PAPER PLANE
340 Church St., Decatur. 404-377-9308, the-paper-plane.com, $$$.
It has taken me a while to figure out Paper Plane. This mature cocktailery/restaurant hides coyly behind its cheap, fun rock ’n’ roll baby sister, Victory Sandwich Bar. The small interior (a bar and booths) goes for a look of analog chic — old hi-fi equipment with shiny silver dials shares bar shelving with glasses and bottles. Not a retro-modern speakeasy per se, but Paper Plane seems to be heading in that direction.
Here’s what it is not: a Holeman & Finch wannabe. The food doesn’t have that bloody, calorie-packed indulgence, and it isn’t really a small plates restaurant. Try the snapper panzanella — an heirloom tomato salad topped with a pan-roasted fillet and a few cherishable croutons.
But you’re really here for Paul Calvert’s splendid cocktails. The cocktail menu will list ingredients you may not recognize, such as velvet falernum and coco bongo. You could interrogate the waitress or just wait and see what comes. It might be creamy white and served in an old champagne coupe (the “Make-out Bandit”) or brown and limpid with a serious ice cube (the “Formal Wednesday”). Grab a seat on the patio, and you’re sitting pretty.
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