Sunday, August 30, 2009
Food, Wine, Beer & Spirits, "Dish", Recipes

Around town

Great local restaurants, plus the Paradijs cocktail

By Kirsten Ott Palladino

Recession or not, it’s always nice to get a break on price, which is why it’s nice to have Midtown Restaurant Week arriving on the heels of three weeks of Downtown Restaurant Week earlier this month. Midtown’s week is its fourth annual, and it begins Saturday, Aug. 29, running through Sunday, Sept. 6. All restaurants involved offer a prix-fixe, three-course menu, consisting of an appetizer and a main course, followed by dessert for $25 per person excluding alcohol, tax and tip. It’s an ideal way to try new restaurants or indulge in favorites for a generous deal. Participating restaurants include 4th and Swift, Atmosphere, Avra, Baraonda, Beleza, Dogwood, Dolce Enoteca, Ecco, Engine 11, Eno, Enoteca Carbonari, Figo Pasta Midtown, the Flying Biscuit Café–Midtown, Geisha House, Gordon Biersch Brewery–Midtown, Livingston, Lobby at Twelve, the Melting Pot, Mitra, the Nook, the Oceanaire Seafood Room, One Midtown Kitchen, Pacci Ristorante, Park 75, Ra Sushi, the Real Chow Baby, Repast, Ri Ra, Rosa Mexicano, Silk Asian Steak and Seafood, Shout, South City Kitchen Midtown, Spice Market, Steamhouse Lounge, Steel, Table 1280, Tap, Top Flr, Trois, Two Urban Licks, Vickery’s Bar & Grill and WaterHaven. For more information, visit www.atlrestaurantweek.com. 

LET’S DO LUNCH
When I married an Italian—or rather, when I started dating an Italian more than five years ago—I realized just how much Italians love food and subsequently conversing over long, languid meals that can stretch out for hours. It’s the opposite of what so many Americans do—rushing through dinner to pursue whatever entertainment awaits them. In Italian families, the meal is the entertainment. This mantra of sorts was on my mind as I dined at Figo last week. One of my top restaurants for a consistently great lunch or dinner, Figo delivers dish after dish of house-made pasta and sauces, fresh fish, salads and soups. My top order has consistently been the zucca, a butternut squash and amaretto ravioli with a mascarpone and Italian red chicory radicchio sauce, but for the last two visits, I’ve ordered the ravioli di cipolla: caramelized Vidalia onions and creamy mascarpone ravioli with a balsamic glaze. Simple and uncomplicated, the combination fulfills my stomach and palate. The restaurant—which has eight locations—is cooking up something new, too. Now that founding owner Sandro Romagnoli has a bambino of his very own, he’s thinking from a parent’s perspective, and is launching a children’s menu of fresh pastas and sauces, fish and vegetables. The portion size promises to be large, and the price? $3.95. For dessert, your kid can get a basket of toasted bread smothered in Nutella for $1.50. Or go for one of Kenny’s pies. The only menu item not made on-site (but still made locally), these indulgent confections are worth saving some room in the belly. For locations and more information, visit www.figopasta.com.

HALF BAKED
Preeminent pasty chef Jonathan St. Hilaire (Trois, the Four Seasons Hotel, Canoe, Spice) is opening a restaurant in Midtown at 903 Peachtree Street in October called Bakeshop. St. Hilaire was classically trained at the French Culinary Institute, and perfected his pastry technique through various stints at some of New York City’s finest restaurants, including Terrance Brennan’s Picholine, Payard’s Patisserie and Bistro, Bouley Bakery and Danny Meyer’s Eleven Madison Park. At Bakeshop, which will operate under the Concentrics banner, he plans to offer an array of pastries, sandwiches, soups and salads made with organic and locally sourced ingredients. SP