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If Not BBQ, Then What?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
YOUR FAVORITE SPOT HERE: What kind of food map would you make of Georgia?
Photo: Frank Niemeir/AJC
My Dishing column in today’s accessAtlanta takes a look at two quirky dudes who love their barbecue. Scott Sapp has spent the last 30 years mapping his favorite barbecue spots in the state, from north to south, and Phil Beaubien’s Hickory Pig in Gainesville is one of them.
Mapping the state’s barbecue offerings is a Herculean task. I can’t imagine the tenacity Sapp must have, and I do this sort of thing for a living — no one’s even paying this guy. Here’s a link to download the map from Delta Sky Magazine’s editor (and bbq aficionado) David Bailey — thanks, David!
We’ve talked BBQ here before, and you’ve let me know exactly how you feel about it. Sapp’s cartographic conatus has got me wondering what subject matter I’d pick if I were to set about a similar task: Would I map the state’s best ice cream places ? Fried chicken greasy spoons? Hot dog joints? All would be worthy causes.
What kind of food map would you make of Georgia, and what spot would you start with on your map?
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Next Plate, Please: My Five Fave for Small Plates
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I’M SO NOT BORED: the calamari fritti and mojito at Eclipse di Luna
Photo: Rich Addicks/AJC
Something has happened to me over the course (pardon the pun) of the last nine years of dining out.
I get really bored when I eat.
Years of tasting small bites of things, then moving on to the next, has trained me to 1) Eat too fast when I am eating a regular meal and 2) Get really bored with just one big dish.
Luckily, there are places around town where I can take advantage of the small plate/tapas/mezza mania that’s been going on for the last few years. Places that specialize in tasting and moving on. Here are my picks:
1) The appetizers at Tierra in Buckhead — I never have to move to entrees here if I don’t want to: the musky, corn flavor of Salvadoran pupusas filled with cheese served with a pickly curtido; a pionono of plantains and sweetly seasoned beef; mussels in pasilla pepper broth. Yummers. What’s for dessert? The best tres leches this side of the equator. Unbored rating: 8.5
2) The small, groovy offerings at Beleza — organic kale cooked up Bahian style; forbidden black rice; watermelon and tuna crudo. Put an acerola mojito in my hands, and I’m a happy, unbored girl. Unbored rating: 8.5
3) Decatur’s Chocolate Bar provides small, savory bites of charcuterie, but I come here for the blast of savvy desserts. Where else can I get roquefort sorbet with Georgia pecan toffee? Unbored rating: 9
4) The bar at Trois makes it impossible to get bored, between groovy sliders of beef, smoked salmon and pork and even groovier retro cocktails, a perch on a bar stool here keeps me very perky. Unbored rating: 9
5) Eclipse di Luna has been doing authentic Spanish tapas — the right way, and before it was ultra hip — for a long time. Don’t send me to Dunwoody, I want the original Miami Circle location for patatas bravas and romesco sauce, calamari fritti and those incredible short ribs. Slurp. Unbored rating: 10
Where’s your fave spots to eat smallish?
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Should Critics Be Anonymous?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A recent comment on my last blog entry made a valid point about the anonymity of a dining critic. The comment commended that I acknowledged in my recent review of Home that I had been recognized by the staff at the restaurant, but wondered how unfair that recognition is for the restaurants out there who still don’t know a critic when they see one.
First, some background: It is the policy of the AJC (and all major newspapers) for the dining critic to visit restaurants anonymously. I visit unannounced, use credit cards with false names that do not bear any company signature or trademark and the AJC reimburses me for the cost of my meals. I visit restaurants several times over the course of several weeks, sometimes months, to garner the information needed to write a review. I do not knowingly accept free items from a restaurant; if something doesn’t show up on the bill I ask for it to be put on the bill. If that doesn’t happen, I cover the cost of the item in my tip.
I’ve been at this for a little over four years now at the AJC, and the staffs at many restaurants around the city definitely know what I look like. I do not wear disguises. When I feel that my treatment may have been altered because of this recognition, I mention that in the review.
Now, here’s the gist of the blog comment: What about the restaurants that haven’t figured me out yet? Isn’t that unfair to them?
I’d like to address this on several levels.
All dining critics for major newspapers — from Tom Sietsama at the Washington Post to Frank Bruni at the New York Times — are recognized. Bruni’s picture is all over the internet; all anyone has to do is google him. Some critics have been at this gig for so many years that anonymity is impossible. That doesn’t mean we’re all wining and dining with the chef and getting special treatment. On the contrary. We all work by the same rules, above. Most restaurants actually get the gig and other than pleasant acknowledgments, leave us alone to do our work. Major restaurants in Atlanta who haven’t figured out what the restaurant critics in this town look like aren’t doing their job, frankly.
What changes when a critic is recognized? For the most part, service. All of a sudden I will notice that my server went from having four tables in his station, to one: mine. The owner is paying a lot of attention to me. In the kitchen, several plates of the same thing I’ve ordered might be made and the best is chosen for the table. But think about this: A chef isn’t made in a night, or two, or three (frankly, neither is a waitstaff). If you can cook, you can cook. Nothing about a critic in the house is suddenly going to make a great chef out of you.
It’s my job to assess all this as fairly and as accurately as possible. If I feel something about my visit has been altered enough to make a difference in a review, I mention it in my writing. I do that to protect you, the reader, and those restaurants out there that still haven’t figured out what I look like yet.
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Meridith Ford-Bio
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
FAQs of a newspaper dining critic:
Q: Does the restaurant know whom you are when you eat there?
A: The idea is to be anonymous, although that’s getting harder and harder to do in this town. And I’m not one for disguises. How stupid would it look for me to visit a restaurant and have the owner look at me and wonder, “Why is Meridith Ford wearing that ridiculous wig?” I’m not into my fake mustache falling into my martini, either.
Q: Surely the restaurant pays for your meal, right? That’s why they get good reviews?
A: Are you on crack? What’s your explanation for a bad review? The AJC pays for ALL my meals when I’m on the clock, and frankly, I’m pretty much always on the clock.
Q: How many times do you visit a restaurant before it’s written about in a review?
A: For the full review that appears in Friday’s Living Section (and online at www.accessatlanta.com ), I visit the restaurant an average of three times, sometimes four. If something was exceptionally good, I want to make sure it was exceptionally good more than once. Ditto if it was bad — I mean, maybe the chef was having an off night or something.
Q: How did you get your job? It must be the greatest job in the world…
A: I have no idea how I got this job. I consider myself pretty lucky. I do have street cred, though: I was a chef for a long time in another life, and then started styling food for local publications. That prompted writing, and writing led to a lot of gigs with some national magazines. I was the dining critic for the Providence Journal for five years before I came back to Atlanta, my hometown.
It is a really fun job, and a privilege. There are nights when I’d like to hole up in front of TV with my jammies and a bowl of popcorn, though
Q: Why aren’t you fat?
A: Dude, three words: cross fit training.
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Home Sweet Home for Blais?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
BLAIS ON TOP CHEF: Will he stay at Home?
Photo: Bravo
My dining review in today’s Living section is of Home, a new venue for restaurateur Tom Catherall and Top Chef chef Richard Blais.
Catherall is known for the type of popular venues that put a butt in every seat until the next big thing comes along; Blais is known not only as a finalist on Top Chef but as the molecular gastro guru of Atlanta. The concept is farm-to-table (mostly) brought to the table in the form of savvy Southern fare. Seems an odd coupling, and an even odder menu for two culinarians who’ve never adhered to the local/ sustainable movement before….
But Blais is cooking better than ever, and the venue seems to work. At least to me it does. Have you been to Home? What did you think?
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Meredith, Why does it take so long between reviews? I wish that you would post everyday instead of once or twice a week. Would you like some help?... read the full comment by snorfledork | Comment on Next Plate, Please: My Five Fave for Small Plates Read Next Plate, Please: My Five Fave for Small Plates
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Coleman House Inn In Swainsboro, Ga. and Stinson’s Barbeque in Lumber City, Ga.... read the full comment by Michael | Comment on If Not BBQ, Then What? Read If Not BBQ, Then What?