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Restaurants adjusting to the digital age
January 7, 2010, 6:55 pm
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By Hugh Robert

January 07, 2010, 6:04AM

Among its numerous other distinctions, 2009 was the year during which the world discovered social media. Businesses large and small stampeded to establish presences on Facebook and Twitter, hoping to better connect with digitally savvy consumers.

The restaurant industry wasn’t immune to the contagion. By year’s end nearly all the major players and a good number of independents had staked out their claims to social media space.

Now that the dust has settled a bit, those same operators are trying to figure out just how to manage their new online presence.

Some are discovering that the feedback social media provides isn’t always pleasant and can occasionally be just plain malicious.

There have also been instances where restaurant promotions intended to be local in scope have “gone viral,” forcing franchise operators across the country to either disappoint customers or honor deals they never intended to offer.

Even more pernicious are those circumstances where thoughtless (or disgruntled) employees use social media to trash a restaurant’s reputation. The damage from one YouTube prank video can, as Domino’s Pizza discovered, be immediate and widespread.

Restaurant operators intending to get into social media need to understand that the half-life of an on-line presence is frustratingly brief, so maintaining a Facebook page or a Twitter following cannot be hit-or-miss. Successful use of social media is a high maintenance proposition; stale, out-of-date information is toxic in the Internet world.

For the most sophisticated corporate players, the emerging thrust of their social media efforts isn’t about “attracting eyeballs,” it’s about enhancing and protecting their brand in a new and rapidly evolving public arena.

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A new breed of regional cuisine emerges in Atlanta
November 6, 2009, 9:13 pm
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Meridith Ford Goldman; Staff — The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, November 6, 2009 Friday Main Edition

The lagging economy can’t stop Atlanta’s restaurants from setting a pace that is recognized nationally. We have great restaurants, and we’re not afraid to show it. With all the ruckus, a new breed of regional cuisine has emerged. Restaurants that exude modernity while embracing what’s best about Southern cooking: farm-fresh ingredients, artisanal methods from cheese making to butchery and the love of preserving. Plus there’s always dessert, something these restaurants prove is at the top of any great Southern menu. These six restaurants, all of which received four stars in reviews, show what’s best about Atlanta restaurants now.

Abattoir ****

1170 Howell Mill Road, inside the White Provision complex, Atlanta, 404-892-3335, www.star provisions.com

Atlanta’s most lauded restaurateurs, Anne Quatrano and Clifford Harrison, have created in Abattoir a personal statement that has already become a benchmark in Atlanta dining since opening last summer. Much has been made of the meat-centric menu, created by Quatrano and chef Joshua Hopkins. But eating here is about so much more than offal, alternative meat cuts and innards. The vegetables, whether in a crisped salad of fresh farm lettuces crowned with a poached egg and bacon; or in a pickling of cabbage served from a jar, are as much a reason to crow about Abattoir as the chicken liver and foie gras mousse laced with Armagnac. Add a weathered, modern farmhouse look, an excellent cocktail list and a staff that pleases, and Abattoir may be the best reason yet to embrace your inner carnivore while eating your veggies.

Cakes & Ale

54 W. Ponce de Leon Ave., Decatur. 404-377-7994, www.cakesandalerestaurant.com

Chef-owner Billy Allin and wife Kristin have created the perfect balance between farm fresh (the couple grows many of the vegetables on the menu in their backyard) and friendly. The menu, drawn nightly on a large blackboard, is part seasonal, part standard and all genius. My last meal here offered crisped spears of okra (soon to be gone, I’m sure), perfect in heat and texture, lightly battered with cornmeal to be dipped in house-made ranch dressing. Order your own; they are not to be shared. Ditto the hot orbs of arancini, laced with bee pollen and fennel, served in a papered cone like fair food. Fish is something Allin cooks better than most chefs in the city, even though the fresh corn and pole beans in brodo under a halibut steak could stand on their own. Desserts, from pastry chef Cynthia Wong, are playfully plebian: The soft, cream-filled “phatty cakes” have become city legend, and warm chocolate pudding with soft cream served in a pickling jar will conjure memories of mom’s apron strings. Editor’s note: No restaurant has proved its mettle more than Cakes & Ale since it’s opening, so it’s gone from a three- to four-star status.

4th & Swift

621 North Ave. N.E., Atlanta, 678-904-0160, http://www.4thandswift.com

The space is classic Atlanta: a roomy, cavernous affair drawn from the remnants of the Southern Dairies building; the stylish bar drapes one side of the massive room while a modern dining room is set on another. Both set the stage for chef-owner Jay Swift’s contemporary Southern menu. And from soup to nuts, Swift delivers — his soups are always a best start to a meal here, from creamy roasted corn to more fall-like inspirations of butternut squash with maple cream. A plate of Berkshire pork belly, loin, and house-made sausage has become a signature, served with the restaurant’s decadent macaroni-and-cheese. Swift’s hand is subtle, and it’s not unusual to see heirloom vegetables highlighted as nightly specials.

JCT Kitchen

1198 Howell Mill Road, Atlanta. 404-355-2252, www.jctkitchen.com

JCT Kitchen has, from the start, exemplified what’s best about modern Southern cooking. Chef-owner Ford Fry adds to fresh, well-sourced ingredients classical French technique and Southern sensibilities, creating a menu that turns our timeless notion of how we cook on its ear. From otherworldly fried chicken with mac and cheese so rich and creamy it should have its own ZIP code to “angry” mussels spiced and peppered with serrano chile, bacon and a bit of onion in a broth that borders on creaminess, this kitchen offers a tasty take on all that’s right about Southern dining now. Desserts set the bar high for other offerings; rarely do I find anything to argue about with milky, sugar-and-rum sopped tres leches topped with coconut, or soft gingerbread pudding cake with tart Meyer lemon curd. Barkeep Lara Creasy adds a sexy dimension to the cocktails, too: Try her “fields of gold” with No. 209 gin, chamomile-infused vermouth, local honey, lemon juice and fennel pollen.

Repast

620 Glen Iris Drive, Atlanta. 404-870-8707, www.repastrestaurant.com

Alluring Medjool dates wrapped with bacon and stuffed with marcona almonds notwithstanding, Repast’s menu has become a reflection of chef-owners and husband-and-wife team Joe Truex’s and Mihoko Obunai’s yin yang of talents and tastes. I’m not a fan of the all-Asian selections, such as the congee-like lobster and king crab nabe yaki, but when these two put their heads together in the kitchen the results are a blessed meeting of East meets South. Stewed and curried okra with peanuts and dishes such as crab cakes “Repast style,” which are firmer and more custard pudding-like than their Western counterparts, marry Truex’s Southern roots with Obunai’s Japanese ancestry. And the truffled corn, creamed and served au gratin, is just plain mind-numbing. Desserts are always special, and where Obunai’s touch is most appreciated, from a creamy olive oil cake with marcona almond ice cream to coconut cream in a crispy jasmine rice tart.

Shaun’s

1029 Edgewood Ave. N.E., Atlanta. 404-577-4358, www.shaunsrestaurant.com

When chef-owner Shaun Doty’s eponymous restaurant in Inman Park opened in 2007, it was instantly to Atlanta what the Savings & Loan was to Bedford Falls: a genuine place to go, and in the restaurant’s case, eat. Since then, the East Village style chicken livers over toast, steak frites with fries “graisse de carnard” style and pork schnitzel with lemon and peanuts have become some of the best reasons to eat out in Atlanta. Doty cooks seasonally, so things change here as much as they remain the same, but let’s hope he always manages to keep the sticky toffee pudding on the menu. Its gooey, sticky butterscotch-y goodness gets my vote as one of the best desserts the city has to offer.

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