courtesy of Melissa Libby & Associates

Seemingly before the ink is dry on the menus at Ford Fry’s and Drew Belline’s new restaurant No. 246, a new Ford Fry venture is in the works.

As first reported by What Now Atlanta, JCT.Kitchen’s Ford Fry has secured property on the Westside to open a seafood restaurant. A representative at PR firm Melissa Libby & Associates has confirmed that the report is accurate.

According to a report on new restaurants we receive, the property is located at 914 Howell Mill Road and is slated to open in March 2012.

–by Jenny Turknett, Food & More blog

– Jenny Turknett writes about Southern and Neighborhood Fare for the AJC Dining Team. She also publishes her own blog, Going Low Carb.

Continue reading Another Ford Fry venture in the works: seafood »

Credit: Westside Pie

We can add not only another pizza joint to Atlanta’s roster, but another new restaurant in West Midtown.

Westside Pie – not to be confused with nearby Westside Pizzeria – celebrated their grand opening this this past Sunday off of Huff road on the Westside. Owner Karen Smiley, a Savannah native, recently moved to Atlanta in the hopes of opening her own restaurant.

Though I have not yet been by to check it out myself, the menu features thin-crust style pizza, sandwiches, salads, and Italian entrees. I’m interested to see how some of their topping combinations work, such as the Apricot pizza topped with apricot puree, smoked turkey, cream cheese, and mozzarella.

If you are in the neighborhood, Westside Pie runs some pretty decent lunch specials from 11 a.m.-5 p.m., Mondays-Fridays, including $1 slices.

Have any of you eager West-siders been by to check them out yet? What did you think?

1133 Huff Road, Atlanta. 404-376-8410, www.westsidepie.com.

- By …

Continue reading Westside Pie opens in West Midtown »

This past Sunday, I got together with some friends to watch the Women’s World Cup final between the U.S. and Japan. Unfortunately the spirited grit of the Nadeshiko (nickname for the Japanese women’s soccer team) persevered in the end and defeated the U.S. in penalty kicks.

In the spirit of the event I made pork (tonkatsu) and chicken katsu sandwiches bridging the American love for sandwiches with a Japanese style of frying pork and chicken. Katsu is a type of yōshoku (Western-influenced food) that the Japanese have been making for over 100 years. Thin and tender cutlets of meat (generally pork or chicken) are coated in panko and then fried in oil to golden brown. The crunchy protein is then usually cut into bite-size strips and served with shredded cabbage, rice, pickles and miso soup. Sometimes, the Japanese serve katsu with a hearty plate of curry, rice and an assortment of pickles.

Katsu can also be consumed in sandwich form. This style is not novel and can be commonly …

Continue reading A katsu party »

I’ve been anticipating PBS’s 13-episode Kimchi Chronicles series centered around Korean cuisine, but unfortunately the exact air date for metro Atlanta seems to be a bigger mystery than Jimmy Hoffa’s whereabouts (or his body at least).

Anyway, the show has already debuted in heavily Korean-populated areas of the country such as metro New York/New Jersey, California and the District of Columbia. I imagine metro Atlanta is high in the pecking order due to its respectable Korean representation, but until then I’ll just continue drooling over the show’s teaser videos like the one posted above.

In other news:

Kim Severson, author of  Spoon Fed: How Eight Cooks Saved My Life and the Atlanta bureau chief of The New York Times, has written an interesting article about the ongoing debate about food trucks and their value or detriment to communities.

In Japan, a 10-year old girl has become the country’s youngest certified sake expert. Follow this link for the story (with video).

- …

Continue reading Kimchi Chronicles premieres, but not in Atlanta »

courtesy of Legal Sea Foods

Did you vote for your favorite crab cakes last week for Best of the Big A? If so, check out the results. Your favorite are at  Chequer’s Seafood Grill and mine are at Legal Sea Foods.

If you’ve never tried the crab cakes at Legal Sea Foods, you should. This cake features the crab prominently. With a minimum of breading and binding, a mound of jumbo lump crab awaits.

I often ask my top picks for Best of the Big A to share their recipe and Legal Sea Foods obliged (well, sort of). I was told that they can’t divulge the restaurant’s proprietary recipe but they could share the version from their cookbook.

I’ll definitely try this recipe. Although, at first glance, I do see differences. I’m quite sure the restaurant version uses Saltine crackers instead of Ritz and likely contain mayonnaise, mustard and maybe some Tabasco.

Crab Cakes from “The New Legal Sea Foods Cookbook”

by Roger Berkowitz and Jane Doerfer

Serves 4

Ingredients:

• One 4 oz …

Continue reading Best Atlanta crab cakes and a recipe »

An Indian restaurant in Duluth will have to get its cold food temperatures down or face a permit suspension by East Metro Health.

An inspector put Lajawaab Indian Food on notice after a repeat violation of cold-holding temperatures during a July 13 inspection. The restaurant is in a strip shopping center at 2870 Peachtree Industrial Boulevard.

Some milk, butter, half and half and an egg mixture had been above the temperature limit of 41 degrees for potentially hazardous cold foods for more than an hour, according to the health report.

The restaurant earned a failing score of 53 out of 100 and will have to undergo a follow-up inspection later this month. Its food permit could be suspended with another cold-holding violation, the inspector said.

Owner Navraj Banga said his restaurant had been inspected five times in the past six weeks, and each time he is made aware of a new violation that he didn’t know about during the seven years he has been in business. Banga said he is …

Continue reading Restaurant inspections, Lajawaab Indian Foods »

LeRoy's Fried Chicken

Need a little Southern-style comfort food on the run? There’s a new soul food take-away in town. LeRoy’s Fried Chicken, which recently opened on the Westside, can help you get your fix.

This is not your typical chicken shack. If you have a hankering for some crispy bird, try the thick-crusted lard-fried chicken here. The moist Springer Mountain Farms chicken is fried-to-order.

And fried chicken isn’t complete without a few hearty Southern sides to round things out. Choose from biscuits, collards, fries, coleslaw or mac n’ cheese for a completely gluttonous comfort meal. If you are overcome by the heady smell wafting from the grease-dotted cardboard box, tear into your chicken at one of the few high-top tables at the chicken stand.

And if, on these dog days of summer, you crave something a little lighter, try a salad or a fried chicken-liver sandwich. The salad is topped with — what else? — fried chicken. Maybe instead you can cool off with the …

Continue reading LeRoy’s Fried Chicken and more restaurant news »

Peachtree Road Farmers Market, credit: John Spink,AJC

I adore browsing each of our local farmers markets. Each is unique with its own character and personality (and vendors). I love that we have markets on different days so that I can pop by more than one each week. I definitely have a favorite, but I can’t reveal which it is! Do you have a favorite?

You can vote for your favorite farmers market in the annual online contest by The American Farmland Trust, designed to “raise national awareness about the importance of buying fresh food from local farms and saving the farmland where it’s grown.” Votes will be accepted through August 31. You can vote for as many markets as you like, but just once per market.

Markets are categorized according to size based on their number of vendors. One market in each category (small, medium, large and boutique) will win the title of “America’s Favorite Farmers Market” for 2011. The prize includes a shipment of No Farms No Food® …

Continue reading Which farmers market is your favorite? »

(AP Photo/J Pat Carter)

Earlier this week WTAE, a Pittsburgh ABC affiliate, reported about a local restaurant’s new ban on children under the age of 6. Mike Vuick, the owner of McDain’s Restaurant and Golf Center in Monroeville, PA, reached the end of his rope with uncontrolled children in his restaurant and instituted the policy after receiving many complaints from his other patrons. The story was quickly picked up by the national media, including Time and The Wall Street Journal.

Though McDain’s has predictably been on the business end of quite a few outraged parents, it seems that even more folks are applauding the decision. According to the online survey on WTAE’s website, 64% are in favor of the ban and according to The Journal, Vuick saw a 20% uptick in receipts following the announcement.

Having not yet reproduced myself, perhaps it is easier for me to join the masses in smiling at the story. Perhaps once I’ve passed my genes on to the next generation, that …

Continue reading Banning kids in restaurants? »

East Metro Health District briefly suspended the food permit of Ichiban Buffet in Buford after the restaurant failed its second consecutive routine inspection in less than three months.

Also, it was Ichiban’s third consecutive violation of the food storage and separation health code. The restaurant at 3843 Buford Drive had to provide corrective action and risk control plans, and repair some faulty equipment before being re-inspected.

Manager Eddie Yan said an old cooler that couldn’t maintain the proper temperature was the main reason Ichiban received a failing score of 59 out of 100 during the July 7 inspection.

Some sprouts, lo mein noodles and crab meat in the hibachi prep cooler were discarded because they exceeded the 41-degree maximum for cold-held food, according to the report.

Yan said the cooler was repaired that afternoon, then Ichiban received a 100/A on a follow-up inspection.

Other corrections were also needed. Food storage was re-arranged so that raw animal …

Continue reading Restaurant inspections, Ichiban Buffet »