During Midtown Restaurant Week, Mario and I were looking for a restaurant we hadn’t visited with a menu that ventured beyond the chicken/fish/steak on most restaurant week menus. Enter Pacci Ristorante, a new-ish Italian eatery adjacent to the Hotel Palomar. The restaurant is so named for its signature carpaccios, none of which we actually tried on this visit (unfortunately). Despite that, we had a really excellent meal, which started with an amuse of watermelon and prosciutto with balsamic drizzle:

Melon/Prosciutto Amuse

Neither of us were particularly impressed with the amuse-bouche–the melon was sweet but the prosciutto was lackluster and a little overly chewy.

Luckily, from here our meal only improved, beginning with our appetizers: Watercress & Pear Salad (Parmesan tuile, Gorgonzola mousse, candied walnuts), and Papardelle Bolognese in a classic slow braised meat sauce.
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Remember back like, almost 2 months ago, when Atlanta had it’s 2010 Downtown Restaurant Week? Well, this post was supposed to be written then. I know, I’m a little behind. So, way back when, I went to the Midtown location of Spoon with a couple of lovely ladies. If you follow this blog at all, you have probably noticed that I don’t eat a lot of ethnic foods. It’s not at all that I don’t like it, it’s just that I am genuinely clueless about most Eastern cuisines. So to dip my toe in the Thai food pool, I figured a restaurant week with some more experienced eaters would be the way to go. So we stopped into the hip space on a weekday evening and except for the dessert course, ordered one of everything on the restaurant week menu. Our starters: Coconut Soup with Tofu, Sweet Tofu Basil Rolls, and Scallop Samros (three flavored Scallops).

Coconut Soup with Tofu

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Before I start on Restaurant Week, if you haven’t noticed, I’ve had a snazzy new icon up on my “social media bar” at the top right of this page for a few weeks. That ubiquitous “F” will take you right to First Bite’s Facebook Page. If you have noticed, then why don’t you “like” it yet?!

Now, I know I just gushed about Inman Park and their Restaurant Week 2 posts back, but now the announcement has been made for my for-real favorite Restaurant Week–Midtown!

Image via atlrestaurantweek.com

Midtown Restaurant Week will run from Sept. 4 – Sept. 12. Just like the previously mentioned restaurant week, restos participating in Midtown Restaurant Week offer 3-course $25 prix fixe menus. I’m personally pretty excited about 4th & Swift and Serpas True Food participating this year (and the latter has an overdue blog post in my queue). As an added bonus, some of the participants are also offering $15 3-course lunch menus. I won’t go through the 5-W’s this time, as the workings of a restaurant week are pretty standard, so you can check out the participating restaurants and menus here. Make those reservations soon!

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.

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:

Gumbo

Veggie Pizza

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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

Quickie post…not much to say besides: the strawberry cheesecake popsicle was fab and GO GET SOME NOW!!

King of Pops @ the Irwin Street Market

Strawberry Cheesecake Pop

I stopped into the Irwin St. Market (The King of Pops’ current home base) for my fix, but owner Steven Carse also has a roving cart (currently on the corner of North Ave. and N. Highland). Check out his interview on Scoutmob for more details on the King and what sparked the idea, and follow @thekingofpops on Twitter or check the Facebook page for daily menu updates!

And get some more lowdown from FoodieBuddha!

The 2nd Bite post was previously reserved only for Flip Burger Boutique, but I had to come back to post on Noon Midtown’s breakfast offerings, particularly their special, The Stack (fried chicken, benton’s bacon, cheddar, sausage gravy, fried egg on a biscuit). Or maybe it was just to show off this awesome photo I took, and with my cell phone to boot:

The Stack

Yes, it tastes as amazing as it looks. And it was so huge, I ended up skipping lunch.

Check out Noon for lunch and breakfast, which I can now vouch for, and they even deliver around Midtown now (though not to GT )!

www.noonmidtown.com

I checked out new Midtown favorite Noon Midtown for lunch last week. Noon is run by a chef-turned-lawyer-turned-chef again who was searching for good lunch options in Midtown and decided to open her own. I don’t know much else about Noon, other than that they serve sandwiches, my favorite food, and are receiving awards for said fare.

Noon Midtown

I tried the Turkey sandwich (house-roasted turkey, fresh mozzarella, cranberry relish, basil aioli on country bread), which, according to their website has changed for fall to include bacon and a different condiment combo.
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I planned a girls’ night out last weekend…sorta. I wanted to get together and do something, but couldn’t think of what. Luckily, one of us had tried and liked TWO Urban Licks, and the other 2 were interested in checking it out. There’s no pic of the facade because the outside of TWO is basically a warehouse. Inside, however, is a huge, busy space surrounding an impressive rotisserie. On our visit, we tried tons of tapas:

Lamb Flat Bread

Shaved Calamari

Oysters & Onion Straws

As a quick follow-up to my Vickery’s dinner post, here’s a little blurb on a little cupcake I had from Chocolate Pink Cafe for dessert.

Mochaccino Cupcake

The Mochaccino cupcake (vanilla chiffon cake, coffee cream filling, chocolate ganache, coffee buttercream) was moist and flavorful. I especially loved the coffee buttercream on top (but frosting is always my favorite). I also love cupcake fillings and was really looking forward to biting into the coffee cream filling, but I was disappointed because I didn’t get much flavor out of it. I think the buttercream may have overwhelmed it.

Zifty delivered my cupcake as well, but I hear Chocolate Pink has a really fabulous space that can be enjoyed cafe-style or rented out for events.

www.chocolatepinkcafe.com