
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Bocadon't - Bocado

Thursday, November 19, 2009
Jigga Wha? Jigga Q? Community Q Barbecue
It’s unfortunate that among all of the numerous barbecue joints inside the perimeter, there aren’t very many worth going to. Sadly, when asked for BBQ recommendations by others, I’m hesitant to even mention my favorite ITP que spot, Fox Brothers. While I really do enjoy their food, the quality of preparation is so spotty that you never no quite what you’re going to get when entering the Dekalb Avenue eatery. Finally, there is a new kid on the block: Community Q BBQ.
Located on Clairmont road in North Decatur, Community Q is pretty unassuming. As of right now they don’t even have a sign up for their storefront, just a banner. It was opening night, but I was literally the only customer inside. The interior space of the restaurant is typical of most BBQ spots, casual and comfortable. Low key. And, like any good Q spot, it actually smells like barbecue. You place your order at the counter and at least tonight, they have it ready for you in roughly three minutes. The two guys working there both kept up the friendly chit chat the entire time I was there and kept awkwardness at a minimum. I appreciate that.
Kins and I both ordered a rib combo plate and at $14.75, it’s a bargain. You have the option to get St. Louis cut pork ribs or beef short ribs. We both went by way of St. Louis. The meat is served with two sauces – a sweeter one and a vinegar one. The sweet is excellent but the vinegar was just too runny and I couldn't even get it to hang on to the meat. The rest of the items we ordered are as follows:
1. St. Louis Ribs – These were pretty excellent. While smoke-infused flavor wasn’t readily apparent, the ribs were still flavorful and extremely tender. Additionally the cut of meat was superb and lacked the large amounts of fat that can normally be found in most St. Louis ribs.
2. Pulled pork – This was just average. It was tender, but too dry. Nice smoke ring on it and again just the right combination of fat, bark, and lean meat in the serving. The sauce made any of its shortcomings magically disappear.
3. Brisket – This was the crowning achievement of Community Q. I would probably say it’s the best barbecued brisket I’ve ever had. Just perfect - it’s flavorful, smokey, and tender with the perfect amount of bite. Honestly, it’s incredible.
4. Mac and Cheese – This was incredible. While it doesn’t top Carver’s for me it’s up there on my list. The first thing I immediately noticed was the cream cheese base. It’s strong, but not overpowering. There’s definitely some cheddar and possibly American in this also, so it still looks orange and yellow like most mac and cheese. Additionally, they use much larger than average macaroni noodles.
5. Brunswick stew – Pretty standard fare. There’s pork, corn, tomatoes and broth. It’s on the medium side of thickness and consistency, but the flavor just doesn’t draw you in.
6. Fries – By themselves, these are just above average fries, however the seasoning is out of this world. It’s similar to a dry rub for BBQ, with sugar being the standout ingredient. They need to bottle this seasoning and sell it as it will improve most any french fry among other things. It was difficult to determine whether or not they were fresh cut or frozen, but I'm leaning toward fresh cut.
It’s pretty apparent that I really enjoyed the food here. To top it off, Community is ITP and economical. When asked where I would get barbecue in Atlanta, I now have a second alternative to suggest. Hopefully, if they keep their consistency up and improve their minor shortcomings, they can move up to my favorite spot.

DOA, I mean DBA Barbecue
Not too long ago however, I got word of some new staff and smoking techniques being employed in the kitchen. Foodiebuddha essentially dispelled these new additions from being any sort of improvement in his review of DBA. So again, I had no desire to return. Then I received this somewhat shilly email the other day:

They asked to be featured.

I had to do a little promoting myself, right?
Not one thing has changed.
So, I went back with my BBQ brethren, Xerxes, and we re-tried DBA. It's important to remember DBA, if you're going to talk the talk, you have to walk the walk. And you didn't. Again.
Right off the bat our server and makeshift host was just... intense. He was very quick and jolty and even when ordering our drinks or telling us about the specials, it was slightly discomforting. Fortunately, he was training a new girl who took care of us for most of the remainder of our visit, but I was still a little off-put from "Cokey McCokerson."
Cokey immediately told us they had an appetizer special, fried jalapeños, and that they were only a dollar, so we ordered them. These were OK. The batter was pretty tasty, but eventually the spice started to get to us when we had downed about 75% of the order. We didn't finish these.
For the main, I ordered a two meat plate ($15) with pulled pork, brisket, the grilled cream corn, and fried corn (I know, two corn sides... but how often can you get fried corn on the cob). Xerxes went the two meat route also and got baby backs (an extra $2), pulled pork, onion rings, and fried corn.
DOA. Our plates were Dead. On. Arrival. The plates were lacking (tons of empty space) and the portions were meager. In addition to the lack of food, my brisket was more like briquette. Seriously it looked just like briket. It was black and solid as a rock. With enough force, you could actually chip the plate with this "meat."
The meat:
The pulled pork wasn't dry like my first visit, but it was mushy. Overcooked and not nearly smokey or seasoned enough. The briquette, I mean brisket, was pathetic. I had a tough time cutting through it with a knife and the entire thing literally crunched in my mouth. And not potato chip crunch. I'm talking gravel. Frankly if I were the server, I would have taken it back upon seeing it. Xerxes said the ribs (4 bones) showed some improvement but he was hardly blown away by them. Also, like our first visit, none of the meat came out even warm. Seriously, is that too much to ask for?
The sauces:
Table-side are 3 sauces: Sweet, Hot, and Mustard. The Sweet and Hot taste exactly the same and are of a pretty watery consistency. They rely heavily on Carolina vinegary flavor, but just don't quite achieve any sort of great BBQ taste. The mustard sauce is pretty good if you like that sort of thing but in the end, just tastes like some high quality mustard.
The sides:
While I'm afraid DBA cannot be saved, the sides truly are their saving grace . On my first visit, I had some of the best sweet potato fries I'd ever had. This time I really enjoyed both of my sides again. The creamed corn isn't creamed, but features charred corn kernels mixed with some sort of sweet cream sauce. It was darned good, but served luke warm. The fried corn is just battered and fried so you can't really screw that up, but it's only half a cob. Corn costs next to nothing. Why can't you guys serve the whole cob?! Xerxes onion rings were on point too - some of the better ones I've had anywhere.
Seriously DBA, spend some more time on perfecting your food, and less time on your PR marketing machine. Shilling reviews as much as you have really loses you credibility among many of the influencing members of the market you're trying to pull. Emailing different blogs and Yelp members is OK but you gotta have something to back up your (false) claims of awesomeness.

Monday, November 16, 2009
“Neither man or nation can exist without a sublime idea.” - Sublime Doughnuts
1. Raspberry Heart (Kin's favorite) - It's a powdered doughnut with raspberry preserves. I'm not a huge fruit dessert fan, so I've never tried this one, but Kins would swear by it.
6. Smores - This doughnut looks awesome. It's robed in chocolate icing with graham cracker crumbs dusting the entire surface. The center, like the Reese's Cup, is filled with marshmallow cream and dusted with cocoa powder. I love how this doughnut looked and tasted, but it didn't really convey smores to me.

Monday, November 9, 2009
Dining Striking out in the A
The first situation was at Mi Barrio over in the Grant Park/Cabbagetown area. I personally think they have pretty decent, cheap tacos here and I like the smaller less crowded atmosphere of the joint too. It's completely family run with what I believe is three generations working the kitchen and the dining room. It was slammed this past Friday (something I've never seen) and we even waited a couple of minutes for a table. When we were finally seated, we got our chips and salsa right away. Then we waited. And waited. Finally a not so adept server took our order. Explaining to him what we wanted was a bit of a chore (both due to language and lack of menu knowledge barriers) and I wasn't so sure he got the order right. At least 15 minutes went by when I started to try to flag down our server to ask him what was going on. He was nowhere to be found. Finally one of the higher-ups noticed we had been twiddling our thumbs for the last 20 minutes and started asking what was going on. Our server then popped up out of nowhere and acted like he remembered our order but it was backed up in the kitchen. Sadly, this was not the case. He forgot the order and after all of this, came back and re-took our requests. It was pretty pathetic and right away the nice lady who normally works the register (she was in the kitchen that night) told us that everything was on the house and apologized profusely. Additionally, the food was rather sub-par. And that's putting it nicely. But thanks to an apology and a free meal, we'll be willing to give them another chance.
The next sordid affair occurred at Holeman and Finch. I had been craving their burger and after taking a few weeks off from it, had planned get a couple to go on Sunday (my standard procedure). Frankly my experience at the restaurant was pleasant and the same as always. Sadly when I got home, my excitement ceased. They left out our sides. I drove 30 minutes round trip and half of our meal wasn't in the bag. I called immediately and spoke to the woman who took my order and she immediately knew what was wrong and apologized but wasn't exactly forthcoming with suggestions to fix the problem. I asked her to wipe the charge off of my account and without hesitation she said, "Of course. And next time you come in, tell us and we'll give you something on the house." Despite not having half of my meal, I was pretty pleased with the results of the phone conversation. What I was not pleased with was my credit card statement. They reduced the charge by the amount of the sides, but I was under the impression that the entire meal was on them. On top of that, the burger wasn't as good as it had been in the past. It was both overcooked, and more shoddily crafted - the onions were still clumped together from the bulb and not evenly distributed and the patty sizes weren't at all the same.
I think most people would find my experience at Mi Barrio a little more unforgiving, but they are a small family business and handled the problem on their own as soon as they knew about it. The H&F thing pisses me off a bit more because they didn't comp the whole meal, they're a bit more upscale, and I had to go out of my way to pick up the food.
But hey, at least they apologized which is more than I can say for a lot of other restaurants. This is why I'll return, hesitantly, to both establishments.
Monday, November 2, 2009
Chef Liu - Downgrade
