Restaurant experiment: Farm Burger

Farm Burger

401B West Ponce de Leon Avenue between Northern Avenue and Fairview Avenue

Decatur, GA 30030

404-378-5077

http://www.farmburger.net

Hankering for some beef between buns, I perused Yelp listings for a commendable burger in Atlanta and came up with Farm Burger, amongst other options.  They recently opened a second location in Buckhead which speaks to its popularity.  And it’s all down with the whole locavore movement; they raise their own cows and use local suppliers.  In agreement, Dave and I set Farm Burger as our dining destination.

Since it was just past 5 pm on a Sunday night, Farm Burger wasn’t too crowded.  There’s a parking lot right by the restaurant so you don’t have to worry about street parking.  The restaurant has sort of a loft feeling, with lots of big windows and some wooden beams.  You order at the counter and then sit down; your meal is then brought to your table.  I got a slightly flippant vibe from the cashier girl, but maybe I was imagining it.  The runners were a bit more gregarious.

It took a while for us to decide, or rather I decided quickly but Dave put more thought into his selection.  Something weird is that you can only order your beef medium or well done.  Um, okay.  There are free toppings and some toppings that are a surcharge.  I was impressed that you could buy such items as bone marrow ($3) and pork belly ($2).  My $6 basic burger had the usual goodies like lettuce, tomato, onion, and pickles, but I also added Maytag blue cheese for a buck more.  As a separate side, I ordered the Farm Burger garlic Parmesan fries with my burger.

There wasn’t too much seating, but luckily we didn’t have to fight anyone for a table.  The three large communal tables were occupied by adults and their offspring.  Seems like Farm Burger is the place for nourishment post-soccer or whatnot games.

The house pickles were on the sweeter side, and they were juicy beings.  The liquid just clashed horribly with the intense blue cheese, producing an unappealing sensation on the palate.  It was slightly bizarre.  The fries were very seasoned.  Best consumed while hot?  Wanted them a tad crispier, but oh well.

I will gladly give Farm Burger another shot.  Maybe I just ordered the wrong topping combination.  I do like getting the warm fuzzies when I’m eating, knowing the cow had a cushy life and all that jazz.

Restaurant experiment: Newk’s Express Cafe

Newk’s Express Cafe

612 Montgomery Highway at Laurel Road

Suite 110

Vestavia Hills, AL 35216

205-777-0442

When I see Newk’s, I think Newt’s.  Does anyone else feel the same way?  But I don’t think about Newt Gingrich.  Thank goodness.

So I met Laura at this brand new Newk’s in Vestavia Hills on the early side of a weekday evening.  This was my first Newk’s experience since once we aborted a mission to eat at the one on 280 because parking was not to be found.  Thankfully that was not the issue at this branch.  Laura likes Newk’s a lot, and therefore I was looking forward to this dining experience.

Newk’s is another one of those order-at-the-counter places.  The counter staff appeared to possibly be high school kids.  But what sets Newk’s apart (aside from the take-home plastic cups you receive with a drink order) is the toppings bar.  It is pretty darn amazing.  Croutons, cheese, capers, pickles, you name it.  And slender breadsticks imported from Italy!  I scooped up extra Parm and croutons for my salad.  Huzzah!

I ordered the half sandwich and half salad combo for a little under 8 bucks.  For the sandwich, I picked out the pesto chicken with peppers and goat cheese, toasted, and for the salad, I went with the Caesar because you could only decide from the Caesar or the “Simply” salad, and I hadn’t had a Caesar in a long time.  I just saw Rise of the Planet of the Apes, so now I think of mutant chimpanzees when I type “Caesar.”

I have no complaints about the salad.  It was a quite generous portion, and the dressing tasted as it should for a Caesar.  The sandwich was a little on the smaller side, I must say.  It wish it were enlarged.  The salad’s too big and the sandwich’s too small.  How very Goldilocks.  But the pesto chicken was good.  It was the goat cheese, most definitely.  I probably love anything with goat cheese slapped on it.  Mmm.  No worries, I just stuffed myself with Italian breadsticks as a side dish.

There was really loud music coming from somewhere, where, we couldn’t figure out.  Didn’t seem like it was emanating from the Mexican joint next door.  Mysterious.  And annoying.  If you don’t like kids, Newk’s is not the place for you as there were families galore.  The bathrooms are posh, if that’s your thing.  Looking forward to trying the Newk’s on Richard Arrington sometime in the future.

Restaurant experiment: Decatur Diner

Decatur Diner

205 East Ponce de Leon Avenue between Church Street and North Candler Street

Decatur, GA 30030

404-377-8787

The Decatur Diner apparently is pretty new.  When Dave and I stopped in one Sunday late afternoon, it was vacant except for the servers.  The space was clean and roomy, with two separated eating areas.  There’s seating outside but since it was rainy and getting dark, that notion was not even an option.  We plopped ourselves in a booth with good views of football on the television.  In true New York diner style, the menu is 1000 pages long.  And I do believe it was spiral-bound and in color and laminated.  Our waitress was a chatty specimen who kept an eye on us.

Usually I order a cheeseburger at a diner, but I was feeling adventurous so I decided to order the Philly cheesesteak.  Only they had some alternative name for it.  Like the Philly-style steak sandwich or something.  Is Philly cheesesteak patented?  ©®?  Anyway, I ordered Greek potatoes for my side.  Very daring, was I.

Here’s what came out.

The cheesesteak was satisfactory.  No Whiz, but that was fine.  The sandwich came out steaming hot.  The girth contributed to its self-destruction though, as the bun collapsed like Lehman Brothers.  Massive.  I was so full that I couldn’t eat all of my potatoes, and that made me sad.  I ate a few bites of the coleslaw but that was not of much concern to me since I don’t like coleslaw all that much anyway.  The potatoes were very Greeky and lemony and herby.  And soft.  I hate potatoes when they are practically raw.  Dave ate some of my leftover potatoes so I was less sad about leaving food.

Luckily some more people came in during the dinner so it wasn’t just us.  Having a 24 hour restaurant is just dandy.  I don’t speak from experience, but I bet Decatur Diner doesn’t have a spare seat when all the nearby bars shut down and people want grub after guzzling.  But now I know that if I find myself having consumed a lot of alcohol in downtown Decatur, I can come to Decatur Diner for an absorbing Philly cheesesteak.

Restaurant experiment: Kittichai

Kittichai

60 Thompson Street between Spring Street and Broome Street

New York, NY 10012

212-219-2000

http://kittichairestaurant.com/index2.html

As it was Leslie’s birthday, she was selected this establishment to celebrate her birth.  Since Dave and I showed up before the guest of honor, we chilled in the restaurant’s bar until Leslie arrived.  The restaurant, especially the lobby and bar, are decorated splendidly.  Some cool ironwork of Thai script.  However, the price for a dirty martini wasn’t cool.  $15???  Eep.

Our large party was seated by the pond.  Inside the pond were candles floating in glass bowls, and because there was some sort of stealth current, the bowls lazily made a circle around the pond again and again.  Dave and I had fun joking with our table neighbors Andrew and Matt about which candle was going to win the race and who had placed bets on said candle.

Dave and I decided to split the caramelized pork belly with crab salad and Thai herbs ($15) as an appetizer.  It came out looking like so and was quite pleasing.  Just the right amount of crunch on the outside.  And they proceeded to win the admiration of Matt.  Success.

My main course was the pan seared scallops in a  turmeric-coconut cream broth ($28).  Yes, you are looking at that right.  This wasn’t an appetizer.  There were only three large scallops in the bowl.  $28 for this?  That’s $9.33 per scallop.  Kittichai is lucky that the scallops were fresh and prepared skillfully.  The broth was warming, and good thing too, as Old Man Winter was outside in full force.

Someone ordered the “Sankaya” Pandan-Valrhona white chocolate fondue” ($8) for Leslie and everyone to share.  I had a bite myself.  The white chocolate is actually green.  Wrap your heads around that.  Aside from that fun fact, I remember that it was okay.

So I was disappointment in my scallops (note to self: don’t order scallops again at any restaurant), but Kittichai proved to be a sexy restaurant for Leslie to celebrate another year.  I will admit that I kept looking around in case I was able to spot a celeb sitting nearby.  Alas, no luck.

Happy birthday Leslie!