Atlanta's boutique bakeries on the rise
Marie-Antoine (Antonin) Carême, the founder of French haute cuisine and one of the world's greatest pastry chefs, once remarked that pastry is the principal branch of the fine art that is architecture. Famous for his constructions of sugar and marzipan (many several feet high), Carême was commissioned by many members of Paris' high society, including Napoleon.
How odd to think of pulled sugar and frangipane playing such a pivotal role in society. And yet the quality of a city's bakeries and pastry shops are telltale signs of how much it respects the culinary arts. Atlanta has struggled to support a handful of bakeries that have risen here, and yet they have remained, almost in spite of the masses, catering to a niche of dough-loving devotees.
Alon's has expanded from one location in Va-Hi to another in Dunwoody; Joli Kobe's Roswell location at the Prado is hanging on by a sugar thread (due to the unending construction), and management told me last week that plans to open the new store on Peachtree Street (in Midcity Cuisine's former space) are still in the works for early this fall. The best part of Parish, the New Orleans-style concept from Concentrics Hospitality in Inman Park, is the downstairs bakery and market. And Holeman & Finch Bakery is supposed to open this week, after a few snags delaying the projected July 9 opening (bread like this is well-worth waiting for).
Meanwhile, Chocolate Pink Pastry Cafe continues to make some of the city's most delectable and pastry-perfect designs on Juniper Street (worthy of Carême himself), and Highland Bakery in Inman Park creates incredible, fondant-covered specialty cakes in addition to the soul-comforting Southern sweetness sold in the storefront cafe. And sugar and butter are still mixing it up at A Piece of Cake (in Buckhead and Roswell), Southern Sweets in Decatur and Sweet Auburn Bread Company downtown, as well as a fair amount of yeast and starter at ever-mysterious Bread Garden. Add to these the excellent Korean bakeries that dot the landscape of strip malls in Gwinnett and on Buford Highway — Bakery Cafe Maum and Mozart Bakery (now with three locations: Doraville, Duluth and Suwanee) most notable — and the city's culinary landscape begins to look rich indeed.
Short stack: Milton's Cuisine and Cocktails in Alpharetta has hired Boyd A. Rose as its new executive chef, as well as Jimmy Carter as general manager. Both hail from the popular but now-closed Rainwater. The menu is focusing on "new Southern cuisine."
Cafe Lily in Decatur is hosting a dinner-and-theater combo to benefit Hospice Atlanta on Aug. 21 starting at 5:30 p.m. A prix fixe dinner that includes a showing of Theater Decatur's "Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks" is offered for $60. Go to www.cafelily.com for more info, or call the restaurant at 404-371-9119.
Kool Korners, the wonderful grocery-cum-Cuban sandwich shop, has closed its doors (read more about Kool Korners on my blog at www.ajc.com/tabletalk).
Aja, the French concept from Tom Catherall replacing Emeril's in Buckhead, is scheduled to open Oct. 1.
The Union Restaurant, a retro-70s joint in Milton (think Alpharetta), opened earlier this year from partners Robert Fishman, Chris Sedgwick (of Theo's, Bistro VG, Pure Taqueria and Aspen's) and chef Jay Pollack.
Tell me all about your restaurant cravings: go to www.ajc.com/tabletalk.
