The Time is Ripe for Tomatoes

As I wrote yesterday, I recently prepared a dinner celebrating the tomato. This week a couple of Atlanta restaurants will be hosting their annual dinners honoring the apple of love as well.

Chef Michael Tuohy will feature a rich variety of some of the state's best tomatoes for Woodfire Grill's 6th Annual Tomato Dinner on Wednesday, July 30. The four-course tomato menu, complete with wine pairings, runs $65 per person excluding tax and gratuity. Come join Chef Tuohy at his last tomato dinner in Atlanta. He's California-bound in August, moving west to open Grange in the Citizen Hotel, a boutique hotel near the state capitol in Sacramento. Tomato Dinner spaces are limited so call now to reserve your spot: 404-347- 9055. Woodfire Grill is located at 1782 Cheshire Bridge Road.

La Tavola Trattoria's Tomatofest runs from July 30 through August 9 with a special menu put together by Executive Chef Craig Richards with heirloom tomatoes from Dillwood Farms in Loganville. The Tomatofest menu is available à la carte ($6 - $21) or for the prix fixe cost of $39 per person. Drool over the menu offerings online. The video below features Richards making the heirloom tomato, peach and fennel salad from the menu. Enjoy Tomatofest dishes nightly at La Tavola Trattoria, 992 Virginia Avenue, NE; 404-873-5430.




Photos from La Tavola Heirloom Tasting 2008 by Alli Royce

Atlanta's Woodfire Grill For Sale - Michael Tuohy Sings "California, Here I Come" as He Heads West to Launch Farm-to-Table Restaurant

Goodbyes are tough. Especially when it means letting go of one Atlanta's most talented chefs and his amazing restaurant. Anyone who's dined at Atlanta's Woodfire Grill knows Chef Michael Tuohy thrives on bringing Georgia farm-to-table goodness to the table with Northern Californian flair. Thus, we were saddened, but understanding, as 31-year restaurant industry veteran Tuohy announced his intentions to leave Atlanta to return to his Northern California roots. The San Francisco native has shared his culinary gifts with Atlanta for the past 22 years. Come August, he's heading home to the Golden State to focus on California cuisine and to launch Grange, a farm-to- table restaurant located within the new Citizen Hotel, a 200-room boutique one block from the state capitol in Sacramento. He's not going solo -- he's joining forces with the Joie de Vivre Hospitality Group, California's largest boutique hotel company, and the Rubicon Development Group, on the recommendation of his former boss and mentor, Joyce Goldstein. Tuohy will be in seventh heaven as he calls upon the area's small farms . . . and pulls from a 1,500 selection, all-California wine list!

So where does that leave us? Woodfire Grill is officially for sale, and Tuohy hopes to find a good philosophical fit among prospective buyers. Tuohy will host a "Farewell Dinner" for his longtime friends and fans on August 12, the restaurant's six-year anniversary date. After that, well, Tuohy invites Atlantans to "come on out" and dine with him in Sacramento. On the GPS, that's an hour from both Napa Valley and the Sierras, and about two hours northeast of San Francisco. Chef Tuohy takes with him his passion for seasonally inspired and wood- fired cooking, organics, slow food, and Patti, his wife of 19 years. From his early days with Chef's Café to his current landmark, Woodfire Grill, Tuohy leaves a legacy of influence that still grows strong - including the Georgia Grown Co-op of local farmers, which he helped start, to bring goods from a dozen local Certified Organic Farms to restaurants and markets around our city.