Hanging out in Vinings

Ginny, an old friend from high school, came to visit all the way from Charleston. Laura organized a girl's night out, which turned out to be in Vinings. After sipping on some cocktails, five of us ventured down the hill to eat at Garrison's.

This is a great restaurant. Well, actually, I don't know how affirmatively I can say that: I've only been there twice, and I ordered the same thing both times. But others more adventurous than I agree that it is very tasty. There are two other locations besides Vinings: Perimeter and Duluth.

I ordered the lobster bisque and the house salad, which is greens tossed in raspberry vinaigrette with sundried cherries, walnuts, apples and bleu cheese. The salad was a bit overdressed, so I'd order it again with the dressing on the side. But overall, YUM!

We also had drinks. Note to self: be sure to say you only want your martini lightly dirty.

After dinner, we went to Meehan's for a cocktail or three. Interestingly enough, there were cops in there with cops-in-training, and they were asking people if they wanted to participate in field sobriety tests for the sake of teaching a trainee on a legitimately drunk person. Amanda volunteered, and I was able to take some incriminating photos: insta-blackmail.

The bar was nice -- I'd definitely go back.

Mellow Mushroom, you were soggy!

I had Mellow Mushroom at an office lunch yesterday, and I just feel it's my duty to disclose just how soggy that pizza was. Okay, okay, i know that it was a bulk order, and it's possible it had been sitting out for a few minutes. But no more than 10 minutes, I assure you!

The pizza was inedible without a fork. And was super greasy. I will eat Mellow Mushroom again, but I will be prepared for soggy pizza.

No idea who's playing: I just like to throw parties

Sunday night, I hosted a Super Bowl party with a small group of friends. Just like last year, I ordered BBQ from Daddy D'z. It's super easy, super good, and everyone seems to like it.

This year went well. I ordered 4lb of BBQ for about 12 people, and I had enough leftovers to send some home with a few people, plus enough for several sammies for me. I also ordered slaw -- six servings, which was way more than enough. I document this, because I couldn't remember how much I ordered last year, and want to be sure I have enough, but not too much, for next year.

This year, I took people up on them bringing stuff. Al brought chips, Amanda brought four dips, Laura brought buns and pickles, and Amber surprised us with her homemade pinwheels. Note to self: don't tell a person to bring buns if she isn't going to get there promptly.

Daddy D'z is the bomb. First, let me just say how friggin' nice they are there. Both times I've called ahead for BBQ, I've talked to super friendly people who went out of their way to help me plan for the event. And the BBQ is just really good. I highly recommend!

The Giants won. Yayyyy. That's about the total excitement you'll get from me about pro football.

A new brunch spot!

For brunch on Sunday, Mike and I went to Solstice Cafe over in Grant Park. I read about it on Yelp, and wasn't disappointed at all! First, there was no wait, and we were able to sit outside, as it was really nice on Sunday.

I ordered the BLFGT (Bacon, Lettuce, Fried Green Tomato sandwich), which had goat cheese on it. SO. GOOD. It was served with their house salad, which had pears, strawberries, and goat cheese in it. Two major thumbs up.

I'm trying to remember what Mike ordered, but I can't seem to recall. Probably because I was engrossed in my own mean. I do remember that had homefries with his that were crunchy and good. Good thing to remember, since few places seem to prepare decent breakfast potatoes.

Oh, and they serve little bottle Cokes. Cute.

Only critique is that our friendly server fell off the face of the earth at the end of the meal, and finally Mike had to round her up inside. But my sandwich was totally worth the small inconvenience. I'll definitely be back.

Sotto Sotto

For dinner, Mike and I went to Sotto Sotto, which was great! The location was very trendy and pretty romantic. First, we had a round of martinis, and the bartender didn't over-dirty mine, which was nice.

For our appetizer, we ordered the antipasto plate. I was highly impressed on the serving amounts! Plenty of times, I've gotten a similar item for a similar price point and gotten such measly serving sizes. With this plate, you got three types of cheese, a variety of olives, and three types of meat. There was so much on the plate that we never finished it all.

For dinner, I ordered risotto. I'd never had it before, and I must say, it's pretty good! The one I ordered had wild mushrooms in it. I was expecting the texture to be mushier than it was, but it tastes very much just like rice, but with a creaminess to it. Thumbs up!

Mike ordered a duck breast pasta. It was good too, but I liked mine more. His tasted to me very much like lasagna. For dessert (yes, we went all out!), we had their ricotta cheesecake. SO GOOD. It was topped with some type of cherry and cherry sauce, and the crust was served on top, somehow. It was quite yummy.

Oh, I should also mention that we had a glass each of the barolo wine. I didn't look at the wine menu, so that's all I can say about the type of wine. But it was hella good. Worth remembering -- I'd definitely drink that again.

Final thought: the valet guys were hilarious. Mike and I were highly entertained.

Whoa! Lay off the eggs, will ya?

I coerced Mike into hiking Stone Mountain on Saturday, so we actually woke up at a decent hour on Saturday so that we wouldn't waste the day away.

Before heading out to the park, we wanted to get a quick breakfast, so we stopped at Highland Bakery to get a sandwich. Wow, this place gets packed! I had only been once before, at 7AM on a weekday -- let's just say that it wasn't quite as bustling at it was on Saturday AM.

The layout was a bit claustrophobic. Not of the restaurant, mind you, but of the wait area. I easily get anxious when stuck in a tight space, so I backed myself up against a wall while we waited for our food. Next time, we'll have to actually wait for a table, and hopefully that will be a bit more sane.

My bacon, egg, and cheese croissant was good, but oily. And whoa, did they put a lot of egg on it or what? I started pulling egg out of it because there was just too much. By the time I had finished my sandwich, there was enough egg left over to create two servings. And I left a bunch on my sandwich. I wouldn't be surpised if there were about 6 eggs on my sandwich.

Mike is here!

Mike was in town this weekend, and we tried a variety of new places this weekend, which was quite fun and quite yummy!

On Friday night, we went for a late dinner at Sala, which is up-scale Mexican dining in the Highlands. The ambiance inside is really nice, and we had a waiter that was really helpful. We ordered taquitos for the appetizer (a last minute change by Mike -- I had heard the cheese dip, made with goat cheese, was ridiculous), which was okay.

The main courses arrived: I ordered Pollo con Espinacas, based on the recommendation of the server, and my expectations were not let down. It was so good! The only complaint was that I expected the chicken to be boneless. And for the most part it was! But there was a small bone in the dish which was hard to cut around without splashing little drops of cream sauce on myself.

Mike ordered beef enchiladas, which I think he enjoyed. In my opinion (and I think secretly in his), my dish was better.

We both got prickly pear margaritas, which were served with no ice. They were really tart, making us wish we had ice in our glasses, so for our second round, we made the request, and they were happy to oblige.

At the end of dinner, we migrated to the bar to finish our second drink. Mike got a wild hair to try some tequilas, so we discussed with the bartender. Criteria: we want something good, but not Patron, and not too terribly expensive. He promptly pulled down a bottle, and poured us some shots.

I sadly can't remember the name of the tequila, but I thought it was good! I'll have to ask Mike if he remembers the name of it... He also gave us a small taste of another tequila, which was much smokier. I preferred the first, and we contentedly sipped our shots, and pretended like we were tequila connoisseurs.