Foodie mama Catherine McCord is adamant about one family, one meal. Her kitchen is a lab for fast, fresh, fun and deliciously healthy eats for toddlers, lunch boxes and busy families in general. She’s a sweetie and shares her successes on weelicious, YouTube, a website and in her “Wee Lunches” cookbook. “Wee” love it!
Diners have voted Umi into OpenTable's Top 100 Hot Spot Restaurants in America for the second year in a row! Umi's husband and wife team of chef Fuyuhiko Ito and pastry chef Lisa Ito are thrilled and humbled by the outpouring of enthusiasm for their progressive Japanese cuisine. Hirame Usuzukuri, a starter fanning out thinly sliced flounder sashimi, ponzu, scallion and grated daikon, exemplifies the Buckhead restaurant's insistence for only the highest quality and freshest fish and ingredients. Modern taste. Classic simplicity. Photo: Angie Mosier.
Pollen season is blowing through and tickling noses across the Southeast. Atlas provides a delectable safe haven from the yellow stuff, albeit the restaurant and bar in The St. Regis Atlanta has its own tickler of sorts -- Champagne by the glass. Through the spring and summer months, guests can order from a selection of bubblies well suited for warmer temps, lighter tastes and all the season’s celebrations. Delmotte Blanc de Blancs ($27 per glass) is one of the featured Champagnes waiting to be popped open and sipped in the bar area or dining room. Decadent. Delightful. Sip solo or as an accompaniment to Atlas’ chef-driven menus featuring seasonal American cuisine and European influences. Cheers.
Outdoor shoppers, ‘tis the season. Veggies are coming to the East Atlanta Village Farmers Market (EAVFM), and White Oak Pastures grass-fed beef and pastured eggs will be right there among the greens, fruits, baked goods and other locally produced goods when the market opens on Thursday, April 16. Located at 561 Flat Shoals Avenue, EAVFM serves as an Atlanta pick-up spot for White Oak Pastures’ Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program through which members can sign up for weekly deliveries of organic produce items or pastured eggs, place orders and pick up White Oak Pastures grass-fed meats, pastured poultry and other products ordered online. Sound like your bag? Sign up here to join the White Oak Pastures CSA family for the 2015 harvest season. Small appetites, White Oak Pastures also offers CSA veggie half shares. Shop ‘til the sun goes down -- market hours are 4-8:00 p.m. every Thursday, April 16 through December 17.
Atlantans are go-getters. Except for when they want to order in, which usually beckons something flat and round in a cardboard box. Now, Caviar broadens the menu. The easiest way to order from independent restaurants, Square’s food delivery service Caviar recently extended its scope to Atlanta’s street scape, meaning cross-town restaurant cravings are easily satisfied using the Caviar app. Toast this new-found dine-in freedom with a refreshing beer at Orpheus Brewing, Midtown’s artisanal brewery overlooking Piedmont Park and the Atlanta BeltLine. During Orpheus Brewing tour hours on Saturday, April 11, Caviar picks up the tour and tasting tab for the first 100 patrons in line who can present their downloaded and registered Caviar app. Saturday tour hours are 2-4:30 p.m. If you can’t be there, Orpheus Brewing also offers tours Thursdays and Fridays from 6-8:30 p.m. Sunday tours from 2-4:30 p.m. enter the picture beginning April 12. Must be 21 years old to participate, normal brewery rules will apply as well as Georgia state drinking laws. The Caviar app is available on both iOS and Android. Participants must present a downloaded app that has been registered to the owner (account created, name, address, loaded credit card). One downloaded app per person.
A herd of several hundred goats calls West Georgia’s Capra Gia farms home on the range for its antibiotic- and hormone-free lifestyle. The small batch cheese company in Carrollton does everything by hand -- organizing rotational grazing, goat milking, cheese making and packaging the cheese to sell at various farmers markets in Georgia and Alabama. Article 14 will feature luscious cheeses from Capra Gia Cheese Company at its monthly cheese dinner on Wednesday, April 8 from 6:30-8 p.m. Chris Blobaum, corporate executive chef for Legacy Restaurant Partners, plans a four-course menu with wine pairings to complement Capra Gia’s organic cheeses. Goat questions? Ask Capra Gia goat farmer and cheesemaker Mark Stevens who’s hoofing it over to the Midtown restaurant for this special dinner. $45 per person excluding tax and gratuity. For reservations, call 404-443-8432.
ACC, SEC and plain old “C” for college share equal footing at Willy’s Mexicana Grill on the first Tuesday of each month. College students, flip out your college I.D. and chomp into a Willy’s burrito for a measly five bucks. All day long. Lunch, dinner, in between meals and after. The dining hall line appears bland compared to Willy’s burrito counter, jam-packed with mouthwatering sinaloa chicken or tofu, adobe chicken, chipotle pork, cilantro-garlic steak, grilled peppers and onions, cheese, fresh veggies, rice, pinto and black beans and an entourage of mild to hot salsas. Willy’s prepares all burrito components fresh each day, from homemade guac and pico de gallo to never-known-a- freezer marinated and grilled meats. For those avoiding carbs or gluten, Willy’s staff will easily build burritos in bowls in lieu of swaddling them in tortillas. Please note, there’s a limit of one $5 burrito per order, $5 burritos are not valid with any other promotions and some restrictions apply. Small price to pay for a big burrito.
Here’s a chance to star as a pin-up guy or girl, courtesy of Chick-a-Biddy and Be The Match. This month, the Atlantic Station eatery known for its farm-fresh, all-natural poultry and regional fare offers patrons the opportunity to buy Be The Match pin-up cards for $1 each to help those battling blood cancers. Sign the card, write a message of hope to a cancer patient or express remembrance for a loved one. Chick-a-Biddy will pin the cards up on a “wall of hope” for others to see, be inspired by and reflect on how they can help. Stop by Chick-a-Biddy for lunch and dinner daily as well as brunch from 10:30 a.m.-3 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. Be The Match, operated by the National Marrow Donor Program, manages the world’s largest and most diverse marrow registry, which aids the thousands of people diagnosed each year with blood cancers like leukemia and lymphoma.
Dub this month “TAP-ril” and surrender to Georgia’s potent crafts on draft at Atkins Park Restaurant & Bar in Virginia-Highland. Throughout April, a 16-brew rotation of local brews courses through the taps at Atlanta’s oldest continually licensed watering hole (a.k.a. tavern). Camp at the bar and explore our state’s best craft beers or pair one or more with lunch, dinner or weekend brunch menu selections. Entertainment rises like foam on a draft and includes live music on the patio Thursday, April 16, 23 and 30 from 7:30-10:30 p.m., weekly events and features, giveaways and bar games. Given the adage about strength in numbers, the Atkins Park tap takeover provides stout fortification to keep you chugging through tax day and right up to May Day eve.
In honor of National Peanut Butter and Jelly Day on April 2, we’re laying out a huge spread of PB + J recipes on our newest board. Every pin begins with peanut butter and jelly: popcorn, pie, skillet monkey bread, gluten-free grain bars, ice cream, chia pudding, overnight oats and more. Purists, we’ll show you how to grind up your own homemade honey roasted peanut butter. Please pass the jelly, Nellie.
