Moxie Burger: 5/3/13

Date Night hears a lot of opinions about who has the best burger in Atlanta. We really like the burger at Boccado, but we have yet to have the world-famous Holeman and Finch burger in Buckhead. Our friend and regular reader Mags McDee told us to go try Moxie Burger as she thinks it is one of Atlanta’s best. Since it’s just a few miles from Date Night headquarters in Marietta, we drive over to see what Mags is talking about.

Not much on the outside, but good burgers inside.

Moxie is inside of the Paper Mill Village shopping center, towards the back. You stand in line to order and they bring you your food, which is how they do it at Yeah Burger, another Date Night favorite.

The place was crowded the entire time we were there.

As you would expect from an East Cobb location, there are a lot of families here and a lot of kids, all of which are surprisingly well-behaved tonight. We get to Moxie just in time as there is no line when we arrive. A line forms right as we find a table and people keep coming for our whole meal. We start off with two amazing beers.

Beer value of 2013.

These are Allagash Tripels in 16-ounce cups. Usually, 9% beers come in much smaller cups, but don’t tell Moxie. We get the equivalent of two really good beers each for $6 a glass. Maybe we shouldn’t mention this, because if Moxie reads this review, they will either raise the price or cut back on the beer size.

Date Night likes to sample as much as we can put in our small stomachs and we decide to try a bunch of different things on the menu. Burgers, dawgs and salads are what you get here, and the nice thing is that Moxie is owned by a local family who works there as well. We start off with some fried pimiento cheese bites.

Crunchy on the outside, spicy on the inside.

There’s nothing more southern than these bites. The cheese inside has a kick, so don’t take too big a bite. You know you want some of these!

We get two different kinds of burgers, along with a side of sweet potato fries. First up is “The Gobbler”.

Gobble gobble!

We “gobble up” this turkey burger with dried cranberries and mayo on a ciabatta bun. It’s really good.

We also try the signature burger, “The Moxie”.

The Moxie burger. Yummmm.

We have another winner on our hands. This is an angus burger with bacon, fried green tomato, pimiento cheese (there it is again) and the special Moxie sauce. This is quite the meal and it does stand up to the best burgers in town.

The sweet potato fries are good, and you can also get regular fries or zucchini fries. I tried to get them to give us a combo of all three, but that’s not on the menu and they wouldn’t do it. We suggest they put a fries combo on the menu and charge 50 cents more for it. I bet they would sell a bunch of those.

The meal for the two of us was under $35, so you can get filled up pretty inexpensively at Moxie. Mags was right–these are really good burgers. Judging by the crowds, East Cobb thinks they are good burgers too. And with these beer prices, we’ll be back soon for a drink.

You can get good popsicles from the King of Pops at Moxie for dessert, but we are too full.

Yogli Mogli sampler.

We run some errands after dinner and reward ourselves with a couple of self-serve frozen yogurts at Yogli Mogli. It’s a fun end to another fabulous Date Night.

Alpine Bakery: 4/26/13

Tonight, Date Night starts hungry and rolls out of the Alpine Bakery as stuffed as a manicotti. We are in Alpharetta in a shopping center that looks a lot like every shopping center in Atlanta.

Is it a bakery or a restaurant?

The three old silos next door are a nice touch that make it easy to find the restaurant. Once inside, we are greeted by this display case.

Oh sure…you could pick just one?

The cakes cry out, “leave room for dessert!” That’s our goal, but we are about to discover, that’s easier said than done.

It’s a bakery AND a restaurant.

Inside, there is a lot of dark wood and marble in the decor. There are burgundy red booths as well as many tables for large parties. We see a full table of 10 and a table of 12, so the families obviously like the food.

We are shown to table 53, which is not a booth, but affords me a nice view of the proceedings. Eve has to settle for a view of me, although I think she can see outside into Alpine’s patio area. We are greeted with waters and a loaf of warm Italian bread with rosemary.

Save room for dessert, save room for dessert…

There is no doubt that we could have made a meal of this loaf of bread, but we are trying to behave because we know dessert is in our future. The beer list at Alpine is not good, with Sweetwater 420 and Blue Moon as the most exotic offerings. You can go Italian with a Peroni, or you can do what we do and (surprise!) order a nice glass of Banfi Chianti.

Surprise, no beer tonight.

In 2010 we visited the vineyard where the grapes for this wine are grown, so we feel emotionally attached to our glasses of red.

There is live piano music tonight, and in honor of the upcoming HBO Liberace movie with Michael Douglas and Matt Damon, we insert a picture of our piano player and his extravagant white piano.

The soundtrack for the night.

We are hungry, and decide on an appetizer sampler that gives us a good taste of the appetizer menu.

A little of this, a little of that.

We have hit the trifecta. Stuffed mushrooms have sausage in them and pack a little kick from the spicy meat. The clams are stuffed with butter and bread crumbs. And the calamari is crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside. There’s marinara and ranch sauces for dipping.

Our server Heather tells us that the portions are large. We know we want to split an entree, but it’s tough to decide which one. The menu is totally Italian, with pastas, parmesans, scaloppinis, and a good seafood selection. We go with the eggplant parmesan.

Eggplant parmesan. Enough for 4 people!

Heather is right. The plate is huge and it’s served over pasta. An interesting twist of this parmesan is the hard boiled egg slices as one of the layers. Since I like eggs on almost everything, I like the flavor it adds to the eggplant. We eat the entire portion, which impresses the table next to us. It’s a lot of food, but somehow we left enough room for one of those desserts.

There is a dessert menu, but the best way to pick your dessert is to go “shopping” for it in the display cases. One case has whole pies and cakes that you can take home. The other case has the cakes that they are serving that night for dessert. You can go as decadent as you want, from a dessert called “The Seven Sins”, which is seven kinds of chocolate to the dessert we picked, the raspberry mousse cake.

Our choice: raspberry mousse cake!

It is a tough choice to make and it takes us awhile to make it, but what a dessert. Layers of white cake with white mousse and raspberry jelly, all topped off with a raspberry mousse icing. This is not as heavy as some of the chocolate desserts, but it’s a great way to end this delicious meal. The people at the next table are now our best friends as they want a bite. We don’t give them one, but we did save one for you.

We saved you a bite.

Believe it or not, neither of us can finish it. We are full and happy as we waddle towards the door. Alpine Bakery is a definite “must eat” if you are in the Alpharetta area.

The National (Athens): 4/19/13

Date Night returns to one of our favorite food cities in the country, Athens, GA. We are here celebrating our solo offspring Elliott’s 21st birthday a day early as well as his roommate Evan’s a day late. It’s been one year since our last entry from Athens (don’t worry, we have been here many times since then), when we visited Hugh Acheson’s Five and Ten for an excellent meal. One year later, we are at Acheson’s other Athens restaurant, The National. Will history repeat itself. Read on to find out…

Back in the day, they made tires here.

The interior space is pretty small, with a bar on the left and the dining room on the right.

Bottoms up! The bar is on the left.

Table for four? The dining room is to the right.

The dining room is small, crowded and loud. This place is packed and the patrons are enjoying themselves. There’s a lot of energy in the room. We usually start off with beers, but we have been to a reception before dinner and must drive back to Atlanta after dinner, so we are not drinking tonight. As for the college kids, they are going to a party later and are saving themselves. Fresh bread and olive oil greet us right after we sit down.

The perfect way to start a meal.

We order two “firsts” from the top of the menu.

Cheese, almonds, apples, quince and crostini.

The cheese platter has a sheep, cow and goat cheese. They have some almonds, apple, and quince on it as well. A small quibble: nobody tells us what cheese is what, and we are left to figure it out on our own. It is a delicious platter that would be even better with some local honey.

Get a load of this next dish:

Now you know what a “pizzette” looks like.

There are two pizzettes on the menu, a vegetable and a meat. We have the meat pizzette featuring sausage, escarole, pine nuts and arugula. There’s a lot going on here, and the flavors blend together to form a memorable taste. This one disappears pretty quickly.

It’s time for the main course, or what The National calls “seconds”. We are with two “starving” college students who each get their own dish.

Hanger steak, nice and pink in the middle.

Evan orders the hanger steak, which comes with potatoes, asparagus and some garnishes. It’s nice and tender and a beautiful pink in the middle. He really likes how the juice from the meat soaks into the potato.

The daily special, the flounder.

Elliott orders up the daily special, which tonight is flounder. It’s seared crispy on the outside and moist on the inside. There are potatoes and fava beans in the dish as well.

My date and I split a vegetable plate, so this photo is half an order.

Half a veggie plate.

There are many different things on this plate including basmati rice, a sweet potato fritter, roasted cauliflower, spinach, and some wonderful ginger carrots. This turned out to be a filling plate that had so many different flavors in it.

It is not filling enough to keep us from dessert, though. We order a very small “birthday cake” for the table.

Chocolate cake with peanut butter gelato.

It’s chocolate cake covered in chocolate sauce. The peanut butter gelato is a light topping to a rich dessert.

The remains of dessert.

The only thing we don’t do is lick the plate, but I do think about it. This is a fantastic end to a fun meal. On our drive home to Atlanta we reflect that we always get such good meals in Athens. Atlanta foodies should look for an excuse to get to the Classic city. They are cooking up a storm and it’s worth the drive.

Crescent Ave. Crawl: 4/12/13

Date Night starts at one end of Crescent Avenue and ends up at the other end. We are in Midtown, exploring an area we really have not hit in our food travels. We need some beer, so we begin at Tap, hoping to get a cold one and an appetizer before walking down to Lure for our main course and dessert.

The Tap patio has a view of Peachtree.

Check out all of those taps behind the bar.

Tap features 30 beers on draught and we are not disappointed with the choices. There is a nice local section featuring beers from Atlanta and Athens as well as another section with domestic crafts and big Belgians.

Red Hare Watership Brown and New Holland Dragon’s Milk. Thirsty?

Eve stays local with the Red Hare Watership Brown, which is made right here in Marietta, GA. This is one of the best browns you can get and at 7.2% ABV, it makes you feel good inside. We feel it’s one of the best browns we have had, and we take pride in the fact that it’s made five miles from Date Night headquarters. My favorite imperial stout, New Holland Dragon’s Milk (10% ABV) is on the menu and I choose it immediately. It’s aged in bourbon barrels and that adds a different dimension to the taste.

For our appetizer we pick the hummus sampler.

A large order of hummus.

There’s a lot to eat here, with spicy edamame hummus, babaganoush (eggplant) and red pepper hummus. The Mediterranean theme continues with some nice large olives. This is enough food for four people, but we bravely finish the whole thing and depart for our next location.

As we walk down Crescent, we are amazed at all of the dining choices. There’s Tin Lizzy’s Cantina, Front Page News, which looks like a cajun place, South City Kitchen, and it’s sister restaurant Lure, both owned by the Fifth Group. It turns out we used to eat here years ago when it was Vickery’s and it was a short drive from work.

The restaurant “lures” us in.

We decide to sit on the patio because it’s enclosed and it’s not quite warm enough to open it up.

Lure’s patio has that beach feel.

Or you can sit inside.

We are greeted by the friendly and knowledgable Shawna, who always has a smile on her face. We are still a bit thirsty, and are pleased to find the Watership Brown on the menu here as well.

Make ours a double.

By the way, it’s available in cans in your local beer store. Since we had our appetizer earlier, we go straight for the main course.

Don’t forget the optional bread.

You have to order bread at Lure, but they don’t charge you for it. You should order some, as it comes hot and with butter that melts when you spread it. We decide to split an entree, the Georgia rainbow trout.

How are your filleting skills?

They bring you the whole darn thing, bones and all. Fortunately, the fish comes with filleting instructions and a bucket to put your bones in.

No bones about it. The only part of the trout we didn’t eat.

I won’t say that I got 100% of the bones on my first try, but most of them wind up in the bucket. The trout is moist and perfectly prepared. The lemon butter that comes with it is perfect for dipping with that optional loaf of bread.

Our friend NL tells us that Lure has the best Brussels sprouts in the city and we must investigate.

The Lure version of Brussels sprouts.

These come in their own cast iron skillet. Toss in grapes and pumpkin seeds and it’s quite the side. They may not the best in the city (we still think Happy Belly is better), but they are close.

We don’t have room for dessert, but we order it anyway.

Want a bite? We didn’t save you any!

It’s been a rough week, and we need chocolate! We finish our night off with a piece of chocolate peanut butter mousse cake. It tastes like the cake version of a Resse’s Cup. In other words, it’s great!

We leave Lure very happy. It’s been a fun date and we will be back to check out more of the eating on Crescent Ave.

The Barrelhouse: 4/5/2013

Roll out the barrel and we’ll have a barrel of fun. Occasionally Date Night will purchase a Scoutmob dinner deal, and we are usually glad we did. We are introduced to previously unknown establishments with fun package deals. Tonight we experience college campus bar ambience along with student food and beer prices. We never complain about that.

Too cold for us outdoors, but in the coming weeks, it should be nice out here.

We are in “East Georgia Tech”, right across the street from The Biltmore. Twenty years ago this area was in rapid decline but ever since Tech jumped over I-75 the area has been totally revitalized.

The bar is close to all of the tables.

Inside the Barrelhouse, it’s dark, but they have some neat “up-cycled” artwork on the walls.

Re-cycled cycle stuff.

Since we cycle a lot, we enjoyed this piece of art. Our Scoutmob gets us two shots of pickle soup, two entrees and two flights of three beers. This lets us taste almost all of the draft they have as there are only four taps behind the bar. There is a good selection of bottled beer, and to get the students in here, the prices are very reasonable, both for the drinks and the food.

We were expecting our flights of beer to come together but they were served one at a time as we finished them. It’s not a bad idea to do it this way and keep them all chilled to perfection, but it prevented us from getting the three beer money shot! Here they are, presented in the order we drank them…

First up: New Holland Saison Monkey (Michigan).

Second flight: Copperhead Spring Fling (Kansas).

Last flight: 21st Amendment Hell or High Watermelon (California).

We like the Saison Monkey best. The Spring Fling was sort of hoppy (though not bitter). The third beer did have the distinctive taste of watermelon so they weren’t kidding around with that name. Think Jolly Rancher watermelon candy.

How about a shot of pickle soup?

We don’t really know what to expect with the pickle soup shot, and are pleasantly surprised. Served hot and with a fried pickle slice on the top, I find that I want more than just a shot. It would be easy to eat an entire bowl of this tasty concoction.

We each select an entree knowing that a “to go” box will be needed because we must save room for dessert.

Baked chicken with mash and Brussels.

We choose Herb Roasted Chicken and Fish and Chips. The half chicken is served with 2 sides so we are talking about a significant amount of food. We pick Brussels sprouts and mashed potatoes to accompany the chicken.

Fish and chips. Very British.

The food is good but everything is just a little undercooked. The fish and chips needed to stay in the fryer just a little longer for that perfect brown and perfect crunch. The chicken is moist, but we miss that brown, crisp skin that is so much more appealing. And the sprouts are a little too crunchy for our tastes.

Cream cheese ice cream instead of cream cheese icing. Nice touch.

The heavenly dessert makes up for everything. The red velvet brownie with cream cheese ice cream is to die for! Moist cake and spot-on ice cream make us thankful that we are served a generous portion.

Is the Scoutmob bargain worth it? You bet, and unfortunately for you, it’s sold out. We enjoy dinner and drinks in a casual atmosphere, we take home leftovers which provide more than one lunch, and we save just over 30% on the check.

QuikTrip: 4/1/13

Date Night takes you to a place where the gas is guaranteed and you are guaranteed to get gas.

What lurks inside?

As we move into APRIL, it would be FOOLISH of food snobs like us to admit that hot dogs on metal rollers are somewhat appealing.

Can you smell them?

Add to that a warm bun, and the prospects become downright mouth watering.

Where do they hide the buns?

Here’s a QT corporate secret: the buns are in a warming drawer right beneath the hot dogs. Now you know!

If rotating tubes of processed meat do not excite you, QT is all about variety.

You cook these yourself.

There are at least three kinds of hamburgers as well as chicken sandwiches. Don’t want to eat them cold? No worries, there is a microwave nearby so every meal can be eaten at the perfect temperature as the chef intended. You are a regular Emeril Lagasse as you heat your burger to perfection. Bam!

In case you must have Mexican food.

Feeling gassy yet? If not, you can carbonate your meal and your stomach.

Something from the tap?

There is also a variety of frozen delicacies on tap.

Or perhaps a frozen beverage?

Our loyal readers know that Date Night always orders the craft beer, and we avoid places that have dreary “convenience store” beer lists. At the QT, you get a genuine convenience store beer list.

Move along, nothing to see here.

There’s plenty to choose from, as long as you like mass-produced, tasteless beer. Our wine drinking friends will not be disappointed.

At least the wine is not in boxes.

A good meal always ends with a special dessert. Sure, you can be conventional and go with a gourmet treat…

Ice cream always works for dessert.

If you really want to have something different, step right up to the donut display.

Donuts are good anytime.

At around 400 calories a pop, you will want to share one with your date. Rumor has it that if you buy a Nesquik chocolate milk, they will throw in the donut for free. Add to that the clean restrooms, and QT is a place that has it all. What a great way to spend your APRIL FOOL’S Date Night!

Note: Thanks to regular Date Night readers RR and CR for suggesting tonight’s topic!

5 Seasons Brewing Company: 3/22/13

Date Night is fortunate in that our work location is two miles from so many restaurant choices. We can hit Midtown, Inman Park or the Westside, which gives us many options when it’s time for our night together. Tonight we have plans to hit a spot in Midtown, but a bad accident on Spring Street turns us to an eatery that not only makes their own beer, but cooks some really good food. It sounds like our kind of place.

Like many Westside restaurants, 5 Seasons is located in an old building.

5 Seasons is right next to our favorite beer store, Hop City. It used to be part of an old warehouse on the railroad line behind it.

Check out all of those taps!

There is a centrally located bar that dispenses their house-brewed beer. We love it when we are greeted with a sign like this:

So many choices…

That’s twelve different beers on the big board. It’s a tough choice to make, but it’s another cold night in the ATL and we go dark.

Imperial stout and a cask porter.

The imperial stout is the better beer of the two. It’s got a lot of alcohol in it and does not overpower with any heavy coffee tastes like some imperials do. The porter is interesting as it is served in a cask at room temperature. It tastes a lot like Guinness, with that creamy Irish stout consistency. 5 Seasons does not post the alcohol content of their beer (they should!), so we can’t say how potent either beer is.

We are getting hungry, and we love pretzels, and look what we order…

Pretzel with cheesy mustard dip.

How’s this for presentation? The “5″ is a buckwheat pretzel with a cheese dip that’s full of mustard. The buckwheat gives it a much heavier, wheatier taste than normal pretzels, and this is a great start to our meal. We give it “five” stars for creativity.

There are a lot of choices for our main course, almost too many to choose from.

The daily specials.

This is just the daily specials menu that our waiter Steven tells us changes twice a day. The regular menu is filled with small plates, salads and entrees. What to pick? Fortunately, we take our time with the pretzel and the beer until we can come up with a strategy. We decide to go with something smaller.

Lamb tacos.

These reminded us of a gyro with much higher quality ingredients. We didn’t eat the red peppers, but they look good in the picture.

The best use for gator.

For our next small plate we choose the crispy fried alligator. Date Night doesn’t eat a lot of gator, but when Steven describes the gator as being trucked in from Louisiana by the farmer, we have to give it a try. As advertised, the outside is crispy and the inside is hot and juicy. It’s covered with a chili sauce and underneath it is a spicy slaw.

Do we have room for dessert? Because we went with the small plates, we think we can squeeze in something from the dessert menu. I don’t know what it is about bread pudding, but when you get a chocolate-banana version, you just have to have it.

Awesome bread pudding.

The dessert is as good as it sounds. The chocolate and banana tastes abound and the sweet sauce that surrounds it is good for dragging your forkful through as it leaves the plate. This didn’t last long as we really enjoyed it.

Believe it or not, we didn’t visit Hop City after dinner, probably because our beer cellar at home is pretty full. As we walk to the car, we wonder why we don’t go here more often as it’s so good. Fortunately for all of us, there are 5 Seasons in Sandy Springs and Alpharetta, so there should be one near you to visit more often.