I had almost forgotten about writing this post until I clicked through some photo albums on my computer and saw the pictures from the meal. It would have been a real travesty if I hadn’t caught it, because I enjoyed my meal at Serpas True Food so much.

Serpas Restaurant

Serpas is located in the Old Fourth Ward and is situated midway between Lotta Frutta and the Irwin St. Market. The head chef, Scott Serpas, hails from South Louisiana (instant check-plus for that) and worked in restaurants from Texas to The A before opening his own in 2008. Mario and I stopped by for dinner on a weekday evening. We immediately loved the wide open space of the restaurant, which has probably 15′ ceilings (don’t take my word for that, I’m terrible at estimating measurements) and is dominated by a wall of windows on one side. First off, I have to comment on our AWESOME service. Our waiter was one of the most enthusiastic I’ve ever had and clearly enjoyed the food at Serpas. He deftly fielded our questions, made recommendations, and gave insightful comments on what dishes were his favorites and why. Unfortunately, I don’t remember his name, but if all the servers at Serpas are as passionate as he is, you’re in for a nice night.

Now then, the food. We had a My Daily Thread coupon (like a Groupon) to spend, so we did our version of a “splurge” and ordered an app, entrees, AND dessert. To start, I ordered the flash fried oysters (pickled chilies, mirliton) and actually got picky eater Mario to try one!
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A few weeks ago I went out to lunch with my favorite former boss. We were both looking forward to this trip and had actually planned our outing even before I left for my internship in Dayton, because we had both heard great things about the Buford Hwy seafood spot Crawfish Shack.

Crawfish Shack

In my mind, Crawfish Shack is working to emulate the coastal eateries I grew up around in Louisiana. The interior consisted of a very simple ordering counter, picnic-style tables, and cheesy plastic seafood decor on the walls. Menu items include mixed seafood platters containing mostly fried items (as it should be) and po’boys. I’m usually VERY wary of restaurants outside of Louisiana trying to do the Cajun thing, but the good news is, Crawfish Shack does it VERY well.
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A few of my labmates have been feeling adventurous in their new city and started a dinner club of sorts by choosing a new restaurant to visit every week. For my first outing with the group, I joined in for a visit to Seasons 52 in Buckhead. What sets Seasons 52 apart is not only its seasonally (and even weekly, for some items) rotating menu, but the fact that everything on the menu is under 475 calories. No, that is not a typo. If nothing else, a visit to Seasons 52 is a good opportunity to see that low-cal food can actually have flavor, and to find out what an actual portion size should look like. We were happy to find that our dishes were not just an experiment in bland diet food, but were actually pretty good.

We started out with one of their famous flatbreads (Grilled steak and cremini mushroom with fresh spinach and Wisconsin blue cheese) and edamame with green tea salt (no picture) to share:

Steak & Mushroom Flatbread

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For my birthday last month (I turned 21 for the 3rd time, but also made the decision to allow myself to age next year), my lovely fiancé took me on a long drive up GA-400 and treated me to dinner at Indigo in Roswell. I picked the place, mostly on memories of a positive review from Food Near Snellville and a number of thumbs up on Urbanspoon. The ride up to Roswell was fairly long, but I thought the meal was worth it.

Indigo

When we parked at Indigo, we were slightly concerned that it wasn’t even open. Ours was the only car in the lot. When we got to the door, there were indeed 2 people at the bar and a few servers milling about, though we remained the only other customers for a good 30 minutes. I understand that Indigo’s outdoor space is the place to be for Roswell’s Alive After 5 event, but on this Sunday evening, it was pretty dead.

I’m going to have to try and recreate dish names from memory since the menu on Indigo’s website is slightly different from what we saw, but we started out with chicken satays with chipotle buffalo sauce & herb-buttermilk dip, basically a fancy name for “fried chicken on a stick”:
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Although it hasn’t been THAT long since my last post, I feel as though I may be falling into a summer slump. Atlanta heat lends itself more to blending up smoothies and lounging than pecking away on a laptop, but I’m working to integrate the two to keep the posts flowing On my new fiancé’s (yep, I’m engaged!!) last short stint in Atlanta, we decided to check out Lunacy Black Market for lunch. I’ve been hearing good things about the place, and especially about the price, so we wound our way through downtown to find the storefront on a fairly quiet street off MLK. When we walked into the restaurant, Mario actually looked around and turned to walk out. “Is this the right place? It looks like a furniture store.” And indeed it does, with random collections of tables and chairs, couches, and bookshelves set up around the room.

Lunacy Interior

We quickly scanned the short menu and decided to order a few of the tapas-style dishes (which makes sense when you know that the chef/owner Paul Luna also runs founded Eclipse di Luna and Loca Luna). I was a little disappointed that they no longer have the slider-sized sandwiches on the menu that I’d heard about since their opening, but what we had to choose from was still a good selection. We probably could even have ordered the whole menu to sample–everything was under $4. You read that right, FOUR DOLLARS. To start, I decided to try the cabbage salad I’d read good things about on Eat it, Atlanta‘s blog:
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Another spot in Dayton I decided I needed to try was City Barbeque. I could always smell the smoke wafting out when I stopped by Chick-fil-A, and let’s not even mention the fact that it’s attached to a Graeter’s ice cream shop.

City Barbeque

Founded by a BBQ competition team in 1999, City Barbeque’s menu offerings cover many of the US’s barbeque styles. According to their website: “Our pork shoulder is reminiscent of the southeastern United States, the brisket and sausage take you to Texas, and the ribs exude a blend of Memphis and Kansas City.” When I floated into the restaurant on a wave of smoke à la an old Warner Brothers’ cartoon, I decided to keep it simple with a pulled pork sandwich (slider sized for lunch) and my first ever taste of fried pickles:

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Well, I’ve made it out of Ohio, took a quick trip home for the 4th of July, and now I’m back in Atlanta. I’ve only got a few posts from Ohio as most of the area around me was populated with casual dining chains. One chain that I found and loved, however, was Penn Station East Cost Subs.

Penn Station

Penn Station is a sandwich chain that started in Cincinnati, OH in 1985 and now has 200+ locations across 12 states. They’re known for their cheesesteak, and I tried one on more than one occasion, along with their vegetarian Grilled Artichoke sub (among other things. I visited a lot.):

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The day I left Atlanta was a hectic one, as I had to finish packing and wrap things up in the lab. Luckily, I had a temporary respite in the form of a media luncheon at Lobby Bar and Bistro in Atlantic Station, hosted by the Concentrics Restaurants. I convinced one of my girls’ breakfast buddies to be my +1 and we headed over to Lobby, housed on the ground floor of TWELVE.

Lobby

The purpose of the lunch was to introduce–or rather, reintroduce–new-old executive chef Nick Oltarsh. Oltarsh opened Lobby Bar and Bistro in 2005 and after a stint at Murphy’s in Virginia Highland, he has returned to Lobby. The menu contained a number of “New South” favorites on which I was excited to see Chef Oltarsh’s take, such as shrimp & grits and chicken & waffles. We started out with a variety of appetizers–chicken & waffles, seared tuna, pizzas, and gumbo–and this course included some of the favorites for the day:

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This is a much delayed post on the last Girls’ Breakfast (though this one was really brunch) of the semester with two of my lovely classmates. For this excursion, we decided to venture a little further outside our usual Midtown/Downtown range and try out Sun in My Belly in The Dec.

Sun in My Belly (via suninmybelly.com)

Sun in My Belly is a full-service catering and event design company that also happens to have both a “neighborhood cafe” in Decatur/Kirkwood and a “garden cafe” at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens. We visited the former for brunch on a warm and breezy morning and decided to sit on SiMB’s back porch to enjoy our meal. Both of my companions were in a breakfast-y mood and ordered the Challah French toast (stuffed with honeyed ricotta, served with brown sugar glazed berries and maple syrup), but I was in the mood for a sandwich and decided on the Rose Pistolla with a side of mac & cheese:
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I met up with Atlanta Restaurant Blogger Malika in the not-so-distant past for lunch at recently opened Crazy Cuban on 14th St. As the name implies, Crazy Cuban serves Cuban sandwiches. And since sandwiches are easily my favorite food, I was looking forward to stopping in for a taste. The small shop consists of the food prep area and counter and a small bar for customers, so it’s really meant for take-out. There are also some picnic tables in the back parking lot which would benefit from a tent or something for shade.

To me, a Cuban sandwich should be a textural sensation – a mix of slightly crunchy bread, gooey cheese, crisp pickles, and juicy meats. The best one I’ve had in recent memory is from TINY Bistro, so theirs is my “gold standard” for now. A few bloggers (Eat Buford Highway, Foodie Buddha) have lamented the fact that Crazy Cuban’s signature sandwich contains veggies–lettuce, tomato, and jalapenos–which you don’t typically see on a Cuban. I don’t know whether it was due to the bloggers, direct customer complaints, or what, but Crazy Cuban now offers both a “Traditional” and a “Classic” Cuban. I think the Traditional is veggie-free, but don’t quote me on that. Whatever the name, that’s what I ordered (as did Malika), along with a bag of plantain chips and a drink:

Veggie-less Cuban