Category: Food & Drink

Well, I’m probably going to have to re-do my list of the Top 10 Atlanta Steakhouses now that Ford Fry is on the scene. Marcel opened in Atlanta’s ever-evolving Westside in July. The menu is classic steakhouse meets French bistro. (you can preview the menu here).

“Marcel is an ode to when times and tastes were simpler; I think we all miss that,” owner & proprietor Ford Frt said. “The entire menu is truly classic — no modern-day innovation. My chef team has a strong desire to cook food that makes us lay back and smile.”

Marcel’s home across the bridge from JCT Kitchen was previously home to Ann Quatrano’s Abbatoir. “The Westside of Atlanta doesn’t have a steakhouse, so we thought why not put our own spin on it?” Ford said. “Atlanta is full of classic American steakhouses, so we are taking a slightly different angle, and taking inspiration from steakhouses of the past, making things all about celebration and simple, great meat cooked over wood along with classic cocktails.”

Fry’s renowned team behind his Rocket Farm Restaurant concepts — including JCT Kitchen, No. 246, The Optimist, King & Duke, St. Cecilia, Supernica, and El Felix — has stepped up to the plate. Chef Brian Horn of JCT Kitchen is leading the charge at Marcel, with pastry chef Chrysta Poulos on desserts, and a stellar cocktail menu concocted by Lara Creasy.

My goodness y’all, I’m drooling over these delicious photos by Andrew Thomas Lee.

Let’s start off with a Caesar Salad prepared table-side, followed by a round Oysters of Bienville at Marcel Atlanta.

Ford Fry certainly knows how to whet our appetites. Next up is a Foie Gras and Fig Terrine.

For your main course, how about Steak L’Entrecote?

For more information about Marcel, check out their website, like them on Facebook, and follow them on Twitter. If you’ve already been, we’d love to know your favorite entrees!

Reel Seafood, located in the heart of Main Street in Woodstock, is hosting an exclusive wine pairing dinner this Thursday, June 25, starting at 6:30 p.m. Executive Chef & proprietor David Silverman has five courses for the menu, each perfectly paired with a fabulous wine from from the Ferrari-Carano Winery. Here’s what’s on the menu:

1st Course – a Ceviche Martini prepared with Georgia White Shrimp, served with an avocado pozole and a crisp plantain, paired with a crisp 2012 Ferrari-Carano Pinot Grigio.

2nd course – an Heirloom Tomato Burrata Salad with a balsamic reduction, basil oil, and micro greens served with a 2013 Ferrari-Carano Fume Blanc.

3rd course – Braised Oxtails, served with a root vegetable ragout and a 2012 Ferrari-Carano Merlot.

4th course – the fish course will be a Pancetta Wrapped Halibut with herb garlic gnocchi in a truffle mushroom broth, paired with a 2013 Ferrari-Carano Pinot Noir from the Russian River Valley.

5th course – for dessert, the Chef will create a Blood Orange Panna Cotta served with a 2013 Ferrari-Carano Eldorado Noir, also from the famous Russian River Valley.

RSVP Now for Reel Seafood’s Wine Dinner in Woodstock! This exclusive tasting is priced at $75 per person, not including tax and gratuity. Seating is limited, and reservations are highly recommended and can be made by calling Reel at 770-627-3006.

Reel is open for Lunch Monday through Saturday starting at 11:30 a.m.; Dinner is served seven days a week until 10 p.m., and 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday nights. Brunch is served on Sundays from 10:30 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. For information about other upcoming events or reservations, please visit Reel’s website, like them on Facebook, and follow them on Twitter.

Reel is located at 8670 Main Street, Woodstock, GA.

When it comes to dining in the the South, it’s the Northern transplants who are shaping the restaurant scene. Perhaps chefs simply fall in love with the simple art of Southern food because they know of the bounty our land provides. Hugh Acheson knows this love to be true. A group of food bloggers recently gathered for brunch at Acheson’s first Atlanta restaurant, Empire State South (a post Civil War reference for Georgia becoming the cultural and economic hub) to discuss the importance of eating local. He explained that in New York City in order to “eat local” the restaurants ship in from farms six hours away whereas Atlantans eat local comes from farms that are within an hour of the city such as Riverview Farms in Hiawassee, Ga., and Crystal Organics in Newborn, Ga. It’s the amazing gift of a red clay landscape that gives us a plentiful bounty, but it’s up to us Southerners to support our land and its goodness.

“I can’t say enough nice things about the South and where its going.”

Acheson has truly seen the South transform over the past two decades, but don’t you dare call it The New South in his presence. “I hate that term,” he told our group who gathered to celebrate his new book, The Broad Fork. “Being in Georgia has meant a ton to me, and Atlanta has really come to terms with itself.” A native of Canada, Acheson moved to Atlanta at age 10 and spent two years in the South before moving back to Ottawa. In the 1990s, his wife was accepted to the University of Georgia (#GoDawgs) for her master’s program. He opened his first eatery, 5 & 10, in 2000. He now has three more restaurants in Georgia – The National in Athens, The Florence in Savannah, and of course Empire State South. His his fifth restaurant, Spiller Park – a “kiosk style” coffee shop will open in Atlanta’s new Ponce City Market later this year. Here’s what we had for brunch at Empire State South

“You don’t go to your grave 6 ft. under complaining about the time you spent in the kitchen cooking. That’s the best time you’ll ever have – with your family, cooking from scratch.

Acheson says that dining out in Atlanta has turned into a “palpable” experience contrasting with the glossy and glamorous restaurant monikers which plagued the city during the 1990s. “No one really gave a shit about what was on their plate,” he said while touting the importance of dining local and being a patron of places who are “doing the right thing” from a sustainability perspective.

While he’s made his home in the South, Acheson lives a jet-setter lifestyle and joked about how he achieved his Diamond Medallion status on Delta. Although he’s achieved fame from Top Chef and is known as one of the South’s premier restaurateurs, Acheson says that success is not about becoming a celebrity chef but about operating a business where you’re leading people and playing an integral part of the community, “It’s your responsibility to give back, managing a staff who reveres you, and you being willing to do whatever it takes to deliver for them and your customers.”

It’s pretty cool because Acheson was in New York City filming the segment for Today Show with Carson Daly the Saturday morning before our brunch on Sunday.

Special thanks to our hosts YP.com and Eating with Erica for inviting us to this event. Remember y’all #MakeEveryDayLocal and #LovetheSouth

 
 
 

Grain is my new favorite happy hour spot in Midtown. I loved the old space (previously occupied by Mid City Lounge) and the cool decor and patio are a great place to wind down after a busy day.

The cocktail menu here is top notch. Grain even offers Mint Juleps and Old Fashioneds on draft! Kevin (the owner and head bartender…don’t you dare call him a mixologist) makes up a few gallons in a batch, then pumps the drinks through a beer tap. My Old Fashioned was one of the best I’ve had in this city. I also tried a sip of the Ampersand – a light, effervescent cocktail perfect for the summertime.

For snacks, we noshed on the Manhattan-soaked Fuji apples (talk about a fruit cocktail!). Plus the deviled eggs with dijon mustard and crispy salami were delicious. Grain also offers $1 oysters Monday through Friday from 3 to 6 p.m. Again, $1 OYSTERS IN ATLANTA! Gimme more please! Chef Sidney is doing some amazing things out of that tiny kitchen.

Check out Grain’s website for menus, hours, directions & more.

Did y’all know that Alabama has an official state whiskey?

In 2004, the State of Alabama designated Clyde May’s Conecuh Ridge Alabama Style Whiskey as the “official state spirit.” The story behind the founding of Clyde May’s Whiskey is about as Southern as it gets. After serving in World War II, legend has it that Clyde May returned to his native Alabama to raise his eight children and tend to the farm that he had purchased before the war began. Like many farmers at the time, Clyde would distill the excess grains he harvested into corn whiskey. “Branch-farming” he liked to call it. From the 1950s to the 1980s, May managed to produce nearly 300 gallons of whiskey a week just southeast of Montgomery in a still that he had designed and built himself. While much of May’s whiskey was sold un-aged, a portion of the whiskey he produced was aged in charred oak casks. Clyde added oven-dried apples to his barrels. The resulting hints of green apple and cinnamon not only made it smoother than other whiskeys—they’re what made it Alabama Style.

I’d rather break laws than cut corners” ~ Clyde May

Always distilling whiskey outside the law, May was arrested in 1973 and served an 18-month sentence at the Maxwell Air Force Base. “He sure had a reputation for making fine whiskey,” said Thomas Allison, a former officer with the United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. Upon his release, May gave up his cell to the man who convicted him: Attorney General John Mitchell, who was convicted in 1974 on charges relating to the Watergate scandal.

After May’s death in 1990, his son, Kenny, took up the family business and began working with Kentucky Bourbon Distillers to produce a whiskey in honor of his father. Using his father’s recipe and water imported from Conecuh Ridge, May produced the first legal batch of Clyde May’s Conecuh Ridge Alabama Style Whiskey over a decade ago.

Today, Clyde May’s Whiskey continues to be made from the same recipe that Kenneth’s father perfected nearly 50 years ago: a mash of corn, rye and malted barley. Once the grains are distilled, they are aged in oak barrels for an average of five to six years.

The kind folks over at Clyde May’s reached out to us, as they partnered with King of Pops to produce tasty “poptails” this summer. Clyde May’s Poptails are the coolest cocktails around.

Here are a few recipes y’all can try.

All of these recipes make delicious cocktails – or you can pour the concoction into popsicle molds and freeze them overnight.

The Clyde Mule

• Clyde May’s Whiskey
• Ginger Beer
• Lime juice – to taste (we added in a dash of peach bitters too)

Grapefruit Whiskey Sour

• Clyde May’s Whiskey
• Grapefruit Juice
• Simple Syrup

Clyde & Coke

• 2 fl oz Clyde May’s
• Coca Cola
• (optional) 1 fl oz Ginger Juice

Pretty Southern Mint Julep – a Pretty Southern original if you don’t have time to prep & cool simple syrup.

• Clyde May’s Whiskey
• Ginger Ale
• Fresh Mint

Have you tried Clyde May’s or one of these delicious King of Pops “Poptails”? Let us know in the comments section below.

 

 

Pretty Southern was privileged to attend a brown bag wine tasting on the patio at Horseradish Grill. This event featured three different varieties ranging in price from $20 to $150 a bottle. The catch is, we didn’t know which wine we were drinking! All the wine was served in brown paper bags. Check out our Tastemade video to see our wine tasting…

Horseradish Grill

The “Test your Palate” challenge featured three different kinds of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Cabernet Sauvignon, all in brown bags labeled “1, 2, 3”. After tasting each wine, we ranked which ones we thought were the least to most expensive.

I’m definitely my mama’s daughter because I correctly guessed all three Chardonnays! We’re ready to go back to Horseradish Grill anytime. Every tasting we’ve had there has been amazing (check out our post from the garden party last spring!). For more information about Horseradish Grill, check out their website, Twitter, and Facebook.