Beer Travel Atlanta

Plenty of articles have been written in the past couple of years touting Atlanta as a beer destination, so I'll add my two cents as a former resident who has recently visited and noticed some more great changes.

My old stomping ground of Decatur, just a little East of the city, its own little microcosmos of walkable areas, shopping, food, and a hip but not too hip or too rich vibe. Old couples mingle with young gay couples with kids, kids and dogs alike enjoying the festivals and festival atmosphere of the weekends. Here lies the legendary Brick Store pub, which was tough to get into most nights when we lived there- and now impossible. But who won't wait for an insane amount of Belgian and craft beers the world over? We probably stumbled from there every other week trying a different beer. Owned by the same parties, Leon's Full Service is a step up food-wise focusing on local food (a welcome change we have noticed since we left). The shrimp gyro was a solid selection; shrimp were sweet, succulent and not overcooked, the tang of the yogurt worked well with the red onion pickle. The frites with your choice of 'sauces' proved boring- make that curry thicker and the frites meatier and you will have the perfect bar food. The smaller but stellar beer selection was good enough to please die-hard BSP fans.

Also in Decatur, another old hangout of ours: Thinking Man Tavern which has kept its fairly decent pub grub menu (I'm a fan of the house made veggie burgers) and has also kept its better than average beer selection. This visit, I noticed that they had the much hyped Life & Limb in the bottle. Score! Since I missed out on various tappings in Madison (if we had any) and any stores that may have had it would have sold in in about two minutes given the ravenous beer geeks here in Madison. Its a dark brown malty beer with hints of earth, smoke and a good amount of sweet syrup and root beer flavors. Very complex and well crafted, a slightly bitter malty finish balances the sweetness in this full bodied beer with well hidden alcohol. Believe the hype, this is a very drinkable beer with every sip reminding you that two master brewers collaborated on this one.

With local brewers Sweetwater, and Athens-based Terrapin actually being heard of outside of the South and local beer superbars Taco Mac; local beers are coming up in the beer world. Smaller brewpubs are growing with 5 Seasons now has three locations, and oldie Atlanta Brewing Company is still kicking it old school. Festivals like the Winter Beer Carnival are popping up along with the long-time worst organized fest: the Decatur Beer Festival. (*note: maybe they have fixed it since we attempted the fest in 2007 I hear they do pre-sales finally; no parking, no line organization, running out of beer, tiny cramped space, putting it right in the middle of a busy area)

Atlanta also seems to have enough beer geeks to warrant the at least four cases of Founder's Nemesis I spied in the mid-level liquor store, but not enough geekiness to have sold out of it unlike Madison which sold out in less than two days. (*note: I do know of one place in Madison that has a single case of Nemesis still but its on hold due to computer glitches)

Unvisited but new: Westside beer store Hop City perhaps a contender against the all-powerful Ponce Green's for beer heaven?

One Night in Babette's

Babette's Cafe in two alliterative words? Cozy and comforting.

Babette's is one of those smaller, less-glitzy places in Atlanta that serves a much better quality of food than some of its 'scene' heavy siblings. You don't wear club clothes here, nor do you feel pressured into ordering the most expensive stuff while supermodel wannabes look bored under the exposed pipes. Nor is Babette's the genteel Old Southern Money spot. The overall theme is rustic European- from the well used furniture and warm walls to the accessible seasonal menu. The chef/owner is someone who obviously loves food, and is classy enough not to charge obscene prices for peasant food. The waiters were perfect for this kind of unpretentious place: no hovering, groveling, or disdain.

Both Drew and I ordered classy cocktails. I guess thats the byword for Babette's: classy. He a martini, myself some sort of Lillet cocktail. Both were simple but quality.

Against my better judgment, we ordered one of those lame appetizers popping up everywhere "gaufrette chips with warmed gorgonzola cheese sauce". Translation: waffle fries with cheese. These were edible, whereas this misguided bar starter is normally too fatty/salty/greasy for me to eat.

Now the fried oysters on dill biscuits with a cucumber sauce, was excellent. The biscuits were fluffy and full of fresh dill, the oysters lightly breaded and fried (after all, this is a nice place not some fish shanty) and the delicate cucumber/yogurty/minty sauce. The sauce kept its shape without turning watery, a hazard of cucumber cuisine.

On to the meal, with a bottle of rose to split. I know it looks girly, but a good Rose goes with ALOT of food and Drew is manly enough to swish pink stuff around in a glass.

Wanting to try different stuff, I ordered the artichoke + olive ravioli and the
squash soup with wild mushrooms. The soup was savory and warm. Enveloping me in creamy comfort; it smelled wonderful, almost like a glossy from a travel magazine of some rustic kitchen with a weathered-looking jovial Frenchman and his picturesque country estate. I could smell the fresh herbs and earthy mushrooms. The ravioli was in a creamy lemon-garlic sauce that initially tasted subtle and decadent, but eventually turned into a rich garlic fest. I really enjoyed it while I was eating it, but later I kept umm...re-tasting the garlic. I think it actually came out of my pores at one point (insert vampire joke here).

Drew scored with the cassoulet. And that sounds very naughty. Thank god he let me try some because my three/four/five bites were enough to make me almost club him over the head for it. Never would I have imagined pork, sausage, lamb, duck confit and white beans baked for about a million years would be so crazy good. It melted in my mouth. It felt so evil and tasty, I could only imagine how long it must take to slowly make this dish. Its totally peasant food: stew all your leftovers bits of meat until it all congeals into fatty goodness, then drink alot with jovial European neighbors with hearty laughs and wine from the guy up the road. Drew looked up a recipe it I think it was five pages long. Forget cooking! Go to Babette's right this minute and eat it!!! (but call first since the menu is seasonal)

Almost too full for dessert, we had a nice (but not awesome) chocolate bread pudding with banana ice-cream. It was ok, but I am a bit of a bread pudding snob so don;t count the desserts here out.

Eat the cassoulet!!!!!

Sorry Manuel's Tavern!

In my recent Pub Report I completely forgot Manuel's Tavern in the Virginia-Highlands neighborhood.

Manuel's will always be a recommended tavern spot. A great big tavern with a few different rooms that be be rented out, this is a great place to have a low-key event. We had our after-wedding pub party here and it was just what we wanted. The menu consists of the usual pub fare with burgers and sandwiches, but they also do entrees and semi-famous hot dogs. They also serve breakfast on the weekends. The veggie burger was better than average, but overall the food is average, filling, pub-fare. The medium-size beer selection is heavy on the American beers with something for everyone from Bud to Terrapin Ale. The local lager (602 N. Highland) is decent, and the usual beer imports are on tap like Guinness, Newcastle, Bass.

Dating back to the 50's. Manuel's also has some cool history- loads of local and national politicians and other famous personalities have graced this tavern. One of the few places in this neighborhood where you can see by the pictures and the clientele that the neighborhood and the city in general used to be quite different.

Manuel's: we salute this Atlanta institution!

The Pub Report

We've been to all of these pubs at least twice. And the list does not include Brickstore...that gets a whole post all of its own.

The pub round-up of Atlanta in no order:

Avondale:
(Recommended) James Joyce- Good food (Joycean named entries warm the cockles of my heart), Smithwicks on tap, large patio, smoking in bar, touch games machine (crack!), decent service, nice venue. There was some live trad music in the past, but of course drama ensued as it often does with musicians so no more Irish music. High up on the list, especially for families, groups, or people who do not want a scene.

Buckhead:
Fado (RIP- to be reopened January 2008)- The only reason to go to Buckhead; the great food, best Guinness pour, and the Monday night session all make for great reasons to go. The parking, the idiots who think they can dance, and the surly hot staff is a reason to be annoyed - but I'll take it if it means I can drink a pint with a very very good grilled salmon sandwich while trying to keep up with the super fast tunes.

Cabbagetown:
97 Estoria- Mediocre food, but the atmosphere is fun and low-key most nights even if I do feel I don't meet the tattoo requirement. The beer selection is so-so, and the cool neighborhood has not gotten too big for its britches. They also have a DJ some nights with good non-invasive music, a smoking room, and I have been present at a PBR tattoo contest. Nice neighborhood pub, if it was my neighborhood I'd be there.

Decatur:
(Recommended) Thinking Man- The food is mediocre to good: the rounds and veggie burgers are good, whereas the guacamole is horrible. The specials can sometimes be hit or miss, and they do have plenty of vegetarian options. The beer selection is good for its size, the 'starving artist' rotating tap may be the only time you can get crap beer the rest of the taps are filled with the usual snooty beer suspects: Guinness, a hefeweizen, local beers, a cider, popular microbrews like Flying Dog or Dogfish Head, with seasonal selections. The bottled/canned beers are an even greater variety with Old Chub and Chimay next to Miller and Becks. The real reason we recommend this pub is the voerall 'vibe'. We would pull our seats up to the bar, and at Thinking Man we just felt welcome. The crowd is diverse as far as Decatur goes (not just hipsters or young families), the staff is pretty cool with just the right amount of cynicism at the odd person who orders a JagerBomb/Cosmotini/Irish car bomb. We like the odd drunken old guy who talks at the bar to us just as much as we like watching the moped mafia mess around with their bikes and hip haircuts.

Corner Pub- Moved from its previous location due to arson a few years ago, the new location in the spiffy East Decatur Station is clean and pretty. At first the beer selection was iffy on the bad side, but they have expanded after those first couple of visits. The food is good, better than many in the area with wings as standouts. The veggie fare is good, the veggie Cuban making me crave the real thing; and who can beat PB&J? I never felt terribly comfortable here: maybe between the trivia night, darts, one pool table, theater and lofts next door; Corner Pub tries to be too much. The vibe was just kinda odd, and while everything is really above average we just never felt home here.

The Angel- Overpriced, less than good food, and generally useless service are the reasons I always try to steer people away. Yes, it looks all cute on the inside, and it has a patio, and its in downtown Decatur. The beer selection is not very English for an English pub, the entrees look good on paper but do not follow through, and I have sat at the bar for a good 15 min before someone even deigned to notice me in an empty pub. The music is also very hit or miss

Trackside- Cute, dingy, open crazy late, tables, smoky...Trackside is the closest thing to a dive bar in three zip codes. Do not ever eat the food unless your stomach is made of steel. The beer is your usual low to midbrow range, you can get Stella AND Bud. Sometimes the music can be crazy loud, but Trackside has cheap pool tables, karaoke, attitude, and late night drunk hospitality people. I think its awesome and I don't go nearly enough.

East Atlanta
The Earl- The Earl successfully manages to be a great indie music venue and a pub that you can feasibly hang out in when its not jam packed. The food is pretty good for a place that has one scary bathroom. The beer selection is fine, but not too high-brow. The scene can be anywhere from aging hipsters at the bar to hot young things showing off the newest retro-tee waiting for whatever side project of whomever related to some other local band to start playing. This place could easily be pretentious, and certainly many people are, but as a pub I'd totally haunt the bar stools if I lived near enough.

Gravity Pub- Peeling carpet, great jukebox, snarling staff, and decent beer. Apparently just now under new ownership, so I'm only talking about the handful of times I went in the past. I don't even think there was food before, so we'll have to see. I like the feel of this place, less showy than the Earl and you could actually sit down and talk most nights. I'll have to report back on the changes...

L5P:
Euclid Avenue Yacht Club- Dingy and small, this pub is still an institution with street cred that has withstood the gentrification onslaught thus far. I hypothesize that with L5Ps' cleaner image, it only has so much room for the 'unique' that used to be the standard. EAYC still fits the bill; not bad food for meat-eaters, decent beer, not much attitude from the scene; if I lived in the neighborhood I could definitely see this as my kind of place.

Brewhouse Cafe- This pub has three great things going for it: location is front of center for people watching in L5P, huge outdoor patio, and satellite TV for various games you may not be able to see with cable like the World Cup or rugby matches. The food is mediocre, the beer selection is slightly above average, and the crowd can be hit or miss: it may be full of drunken Emory students, soccer fans, or just gentrified yuppies from around the expensive block.

Oakhurst:
Universal Joint- When I lived in Oakhurst, I was here more often and it is a cool place but it just never really clicked. Very good veggie burger and good food overall, the beer selection is only ok, the scene is diverse and pretty chill with a good amount of dogs and kids due to the large patio.

Labor Day Weekend – Dragon*Con (D*Con)

The infamous 4-day “Mardi Gras for Nerds” floods the streets of Atlanta with Stormtroopers, Hogwart’s students, a million Jack Sparrows (excuse me: Captain Jack Sparrows), and a variety of additional fictional characters some ridiculously esoteric while others are easily recognizable. D*con typically means copious amounts of alcohol, long waits for elevators, and nasty food. The latter of these coming from either the adjacent mall’s food court or any of the crappy chains (Hard Rock, Hooters, etc…) that surround the hotels that comprise the convention. Our friends, who come for the convention, are often reluctant, and understandably so, to get into their cars and leave downtown for a single meal. To their credit for 4 years now they have trekked out to Decatur for pizza, Indian, or sushi and have been rewarded for their adventurous spirit. However, with the on-going revitalization of downtown we attempted to stick to local restaurants within walking distance of D*Con. As a result we got to share more meals with friends and ate a whole lot better than we would have at the food court. Nor were we alone! Many of the convention goers have tired of the same nasty food and were exploring smaller local venues. What follows is a condensed summary of our dining adventures.

Thursday night we started out at Ted’s Montana Grill. A chain started by local crazy billionaire Ted Turner we had never gotten around to eating at one before. I opted for one of their buffalo meat burgers and some thick cut onion rings. The onion rings were just how I like them thick cut and not over battered. I eat onion rings about once a year so it is nice to have good ones on that rare occasion. The burger was tasty but I’ve had equal of better burgers at The Vortex or Houston’s. The servers were friendly and fairly efficient but the bar appeared out of half the beers we wanted to try. If someone wanted to go again I would not say no but it certainly is not the first place I would recommend.

Thursday night I checked into the room and proceeded to do what most people come to D*con for… drink. I’ll spare you the gory details and move into Friday’s culinary excursions. A trio of ‘Tallahasseans’ and I made the pilgrimage to the brew pub within eye sight of the hotel: Max Lager’s. This has become our D*Con lunch spot on Friday over the past few years but it would be worth the trek to downtown to support local brew pubs. Typically, they have about 6 to 7 homebrews ready to go. While stouts and porters are good I’d recommend sticking to lighter summer beers which they do really well. Unfortunately, Max Lager suffers from the all too common schizophrenic pub menu syndrome trying to serve burgers, pizzas, steaks, and pseudo-asian dishes with the result that half the menu is a wasteland. The burgers are pretty good but the chicken is dry. If one wants to diverge from standard pub fare I recommend the duck quesadilla which manages to not be overly greasy nor are all the flavors overpowered by the duck as one might expect.


Friday night we supported foreign oil and headed out to Little 5 Points for dinner at Ru San’s. This local chain appears to have a branch in almost every ‘cool’ neighborhood in town (except Decatur notably) and is notorious for the blaring techno and elaborate sushi confections. I don’t really want to get into a sushi article here so I’ll just say that the best sushi is simple and highlights the protein (fish, eel, etc.) rather than masking it’s lower quality. I’ve made similar comments regarding Hummus so I think my thoughts on such things are already clear. What Ru San’s lacks in Sushi they make up for in Soup. They are easily the best source of Japanese inspired soups. A vegetable soup I had was warm and satisfying filled with bean sprouts, onion, carrot, cabbage, and more. The salty broth was great fortification for the night of drinking ahead. Thick avocado slices adorned the soup providing the necessary fat to keep you sated for several hours. The Five Points Location is a party on Friday night, filled with a good cross section of Atlanta nightlife.

Saturday was so busy my lunch was a bagel and cream cheese from Atlanta Bread Company. That night vegetarians and carnivores united and headed out into the streets of downtown for Indian food at Haveli Indian Cuisine. I’ll start by saying that this place does not make my Top 5 of Indian restaurants in town, a list we’ll discuss some other time, that said this place is okay. Tandoori and curry chicken dishes were a little overdone but the spiced shrimp were surprisingly high quality and well received by the table. Like most Indian places in Atlanta these folks excel in vegetarian dishes with excellent Saag Paneer (Spinach and cheese). My one criticism of this place would be in the lack of spices. While most Indian places are guilty of dumping a bunch of spices in at the end the kitchen here don’t add enough. The Saag had a hint of coriander but a few shredded leaves might have helped bring out some earthiness in this dish.

Sunday night we headed out to Slice, a new branch of a local ‘hipster’ pizza joint. Before we get into food I have to say that the service was simply abysmal. For the entire restaurant (over 15 tables) there was one waiter. Based on how long it took for the food to come out (over 1hr) I can only imagine there was only one chef also. That said, the antipasto appetizer was big enough for two with a standard assortment of meats, cheeses and olives. The meat and cheese were all of decent to better than average quality but the real stars were the olives. The olives had only the faint hint of brine, a flavor which is normally overpowering on antipasto plates, and were just spectacular. Pizzas have a nice thin crackly crust and are neither overly greasy nor soggy with sauce. To the staff’s credit as short handed as they were everyone’s food still came out at the same time and was warm without feeling like it had sat under a heat lamp. With food this good I am certainly willing to see if Slice’s staffing problem was a one time thing.

So there you have it. No longer do D*con attendees need be contented with the dreaded Food Court of Peachtree Center, McDonald’s, Hooters, Hard Rock Café, or any of the other chains that have populated downtown for so long. Cuisine has finally begun to catch up with the spirit of revitalization throughout the downtown area. Thanks to all my friends, both the locals and out of towners, who hit the pavement with me to make this review possible. We’ll see you next year!

Woodfire Grill: How do I love thee?

Taking a break from writing about tasty artery clogging food, next up for discussion is our personal all-time Atlanta favorite place to spend too much money. So far. After all, we have not hit the ‘big guns’ of ATL like Bacchanalia, Joel, Seeger’s (rip), or the Ritz. Without further ado we present: WoodFire Grill.

Not many places are so focused on the food ‘values’ we have come to admire and agree with (still talking about food here, not politics). Chef Tuohy utilizes local, seasonal, and/or organic ingredients in the ever changing menu. We have been able to spend a significant amount of time slowly sampling our way through 4-5 course meals; lingering over some local and exotic cheeses, sipping wine or perhaps port during dessert. We never feel rushed by the impeccably timed wait-staff, and we never feel too old or too young in the comfortably dim interior. The focus of quality instead of speed and trendiness sets this restaurant apart from all the other pricey wasabi-poblano truffle-oiled whipped potato reduction places.

You can taste the difference between a quality, fresh ingredient over something that has just been marinated overnight to hide the poor quality or age. A whole wood-oven roasted trout in a light butter sauce tasted so pure that I literally expected the waiter to be handing some grizzled old fisherman a twenty. During the spring, the minted pecorino fava beans were a revelation. The portion sizes are neither overwhelming nor insulting, and the ‘sides’ are complimentary without overpowering (grits, potatoes, and delicately flavored vegetables abound). Woodfire tempts us into trying flavor combinations we would normally question: who knew beets with blue cheese would taste so good? The common factor in all of the menu items rests in the subtle simplicity of the flavors. Just because something doesn’t have 10 different flavors clamoring for attention doesn’t mean it isn’t wonderful. Atlanta has a lot of ‘hip’ restaurants, and we appreciate and like those places with the exposed bricks and bizarre steel sculptures; but ultimately we will suggest Woodfire Grill with its superior ingredients and ingenious taste.

Other menu items we’ll drool over:
any cheese. There are no bad cheeses.
free-range chicken
frito misto
any anti-pasto item
duck with seasonal fruit-related sauce (currently fig + peaches)