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Thursday, February 5, 2009
If Joel Can Make it There …
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
He’ll Make it Anywhere, Right? The Oak Room Takes a Bit of a Beating From Bruni
After opening three months ago, the newly refurbished and grandiose dining room at the Oak Room in NYC has been reviewed by the New York Times.
Times critic Frank Bruni gives chef Joel Antunes homage in terms of training and skill, but mostly pans his efforts in the grand restaurant’s kitchen, giving the Oak Room one star, with lots of verbal battering: “There were letdowns, huge and many. Thanks to overcooked pasta, a lasagna appetizer with a sunchoke purée degenerated into mush — and pricey mush at that. It was $58, reflecting a bevy of black truffles. But the truffles in this dish, and in many others, had little taste.”
Joel’s salmon with mustard ice cream, the Atlanta version a favorite at his eponymous restaurant in Buckhead, falls flat with Bruni: “The salmon in another appetizer was frigid and hard, and the fish’s flavor was lost among a literal blizzard of effects, including mustard ice cream.”
Meanwhile, breakfast is what it’s all about in the BIg A, and I’m not taking New York: Esquire Magazine has has named its first-ever guide to America’s best breakfast in its March issue, and Atlanta’s own Ria’s Bluebird and Thumbs Up Diner have made the list. Where’s your favorite breakfast in Atlanta?
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