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Monday, January 28, 2008
Sliding Into New Trends
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The sliders at Trois
photo: Louie Favorite/AJC staff
January is about to end, and a few trends, though not exactly new, are emerging in Atlanta’s dining scene that will make for fun eating in the next 11 months.
Mintel Menu Insights, a national restaurant-tracking service that spots and reports on national trends, has pinpointed one of the hottest: minis. No, not skirts. Not Dr. Evil’s sidekick. Mini versions of bigger favorites like burgers, wraps and cupcakes.
Minis not only satisfy the urge to order something snack like, they provide smaller portions that allow you to reasonably try more things from a menu. They’re also less expensive than their big brother counterparts. And dang, they’re cute.
Concentrics Hospitality’s restaurants seem to have the market share in the area. Two Urban Licks (which I wrote about last week) serves scrumptious po’ boy sliders of fried shrimp and tartar sauce, fired up with lettuce, tomato and Tabasco. And mini cupcakes of pistachio, chocolate and spiced carrot are on the bill for dessert. Trois serves terrific sliders at its chic bar downstairs — order a drink (gin is always nice with itty bitty burgers) and sink your pearlies into a hunk of halibut, coq au vin with a mire poix spread (that’s celery, onion and carrot puree) on a poppy seed roll or the best — beef short ribs on focaccia. Clearly these mini meat bites aren’t just for Krystal anymore.
One of my favorite things at Lola, in Buckhead, is a trio of mini ice cream cones set up sweetly in a sushi hand roll rack. Very clever. And fun. Seasons 52’s sexy stems of mini desserts are the best thing on the menu.
Are you seeing minis? Where? What have you tried?
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