ETRIS KITCHEN & BAR
Overall rating: 2 of 5 stars
Food: contemporary American
Service: highly variable
Best dishes: fried chicken, she-crab soup
Vegetarian selections: a few starter salads
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Price range: $$-$$$
Credit cards: all major credit cards
Hours: 4:30-9:30 p.m. Sundays-Thursdays, 4:30-10 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays
Children: fine
Parking: shared lot
Reservations: yes
Wheelchair access: yes
Smoking: no
Noise level: moderate
Patio: yes
Takeout: yes
Address, phone: 12020 Etris Road, Roswell. 770-545-8650.
Website: www.etriskitchen.com
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MORE OPTIONS FOR THIS TYPE OF CUISINE
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Seed Kitchen & Bar, located in east Cobb's Merchant's Walk shopping center, serves modern American cuisine prepared by chef and owner Doug Turbush. Favorites here include the roasted beets and watermelon salad with pistachios, house-made ravioli and the High Road Craft ice cream and sorbet tasting. Check out the beverage menu with fun vintage and modern cocktails, craft beers and wine. 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Sundays, 11:30 a.m.-10 p.m. Mondays-Thursdays, 11:30 a.m.-11 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays. 1311 Johnson Ferry Road, Marietta. 678-214-6888, www.eatatseed.com. $$-$$$.
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Three Blind Mice
At this neighborhood gathering place, you'll see evidence of chef Matthew Murphy's French culinary training on the menu. Lunch brings sandwiches like the Croque-Monsieur or Madame and rich, heavy dinner dishes such as steak Diane and pan-roasted, double-cut pork chops. Look for weekly events including Wednesday wine tastings, Thursday tapas and Sunday beer tastings. 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Sundays, 9 a.m.-10 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays. 1066 Killian Hill Road S.W., Lilburn. 770-696-4139, www.tbmrestaurant.com. $$-$$$.
DEKALB
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Unveiling a new menu can be a tricky endeavor for a restaurant.
Each item removed is sure to disappoint some segment of the customer base. Restaurants may have to go for the hard sell to garner support for a new menu, particularly if changes are significant. And as customer liaisons, it’s the servers who have the delicate task of promoting new dishes and securing that customer buy-in.
Etris Kitchen & Bar in Roswell just implemented a menu overhaul to coincide with the arrival of its new chef Boyd Rose. Offerings have shifted from tavern-style pizzas and burgers to more composed small plates and entrees fit for “families and foodies,” which owner Massi Mekhmoukh said is the restaurant’s target market.
But before Etris can gain customer support, it needs to cultivate it from within. We heard one server singing the praises of the new dishes to a nearby table, but ours shook his head in bitter disappointment and groused about the new menu. He informed us on our first visit that we’d missed out. Welcome.
Ultimately, this neighborhood spot will need to get the nod of approval from the locals it serves. Families will appreciate the satisfying fare, the $24 entree cap, the relaxed atmosphere and lovely patio with stacked-stone accents. The foodies Etris hopes to attract will cotton to Rose’s efforts to source locally and seasonally, but may find his heavy-handed and repeated use of demi-glace uninspired. Foodies may enjoy trying one of the beers like the Cherry Street Brewing Cooperative’s Coconut Porter ($6) on tap, but may sniff at having most brews served in the same logoed beer-can glassware.
Rose, who once led the kitchen at Milton’s Cuisine and Cocktails, has a traditional approach with a pronounced Southern bent. His classic she-crab soup ($8) may not be gussied up, but it hits the right notes for me. It’s cream overload, plentiful crab and that generous, albeit controversial, spiral of cream sherry. Just the way I like it.
I’m also a fan of the fried chicken ($18), which is more like chicken-fried chicken than the greasy bone-in bird a purist might expect of the fried variety. Here, the moist boneless breast comes encased in a semi-crisp, well-seasoned crust that’s both light and savory. It really doesn’t even need the rich bacon-jalapeno gravy.
And that’s a recurring theme here. Rose said that he’s working to simplify his dishes, and I’d suggest he consider starting with the sauces. As much as I believe sauces can be key to unifying a dish, here they are superfluous. Take the chimichurri flat-iron steak ($19), a beautifully fanned piece of beef loaded with thick herb marinade. The pool of demi-glace beneath competes with the bright freshness of the herbs. Furthermore, the concentrated sauce overtakes the delicate notes of brown butter on the braised Brussels sprouts. I’d order this again, just sans sauce.
A very similar sauce accompanies the beef rib ($10), which needs an accompaniment for moisture and flavor. Yet, the dish is far too heavy with red-wine demi pooled on top of cream-rich risotto. Perhaps this was not a good choice for a mid-August evening on the patio. Let’s save it for our coldest day in the coming winter.
Some dishes like the red-chile-glazed buttermilk-fried shrimp ($11) are as sweet as the beef is rich. Four fried shrimp perch atop a fresh little sesame slaw made with crispy cucumber crescents. The overwhelming takeaway here, however, is sugar. In fact, I had to battle the patio’s yellow jackets who made a beeline for this dish alone.
Similarly, if you could dial back the dulcitude of the honey-glazed, apple-brined pork flat-iron ($19), you might have a winner. Cooked in the brick oven, the slightly chewy cut absorbs some of the wood smoke, just not quite enough to cut that glaze. The impression of sweetness is highlighted by the accompanying roasted-apple mash and orange-scented collards.
The desserts here are surprisingly well balanced with character beyond a sugary front. The utterly homey wedge of carrot cake ($7) with a dump of tangy cream cheese icing glopping down the side is moist and fragrant. The fudge-y flourless chocolate torte ($7) has enough chocolate bitterness to play counterpoint to the sticky peanut butter glaze.
I see promise. With just a few tweaks and some internal buy-in, Etris Kitchen & Bar could be a thriving option for local families, if not the foodies just yet.
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