old friend from college, who lived in Vegas, and invited her to meet us for a drink at the bar at the restaurant. L nervously asked if she was going to join us for dinner. I told him I had not invited her to do so, but we should play it by ear. Somehow that made L seem agitated. The dilemma was resolved when she told me she couldn't make it. Still, it was unlike L to not to be social.

We arrived at the restaurnnt. The maitre'd knew my name and told us our table wasn't quite ready. "How did he know my name?" I wondered. Just a couple minutes later, the same man returned to tell us that our table was ready and to follow him. So we did.

He led us to the best, the very best, table in the restaurant. I mean, this table was one of the best tables I've ever sat at in my life (and so remains to this day.) Let me explain, the restaurant which was several, no many, stories in the air, has floor to ceiling windows that overlook the Vegas Strip. The Paris is across the street from the Bellagio, so the focal point of the panoramic view is the Bellagio fountain. We were seated in the corner so we had an 180 degree view and were directly facing the Bellagio fountain. It was magnificient. I said to L "how did we get this table??" He was equally impressed, but not responsive.

Soon the waiter brought our menus. I picked mine up, glanced at it, perused it, but continued yapping away about nothing and sipping my cocktail. L said "what are you going to have?" I told him I really didn't know yet. He urged me to look at the menu. I didn't know why he was rushing me to make a decision. I wanted to enjoy the scenery and take my time. But I began to read the menu.

It all looked fabulous. Hmmm, what should I get. Wait...what was that? Did I see the words "diamonds and sapphires" used to describe one of the entrees? That's weird. Let me read that again. What is a "Princess Special?" What kind of meat is that? What kind of cut of meat is an "emerald cut diamond?" And it's got 2 sapphires..is that a side I've never heard of? I'll have to ask L...but wait..what does that say on the next line say..."will you marry me, D?" WAIT.....THAT'S ME!!!!

I looked up from my menu, in complete shock. L saw the shock on my face, knew I had (finally!) seen the proposal and jumped down on one knee with a diamond and sapphire engagement ring in his hand. I said yes. The servers applauded.

I think that was the most romantic moment of my life. (The food was good, too!)