Holeman & Finch: Burger Time

Recently, a friend told me that he'd read a magazine several years ago that listed the best burgers in Atlanta.  The first place on the list was Ann's Snack Bar, home of the ghetto burger.  I have to admit that although I'm not a huge meat-eater, I have definitely experienced Ann's Snack Bar, which, unfortunately, I believe is now closed.  It would be very difficult to call yourself a true Atlantan if you did not at least once, experience the Wall Street Journal famed Ann's Snack Bar that is reminiscent of Seinfeld's Soup Nazi.  Ms. Ann, the owner/operator would only allow in just enough customers to fill the bar stools inside the Snack Bar.  The extra patrons were forced to sit on the screened in patio, regardless of the weather.  The veterans would sit quietly and patiently as the newbies, who didn't know any better, would walk straight into the snack bar, only to be run out seconds later by a screaming, yelling Ann.  It's funny as I think about my first time and I too, ran away from Ann's screams, but that didn't stop me from watching the very next newbies walk up and walk right into Ann's.  I remember when we finally made it inside, my then boyfriend, a politician, who, like most politicians, thought that the world took notice every time he opened his mouth, questioned Ann about her business.  At first, she ignored him, as she did most of her guests.  You filed in, everyone ordered at the same time, everyone left at the same time, the next group all came in at the same time.  And you had better not dare ask for a turkey burger.  After being ignored for the first 20 minutes, he announced that he was a politician, and it turned out that he was right about that whole, mouth opening, world taking notice thing, at least as far as Ms. Ann was concerned.  Suddenly, Ann began to TALK!!   She ran off a list of celebrities who'd visited her snack bar, many of whom, she claimed wanted to buy it because she intended to retire soon.  However friendly they became, that didn't stop Ms. Ann from promptly kicking us out as soon as our group's burgers were all done.  Oh, the memories.  Lol.

So, the second place on the list of best burgers was Holeman & Finch.  Now, if you've been to Holeman & Finch, you're probably saying to yourself, "Burgers?  What Burgers?"  Well, apparently every night at 10:00, except Sundays, Holeman grills up exactly 24 burgers, not one more, not one less.  And unless you're in the know, you can't even place an order for one, because it's not on the menu.  Now, admittedly, they do announce that it's burger time every night at 10, but by that point all of the burgers have been spoken for, so if you didn't get there early enough, you don't get to partake.
Thursday night, I got to be one of the cool kids, in the know!!  I arrived at Holeman around 8:50 pm.  Apparently the protocol is to give them your name as soon as you walk in and they take care of the rest.  I made my way to the overly crowded bar area.  The energy was amazing.  I felt like I was in some cool happy hours spot in New York.  The crowd was very diverse and we had a wonderful time.  Somehow the bartender got word of our burger order and around 9:50 he made his way over to bring eating utensils and set up place mats.  At 10:00 Holeman announced that it was burger time and shortly thereafter a large burger that was falling out of the bun with a side of fries was placed in front of me.  Also on the plate, homemade ketchup and mustard.  I must vouch for the mustard because it was very very good.  Now you don't get a whole lot of say in how the burger turns out.  You don't get to ask for cheese, lettuce or tomatoes.  You take it the way they make it, or you leave.  I took it!  I started off by cutting my burger in half.  Now, it was no ghetto burger, but there was still a lot to work with.  It was topped with cheese, sauteed onions and mushrooms, and there was something about the meat.  It tasted as though the meat was ground really, really fine before being shaped into a burger and grilled.  You could actually feel the fineness of the meat between your teeth.  The bun was lightly buttered and a perfect compliment for the burger.  I tried my burger with a little bit of mustard, but definitely no ketchup.  I watched a special on the Food Network months ago that highlighted the best burgers in the country and they visited a few places that claimed to be the inventors of the hamburger.  The one thing they all said, was that adding ketchup to your burger is like putting ranch dressing on creme brulee'.  Since then, I've taken all of my burgers sans ketchup.

It was a great experience.  You should definitely check it out.  The crowd, the staff, the energy and the atmosphere were all A+!!  It's just one of those things that you have to try at least once in Atlanta.

TWD: White Loaves

My only experience with homemade bread is from a few years ago.  A woman that I worked with came to work one day and announced that she'd brought me some fresh baked bread that she'd made herself.  Between you and me, I thought it was odd, considering I'd never asked her for bread, or for anything that she cooked for that matter, and I didn't even know she baked bread.  On top of all that, I've never been much of a bread person, so if I ever asked for anything, bread wouldn't be it.  But the woman brought me bread, from her kitchen, that she made.  So I took the bread.  I ate the bread.  I was not wowed by the bread, but in my mind, it was just bread, and like I said, I've never been a fan of bread.  So, when it was time to make my own bread, I had mixed emotions.

I'll be honest.  I don't have my book.  Don't kill me.  I ordered it and it didn't come in time, so I went online and found the recipe.  I actually found several blogs that had made the recipe before and I cheated a little by stealing some of their tips.  For instance, I don't own a stand mixer and every blog strongly recommended it.  Now while I'd love to have a stand mixer and I do plan to buy one at some point, I wasn't quite ready to drop $500 just to make bread this one time, so I found a blog that gives instructions for mixing and kneading with a wooden spoon and good old elbow grease.  While, TWD rules prevent me from listing the recipe here, you should check out PTITCHEF's blog.  She has some pretty cool stuff.

As I was reading several of the blogs, one of the comments I read was how difficult it was to find the 8X4 pans the recipe called for.  One blogger who apparently makes a lot of bread said that she settled for a 9X3, which sounds weird, and that none of her loaf pans match, so when I found 4.4X8.4 loaf pans at Wal-Mart for $0.96, I bought five of them.  I don't know, people.  I'm a little crazy.

So time to make the loaves.  I actually enjoyed making bread, even the old fashioned way mixing with a wooden spoon and kneading with my hands, wasn't so bad.  It was actually very simple and pretty easy.  I will say I did make one small, okay, incredibly large boo boo.  I forgot to add the sugar.  According to the recipe I followed, I was to add the yeast and sugar into a half cup of water.  Don't ask me how I forgot this, because I totally mies en plas'd my butt off before even attempting to cook.  So when I was waiting the first 45 minutes for the dough to rise, I began cleaning up and noticed one little ramekin with a tablespoon of sugar.  There weren't a whole lot of options, so after the dough rose, I folded the sugar in.  Kinda, sorta.  I tried.

I found a few tricks for how to make the dough come out like an actual loaf, as opposed to a misshapen log.  The first tip said to form the dough into a log and let it sit 15-20 minutes.  After that time to shape it into a long rectangle and place in the pan.  The second tip, the one I actually tried, said to shape the dough into a rectangle, and the roll it up, starting from the top of the rectangle, and then seal the seam by pinching it together.  Place the bread in the pan, pinched side down.  As you look in my pictures, you'll see that one loaf is almost perfect while the other looks like a misshapen log.  Well, what happened, was, I did the nice looking loaf first and honestly, I'm not used to making bread and my hands were pretty tired, so I got lazy with the whole rectangle and pinching thing.



















All in all, I really enjoyed making the bread.  I will probably make it at least one more time to see how much difference the sugar made.  I ended up keeping one loaf for myself and I gave one to my friend so I could have an honest opinion about how my bread tastes.  I didn't tell her about my mishap with the sugar.  She said that the bread was really good and that there was a sweetness to it, almost as if it had been dusted with sugar.  Lol.  I guess that what happened when I tried to fold it in at the end.  Please visit slush or Someone's in the Kitchen for the full recipe.  :-)

This Week's Menu

This is my second week attempting Menu Plan Mondays.  I made the deadline.  Yay!!  Maybe next week.  Last week I learned that it was very easy to follow my menu plan during the week, but my weekends were chaotic.  Also, being single, it's easy for things to just kinda pop up during my week, and I have a couple of impromptu dinners that came up during the week, but I still managed to stick closely to my menu plan.  Here's this week's menu plan.

Monday
Breakfast:  Egg white vegetable omelet
Snack:  13 Ritz mini cheese crackers
Lunch:  Pizza (I'm not even a small fan of pizza, but it was left over from a meeting at work)
Snack:  8 Reduced Fat Vanilla Wafers
Dinner:  Peanut butter and Jelly with Homemade Bread

Tuesday
Breakfast:  Special K Almond Cereal with Silk Soy Milk
Snack:  8 Reduced Fat Vanilla Wafers
Lunch:  Yoplait Strawberry Yogurt
Snack:  13 Ritz mini cheese crackers
Dinner:  Dinner out (Dinner & a Book Club)

Wednesday
Breakfast:  Yoplait Strawberry Yogurt
Snack:  1/4 c. shelled pistachios
Lunch:  Chicken Terriyaki
Snack:  8 Reduced Fat Vanilla Wafers
Dinner:  Cooking School Leftovers

Thursday
Breakfast:  Special K Almond Cereal with Silk Soy Milk
Snack:  13 Ritz mini cheese crackers
Lunch:  Mediterranean Monster Smoothie w/Acai
Snack:  Yoplait Strawberry Yogurt
Dinner:  Dinner Out

Friday
Breakfast:  Yoplait Strawberry Yogurt
Snack:  8 Reduced Fat Vanilla Wafers
Lunch:  Sushi!!!!!
Snack:  1/4 c. shelled pistachios
Dinner:  Salmon, Rice, Peas

Saturday
Breakfast:  Granola, yogurt and strawberries
Snack:  Pickles
Lunch:  Grilled Cheese Sandwiches
Snack:  Yogurt - any flavor
Dinner:  Cooking School Leftovers

Sunday
Breakfast:  Egg white vegetable omelet
Snack:  Pickles
Lunch:  Brunch and shopping with the girls
Snack:  Leftovers from brunch
Dinner:  Baked Tilapia, sauteed spinach, corn

I'm really excited about this menu because I actually get to cook!!  Next week has more room for cooking as well!!  I can't wait.

Restaurant Eugene

Oh My GOD!!!!!

Every bite I put in my mouth was the most delicious bite I've ever eaten in my entire life.  Oh My GOD!!!!!  You've got to try this place!!

Last Thursday a friend and I decided to grab a bite to eat after work.  My friend suggested Restaurant Eugene and because I've never been there before and I love trying new restaurants, I was all for it.  Restaurant Eugene is a French Restaurant in Buckhead, but it really rests between Midtown and Buckhead.  We sat at the bar because my friend came straight from work and was wearing scrubs.  I'm not sure if the bar menu is any different from the table menu, but we were not disappointed.

My friend ordered the meat tasting and I ordered the Carrot Soup and the Grouper.  The service at Restaurant Eugene was impeccable.  I love visiting restaurants that take great care of their patrons, and Restaurant Eugene was amazingly attentive.

The bartender, Gabe, was amazing as well.  He made wonderful suggestions for food and beverages, wine pairings and cocktails.  It was the best bar experience I've ever had.

Gabe told us that the meat tasting is suggested for two people due to the serving order, as the meat tasting is typically 5-7 courses and my mere grouper and carrot soup were but two courses.  We decided to share the lighter courses of the meat tasting and to bring my grouper out with the main course of the meat tasting.  The meat tasting menu changes frequently and honestly, I cannot even remember everything that we had, but it was so delicious.  You've just got to try it yourself.

I can comment on the carrot soup and the grouper, however.  The presentation of each course was wonderful, beautiful, thoughtful.  The carrot soup is not something I would typically order, but Gabe strongly recommended it and I must say, I'm glad he did.  Every spoonful was meant to be savored.  The bowl came out with a pile of carrots, salt and pepper morsels that looked like white chocolate and two more piles of somethings I can't remember.  It was all so great.  Then they poured the stock into the bowl and it all melted together magically.  All except the salt and pepper morsels, which Gabe explained to me.  I smashed them with my spoon and it all turned out so great.  Delicious doesn't even begin to describe it.

My grouper.  I never knew fish could taste so good.  There was a cabbage ragout and a chickpea puree.  It doesn't sound nearly as amazing as it was, but you've got to have it.  If you are looking to be pampered and spoiled and taken care of every which way, please, please, please visit Restaurant Eugene, and if you decide to take a table instead of dining at the bar, be sure to stop by there to grab a cocktail from Gabe.  Ask him to make you something special and he'll create a personalized cocktail, crafted specifically to your tastes.  You won't be disappointed.

Gilbert's Cafe

Let me start by saying, I'm not a professional restaurant critic.  Not that I thought that anyone reading this would think I was, but, you know.  I've also never read a restaurant review, not a professional one.  I've read random reviews of other diners for restaurants I've never tried before, but that's about as far as I've gotten.

So, Gilbert's Cafe.  I was meeting a girlfriend of mine after last Monday and I asked her what she had a taste for.  She suggested Mediterranean, so I did a Google search and Gilbert's came up.  Honestly, I didn't read any of the reviews.  I saw they won something from City Search and they were in the right area, so we decided to check out Gilbert's.

Gilbert's is quaint and very unassuming.  I must say that for a Monday night, it was packed, but the place is also small, so it was hard to tell if it was really busy or if space was just really limited.  When we walked in we were greeted by a gentleman who told us someone would be with us shortly.  I noticed that there was only one table of four available and I couldn't tell if anyone was waiting ahead of us because the bar was full and there was a waiting list on the hostess stand in full view, but every name on it was crossed out.  Very shortly thereafter, another man came over and told me there was a 15 minute wait because the one four top that was free, was being reserved for a reservation.  I found that to be interesting because I prefer making reservations.  As a matter of fact, I spend a lot of time on Open Table and make reservations every chance I get.  I say that to say, they're not on Open Table and there was nothing about reservations on their website, which I did spend a lot of time reviewing, even though I didn't read the reviews.

I was immediately suspicious when he mentioned reservations.  I was more suspicious a few seconds later when a female server walked over and he mentioned to her that there were reservations for the only open table and she said, oh yeah that's right.  Hmm...  So, we waited.  More people came in after us, groups of ones and twos, but alas, none of them were the ones who held the reservation for the one open table.  While we waited there was a couple ahead of us who were seated, not at the reserved table.  20 minutes later, a table came available for us and we sat down.  Still the four top remained open.  I noticed that more groups of twos came in after us and either waited for an open table or sat at one of the tables that were available.  The restaurant amazingly cleared out after we sat down, and the four top remained open.

Eventually the four top was sat to a group of four, which confirmed my suspicions that there was never any reservation, but instead they were holding the table for a group larger than two.  I can understand it, but I don't appreciate it.  There were plenty of tables available after we sat and if they'd sat anyone at the four top, very few of us would have had to wait for a table and those of us who did have to wait, wouldn't have had to wait 20 minutes.

So, for the food.  I looked at the menu online and was pretty sure of what I wanted, although several things looked good to me.  I ordered the Almond Crusted tilapia.  My friend ordered the Lamb Stew, which was the other thing I was interested in.

The tilapia was served with risotto and spinach.  The spinach was sitting on a bed of spinach, which rested on top of the creamy risotto.  I'm a big fan of risotto and I loved it.  I wasn't blown away by the spinach or the tilapia, but they were both good.  The spinach was somewhere between raw and overcooked.  It was a little weird, but I really like spinach and it was definitely tolerable.  The tilapia was tilapia.  It was pretty good, but nothing to write home about.

My friend didn't care much for her lamb stew.  I didn't taste it and couldn't really comment on it, but it looked delicious.  She left plenty on the plate and didn't want to take any of it home, although she mentioned how hungry she was while we were waiting.  I didn't think that was a very good sign.

Would I ever go back, maybe for one of their weekend brunches they brag about, but only with a three more people, that way we're guaranteed whatever four top is available.