This parkside pub’s bar food satisfies

The Nook, located at the corner of 14th Street and Piedmont Avenue, is the type of restaurant that knows itself well. Though it’s just across the street from Piedmont Park, in the heart of Midtown, the Nook doesn’t try to be anything but a neighborhood pub. Instead of gussying up its menu with fancy ingredients and inflated prices, it lavishes attention and creativity on bar food that will make you smile. Luckily, that feeling comes packaged along with your takeout order, especially if you get the Nook’s Buffalo chicken totchos.

When it comes to the incredibly decadent totchos (Tater Tot nachos), Buffalo chicken is among the more balanced varieties you can order. In such a heavy, rich dish, you need the zing of buffalo sauce and the funk of blue cheese to cut through the mass of fried potatoes. The Nook does it right, with finely diced chunks of white-meat chicken, edge-to-edge sauce coverage, and a generous sprinkling of soft, melty blue cheese.

I’d be remiss not to mention the other dish I ordered from the Nook, a bar food masterpiece that almost beat out the totchos for Dish of the Week honors. The peanut butter and bacon dog is a hearty hot dog that includes everything in its title — but, wait, there’s more! It’s also topped with crumbled potato chips and a pickle spear. The combination feels like it should be wrong, but it tastes absolutely right.