Flip Burger, Round Two

Amanda and I made a long awaited return visit to Flip Burger last night, as it was one of the only places we could think of that would still be seating customers at 10:15 pm (Houstons, incidentally, was not interested in feeding us, the bastards). We both fully enjoyed our “burgers” and are looking forward to possibly hitting it again (spoiler alert!) next weekend when mom and dad are in town.

I had the corned beef (with a small jar of b&b pickles), which I have been dreaming about ever since we were there the first time and I had a bite of Amanda’s. She had the tunaburger (with 5-bean salad). Both were good, but the corned beef stole the show once again.

I was also happy to be able to order a Fat Tire. Nice work, Blaise.

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My Tires Are Fat and My Taste Buds Are Happy

It is a good day to be a Georgian (except maybe for Zaza Pachulia). Fat Tire, one of the best beers out there, went on sale in Georgia today for the first time. Brewed by the New Belgium Brewing Company in Fort Collins, CO, Fat Tire was something that I used to be able to enjoy when we lived in LA or on other trips out west. But not anymore. With their commemorative “Georgia On My Ride” 22 ounce bottles, I can finally drink it from the comfort of my own living room, which I happily did tonight.

Because I’m excited about this new development, here are some pictures.

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Umm, I’m An Idiot

So when I said that Braves rookie was from Olemiss, I was confused bc they showed his stats from last year with “Mississippi.”

I didn’t realize they were referring to the Mississippi Braves, the Braves farm team in Jackson.

Oops.

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I Won’t Back Down, No I Won’t Back Down

(Tom Petty, Won’t Back Down)

After roughly 20 years as an anti-Braves fan, I am still not a Braves fan.  I am a Red Sox fan who happens to live in Atlanta, and though I will go to Braves games, and will occasionally root root root for the home team, that does not make me a fan.  But I have to say that I am so excited about baseball season officially kicking off last night, and I caught part of the Braves/Phillies game on ESPN.  Now, my anti-Braves stance may have dwindled a bit to mere ambivalence, but seeing Red Sox transplant Derek “Night Train” Lowe on the mound last night for Atlanta definitely made me a little giddy, and I really enjoyed watching that rookie from Ole Miss who belted one out of the park in his first major league at-bat (a la Will Clark, if you will, even though he went to Mississippi State).  Those two are going to make it hard for me to keep up any sort of unfounded hatred for this team.  But I will try.

Sox kick things off today against Tampa (Kenny f’ing Powers!) at 2:00.  Hoping to catch some of the game at the airport before heading out. 

Happy Baseball Season, everybody.

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Richard Blais’s Milkshake Brings All the Boys to the Yard

Breaking News: This post is not about Lost. 

Fans of this blog (ha!) know that Amanda and I are pretty addicted to Top Chef, and as we discovered last Fall, former contestant Richard Blais was planning to open a new gourmet burger place here in the ATL.  Well, Flip Burger Boutique opened in November, and I had been dying to eat there ever since, though evidently not quite bad enough to actually go eat there.  Until last night.

Only one complaint, and we’ll get that out of the way early: Hostesses of the world, please – always OVERESTIMATE the amount of time a customer will be waiting.  25 minutes didn’t sound so bad.  An hour later, we got our table. 

The food, I thought, was great.  But I’m easily impressed.  They had a lot of fancy sounding burgers on their menu, but since it was my first visit, I just wanted a regular burger, you know, just to see how they do what they do.  I had the Bacon & Cheese (as did Lenny and Tommy).  I probably ate it in about 4 bites.  Most of my friends think I don’t really taste my food when I eat, because I eat so fast, but I do, and this burger tasted great.  Granted, there’s not that much difference between a good burger and a great burger (but you can definitely pick out the bad ones easily), but I will say this: it was cooked well, and the bottom part of the bun did not get soggy.  I hate when I order a burger at a restaurant, and by the time it gets to my table, the bottom bun is already starting to get soggy.  I had the fried asparagus as my side item (MUCH healthier than the french fries, I am telling myself), which were really good when dipped in the ranch dressing they brought out with it.  Amanda and Frank both had the Corned Beef burger, which was actually corned beef, ground up and made into a patty, served with a fried egg on top.  I had a bite of Amanda’s burger, and have already decided that’s what I’m having when I go back.

We each had a milkshake as well.  Lenny and Tommy had the Krispy Kreme shake, which really did taste just like Krispy Kreme donuts, and Amanda and Frank each had a pistachio shake, which was ok.  I’m not a big pistachio fan.  I was hoping to try the sweet tea shake, but they didn’t have it last night, and I wasn’t man enough (or crazy enough) to try the foie gras milkshake, so I had the Nutella & Burnt Marshmallow shake, served with actual burnt marshmallows on top.  Man, was that good.  I’m still interested to try the sweet tea shake, but I definitely liked the Nutella & Burnt Marshmallow better than the Krispy Kreme.  I just have to figure out which one will go better with the corned beef burger next time I’m there.

All in all, and notwithstanding the fact that we had to wait an hour to get seated (on a Monday night!), this place was awesome, and fairly reasonably priced for being such a scene.  Burger, side, and shake for around $20.  Pricier than a McDonald’s combo meal, but also much tastier.  Big thumbs up.

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Sundae Bloody Sundae

We just went to an ice cream festival of sorts at the Irwin Street Market. They were featuring Nicecream flavors that were made with coconut milk and somehow just slightly less bad for you than regular ice cream. They also had some special toppings as well.

My favorites were the double cappuccino with sea salted caramel sauce and the banana chocolate chip with strawberry balsamic sauce. I also tasted about 3 or 4 other flavors and some sauces that were just ok.

Now I need to skip dinner for the next three days.

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Pack Your Knives and Go … To Piedmont Park

We went to a cooking demo in Piedmont Park today, thanks to Amanda bumping into someone from the show at Kinko’s this morning. Casey and Richard were there and took questions. They were so nice!

Richard is opening a new burger place here in a few weeks called Flip. Bonn have bacon milkshake and krispy kreme millshakes! I can’t wait to try them.

Here’s a pic.

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I Don’t Mind Stealing Bread From the Mouths of Decadence

(Temple of the Dog, Hunger Strike)

What a weekend.

Friday night, Amanda and I went to Fogo de Chao for David’s birthday. That place is amazing! A bit more expensive than I’m used to, but I probably ate my money’s worth.

Saturday I got to visit with a good friend who was in town to see her family, and meet her adorable 10-month old son. Later that afternoon our friend Neola came in to visit us, and we had dinner at One Midtown Kitchen, where I enjoyed the calamari appetizer, steak frites, and a warm chocolate truffle cake with a scoop of mint chocolate ice cream for dessert, all for $25 thanks to Restaurant Week.

Yesterday we decided to get out and walk off some of what we ate the night before, so we cruised over to the midtown Obama campaign office and picked up some voter registration materials, then went down to the Grant Park Festival and walked around for two hours or so, getting people to register to vote. It was pretty fun (though we really weren’t there for a very long time), and it was kind of exciting to get involved and participate in some of the efforts on Obama’s behalf. Then last night we cooked dinner at home (chicken with pineapple and rice) and watched Be Kind Rewind, which was pretty weird, but also pretty funny.

Today I cooked buckweat pancakes with strawberry maple syrup and some turkey sausage for breakfast, and we took Neola over to Decatur and walked around for a bit, then picked up a few things at the Dekalb Farmer’s Market on the way home for dinner (my signature chicken with spicy tomato chutney, with rice and curry cauliflower). Right now I’m watching the Tennessee/UCLA game, and then we’re probably going to pop in a movie.

I have to say I’m exhausted, and I think that’s mainly from eating. I think I’m still tired from eating dinner on Friday night. Seriously, if you have some cash to drop, and a stomach whose boundaries you really want to test, then head to Fogo de Chao. And don’t fill up on bread (or even eat any at all).

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Bacon Bacon Bacon Coffee Milkshake Egg and Waffle

(Electric Fetus, The Brunch Rap)

This past weekend Amanda and I celebrated Barack Obama’s upcoming birthday (Aug. 4) by having brunch twice. And test-driving scooters.

Saturday we returned to the Social House, finally meeting up with some friends we’ve been trying to get together with since April. Doesn’t seem like it would be so hard to do, but evidently it was quite a scheduling nightmare. The first time we ate there, the coffee was miserable (thankfully they’ve rectified that situation), and I had the “whole farm breakfast sandwich” (yes, those are belgian waffle sections instead of bread). I’ll probably have to go back to the sandwich again at some point, but once I discovered how good their shrimp & grits were (with andouille sausage!), it has been hard to stray from that. Next time, though, I’m going to have to go with the savory bread pudding, topped with shrimp. I had a bite of it, and I can’t wait to go back to eat the whole plate.

Sunday we went down into Kirkwood to check out a friend’s house and neighborhood. It was nice, we drove around a bit, looking at some of the homes for sale, and some of the hookers walking the streets at noon on a Sunday. What can I say, we love diversity. If we do end up in Kirkwood, it will certainly be better than living across the street from the Department of Corrections Transitional Housing Center, and next door to a meth lab. We ate at Sun In My Belly, which is exactly as cute of a place as it’s name would suggest. They had a jazz guitarist with a female vocalist for your Sunday Brunch Entertainment, and I had an omelet with cheddar cheese, red onion, avocado, and pulled pork. It was awesome.

As I mentioned above, we also test drove some scooters. Actually, we took turns on the same scooter. It was pretty fun. We went over to ATL Scooters, just for the hell of it, and started looking at some of the ones on display. We talked to a salesman for awhile before getting him to take us across the street to the Kroger parking lot for a quick test drive (they don’t normally do test drives on Saturdays, but he was nice enough to oblige us anyway). We’re not really in the market for a scooter, but if we were, it would certainly save us a bunch of money. For starters, they only run about $1700, which is about $1700 less than I was expecting. Secondly, despite it’s small gas tank (1.5 gallons), it gets insane mileage, to the tune of 80 miles per gallon. That’s 120 miles to the tank, at a whopping $6.50 or so, to fill it up. That’s about a month of driving to and from work, for $6.50. Unbelieveable.

We were a bit shaky at first, but started to get the hang of it. I’m sure with a little bit of practice, we’d be pros. And yes, mom, we wore helmets. I’ve got a picture of Amanda riding, I’ll have to put it up later, after I get home.

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Republicans and Democrats Can’t Give You the Facts, Your Parents Won’t Tell You Till You’re Grown

(Uncle Tupelo, We’ve Been Had)

I just ate my weight in sushi.

Amanda and I just got home from a sushi-cooking class at The Cook’s Warehouse in Decatur. We got an hour long discussion and demo from Joey Riley, the executive chef at Buckhead Diner, then we got to try making our own. I don’t know how much everybody else made, or ate, because I was too busy stocking up for the winter. They let us make and eat as much as we wanted, so I made a tuna roll, a salmon and avocado roll, a california roll topped with tuna, salmon and avocado, then I tried my hand – successfully, I might add – with a piece of tuna nigiri and a piece of salmon nigiri. Then I made a salmon and tuna tartare roll, and a tuna, cucumber and avocado roll. After that, I made another salmon and tuna tartare roll, topped with avocado. I’m telling you, every single bite of it was awesome.

Amanda didn’t eat nearly as much as I did, but most of her rolls looked much more professional than did mine. To be quite honest, though, aesthetics was a secondary concern of mine.

In other news, it looks like Obama officially took the majority of pledged delegates tonight, which is awesome, although he took a bit of a beating in Kentucky, which means HRC is gonna keep clapping and pointing excitedly from podiums for another two weeks.

But right now I am full of sushi, and I am happy. And I am ready for sleep.

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