Sunday, April 06, 2008
Food, "Dish"
Variety is the slice of life
The cheese gets cut, families are united once again, and one restaurant experiments with ménage a trois
CREDIT:Courtesy of Melissa Libby & Associates
Trilogy offers a trio of fun: dining, spirits and entertainment.
By Kirsten Ott
GATHER ROUND
Having family values doesn’t necessarily mean you’re conservative or uptight. It might just mean you’re happy to sit down at a big table with the ones you love and share a scrumptious meal so wonderful you’ll wish you wore your sweatpants. JCT. Kitchen & Bar introduces “Sunday Suppers: A Fancy Meat & Three” every Sunday night from 5 to 9 p.m. For $24 a person (plus tax and tip), Chef Ford Fry serves up heaping helpings of delicious gourmet comfort food. The menu includes five meats (think roasted chicken in its natural jus, locally sourced veal meatloaf, wood roasted Riverview Farm’s pork loin) and nine home-style vegetables for the table to choose from, such as baked macaroni, collard greens, squash-and-gouda casserole, fried okra, mashed potatoes, turnip gratin, sliced tomatoes, pole beans and sweet corn hash with Roaring Forties Bleu. Also included is JCT’s black-skillet cornbread, warm biscuits, farm-stand salad and to-die-for dessert. Craving some apertifs? The bar opens at 2 p.m. Enjoy an afternoon on the terrace, live music, drink specials, sangria, hand-squeezed margaritas and cold-water oysters. Reservations are encouraged, as the place gets pretty packed for the new family-style tradition. Dress code is casual, so your whole family—even that uncle who refuses to shed those has-been Bart Simposon shirts and black jeans—will fit in. 1198 Howell Mill Road. 404-355-2252. www.jctkitchen.com.
SAY CHEESE
Stop by your local Whole Foods Market April 12 at 3 p.m. to witness a world record being made. The natural and organic foods supermarket is attempting a Guinness World Record for the most Parmigiano Reggiano wheels ever cracked at the same time. Hundreds of wheels around the world will be cracked in the cheese departments in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. The breaking of the 24-month-aged 85-pound cheese wheels celebrates a time-honored tradition dating back almost 800 years. The cheese hails from Corsorzio del Formaggio Parmigiano Reggiano in Northern Italy, a region that celebrates its food culture—and its cheese. Whole Foods Market cheese buyers visit the region to hand-select the cheese from the producers. www.wholefoods.com.
THIRD TIME’S A CHARM
Upscale meets down-right fun at Trilogy, an East Cobb restaurant that offers a multitude of dining, spirits and entertainment options. Its casual elegance is apparent in the bold architectural details and clean lines. The dining portion takes place in a separate smoke-free room far away from the high-spirited entertainment, so you can nosh on American fare with your family in peace. Folks wishing to up the noise level can head into the over-21 area, which offers a sports bar, booths, large TVs and the walkway to a piano lounge, where another bar serves up cocktails and the like—you can order meals in most any room, though. Additionally, Trilogy offers a spacious entertainment room that’s completely soundproof. The entertainment lineup is fierce, offering trivia, karaoke, swing music, a Van Halen cover band, Sock Hops, Blind Tiger, American Flyer, Rich Reichner and Atlanta Blue Notes. A full lineup is available online at Trilogy’s Web site. Drink and food specials abound at this three-for-one dining destination. Every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, Trilogy offers half-price martinis and wine by the glass, and $2 Coors Light. On Mondays, enjoy bottomless bowls of pasta for $8.95. Get a full pound of steamed shrimp with warm garlic butter, red-skin potatoes and corn on the cobb for $10.95 on Tuesdays. Wednesdays are all-you-care-to-eat Southern meatloaf made like Mama used to do at $9.95. 4930 Davidson Road. 770-971-4770. www.trilogydining.net. SP
When she’s not checking out restaurants, interviewing chefs or nodding off after her fifth glass of wine, Life, Food & Style Editor Kirsten Ott dishes culinary and cocktail insights. E-mail her at kirstenott@sundaypaper.com.