Who needs New Orleans?

There's no need to hop a plane and fight the crowds to eat great New Orleans food this Mardi Gras season. Just head over to South City Kitchen Midtown and Vinings this week. Through March 8 both locations feature "A Taste of New Orleans" - a three-course, prix fixe dinner menu at $32 per person (excluding tax and gratuity). There's pan-roasted BBQ shrimp, oysters a la Drago, alligator and andouille sausage gumbo, chopped romaine salad, crab and crawfish ravigote or chicken liver and bacon beignets for starters. Entrée choices include cornmeal fried catfish, pan-seared chicken Rochambeau with country ham, pan-seared gulf fish with crawfish étouffée or veal grillades and grits. For dessert choose between cherry-cheese clafouti or chocolate voodoo drunken zombie cake. You can order a la carte from this menu too. Or, if you'd rather, the regular menu is also available.

Enjoy New Orleans without leaving Atlanta!

It's Follow Friday; Meet Our Tweep of the Week @acookandherbook

Lucy Mercer sandwiches writing between cooking and carpooling.  Her tweets (@acookandherbook) and A Cook and Her Books blog are easily digestible and filling without weighing you down.  Lots of quick and interesting links and tweets...watch out or you'll find yourself wandering the web! Good stories and manly recipes are new on her blog...so maybe leave the screen up so your man will take the hint... 

PHAT Tuesday

Sorry, I couldn't help myself with that title... In all seriousness, next Tuesday, March 8, is not the day to stay home on the couch (sorry Real Housewives of Miami). There are parties galore for Fat Tuesday!

Start the festivities early with Atkins Park Tavern - Virginia Highland. They are throwing a Fat Tuesday party so fat with fun it starts at lunch and lasts into the night. When lunch includes beads, beer, hurricanes, oysters, gumbo, king cake, po' boys and jambalaya you know you've got to keep the fun going all night long.

Happily, the party continues at RA Sushi, the hip sushi restaurant and nightspot in Midtown. Decorations and food and drink specials set the stage for the Mardi RA MasqueRAde Ball featuring a DJ, a costume contest with a $100 first and $25 second prize, and a live drag show performance by The Armorettes from 7 - 9 p.m. There's no cover charge to come to the ball, and costumes are highly appropriate! Fat Tuesday party food and drinks include $5 Cajun wings, $8 voodoo rolls, $5 hur"RA"canes, $3 domestic beers and $2 hot sake. Party cranks from 7 p.m. until closing.

See, it really is PHAT...!

Break Out the Green for a Weeklong St. Paddy’s Celebration!

Why only celebrate St. Patrick’s Day for one day? Come to Fadó Irish Pub & Restaurant for a whole week of celebrations! Fadó is throwing the biggest party in Atlanta for St. Patrick’s Day with Irish food, Irish drinks, and live music throughout the week. You won’t want to miss this event.

Make your reservations for the Bushmills Whiskey Dinner, an Irish whiskey-inspired four course dinner on Thursday, March 10 at 7 p.m. with Master of Whisky, Kevin Calihy; $45 per person. On Friday, March 11, come out for the 10^th Annual St. Baldrick’s Charity Event to help raise for money for childhood cancer research, where the brave to have their heads shaved in order to help fund St. Baldrick’s Foundation.

Wondering where to go after the Atlanta St. Patrick’s Day Parade on Saturday, March 12? Come over to Fadó after the parade to enjoy lunch and 6 Nations Rugby live as Ireland and Wales goes head to head. The DJ will play some tunes at 10:30 p.m. to end the night. Sunday, March 13 is the Day of Rest, where you can relax with a Fadó brunch and $10 bottomless mimosas or bloody marys. Monday, March 14 is the Traditional Irish Session where you can get your groove on with Irish musicians starting at 8 p.m. until whenever you get too tired to dance!

After recovering your body from a night of dancing, come out on Tuesday, March 15 for Perfect Pint Night to test your perfect pint-pouring skills in 119.5 seconds. This may be an “easier said than done” kind of task, so come find out for yourself! To put your Irish trivia to the test, come to the Annual St. Paddy’s Pub Quiz starting at 8 p.m. with Quizmaster Rob Kiely on Wednesday, March 16. There will be tough questions but great prizes!

For the big bang on Thursday, March 17, there is only one place to be on St. Patrick’s Day! Fadó opens their doors at 7 a.m. for you to start the day off right with a pint and a traditional Irish breakfast. The Street Festival starts at noon with beer tents in every direction and Bagpipers and Irish Dancers to provide you with authentic Irish entertainment. Live music hits the stage at 2 p.m. including ‘Justin’, Into the Mystic, and ‘Desire’, Atlanta’s best U2 cover band. You must be 21 and up to be in the event area after 2 p.m. You can buy your tickets in advance; $15 at the door.

Don’t miss this week-long celebration of St. Patrick’s Day at Fadó Irish Pub and Restaurant—you won’t regret it! For more information about the event, visit the Fadó’s event page on their website.

Fadó Irish Pub and Restaurant – 273 Buckhead Avenue; 404-841-0066.

It’s time to shine and swirl at Pinkberry

On your mark, get set, swirl!  Pinkberry officially opens in Buckhead tomorrow at 3637 Peachtree Road, NE.  The newest location (the third in Georgia) is in the shopping center just north of the two-story Target and diagonally from Phipps Plaza.  Rather than spin on and on about the all-natural, tart and sweet, creamy dreamy fro-yo, we recommend you stop by this Friday. 

You can also join us tonight from 6 - 10 p.m. for the Grand Opening party to enjoy free servings of the soft and swirly frozen yogurt!  

For directions, up-to-the-minute news and discounts, become a Pinkberry Groupie or check in on Facebook and Twitter (@pinkberry).  The store will be open Sunday through Thursday 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. and Friday and Saturday 11 a.m. to 12 a.m.

Aria's Klaskala is the Talk of the Town at Publix Apron's Cooking School

Gerry Klaskala, Executive Chef and Owner of Aria, one of the finest restaurants in Atlanta, is hosting the Publix Apron’s Cooking School on Thursday, March 3 in Alpharetta. Klaskala has surely made his mark in the Atlanta area by using only the freshest, highest-quality ingredients to create Aria's simple, yet refined dishes, and he will now be teaching you how to prepare a few of his signature menu items. Come, watch and be impressed as he divulges some of his tricks of the trade during the 7 p.m. demonstration.

Cost is $40 per person, and reservations can be made online.

Publix Apron's Cooking School: Publix at Alpharetta Commons, 4305 State Bridge Road in Alpharetta; 770-751-8560.

Celebrating 28 Years at Atkins Park in Virginia Highland

The good times have been rollin’ at Atkins Park Tavern in Virginia Highland for a while...28 years to be exact. The neighborhood eatery is celebrating this milestone and has themed the anniversary party simply, "28 - A February of Years and an Untold Number of Bruno Burgers Sold." You can join the party from 6 - 7 p.m. on Wednesday, March 2 for a limited open bar and tasting station. It’s sure to be a night to remember for the next 28 years!

Atkins Park Tavern - Virginia Highland: 794 North Highland Avenue; 404 -876-7249.

Come One, Come All and Celebrate Carnaval!

Intense and immense describe Carnaval, Brazil's most famous holiday. For one week, daily routine gives way to non-stop festivities and partying. The Original El Taco is channeling their Carnaval spirit and adding specials ($3.95-19.25) to its regular menu March 2-6. Samba your way over to the Virginia Highland cantina and get a taste of Carnaval and drink in the lively atmosphere. And if you want to take the Brazilian holiday to the max, come back the next day and do it again!

The Original El Taco: 1186 North Highland Avenue, NE; 404-873-4656.

Last Day to Vote for Kevin Gillespie for Food & Wine's "The People's Best New Chef"

For all the procrastinators out there, it's your last chance to vote for Woodfire Grill Executive Chef/Co-owner and "Top Chef" contestant Kevin Gillespie in Food & Wine's "The People's Best New Chef 2011" competition -- voting closes on March 1. Show your support for Kevin today!

The newly established contest is an offshoot of Food & Wine's "Best New Chef" title that's doled out to the nation's most promising up-and-coming chefs who have run their own kitchens for five years or less. The contest divides the nation into 10 regions with 10 nominees per region; voters may cast one vote per region. The chef receiving the most votes in a region will be that region's finalist, and the one garnering the most votes overall will win the title of "The People's Best New Chef 2011."

Food & Wine announces "The People's Best New Chef" on March 2 and "The 10 Best New Chefs" in early April on their website, on Facebook and via Twitter.