H+F Bread Co., a first taste

Yesterday, Yenta Girl, Tony, and I decided to give Metro Fresh a rest and headed over to H&F Bread Co. to try it out.


The first thing that hit me when we walked into H&F Bread Co. is the smell; the warm scent of baking breads that makes me want to break out a cot and make myself at home there forever.

I'll take a loaf of bread to gnaw on during the car ride back to work

I had been told of how bare bones it was in there but I was surprised by how cute it ended up being. (Perhaps they spruced it up some since B. got me all those wonderful pastries for me on my birthday?)




Each weekday, H&F Bread Co. cooks up one soup and two sandwiches. Yesterday, they had two soups, chicken noodle and gumbo, and two sandwiches, a roasted veggie and goat cheese pita and a ham baguette.

Gumbo & Veggie Sammy that the gentleman ahead of me ordered

My veggie pita and ginger scone

Yenta Girl's Chicken noodle soup and chocolate croissant

Tony's ham baguette and ginger scone

Pecan cookies that we all shared

I think I can speak for the three of us when I say that we really enjoyed our lunches. All the breads were all delicious and soy free. (Since many breads are made with soy, this is important to note for those with a soy allergy.) The ginger scone was buttery and flaky, with little bits of crystallized ginger.

In addition to their breads, pastries and lunch items, H&F Bread Co. sells jams, olive oil, canned Italian tuna, and other such items.


My only gripe would be with the prices, as it is a tad expensive for a grab and go spot. My sandwich, scone, and diet coke totaled up to about $14 - ouch! But, I can only imagine how H&F feels the pinch on the other side.

As we left, I picked up a menu and found out about their Entertaining Menu, which includes the H&F Burger Kit. For $35, you get 1 lb. of Will Harris' White Oak Pasture Ground Beef, 4 brioche buns, half pint each of ketchup, yellow mustard, bread and butter pickles, 1 pint of caramelized onions, and a 1/4 lb. of cheddar cheese. All this and you don't have to wait until 10pm to eat wait one of their fabulous burgers.

I'm looking forward to trying some of their other soups (like the White Bean soup they serve on Tuesdays!) and picking up a loaf of bread to enjoy at home.

H&F Bread Co.
2255 Peachtree Road NE
Atlanta, GA 30309
404.350.8877
www.hfbreadco.com

Dogwood - A First Taste during Midtown Restaurant Week

I am not alone in my skepticism about Midtown Restaurant Week. I don't know, I guess I just feel dubious that am going to spend just $25 or that I am going to get stuck with a lousy, limiting menu.

Regardless, I was excited about the opportunity to give the new Dogwood Restaurant a try when ETK invited me along last Friday. And I felt like Midtown Restaurant Week is a great opportunity for a new restaurant to showcase some of it's best meals. So, I wasn't completely worried.


The offerings on the 3-course menu were picked straight off of Dogwood's regular menu. For an appetizer, diner's could choose from their grits bar or a green salad. For the main, the option was grilled salmon over grilled cornbread or crawfish stuffed chicken. As for the dessert, it was either the chocolate terrine, grilled lemon pound cake with key lime gelatto, or a peach upside down cake.

Low country shrimp 'n grits!

A statue of grilled salmon

Stuffed chicken

Chocolate terrine

Grilled lemon pound cake - yum!

Peach upside down cake

Overall we enjoyed our meal very much. The grits were sublime - creamy and just right. The salmon was good, although I do enjoy my salmon a bit simpler and probably would have liked it better without the BLT sauce that topped it.

My favorite part of the meal was the grilled lemon pound cake with the key lime gelato - just tart enough to balance the sweetness. The peach upside down cake was like cobbler. It was delicious but not quite as good as the pound cake. As for the chocolate terrine, I recommend this for those who like their chocolate rich and packing a punch!

Dogwood was also nice enough to make special dinner for ETK who is not especially fond of seafood - a more basic version of the chicken dish. In fact, I secretly coveted the simplicity of the dish and somewhat wished I had also made a special order.

naked chicken

The restaurant itself has a beautiful dining room with carpeted floors, which helps keep it from getting unbearably loud like some of my favorite places in town.

Looking down into the dining room

Finally, I would like to point out the salt and pepper on the table - a rare sight in upscale restaurants today. I love salt and adore having the option to add more as I please! (Perhaps I got a little too overzealous with the salt that night, though.)

S&P

On the way out, we were greeted by James Dicke, Dogwood's manager. He was very interested to know about the pictures we were taking and what we might be doing with them, a curiosity I commonly hear when I am in restaurants around town. I often get the feeling that these restaurants are a little anxious about the prevalence of everyday people turned critics by way of the food blog.

I just want to take a moment to acknowledge that I am under no illusions about what I am doing. I realize that one visit to a restaurant can not tell the whole story and I do try to take this into consideration in my write ups. I always welcome additional opinions on my accounts and will happily give a restaurant a second try if it wasn't quite top notch the first time around. I'm just an avid Atlanta foodie who enjoys sharing my thoughts and pics with others!

Dogwood Restaurant
565 Peachtree Street
Atlanta, GA 30308
404.835.1410
www.dogwoodrestaurant.com

4th & Swift - A First Taste

C-Dub and I wanted to try out Jay Swift's new restaurant, 4th & Swift. (Swift's previous restaurants include the original South City Kitchen and Rainwater.) We decided to swing by on Thursday night since neither of us had to work the next day.

My first thought as we walked in the door was how similar the decor is to Rathbun's. Maybe it is the dark bar directly by the entrance or the exposed brick? The aroma of the restaurant hit me next. It had a strong chophouse smell; you certainly would not confuse this place for a vegetarian joint.

4th & Swift dining doom

Our waiter Edward told us that the menu incorporates a great deal of locally grown vegetables from farms such as Jeff Collins Farms, Riverview Farms, and Ashland Farms. The delicious sounding heirloom tomatoes are provided by Laurie Moore with Moore Farms.

With all of this talk about the locally grown vegetables, I was a little disappointed that there wasn't a veggie plate to showcase them. (I love that Restaurant Eugene has their "Tasting of Local Vegetables". I hope that other restaurants will follow suit.) Nevertheless, Edward talked me into the house made pappardelle; a dish that features a variety of the local vegetables he spoke of.

C-Dub ordered the Swordfish served with fennel salad and calamari. Speaking of that fennel salad; when I saw it on the menu, I knew I had to order it. I love, love, love fennel. Edward also sold us on the arugula salad; he described the parmesan beignets that top the salad as so good they could be a dish of their own.

While we waited, we were served a basket of house made crackers and cheese biscuits. C-Dub and I agreed that they were both delicious, although I would have preferred the biscuits served warm.

Crackers and cheddar biscuits

We both munched on the arugula salad and really enjoyed it. I love arugula, I love beets, and I love pine nuts - how could it go wrong? And Edward was right, those beignets tasted incredibly indulgent with a crispy outside and a creamy parmesan middle.

Beignet innards

Not to spoil the rest of this post but the fennel salad was my absolute favorite dish of the night. It was simple and delightful; I would have eaten a large plateful if it was available.

Mmm...fennel

With such a tasty start, we were a little thrown by the disappointing entrees. My pappardelle, while flavorful, was undercooked. The corn sprinkled throughout the dish was also undercooked, sadly. Honestly, if it hadn't been undercooked, I probably would have loved it.

The house made pappardelle

C-Dub wasn't too happy with the swordfish he ordered. He felt that the rub on the fish was too salty - I thought it was fine but I also really love salt - and that it was slightly dry on the inside. He did like the fennel salad, though. (Or what he could get of it since I was eager to chown down on some more of that fennel.)

Swordfish with a puddle of rouille

Casey has a risotto-tooth so we decided to order a side of the sweet corn risotto. Unfortunately, it did not vary from the theme; the rice was undercooked and we sent it back.

Sweet corn risotto

I have hope for 4th & Swift. They have a few kinks to work out in the kitchen but, once resolved, it has the potential to become a great Atlanta restaurant.
(If you've been there, I would be eager to your thoughts on the place.)

4th & Swift
621 North Avenue
Building B
Atlanta, GA 30308
678.904.0160
www.4thandswift.com

Bone Garden Cantina - A First Taste

After reading the Blissful Glutton's review of Bone Garden Cantina, I was intrigued and wanted to give it a try. So, C-Dub and I headed over there last night for dinner.

Clearly, this is a photogenic fixture in the restaurant.
(Please see Exhibit A, Exhibit B, and Exhibit C.)

Apparently, we weren't the only ones with that idea. Not only was the placed packed but we also were lucky enough to run into Broderick, Beth, and a few friends dining with them. We were a little hesitant to have a seat with them since it seemed obvious to us that they had already ordered (drinks on the table, no menus) but we soon learned we were wrong. They had brought their drinks from the bar when they were seated ten minutes earlier but hadn't seen or heard from anyone in the waitstaff since. Little did we know at the time that this would be a common theme throughout the night. (A note - yes, the service was incredibly slow. But, I will say that all the waitstaff was incredibly nice and accommodating. I think they might have been caught off guard with the crowd that night. I suspect that they will improve over time.)

The long awaited menus. At this point, all of the dishes looked enticing!

First things first, C-Dub and I had to order some drinks. I ordered their sangria and C-Dub ordered a drink called "El Diablo". I wasn't crazy about the sangria because it had that Kool-Aid sweet taste to it. (I prefer more of the El Myr variety of sangria - super strong!) But the "El Diablo" was delicious, sort of like what Sour Patch Kids would taste like if they were made into an alcoholic drink.

Sangria to the left and El Diablo to the right.

C-Dub and I ordered their mahi-mahi ceviche for an appetizer and it was excellent. It tasted fresh and citrusy; a nice, light appetizer especially if the night was as hot as it was yesterday!

Mmm...delish!

After a long, long wait and many baskets of chips later, we finally received our food. My meal consisted of two tacos (one with chicken and mashed potatoes and one with grilled veggies) and a side of rice and beans.

Chicken taco in the front and grilled veggie in the back.

The chicken taco was really yummy; I think the mashed potatoes were a delicious touch! I wasn't as fond of the grilled veggie taco, though. The veggies were topped off with a peanut sauce that tasted a little strange to me in a taco. (Conversely, Beth thought that the grilled veggie taco was delectable mainly due to that same peanut sauce.)

C-Dub ordered a plate of three tacos: the chicken with potatoes, an al pastor, and a third that I can't remember.


He also really enjoyed the chicken taco but the al pastor left a lot to be desired. (We all began lamenting the closing of the Grant Park Zocolo, a place C-Dub and I often frequented for their al pastor tacos.)

My first take on the Bone Garden Cantina is that if you've got some time on your hands and friends to drink with, go ahead and give it a try. The mixed drinks were tasty and the tacos, while not super authentic, are on the same level as the decent tacos at El Tesoro. And, if nothing else, the decor makes for a good photography outing.

Bone Garden Cantina

1425 Ellsworth Industrial Boulevard
Atlanta, GA 30318
404.418.9072
www.bonegardencantina.com