Mezcalito's Cantina

Mezcalito's is on the Scout Mobs.

Leigh:
Roasted Chile Relleno

Mark:
Chilaquiles

Both:
Cheese Dip
Santa Fe Silver Coins margaritas (with lemon instead of lime)

Verdict:

Bell Street Burritos

Maybe you've already heard about Bell Street Burritos, which recently opened a shop at Sweet Auburn Curb Market.  Bell Street, formerly West End Burritos, started as a delivery service and has grown into a full-fledged restaurant.  Mark and I have been fans since we heard about the burritos through our Sacred Harp practice group (we could use some strong basses, gentlemen), looking forward to a delivery just about every Monday.  Since the shop has been open, deliveries are (temporarily?) discontinued, so we've been heading down to the Market pretty regularly to get our fix.

Bell Street Burrito Highlights:
Great tortillas.  Stretchy and moist.
Delicious Melted Cheese.  Tortillas are steamed with cheese on them before filling.
Perfect beans.  Pinto beans are cooked to perfection!
Red salsa.  Amazing.  I could eat it by itself.

One caveat:

I prefer to eat my burrito after it's been sitting around a little while.  They're a little squishier and juicier when just made.  I think they're better after a slight aging process in a van, on the counter, or in your refrigerator.  At home, we heat our burritos in the toaster oven, until they're warm throughout and a little crispy in some places, and I think this also adds to the eating experience.

Overall:

I can't make these sombreros any smaller for some reason.

Bakeshop update

A while ago, I wrote a little review of Bakeshop, a bakery in the Midtown neighborhood.  Since that first visit, Bakeshop has gone through several waves of changes, I imagine due in part to the split from Concentrics Restaurants, the group that partnered with Jonathan St. Hilaire to open the bakery.  For one thing, they've changed the location of the registered at least three times, and changed the ordering and table busing system a couple of times.  They appear to no longer offer 1000 Faces coffee or Atlanta Fresh yogurt.  And the menu items are all pre-prepared--wrapped sandwiches and boxed salads.  It seems as though they're trying to phase out the dine-in component.  The prices at Bakeshop are really too high for upscale fast food.

korean taco truck

After months of anticipation, finally ate some tacos from the korean taco truck (at Urban Picnic @ Sweet Auburn).  Verdict: eh.  Could've used some kimchi, if you ask me.

Yeah! Burger vs Farm Burger

Farm Burger wins.

Dawoud Bey at Emory

Recently I've been thinking that maybe I should blog about what we're doing before we do it, so that other people, if they are so inclined, can find out about these super-cool things we are doing and do them, too.  However, that's for another day!  (Maybe via the popular social networking tool Twitter!)

Tonight we went to the opening reception of "Class Pictures: Photographs by Dawoud Bey" at Emory University Art Gallery.  Bey was in attendance and gave a gallery talk at the end of the evening.  I really enjoyed the exhibit and the talk, especially when he briefly touched on using art to redefine public spaces and institutions (such as museums), to bring a (often marginalized) segment of the population into these spaces (sometimes for the first time), as viewer, as part of the art, as artist.

Mark especially liked how Bey uses a construct, a fabrication, to emphasize or bring forth a "true nature" of the subject.  Like Emilio Estevez in Breakfast Club.

And, I mean, the portraits were great.  They look really good.  They are large format, very imposing, and, as Bey said, the subjects seem to almost pop out of the picture.  (On view through March 4!)

After the talk, we went to Leon's Full Service in Decatur.  I can't believe this place has been open for a year and we've just now visited!  Good beers, good local food, good service.  We got some "pub frites" with various sauces.  Mark's favorite sauce was the horseradish mayonaise for it's high viscosity and delicious colloidal properties.

Korean BBQ House

Recently we were driving back to Atlanta from Mobile (well, Fairhope if you want to get technical about it). If you've driven this route before, you probably know that there are not that many outstanding places, or even good places, to eat. Getting hungry after we passed Auburn, I was sure that we were going to end up having Burger King french fries or gas station boiled peanuts for dinner, as the largest town between Auburn and Atlanta is LaGrange. However, Mark's phone was helpful for once, and guided us to Korean BBQ House, located in lovely metropolitan Lanett AL-West Point GA, home of the new Kia assembly plant.

They were closed when we arrived. Luckily, a Kia-full of Korean men were also trying to dine there that evening. So the restaurant was opened, and as we were served cups of barley tea, one of the gentlemen finished his cigarette while watching Korean satellite TV in the dining room.  Our server didn't speak much (or chose not to speak) English, so we had a fun time pointing and smiling and nodding after I used the handful of Korean words I know.

I got the kimchi jigae which had a good flavor but the star of the evening was the dolsot bibimbap that Mark ordered.  It was delicious!  The rice was very crispy!  One of the great things about Korean food is the banchan.  This restaurant had a dish I've never seen before (though I will say I'm no Korean cuisine scholar): mayo based potato salad with corn and raisins.  I kept thinking there I was going to find octopus or something, but it was pretty much potatoes.

Mark gives the establishment 4 sombreros.  I give it a 4.5!

I think I've been eating a lot more meat since starting the aerobics class.

Yesterday, we went to Flip for dinner.  I'm not going to link to their website because it's really annoying.  The food was very acceptable for the price.  Except for the five bean salad, which "tasted like something from Piccadilly," to quote myself.  Additionally, we only counted four beans, unless the dressing was soy based or something.

The burned marshmallows on top of the nutella milkshake were divine.

Musics

So tonight, even though we both had a little too much fun at Mark's Mexican-themed birthday dinner ("what happened to all the beers and tequila?") we went to see some sacred harp or shape-note singers at the EARL. It was really nice.

Speaking of the EARL, Nomen Novum is appearing there at the special request of Sunset Rubdown this Wednesday. If you go you can buy the 7" and get one of these pins I made.

P.S., I was going to do another post with ratings for our Mexican dinner but I don't feel like doing all those sombreros. Let's just say it was "good."

Spanish for a Tasty Man

Sabroso is Spanish for "tasty man," or so I'm told. And tasty he is! Friends took us to Sabroso on Saturday after we helped them move. Mark had a cheese dip covered burrito, I just had beans and rice, because I had a dinner date just a couple of hours later. Here's how Sabroso's fare fared:

Leigh's review:
The margarita is not too strong but I did find it to be a little sweet this weekend. The rice was peppery, which I liked. Beans were nothing special.

Beans:


Rice:


Sabroso Margarita:

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Mark's review:
I'm confident that nothing can satisfy a physically fatigued, dried-sweat-covered body better than fried chips, cheese, and citrus-y cocktails. Sabroso has these things.

Queso burrito (not much covered as swimming in):


Creamy guacamole:


Replenishing depleted salts via margarita:

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Here are a couple of pictures of Mr. Sabroso himself:

related: Good Food, and a lot of Fun

Los Loros, Decatur GA

Leigh's Review:


At the intersection of Clairmont and North Decatur in Decatur GA, there are several Mexican restaurants. Tuesday evening, Mark and I dined at Los Loros.

Set in a strip mall, Los Loros offers the typical Mexican fare. I rate it as follows:

Service:

Food (Quesadilla Rellena)

Margaritas:

Overall:

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Mark's Review:


There was a man sitting in the booth across from us that seemed to be reading several newspapers. He arrived after us, and the first thing I heard him say was a sudden complaint to the host about the poor service. Somehow, he soon got into a conversation with the waiter (over a "cerveza grande") about how his wife and kids were out of town for the night and he just wanted to eat at a Mexican restaurant.
I got the "La Changa".

Friendly wait-staff:

Margarita:

Queso Cheese Dip/Coating:

Deep-frying: