Adventurous Tastes party at FAB on Wednesday, Aug. 5 at 7 PM

In case you missed the details before:

To celebrate Chef Sharp's winning the vote for Atlanta's Hottest Chef, Adventurous Tastes and FAB are throwing a party on FAB's beautiful roof deck on Wednesday, August 5, starting at 7 pm! Come enjoy complimentary FAB appetizers and a cash bar serving your favorite adult beverages plus the signature drink of the night - a Bacardi Dragon Berry Lemonade. Come check out Chef Sharp for yourself and see what all the fuss is about!

If you haven't been to FAB before, you'll love the skyline views from its roof deck. If it rains, the party will go on indoors, so we can celebrate regardless of our fickle summer weather. I attended a party on FAB's roof last night and was reminded once again what a great party space it is. I also got a chance to see Chef Sharp for myself, and I am happy to report that he is in fact quite hot and does the title Hottest Chef justice!

I am looking forward to the chance to meet other Atlanta foodies and Adventurous Tastes readers at the Atlanta's Hottest Chef party!

Come celebrate with us at 7 pm on Aug. 5!
French American Brasserie
30 Ivan Allan Jr. Blvd.
Atlanta, GA 30308
404- 266-1440

Anthony Bourdain on Sandra Lee

photo credit Eat Me Daily

Hilarious foodie fodder for your Friday...

http://anthony-bourdain-blog.travelchannel.com/read/a-drive-by-shooting

Downtown Restaurant Week

It's that time again...

Downtown Restaurant Week started on July 27 and runs until Aug. 9. Old standbys and sexy new restos alike are offering 3-course dinners for just $25. Now that's recession-proof dining!

Granted some restaurants trot out their worst dishes for this, which never makes any sense to me, but most provide the highlights of their menu at that low price. A message to all you slacker restaurants - this is not the time to sell your bland, cheap stuff - let us feel like we're actually getting a deal by serving us something we want. I hate it when the restaurant week menu offers dishes that aren't even normally on the menu. That is so not the point!

I did a quick scoping of these menus and some really caught my eye:

• Ruth's Chris, Morton's, and BLT Steak all have delicious cuts of meat on offer
• French American Brasserie showcases their divine onion soup and has steak, skate wing and duck confit (yum, yum and more yum)
• 30 Tables and Atlanta Grill's short ribs.
• Social's Moroccan Style Cornish Hen

Can you tell I'm in the mood for some hearty food? These dishes all sound like the kind you'd normally pay $25 alone, so getting an app and dessert for that price is pretty exciting for all of us bargain hunters.

Don't forget - The Adventurous Taste's Atlanta's Hottest Chef 2009 Party is on Wednesday, Aug. 5 at 7 pm at French American Brasserie. Go earlier or stay later to enjoy their $25 three course offering!

French American Brasserie

30 Ivan Allen Jr Blvd

Atlanta, GA 30308
404-266-1440

Wedding Eats: Gloriosa Tasting

Not surprisingly, I agonized over picking out just the right menu for my wedding. I write a food blog, so people have pretty high expectations, right? My caterer, Gloriosa, wasn't really a choice since they are the required vendor at Serenbe, so I was crossing my fingers that their food would be up to par. Great googly moogly - these people can cook!

Since most of my guests are coming from far flung, non-Southern locales, I thought it would be fun to take advantage of our countryside location and do a Southern family style feast. For my tasting, I got to sample nearly all of them. I left stuffed like a pig but happy as a clam because it was all so delicious!


The heirloom tomato salad (which to be honest I'm still concerned about as a not-very-seasonal option for November) was heavenly. The tomatos were so perfect and fresh and the sweet red onions were a great addition to an otherwise simple, farm-fresh dish. Why can't all tomatoes taste this good? I grew up hating tomatos, and it was only recently that I realized that real tomatoes, you know the kind that aren't out of season and mass produced, are amazing.

The second tomato preparation - fried green tomatoes - was in fact better than usual versions of the dish. More often than not, the breading seems to separate out from the tomato and you're left with soggy breading and a limp tomato. These, however, held together beautifully. The panko crust was crispy and the tomato appealingly firm. These FGT actually had some substance, and they were made all the better by the chunky remoulade and goat cheese. I knew I should pace myself, but it was hard not to eat it all!


Even better was the fried chicken. What says Southern feast better than a crispy chicken breast? I loved the heavenly browned, crisp skin and the meat was tender and juicy. It was made all the more interesting by a pear relish, although, it wasn't even necessary since the meat was so flavorful. The other entree, a pork tenderloin with caramelized apple and Vidalia onion compote wasn't nearly as interesting but still very good. It's just that it's hard to compete with the awesome fried chicken - with only so much room in my stomach I opted for more of the former!


I'm not usually a huge mac and cheese fan. Generally it seems to be kind of a bland, goopy mess. But man oh man was this stuff amazing. The white truffle oil (which I'd eat on everything if I could) gave an earthy depth to the dish, and the wonderfully crusty top layer was addictive. I'm allegedly avoiding carbs these days, but I wouldn't be human if I could resist this mac!


All in all, everything we tasted was a winner. Gloriosa clearly knows how to prepare some good food, and I'm really looking forward to seeing what they can do with the rest of my big day! Sigh...if only I could have taken home the rest of that mac 'n cheese...it was a crime to waste any of it!

Cocktails and Hors D'Oeuvres

This whole planning a wedding, writing a blog, and working a full time job thing has got me somewhat harried as of late. I recently learned about how the human brain can only accommodate seven things at once - so there is a scientific reason why my brain feels full to bursting at the moment. I have more than seven things on my to do list by the time I wake up in the morning!

That's why my plan to entertain a few friends snuck up on me. Suddenly it was Thursday and I had no groceries and no real plan of action. After frantic scouring of Epicurious, Food & Wine, Food Network, and a bevy of cookbooks, I landed on a few dishes I felt I could pull off last minute.

I edited down my list of options (published here) and landed on this menu:

Pizza Bites
Baked Feta with Marinara
Fig and Goat Cheese Crostini (I cheated and bought ready-made fig jam)
Sausage and Cheese Balls
Mascarpone stuffed dates
Charcuterie plate of prosciutto, five kinds of cheese, grapes, plum membrillo and dried apricots
White bean dip
Rosemary walnuts
Brownies
Melon and Prosecco Cocktails

Alas, nothing this complicated can go completely smoothly. First, we couldn't find a cookie cutter at the three different grocery stores we checked (seriously, shouldn't someone carry something as simple as that?), so my adorable idea of little individual round pizzas had to be compromised for boring ol' square slices.


And despite the recipe saying that two melons yields only eight cocktails, we found two melons to yield more juice than we could even hold in a pitcher, so we were stuck with way too much melon for a tiny apartment. Fortunately cantaloupe juice is refreshing when combined with Perrier, so it's still holding up OK as a leftover and we were able to pawn off our excess 'loupe on my family.


Last, despite Mr. AT's assurances that putting the sausage and cheese balls and the marinara and feta in the oven at the same time wouldn't take any longer to cook, it turns out that the laws of science do not agree. In fact, I had to bake those suckers forever - well past the arrival of my friends. Next time it would make much more since to stagger them and just reheat when people arrive.

Despite all of these speed-bumps, the evening was a success. As usual, no one ate as much as I'd hoped, but generally people seemed to like the food and at least put a dent in each dish. Now, just two days later, we have virtually no more left overs, so I suppose that's a good sign.


The big hits of the night seemed to be the sausage and cheese balls (for all my efforts to find fancy options, this one was Betty Crocker, recipe courtesy of my generous logo designer Mary Campbell) served along a sriracha mayo my little sister whipped up, the melon cocktails that went down oh so easy, and my tried and true dessert mascarpone stuffed dates. As for the latter, I was amazed to find how many people look at a date with such trepidation. Date-phobics, you know who you are - there really is no need for you to look at me like I'm trying to poison you. I promise dates are super delicious, candy-like little gems, and I wouldn't serve them if I didn't think they were awesome.


Now that Mr. AT and I have broken the seal on entertaining, perhaps we can even motivate to do it again. I have a much better idea now of how to pull off a few easy appetizers, and maybe next time, I can even find time to eat some of them myself!

And the winner of the First Annual Atlanta's Hottest Chef Contest is...

Congratulations to French American Brasserie's Chef Stephen Sharp - Winner of the First Annual Atlanta's Hottest Chef Competition!

Wow, the voting was close, seriously close, with a couple chefs receiving a slew of last minute votes, but in the end, Chef Sharp won by a (well chiseled) nose! Thank you to everyone who voted and to all of our nominated chefs. I received an amazing 1500 votes - clearly we are a city that likes our chefs as hot as our food!

Oh so close behind Chef Sharp in the voting were Holy Taco's Robert Phalen and La Tavola's Craig Richards. Clearly these guys have some avid fans, too!

To celebrate Chef Sharp's big win, Adventurous Tastes and FAB are throwing a party on FAB's beautiful roof deck on Wednesday, August 5, starting at 7 pm! Come enjoy complimentary FAB appetizers and a cash bar serving your favorite adult beverages plus the signature drink of the night - a Bacardi Dragon Berry Lemonade. Come check out Chef Sharp for yourself and see what all the fuss is about!

If you haven't been to FAB before, you'll love the skyline views from its roof deck. If it rains, the party will go on indoors, so we can celebrate regardless of our fickle summer weather. I'll provide more details on the party and on Chef Sharp as I have them!

I look forward to a chance to meet other Atlanta foodies and Adventurous Tastes readers (and Chef Sharp of course) at the Atlanta's Hottest Chef party!

Come celebrate with us at 7 pm on Aug. 5!

French American Brasserie

30 Ivan Allan Jr. Blvd.

Atlanta, GA 30308

404- 266-1440

Of course Chef Sharp is more than just a pretty face. Here's a little scoop on him:

Stephen Sharp, Executive Chef at French American Brasserie, began his culinary career in his grandmother's kitchen. He fondly remembers picking vegetables from his grandmother's garden and then learning to cook them in the kitchen. It was there, that Sharp developed an affinity for traditional Southern fare made with garden-fresh ingredients.

Sharp is an Atlanta native with more than thirteen years of experience in the world of culinary art. In 1999, he received a degree from Johnson and Wales University, and has worked in various fine dining establishments throughout the United States from Sunriver, Oregon, to Charleston, South Carolina. Prior to joining the team at FAB, Sharp honed his culinary skills as the Executive Sous Chef at the Oceanaire Seafood Room, and Chef de Partie at the four star, four diamond rated Park 75 restaurant inside Atlanta's Four Season's Hotel.

Atlanta's Hottest Chef...

Final votes are being tabulated and the big announcement will be Monday. Thank you to everyone who voted!

Last minute entertaining - Hors D'Ouevres

Eek, I've been so busy that I haven't had much time to prepare for having people over on Saturday. In a mad dash now to clean my place, plan a menu and buy everything we need (and oh yeah work and attend a Friday night party in the interim). Great googly moogly - too much to do!

So for now I'll just share some of the recipes that have caught my eye. I will most definitely not be tackling all of these, but my final decisions need to be done tonight so I have a prayer of getting ready. Here goes...

Grilled Italian Sausages and Tomatoes on Foccacia
Serrano Ham and Membrillo Crostini
Pecan Stuffed Mushrooms
Pizza Bites
Baked Feta with Marinara
Fig and Goat Cheese Crostini
Bruschetta with Ricotta and Sauteed Mushrooms
Sausage and Cheese Balls
Mascarpone stuffed dates

What to drink? We'll certainly have wine, but I keep toying with signature cocktail ideas. Thinking maybe something with prosecco, but mostly I'm stumped for now. I am sure something will come to me now that the pressure is on!

Don't forget to vote for your favorite hot chef - voting ends at 5 Friday!

Quick Bites: Greenwood's on Green St.

My dad's recent birthday sent me on a quest to track down interesting non-chain dining in the burbs, Roswell to be exact. Fortunately the actual little town of Roswell is actually very cute and quaint with little art galleries and ladies who lunch restaurants with street side patios. Dad isn't a dainty chicken salad sandwich kind of guy so I had to find something a bit heartier, and his eyes would bug out of his head at the prices I routinely pay for food so a place filled with $28 entrees wouldn't fly either. Enter Greenwood's to save the day.

Greenwood's on Green St. is a quirky combination of bric-a-brac (the kind a former hippy grandma will one day clutter her home with) and southern style farm-to-table cooking. Stick to your ribs Southern staples like fried chicken and broccoli casserole are there but so are perfectly grilled light fish dishes paired only with lemon butter and specials paying homage to summer's bounty of heirloom tomatoes.

Ever waistline conscious these days (sigh, weddings are stressful!) we all opted for healthier fish dishes, which were impressively tasty for such simple preparations. Reading now after the fact, I hear the broccoli casserole is amazing, but sadly I missed out on it.

Alas despite our best intentions, we couldn't resist the siren call of their extensive pie list. So we opted to share a slice of cherry pie. I've been addicted to cherries lately so I was pretty excited to try it, but we were dismayed that there was just something amiss with the filling. Something a bit too syrupy about it that made it not seem not as farm-fresh as I'd hoped for.

Nevertheless, I was impressed that something so unique actually exists in the land of mini-malls and chain restaurants. Post-wedding fueled health-kick, I'll return to Greenwood's for some fried chicken, broccoli casserole, and I'll try a non-syrupy pie like the coconut cream. Yum!

Greenwood's on Green St.
1087 Green St
Roswell, GA

Atlanta's Hardy Wallace wins A Very Goode Job!

Hardy Wallace, writer of Atlanta's Dirty South Wine, was chosen today from over 2000 applicants as the winner of the most kick-ass job ever - he'll take advantage of social media to promote Murphy-Goode wine for 6 months while making 10 grand a month and living rent free in Healdsburg, CA. Here's to livin' the dream!

Awesome! Congrats, Hardy!

For more see here.

Chicago Restaurants: Lou Malnati's - Chicago Style Pizza

There's certainly something elegant about a perfect slice of thin-crust pizza. It's perfectly charred, crisp crust, a dainty smattering of toppings...it's a thing of beauty really. But I'd trade that for a heaping slice of Chicago deep-dish pizza any day.

Pizza was tops on my must-eat list on my recent Chicago trip. Lou Malnati's did not disappoint. Served in a cast iron pan, it was a veritable one-slice meal. We opted for the Deluxe - if you're going to do it, you gotta do it right! The Deluxe came with cheese, sausage, mushrooms, onions and green peppers.

This baby was thick and oh so cheesy and chock full of various flavors and textures. Honestly one slice is enough, but how could I not at least try to tackle my second piece? To not do so would be wasteful, no? Every bite was truly pizza bliss, and put those flimsy little thin crust pies to shame. Was Lou Malnati's pizza as elegant as those found at Fritti here in town? No of course not, Chicago pies aren't about elegance. They're more of an in-your-face, rough and tumble American-born kind of meal as compared to the waifish Italian creation.

Before we tucked into that, we shared a Malnati Salad filled with all sorts of goodies, including diced tomatoes, black olives, sliced mushrooms, crumbled salami and gorgonzola cheese. It was sweet and savory and gigantic - this place was not kidding around, even the salad was hearty and delicious!

Sigh...I imagine I won't be having any pizza like this again any time soon, but my memory of this epic Lou Malnati's pizza will surely be enough to carry me through the rest of my low carb pre-wedding days!

Pros: Ooey gooey deep-dish pizza perfection, surprisingly good salad

Cons: Long wait for a pizza - don't come in a hurry, high potential for clogged arteries and expanding waistlines

Lou Malnati's
Chicago - River North
439 North Wells Street
Chicago, IL 60610

Vote for Atlanta's Hottest Chef

The nominations are in for Atlanta's hottest chef! You can vote at the top of the homepage until Friday, July 24 at 5 pm. Keep it fair, and just vote once, please!

Who knew the food wasn't the only hot thing in the kitchen?!

Here are your nominees for Atlanta's hottest chef (in alphabetical order):

Kozmo Gastropub's Chef Travis Collum

Shaun's Chef Shaun Doty


The Shed at Glenwood's Chef Lance Gummere


The Sun Dial's Chef Christian Messier

Pacci's Chef Keira Moritz

Holy Taco's Chef Robert Phalen


La Tavola's Chef Craig Richards

French American Brasserie's Chef Stephen Sharp

Don't forget to vote for your favorite!

Atlanta's Hottest Chef Contest

Alas, I'm no techno-genius, and I couldn't find a survey widget that let me hide the voting results. So I've saved the votes thus far (so many votes - THANK YOU!), and I've cleared the votes so you can vote for your favorite without being swayed by what everyone else has done so far. Never fear, if you've already voted in the Atlanta's Hottest Chef contest, I've saved your vote, it's just not visible on the site. Please no double voting, let's keep it fair!

Scroll down to the posting from Thursday the 16th to see photos of the nominated chefs!

Inman Park Dine Out raises money for Inman Park Security Control July 29

I love my neighborhood - Inman Park is such a rare combination (for Atlanta at least!) of beautiful old homes, great shopping, and cool restaurants all in a pedestrian friendly area. Alas, if you live in the hood you also know that we're getting more than our fair share of crime these days with far too many break-ins for my taste (break-ins >= 1 is too many quite frankly!)

My favorite real estate agent and man about Inman Park, Jon Effron from AisforAtlanta, let me know about this great event he's involved with - Inman Park Dine Out. It's set to take place next Wednesday, July 29. There are a bunch of local restaurants and shops participating… all giving a portion of their sales for the day (up to 20%!) to the Inman Park Security Patrol. Jake's Ice Cream will even be unveiling a new Inman Park inspired flavor in honor of the event!

There’s more info at http://www.inmanparkbusiness.com/dineout/.

Who's participating?

The Albert
Park's Edge Café
Luna Nueva
The Porter
Jake's Ice Cream
Highland Cigar
Fritti
Sotto Sotto
Zaya
Serpas
Front Page News
Shaun's
Jac
Intown Business Center
Dad's Garage
For shows on July 30, 31 and August 1
Float Spa
The Art Department
Hall's of Fine Wines
At the Collective
New Image Dentistry
Inman Park Pet Works

Photo credit: AJC Homefinder, Jody Cook

News Roundup

Atlanta Top Chef-testants dish on their favorite restaurants and foods...

Hurray, finally some good news out of Michigan (Mr. AT's home state)!

But in Vegas the news ain't so great.

And it's even worse for one German chef.

At least there's good news for one Atlanta blogger.

The Shed at Glenwood's Summer Menu

The people at The Shed at Glenwood have been quite kind to me, most recently by inviting me to sample some of their summer menu items at a media dinner.

Granted the dinner itself had some bumps (next time I hope they serve enough food for everyone to actually get to taste it- it's heart breaking to know there were 3 different kinds of sliders on the menu and yet only a bite of the last remaining chicken slider passed my lips. Never forget media types are hungry and not prone to sharing!). Regardless, Chef Gummere and owner Cindy Shera were friendly and gracious as always, and there were several standout dishes during the night.


The meal started out with a major hit....creamy, decadent fois gras sweetened with the bright bursting flavors of blueberry jam...followed by the crunch of perfectly toasted country bread....what more could I ask for in an appetizer? The Shed at Glenwood's fois gras torchon is like dessert, entree and appetizer all rolled into one - it's sizable without overfilling you. It's simultaneously sweet, earthy, creamy and crunchy. It's quite simply heaven.


The roasted beet salad, which I wrote about last year, continues to be a beautiful homage to sweet, juicy beets. The preparation is simple so as to let the delectable little roots shine. Similarly the watermelon salad with feta, mint and balsamic is a perfect little slice of summer, with the juicy melons contrasting oh so deliciously with the salty feta.


I'm a big fan of moules frites but often find the mussels to be lacking. Nothing ruins a bistro classic faster than anemic little mussels. Fortunately The Shed's were plump and succulent, and the truffle fries (once I coaxed our table mates to share the basket) were also appealingly salty and crisp although not particularly strongly flavored with truffle, and they were excellent for dipping in the white wine, garlic and cream broth.


My last favorite of the night was the ribeye served with crab and sunchokes. The meat was tender and just as rare and juicy as I like it. I rarely get to eat sunchokes, and after this dish, I wish everyone would take advantage of these hearty little veggies. I had a past bad experience with overcooked meat at The Shed at Glenwood, but clearly those problems are long gone because this was one impressively delicious steak.


All in all, things just keep getting better and better at the Shed at Glenwood. Next up I hope to check out their Wednesday night slider night. Although there weren't enough sliders to go around the night I was there, I could at least see they were pretty darn big for $3, so I'm all about making a meal out of a couple of them sometime soon!

Check me out on A is for Atlanta

Atlanta real estate guru and man-about-town, Jon Effron, writes a very cool site called A is For Atlanta.

Today he features me and Adventurous Tastes. Check it out!

Top Chef Season 6 Cast Announced: 3 Atlantans on the Show!

I've been sworn to secrecy and it's been killing me, but finally it's public and I can officially announce that Atlanta has not one, not two but three chefs on Season 6 of Top Chef! How cool is that?

Congratulations to Pura Vida's Chef Hector Santiago, Eno's Eli Kirshtein and Woodfire Grill's Kevin Gillespie!

Atlanta doesn't get nearly enough culinary respect, so here's hoping this gives us some foodie street cred. All of these restaurants are great, so I have high hopes for how our chefs will perform. I know Chef Eli personally and think he could make an awesome fan favorite or the villain you love to hate...either way the kid can cook, so he should be tons of fun to watch! Given his slightly menacing looking Top Chef pic (bottom row, second from right), he might just shape up to be a bad boy!

At the least I'm praying for a cast who can create more culinary fireworks than last season's lame-o crew. I have to believe producers learned their lesson from the incredibly dull to watch Hosea, so fingers crossed.

See the full list here.

Wine Tasting at Alon's Bakery Dunwood 7/16

Alon’s Bakery & Market in Dunwoody is hosting a special wine tasting presented by Hemispheres Wines featuring importer Steve Miles’ sparkling, white and red wines from Spain and southwest France, and savory Alon's appetizers.

Thursday, July 16
5:30 to 7:30 pm
Dunwoody location

Tickets cost $15 and are available online at alons.com and can be picked up at the Dunwoody location the evening of the event.

Alon's Bakery & Market
4505 Ashford Dunwoody Road
Atlanta, GA 30346
678.397.1781
www.alons.com

30 Tables to host Supper Club Benefiting Atlanta Community Food Bank

An event for a great cause:

30 TABLES TO HOST SUPPER CLUB BENEFITING ATLANTA COMMUNITY FOOD BANK

ATLANTA (July 2, 2009) – Pull up a chair at 30 Tables on Tuesday, July 14 and support the Atlanta Community Food Bank’s Supper Club dining event. Located on the ground floor of the Glenn Hotel, 30 Tables is a casually chic kitchen of simplicity and Southern-influenced sophistication where guests can comfortably revel in the best downtown has to offer. The restaurant’s plush seating and natural light creates an open yet intimate atmosphere. After dinner, head up to 11 Stories, the rooftop bar, and experience the breathtaking panoramic views of the city skyline while enjoying a cocktail.

Supper Club is a fundraising event that allows diners the convenience of enjoying a meal at some of Atlanta’s hottest restaurants while supporting their community. Each month, a different restaurant serves as host, and 20 percent of the evening’s proceeds benefit Atlanta’s Table, the prepared food rescue project of the Food Bank.

To start, tickle your taste buds with the restaurant’s version of fried Green Tomatoes, tempura battered with onion vinaigrette and feta. As a main course, choose from a variety of items including Diver Scallops with sugar snap peas, fingerling potatoes and green curry broth; Whole Georgia Trout with charred tomato vinaigrette or a 20 oz. Cowboy Ribeye with spring vegetable salad.

Be sure to save room for dessert! The Warm Chocolate Truffle Spice Cake with saffron ice cream or the Keylime, Pistachio Tart with strawberry sorbet, among others, are sure to satisfy your sweet tooth.

30 Tables is located at 110 Marietta Street, NW, Atlanta 30303. Breakfast is available Monday through Friday 6:30 a.m. – 5 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday 7:30 – 5 p.m.; lunch is served daily from 11:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.; dinner is Sunday through Thursday, 6:00 – 10:00 p.m. and Friday and Saturday, 6:00 – 11:00 p.m. An all day menu is offered daily in the Lobby bar from 11:00 a.m. to close. For more information, or to make reservations for Supper Club, call 404.469.0700 or visit 30tables.com.

Supper Club was created in the late 1990s to celebrate the partnership between Atlanta’s Table and Atlanta’s hospitality community. Atlanta’s Table, a project of the Food Bank, provides approximately 40,000 pounds of prepared food to Atlanta’s hungry each month. With sponsorship from Ethic Inc., Jezebel magazine, TrendCRM and 92.9 dave fm, Atlanta’s Table Supper Club generates funds to ensure continued operations of the project. For more information about Supper Club, visit www.ACFB.org, or contact Daphne Hill at 678.553.5996 or daphne.hill@ACFB.org.

Adventurous Tastes Hits the Road: Chicago's Dog House

Today's post is written by Mr. AT, who joined me on a recent trip to Chicago.

In recent years, Chicago has gained a reputation as true foodie heaven, a culinary destination that offers some of the best examples of modern American cuisine. Still, when it comes to food, Chicago is probably best known for two dishes that you don't need to be a foodie to appreciate: hot dogs and pizza. Today's post is about our visit to one of the latest and greatest entries on the Chicago hot dog scene, Chicago's Dog House.

Our plans were to meet up with a friend who lives in Lincoln Park and hitch a ride to one of Chi-town's most renowned hot dog purveyors, Hot Doug's, but the traffic fallout from the annual Pride Parade was a bit of serendipity that led us to Chicago's Dog House, which opened in June. The modest exterior, wedged between a CVS and a McDonalds, gives way to a simple, clean corrugated steel decor inside, like a tiny Chipotle but with a tad more character.

The menu offers a variety of the traditional combined with house specials and gourmet sausages, similar to Hot Doug's. Opting to go with a little of everything, our trio ordered three traditional Chicago-style dogs combined with two specialty dogs, a gourmet sausage and a side of chips.

First and foremost, the Chicago dog. Disclaimer: though I'm a Midwesterner by birth, I'm no expert on Chicago dogs. That said, I've had more than a few in my life and I can say that the Chicago dog at the Dog House (below) was spectacular. The frank itself was perfectly cooked and had just the right firmness. The veggies were all crisp and flavorful and the bun did its job: holding everything together without making its presence known.

As for the specialty dogs, I ordered the T-Frank (left), which comes topped with bacon, cream cheese, avocado and hot sauce. This was definitely the winning wiener in my opinion. Rich and delicious, it's hard to go wrong with cream cheese and bacon in the same dish and the T-Frank was no exception.

Though I didn't get a chance to sample the bleu cheese and buffalo-sauced Blue Demon, our Chicago friend pronounced it to be a rousing success. I was a bit less ga-ga for the for the duck sausage (below right). Though it had some nice flavors, coming topped with Swiss cheese, mushrooms, caramelized onions and Dijon mustard, I didn't find the sausage to be as flavorful as a beef frank. Also, I found the larger bun to be obtrusive, making the concoction a bit unwieldy.

Finally, I have to mention the chips. They did not emerge from a bag, rather they were made right behind the counter, where one of the employees turned a crank, spinning the potato on a slicer. The long, wavy strands of starchy goodness were then immediately put into a deep fryer. While not particularly crisp, having just come out of the deep fryer, they were tasty and a nice side dish to the processed protein food fest in which we were indulging.

I would certainly recommend the Dog House to anybody looking for an as-of-yet crowd free, authentic Chicago hot dog experience. Sure, places like Hot Doug's or Wiener's Circle (pictured at right) are always good choices, but there's certainly room for more than one top dog in Chicago.

Chicago’s Dog House
816 W. Fullerton, Chicago, IL
773-248-3647

News Roundup

Just wanted to give a shout out to my new food photographer - Mr. AT and our snazzy new Nikon. With his talents and the vastly improved technology, the photos on the site might actually start doing justice to the food!

Speaking of gorgeous food - check out this Taste Spotting. Sigh...Mr. AT can we please start taking photos like these?!

You deserve a coup d'etat today - fascinating Omnivore/Bag News blurb that will get you thinking.

Disastrous wine pairings. I've definitely experienced the champagne and cake one - mental note for the wedding.

Photo by © Buff Strickland, from Food & Wine's clambake recipe

Two of my favorite resources come together here. - Food & Wine recommends etsy items for the perfect clambake.

Rosebud preview

Morningside's Food 101 will become Rosebud on July 6. Never fear, the farm fresh cooking you know and love will still be there because Food 101 Chef Ron Eyester actually bought the place and is keeping much the same.


I had the chance to sample some of Eyester's Rosebud menu last week at a media preview, and I'm happy to report that there continues to be much to love on the menu. Chicken Liver Toast was a standout appetizer - the toast was piled high with unbelievably creamy chicken liver, pickles and a port reduction. This was no skimpy appetizer! Fortunately it lacked the metallic aftertaste I so often hate in liver, and liver-lovers around me were proclaiming their appreciation for the dish in between smacks of their lips.

The corn chowder was another major success. The corn had all the bright sweetness of summertime, and the cream chowder was peppered with sweet chunks of crab and the heavenly smokiness of bacon. I knew I had much more food to come and yet it was so good I couldn't resist scooping it up with the homemade crackers and finishing every last spoonful.


On the entree side, a pan roasted halibut was a bit bland, but the Pork Loin was deliciously seared and juicy. I find pork boring sometimes so I often eat it with a fairly hardcore dousing of sauce, but this relatively unadorned pork worked well even with just a side of bacon creamed cabbage. (note to chefs out there, bacon creamed anything sounds pretty damned good!)


The friendly service and affection for locally grown produce remains, so I imagine Chef Eyester's new venture will be just as good if not better than Food 101 has been (and I was a fan of that in the first place). Old Food 101 favorites like fried chicken and shrimp and grits will remain, so whether you're testing out something new or returning for something familiar, I think you'll find something to be excited about at Rosebud.