Spellcheck - Top Flr (No Pictures)

Finally, made it to Top Flr last night. It had been a long, tumultuous journey between whether or not to go at all. I first went to Top Flr close to their opening and thought perhaps it was a bit too trendy for it's own good. I had tried their highly touted Duck Confit Pizza and enjoyed it back then, but I wasn't particularly comfortable in their black and white, highly polished digs with a DJ. Shortly after that, it started to receive some very positive praise, beckoning us to return. We were all ready to go when a few trustworthy reviews came pouring in about Top Flr's racist practices. Needless to say, we won't support a business that displays or exercises any prejudices or outright racism but enough time had passed with no other supporting reviews. So we took our chances and braved it last night. The eatery is located right on the south border of Midtown, nearly two blocks from home.

It's still like I remember it (there has been an expansion since), but it's small, dark (hence no photos), and black and white. Trendy with the potential to get loud in the late evenings I imagine. It is, with most certainty, a date spot.

The menu is covered in interesting and enticing options with epicurean twists within each selection. Fancy reductions, spices, and herbs stud the menu and it was fairly difficult to choose what to order.

We started out with the tuna tartare flatbread. This appetizer is a masterpiece featuring tender tuna, lime aioli, and a thai miso pesto. One thing: I HATE cilantro! And the flatbread tasted very heavily of it but there was none in sight. After deducing the flavor was coming from a rosemary looking item draped across the top, I asked the waiter what this unfamiliar herb was. He went to the kitch and returned with the answer - Rainbow Spouts. I can't find anything about them online but cilantro haters, avoid them at all costs!

Kins went the route of the duck confit flatbread and it was even better than I remembered. Well, the crust was burned, but the tender, fat-cooked duck was succulent, beautiful, and abundant. This is another good one to share as an appetizer if you aren't feeling the tuna tartare.

I ordered the fennel crusted salmon with blood orange reduction. The dish was O.K. The salmon didn't taste particularly fresh, but it was cooked very well and served atop some roasted fennel. The blood orange reduction however, was a masterpiece. Portion size was my main qualm with this dish and I'll get to that in a bit.

I also had to order the mac and cheese. The reviews I've read about this item are such a mixed-bag that I had to try it myself to dispel or confirm the rumors. I remember that it used to have jalapenos in it, but obviously their rendition of the southern favorite has changed. This version featured some spinach, three cheeses, and a panko bread-crumb topping. I thought it was very good and the only room for improvement was a need for more creaminess. Still, it was excellent.

Here is my problem with Top Flr (besides the spelling of their name) - Pricing. I think they sucker you in with delightful sounding items and fair looking prices. When you factor in that none of the entrees come with sides, it begins to get pricey. If the portions were an adequate size, the pricing could still be deemed fair. However, my piece of salmon was half of a fillet. Literally about 3 1/2" by 3 1/2". With no side, for 15 dollars. That's pushing it. To further prove my point, if you go to Agave and order their Salmon entree, you get a piece of fish that's twice the size and a side for $16.50. It's also better prepared, but I did enjoy the one at Top Flr.

The bottom line is that I love the menu at Top Flr (it's always a good sign when I have a tough time deciding), the atmosphere can be really nice/romantic if it isn't crowded, and their food is actually really good. I let the trendiness/pretentiousness slide at that point but the pricing should really be adjusted, or better yet, they should pair their entrees with their sides.

Check. Raise. Fold. Pit Boss BBQ

I've gotta say - I was downright disappointed with Pit Boss. I've had much worse barbecue, but after reading a pretty gleaming review by a friend and respected BBQ superstar, I have to give it the ole' thumbs down. Located on the back of a convenience store, Pit Boss's location was unassuming to say the least. Thankfully, they have a sign out in front of the convenience store with a remarkable Piggly Wiggly doppelganger mascot otherwise, I wouldn't have found it.

Once you enter the aroma of smoked meat hits you - a very good sign. I placed my order at the counter - a half rack of babybacks (they offer St. Louis as well), mac and cheese, Brunswick stew, and a half pound of pulled pork to go. No, I didn't eat it all in one sitting - well everything besides the pulled pork. That was my first problem with this joint - you can't get a combo with ribs and another meat. It just doesn't exist on the menu. The guy behind the counter recommended I just add on a half-pound of meat and later I realized that just ordering a sandwich would be a much cheaper option. Sigh.
Anyhow, the food came out and it all looked good. Right away, I could see that the ribs were of the smaller variety of babybacks, but I didn't let that get to me. The ribs were moderately tender, but lacked any real smokey or spice rub flavor. Honestly, I hardly detected any. Fortunately for me, their sauce (with a strange orange hue) is really good at Pit Boss so I made due - coating my ribs with orange goodness. Interestingly, as I worked my way to the smaller end of the ribs, they became juicer and more flavorful. Don't ask why, as I've never experienced this anomaly previously.

The Brunswick stew had some really nice spice to it, but the meat was unacceptably tough. You'd think that it would break down even more in stew, but that was not the case.
The mac and cheese was a decent rendition of the classic southern dish, but again, just slightly above average.
I had a couple of bites of the pulled pork before leaving. It was of the shredded/chopped variety and had no flavor whatsoever. Or color for that matter- it was kind of just... gray? I know my picture shows some pink smoke ring, but that came out more with photo-editing than anything else. To my naked-eye, it wasn't there. I brought the pork home with me and the car smelled like baked meat. I don't get it, but it was truly without flavor. I will say the portion was much more than the half pound I ordered but with the quality of que, hardly worth it.

I really had high hopes for Pit Boss and was hoping I could add it into my rotation-it's truly only a 15 minute drive from in town. It just didn't live up to the hype at all. I'm gonna have to give Hambones BBQ (a mere stone's throw away) a shot in the coming months.

Love me! Love me! Amuse! me! Amuse! me!

Down Dutch Valley Road, you won't find a whole lot besides some office buildings, some condos, and the glowing, bat-cave like One Midtown Kitchen. What many Atlantans don't know, is that housed in the bottom of one of the condominium buildings there is a newish French restaurant located down the Dutch corridor called Amuse! (Yes the exclamation point is actually part of the restaurant's name).
Amuse! was started by the owners of Apres Diem and I believe Carpe Diem as well. The location and decor of the restaurant is a little bizarre. I'd say the interior design is certainly feminine and doesn't really appeal to my style/tastes but I've read several praise worthy reviews of their multi-belt fastened curtains (blah). I went for my birthday lunch and I have to say while it didn't blow me away, the food was quite good and a good value.
They start you off with fresh French bread which is of the shiny/small loaf variety and it was qualtiy stuff. I ordered the chicken sandwich described as - wood roasted chicken, robiola, green apple, & onion jam on foccacia. Sounds good doesn't it? And it was, but I felt it had room for improvement. The chicken really didn't carry any "wood roasted" flavor and they gave me a few fatty bits on my sandwich. The toppings, including cheese and apple, were more plentiful than the meat, which always bothers me. The sandwich came with fries, which were freshly fried, although questionably, frozen? It was really hard to tell but they were tasty as well. The sandwich and fries were $8.

The fries actually look better than they tasted.

My mom, and dining companion, had "baby lettuces, peanuts, crispy onion, wood roasted peaches, & 40’s blue." This salad was excellent and like a good salad should be, a great combination of ingredients (even if they did go overboard with the onions). Also it was $7.
The dinner menu looked *AMUSING* (had to do it) with some more traditional French items coming into play and some more serious prices to match. For the quality of food, the prices are unbeatable for lunch. Conclusively, Amuse! is a welcomed addition to the Midtown lunch rotation, I just hope they can really hang in their odd-ball location on Dutch Valley Road.

I Got 5 On it! - Lunacy Black Market

For those of you who don't get the title, it's a throwback to the Luniz, who wrote "I got Five on It."

Today I had four sandwiches and two sides for just over $6. The sandwiches were all cooked with gourmet combinations like soy/ginger/sesame pork, braised beef with roasted red peppers and ricotta, chicken with spinach, tomato and goat cheese, and crispy mushroom with chunky tomato sauce. The sides were both hand cut fries and sweet potato fries. So how did I get all of this for $6?

1. A friend and I split all of it.
2. While the sandwiches are literally under $2 each, they're slider sized. To the point where it's pretty difficult to divide them in half.

And from this point forth, any sort of gourmet slider, will now be called a "tapas slider." I don't care for tapas. At least, not what Atlanta has to offer in that realm. Eclipse di Sol/Luna and Loca Luna are OK, but not my favorite spots. I think I'm in the minority of Atlantans who typically get excited at the thought of small (and sometimes Spanish inspired) plates. This being said, Paul Luna, from Local Luna and Eclipse Di Luna/Sol fame has made it over to the more gritty part of downtown for his new sandwich shop - Lunacy Black Market.

Housed in an old storefront on Mitchel Street, LBM has been converted into a loft like space with inviting couches and fold up chairs and tables. The digs are comfortable but a little too empty/echoey. The owners and their friends were seated casually when we strolled in and I unfortunately felt too uncomfortable taking pictures of the food while we were there, in front of the owners.

The sandwiches, while small, are good and a good value. None of them were outstanding, but they were all decent renditions of tapas sliders (the bread was really the best part of each sandwich).

1. Braised Beef/Roasted Red Peppers/Ricotta - Hard to screw this up. Tender, flavorful meat but the ricotta wasn't particularly noticeable.

2. Asian style sesame/soy/ginger pork - Nice pieces of pork, but very under seasoned. I only got one bite (out of the two that half a tapas slider allowed) that tasted remotely of soy or ginger.

3. Chicken/Goat Cheese/Spinach - tasted just like those ingredients combined with no other additional flavors. For white meat chicken however, it was particularly moist.

4. Crispy Mushroom/Chunk Tomato Sauce - this was the most surprisingly good one of the bunch. Mushrooms aren't my favorite, but these were really good and the sauce was very flavorful as well.

5. Fries - While housemade/cut, these were pretty boring. The texture wasn't nearly crispy enough and the salt and pepper was minimal. These are thicker cut than most fries, but not quite steak fries. Also each fry was haphazardly cut so that the doneness level was different in each.

6. Sweet Potato Fries - These were terrible. The oil wasn't hot enough and they weren't fried enough. On the menu they're called Crispy Sweet Potato Fries but these were a soggy mess. Also a little bit of cinnamon, brown sugar, and paprika could go a long way on these. But still very, very soggy.

The price is certainly right at Lunacy and that was probably my main attraction. If I was returning, it would still be it's selling point to me. I'm not sure how this place will fare (apparently they have been doing well on weekend nights), the food is good but the location really puts it out of the way for most people seeking this type of food. Additionally, the parking is very minimal on Mitchel Street and most people coming from in town will probably be uncomfortable in this area. If it were in Buckhead or any northern suburb, they would be guaranteed success with throngs of middle aged women flocking for dainty tapas sliders.

I have to say it's wonderful to have new and enthusiastic business owners on this side of town, but it's growing at an alarmingly slow rate for a successful business to thrive. I wish the best of luck to the folks at Lunacy Black Market!

Now when it comes to gettin bread, I got the keys to the Bakery

Ok. It's been a while. I know. But I have a list of excuses. Travelling, two jobs, and really, cooking at home quite a bit have all but depleted my time. Among the many things I've been cooking (which I will save for later entries), one of the more interesting things I've been dabbling in is bread.
The first thing to note, when making yeast rising bread, is that there is a lot of downtime. The dough must proof, often times more than once, which results in about 3 hours total to make a loaf of any kind of bread. So here's what I've made from scratch.

Shabbat Shalom!

1. Challah. Yep, that eggy, fluffy, braided wunderbread that has really become a popular french toast option in many breakfast/brunch spots in town. I made it. And it came out dry and pretty flavorless. I attribute most of my mistakes to my mixing/kneading skills. Being a novice without a stand mixer really leads one to having to hone their dough skills. I'm getting better, but often times bread texture is a result of the kneading and mixing of ingredients. This is the recipe I used. Yup, I did the braiding myself.

2. Focaccia. This recipe leads to the best and easiest of the bunch. The end result kind of tastes like a Pizza Hut regular crust, but much better. The best part about Focaccia is that you can cover it with whatever you like. On the loaf pictured I divided it into three sections of toppings including salt, salt/pepper and Parmesan, and S/P, Parm, and shallots. Another major plus to this recipe is that it only take about one hour, start to finish.
3. French Bread. Earlier in the week, I had bought some quality salami from Pine Street Market (buy their bacon). Plain salami is tasty, but I really wanted a nice crusty loaf of French to round out my experience. Using this recipe, I came out with some very tasty, very crusty, but a little dry bread. Also, it's easy to ascertain in the photos that I used too much flower when rolling it.

4. Biscuits (sorry, I forgot to take photos). These are just too easy and too good not to make again. They were the perfect compliment to the fried chicken I made that evening and the recipe works very well. Probably too much flour in the initial batch if I had to tweak anything. Make sure you use your food processor to cut the butter into the dry ingredients.
5. Cinnamon Rolls. From scratch. Lots of work went into Alton Brown's recipe. I skipped the cream cheese icing, and regret it now. The dough didn't rise enough (my fault) but these were very tasty but ever so tough. Also the cinnamon-sugar really became too gooey on the bottom of the pan and soaked into the bottom of the rolls. I haven't quite figured out how to prevent this in the future.
Really, bread making isn't that hard and the finished product can be particularly enjoyable. Just get your kneading/mixing techniques down and you should be set.

Gone Fishin' - Calumet Fisheries

Truth be told, I didn't stumble upon this place. I saw it, like many others, on Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations. On the show, it seemed like an intriguingly hidden spot with spectacular smoked fish. However, in the months since viewing the episode, I had completely forgotten about this place altogether. Fast forward to a few weeks ago when I was scouring Yelp for places to dine in Chicago, I noticed rave reviews for Calumet and images of Bourdain passing a half-eaten salmon steak to his Chicago guide came flooding back to me. And that's how we ended up at Calumet Fisheries.
Well, I make it sound much easier than it actually was - this was truly destination dining. Through a very long bus ride, a seemingly endless transfer, another bus-ride weaving in and out of a southern Chicago neighborhood, and a half mile walk in the snow, we finally ended up at this bridge-side shack to feast upon smoked fish (over 2 hours later).
The storefront of Calumet is kind of like a deli, except with fish being the product, not cold cuts. A large case proudly displays salmon steaks, smoked chub, and buckets of shrimp. To the right of the store they had their frying station. I had my mind set on the Salmon before we even got there but the friendly cook, Carlos, advised me to go with their garlic and peppercorn crusted salmon steaks rather than the plain variety. Kins went the route of smoked shrimp.
I was a little caught off guard by the fact that the Salmon was served cold. Seeing as how it's completely cooked, unlike lox, I expected it to be warm like barbecue after being smoked. The other surprise (although it shouldn't have been) was that the bones of the salmon were still in tact. Once I got over these two issues, I menacingly tore into the steak (avoiding the actual string used to hang the steak in the smoker) with my fingers popping the pulled morsels in my mouth. Carlos hooked me up with some hot sauce for the Salmon, but I found that it only took away from all the smokey flavor. My experience with smoked fish is severely limited, but I will be doing a comparison very soon between Rolling Bones' Salmon steaks and Calumet's.
The shrimp were darned good. As a non shrimp fan, I was happy that the smoking erased the real shrimp-like flavor that I normally have to avoid (even when fried). If anything, the shrimp tasted a bit like ham, but I would describe the flavor as solely unique to smoked shrimp. The fries were standard frozen issue, but freshly fried for each order which makes a huge difference.
I wish I could have tried some of their fried options, but alas there was only so much we could eat and take with us. Funnily enough, our cab driver for the ride back (yes, we weren't going to spend another 2 hours getting back) picked up some fried catfish for the road. After asking us why we travelled all the way out there and explaining to him all the blow-by-blow details of our adventure, he turned to us and said in his slavic accent, "Eh, it's not that special." Take that for what it's worth, but the catfish did look very, very good to me.
Pricing was fair, considering the size of the Salmon steak I ordered (enough for two), but it certainly seemed a little more pricey than it should be considering it was served cold in a non sit-down environment. While I really enjoyed the food, the travel time made our journey seem like a quest for the Holy Arc. For visitors of Chicago, I'd recommend skipping this hot spot because of the travel time involved. There are just too many other great options to spend so much time getting out there and back - at least without a car rental. However, I highly recommend locals and smoked fish fans alike make at least one trip to Calumet for an unusual and tasty treat.

Panozzo's! Me say Panozzo's! - Panozzo's Italian Market

Situated in a pretty tourist-heavy area, Panozzo's is anything but a tourist trap. This is the real deal - an Italian market with not only all the canned, bottled, and frozen goods you could possibly want, but also a full on deli/restaurant in the back. Shelves are stocked with polenta, pasta, sauces and even a pretty vast selection of gelato and Italian beverages.

The service was extremely friendly and we were greated out of the blistering cold with warm smiles and hospitatliy. When deciding what to order, the man behind the counter told us about each specific item in great detail and also offered us some rosemary ham to try. The ham was the best I've ever had. The rosemary flavor was so concentrated and evenly infused that the ham was simply sublime.

After some careful consideration, we settled on two items- the meatball sub and the Pane Ripiene. The meatball hero was just that - a HERO. With four massive meatballs, homemade sauce, fresh melted cheese, and pickled jalapenos all arranged on fresh crusty/soft bread, this sandwich was a force to be reckoned with. Each meatball is approximately the size of a cue ball. Fortunately, I brought my appetite and polished it off pretty handily (and messily). I marvelled in the fact that this sandwich was a mere $6.50. It could easily make two meals for most healthy or sane folks. The quality and flavors far exceeds any other meatball sandwich I've had, and the pickled jalapenos (menu says bell peppers) really were a unique and wonderfully complimentary touch.
The Pane Ripiene was another singular menu item that was unlike anything I'd had before. I would call it a sandwich, but they referred to it as a "stuffed-bread." Essentially, it was very crunchy but slightly sweet bread, hollowed out and stuffed with spicy sausage, cheese, and bell peppers. While I didn't find the sausage to be any spicier than mild renditions of tubed-meat, the stuffed-bread was melded perfection in both the flavor and texture department.

The stuffed-bread

The meal was from Panozzo's was so enjoyable that we hardly felt the frigid cold while feasting on our sandwiches in adjacent Grant Park. This is your Chicago stop for great, cheap sandwiches. Every box is a different variety of gelato.