I
had training for HON Office Furniture in
Atlanta this past week. It just happened
to be on Tuesday/Wednesday (which are Lance’s days off work each week), so he
joined me for the work trip. While I was
in class, he wandered the city, and then in the evenings, we ate our way around
town.
On
our way out of town, our flight out was delayed because of thunderstorms, so we
enjoyed beers at the Cigar
City brewery right in the Airside C terminal. They brew beer right there in the airport–
and even have some specialties that aren’t available at the other locations (I really
liked the Tony Jannus Pale Ale – named for the world’s first commercial airline
pilot, who flew from Tampa to St. Pete, Florida).
We
got to Atlanta Monday evening. One of
our all-time favorite restaurants is Canoe – we discovered it last time we were
in Atlanta (read
more about it on this blog post…)
The menu is innovative and perfectly executed, and the view is beautiful. It is on the Chattahoochee River and has a beautiful
garden behind. Well, we couldn’t miss an
opportunity to eat there again, so we took an Uber there for dinner (it’s a
little drive from midtown/downtown Atlanta, so it would be hard to get there
with public transportation).
If
you haven’t used Uber before, we had a great experience with it! Our drivers were much friendlier than the
taxi driver that we had from the airport, and if you go here or use my
referral code amandan1158ue, you’ll get your first ride for free!
Lance
tried the Wild
Heaven Eschaton Quadrupel based out of Decatur, GA, and I had their 4th
Sun Rising cocktail with Old Fourth Distillery, SOHO Lychee, lemongrass, lemon,
and egg whites. My drink was deliciously
tart – but probably went a little overboard with the egg whites. It was hard to get through the thick foam to
sip the drink.
We
started with the peppercorn crusted kangaroo loin with caramelized onion tart,
olive, and black vinegar gastrique (since when else will we have the
opportunity to try kangaroo…) If I hadn’t
known any better, I would have just thought it was steak.
For
our main courses, Lance ordered the pork tenderloin and I had the lamb
sirloin. His actually came with multiple
types of meat – the tenderloin, house made sausage, and braised pork belly,
with apricot and natural jus. Mine was
served over English pea tortellini, minted tomato jam, and pistachio butter. You
really can’t go wrong with anything you order at this restaurant. We probably went a little overboard with the
meat dishes that evening, but it was all fantastic.
We
were really full, but the dessert we had last time was one of the best sweets
we’ve ever had, so we finished with their gourmet cracker jack sundae.
I
kept my receipt because it says I bought 1 kangaroo…
For
summertime, it really wasn’t that hot outside and it was great weather for
wandering their gardens. There were
fireflies lighting up and we visited the chicken coop where they get all the
fresh eggs for the restaurant.
After
my training the next day, we visited the Wrecking Bar Brewpub. We actually wanted to go on our last trip,
but it was closed when we were there before.
It’s in the Little Five Points neighborhood in an old Victorian
mansion. The tables were set with pretty
wildflowers. Our waiter recommended the Corn
Pups and the Georgia Duck, so we went with his suggestions.
I’m
not normally a fan of hot dogs – personally it just seems gross that it’s a
mixture of all rejected meat parts. But
these were made from chedderwurst, battered in corn bread, and fried. It was served with curry ketchup and yellow
mustard – it was good, but would have been better if it was with a whole grain
or spicy mustard.
The
duck was served with chioggia beets, red beet root, swiss chard, radish,
chanterelles (a type of mushroom), and duck jus. The presentation was very pretty, and the
flavor was just as great as it looked.
We
finished with a peach crisp (which actually turned out to have blueberries as
well). It was topped with oatmeal streusel
and vanilla honeysuckle gelato.
Finally,
the last day we had to fly back home, so we had a really early dinner around
4pm. Several of my classmates from the
training had eaten at South City Kitchen the night before and said it was
amazing, but another set of people said it was so crowded, even on a Tuesday
night, that there was over an hour wait.
We made reservations, but there really wasn’t a need for them when we
showed up for such an early dinner.
They
didn’t start serving their full dinner until 5pm, but we ordered from their abbreviated
bar menu, which had some of their specialties. I liked the Lazy Magnolia
Southern Pecan ale from Mississippi and Lance enjoyed his Hoplanta IPA – but I wasn’t
as much of a fan of Terrapin’s Peach Farmhouse Ale (too sweet).
We
had the buttermilk fried chicken and the shrimp & red mule grits. It seemed like we should get Southern
specialties while we were in Georgia.
Both were really authentic dishes and very filling. The red grits were a bit heavier than I’m
used to – with poblano peppers, house made tasso ham, and smoked tomato
gravy. We didn’t have room for any
dessert this time (and figured even if we did, dessert three nights in a row
was probably a bad idea…)
Atlanta
has so many fantastic restaurant options – happy to have had the chance to try
a few new ones this time! But Canoe
still tops the charts for me…definitely go there if you have the chance.
Canoe is located at 4199
Paces Ferry Rd SE, Atlanta, GA 30339
and is open for lunch 11:30am – 2:30pm Monday through Fridays, for
dinner 5:30pm – 10pm Monday through Thursday, and 5:30pm – 11pm Friday &
Saturday, and 5:30pm – 9:30pm on Sundays.
They are also open for Sunday brunch 10:30am – 2:30pm.
Wrecking Bar Brewpub is
located at 292
Moreland Ave NE, Atlanta, GA 30307 and is open 4pm – 11pm Monday –
Thursday, 12pm – 12am Friday – Saturday, and 11am – 10pm on Sundays.
Southern City Kitchen is
located at 1144
Crescent Ave NE, Atlanta, GA 30309 and is open 11am – 10pm Monday –
Thursday, 11am – 10:30pm Friday, 10am – 3pm and 5pm – 10:30pm on Saturdays, and
10am – 3pm and 5pm – 10pm on Sundays.
