To Hell and Back: Escape from Snowmageddon (Or, The World’s Longest Valor Review, part 2)featured
Our drive was only going to be a few hours. Four, tops, and that was if we took a nice, long stop at the Pelham Stucky’s. But I can’t remember the last time we had a full day in Atlanta. Have we ever had a full day in Atlanta? When we were fully rested? The weather forecast was nice and cool and there was so much we wanted to do…so we got an early start. Up by 7:00 am, Stephanie and I ran to the McDonald’s down the street to grab breakfast and we were on the road by 8:00 am.
Since I slept through Tennessee the last time we drove through (and Mom decided to skip Stucky’s as a result), I made sure a stop at our favorite roadside candy store was on the list. And so we got out of the car, went into Stucky’s…only to find out they were sold out of pecan logs. And on top of that, they wouldn’t be getting any in for TWO AND A HALF WEEKS! So we wouldn’t even be able to hit it up on the way home. What’s Stucky’s without pecan logs? It’s like…me traveling without at least three pieces of luggage. We grabbed some drinks, took our obligatory we’re-at-the-Pelham-Stucky’s picture and hit the road again.
So logless and listless (well, maybe just logless), we hit the road again. I think Stephanie watched a movie with grandma at some point. I know at some point I fell asleep. I’m pretty sure I could fall asleep anywhere if it’s moving (except an airplane- go figure).
We hit Atlanta around 1:00 pm and headed towards Buckhead to check into our hotel- The Atlanta Marriott Buckhead. We’ve never stayed below 4* in Buckhead before, but we had a ridiculously hard time finding a hotel for our one-night stay on our way down to Florida and once we were bidding up to $120 for one night, we knew we had to bid down. The lucky bid was for 3.5* at $80. And we really lucked out because the only difference between the 4* hotels we’ve stayed in in Buckhead and this hotel was the size of the bathrooms and the scale of the lobby. The Atlanta Marriott Buckhead is a business hotel. Our room was clean (always the most important factor), large and generally well-appointed. Did we have an orchid on our pillow like the Intercontinental? No. Did the hotel have the crystal details of the JW Marriott? No. But it did have the fruit-infused water like the Westin. It’s definitely more like the Westin’s and Intercontinental’s than it is the Courtyard’s or Hyatt Place’s. And we had Bath and Body Works products in the bathroom. Who doesn’t love Bath and Body Works? And the staff was cheerful and accommodating, which always gets a stay off on the right foot, don’t you think?
After we got settled in, we realized we were all hungry and set out for lunch. I’d been monitoring Groupon for deals in the area for places that we might like and about a week before we left, Mom saw a Groupon for a Jewish deli, The Bagel Palace, that was only ten minutes from the hotel. $10 got us $20 of whatever deli fare we wanted and the menu looked broad enough to appeal to all of us.
The Bagel Palace was a little hidden, located in a shopping center off a main road. It reminded me of a store grandma used to take me to when we were little, where she’d go to buy salami’s and breads. The restaurant doubled as a store, with a large bakery, a nicely sized deli counter. In the middle of the shop were tables for diners and another dining room for overflow.
The menu featured typical Jewish fare. Deli meat sandwiches. Soups. The kind of seafood grandma used to buy all the time when I was little (the stuff I still see…and smell…in my nightmares but Mom and grandma love). Blintzes. Latkes. All day breakfast. Typical Jew food. And we know good Jewish food. Grandma made the best of the best of it and we live on the North Shore of Chicago, which has a high density Jewish population and dozens of really good deli’s.
We each had a half a sandwich with a bowl of soup. Mom, Stephanie and grandma all went for corned beef on rye. I opted for hard salami on challah. All of us (sans Mom) had the matzo ball soup. Mom went with the minestrone. And this? This was good deli. Our sandwiches were flavorful and, especially in my case, stuffed. Mom’s minestrone was thick and hearty. Grandma and Stephanie really enjoyed the matzo ball soup because it was really authentic tasting. The broth was homemade, the matzo ball was nice and dense and there were plenty of pieces of white-meat chicken mingling with the noodles. I thought it was certainly tasty, but I have much simpler tastes. My favorite matzo ball soup? It wasn’t grandma’s. It’s the stuff you make with a box of Manischewitz. Just broth and an unherbed matzo ball (much like grandma’s, these matzo balls had a heavy sprinkling of dill in them). They all had water. I had a sweet tea. Why? I was in Georgia! Why not?
Minestrone soup
Matzo Ball soup
Corned beef on rye
Salami on challah
I think we spent over our Groupon by, like, $10 or so, so figuring in the price of the Groupon, tax and tip, we all had a fantastic deli lunch for $25. As we were paying the check (and ordering some cookies to go at the bakery counter), we chatted with the owner of the restaurant, who was just lovely to talk with.
After lunch, we took Mom and grandma back to the hotel to rest and Stephanie and I set out to explore Atlanta. Prior to this visit, the extent to which we’d explored Atlanta has been the Lenox Square Mall, Maggiano’s, The Varsity, Target and Publix. And I’ve always just wanted to get out and explore *so* badly. I campaigned for weeks to make a trip to the Atlanta Zoo to see the panda bears. Stephanie refused. The compromise? I finally got to go see Centennial Olympic Park. So Stephanie and I went downtown (downtown Atlanta is about 10 minutes from Buckhead if traffic is nice to you, which it rarely is no matter what time of day it is). And I finally got to see the site of the 1996 Olympics (and the CNN building, too)…from the car. There was no street parking and Stephanie didn’t want to park anyways. And she wouldn’t let me get out to take pictures, so I had to explore it out the car window (I’m starting to realize this compromise wasn’t much of a compromise LOL). The park isn’t all that vast, but there’s some beautiful sculptures and fountains. There’s a tribute to the victims of the bombing. I’d love the chance to just walk around here on a nice, warm day. It’s big enough to explore but small enough to balance some serenity.
Passing thoughts? It was a gorgeous day. I wish I went to the zoo.
So we called Mom when we were on our way back and she said grandma was napping and didn’t feel like going out again, so we went back to the hotel to pick Mom up to run some errands. I tasked Mom with making us a dinner reservation for that evening at Cellar 56, another restaurant I had purchased a Groupon for a few weeks before we left. And then we hit up Target to pick up some things we forgot and Publix to grab breakfast goods for the next morning and some chicken for grandma to eat for dinner. With our errands down, we headed back to the hotel to get ready for dinner.
Like I mentioned, I found Cellar 56 on Groupon. Another place I’d probably never find if I hadn’t checked Groupon, but a place that’s now probably near the top of the list of places I’ve dined. I didn’t know much about Cellar 56 before we left. I knew it was a tapas place. I knew they boasted an extensive wine list and I knew that I love me some wine. The menu looked good and the reviews were excellent, so we purchased a $30 Groupon for $60 of food and drinks.
The restaurant is located in Buckhead…a mile or so from what I like to call Hotel Row (Peachtree Rd., where most of the hotels in Buckhead are located)…so it only took us a few minutes to get there. But the first thing we noticed? Despite the private lot in the center the restaurant was in, it was valet only. It’s a free valet if you’re dining at the restaurant, but it’s valet nonetheless. Well, not-so-free…you still have to tip…for them forcing your hand in parking your car five feet away. No lie. Five feet.
The restaurant is located in an upscale shopping strip, just beyond a lovely courtyard with a beautifully-lit fountain. And when we entered Cellar 56 (with only one other party seated), it was clearly an upscale establishment (well within line with the rest of the area it’s situated in). The restaurant is dimly lit and quiet music plays in the background. Bottles of wine sit atop dark brick and wood paneling, clearly the focus of the restaurant and its menu.
We were quickly seated and handed menus mounted to wooden planks, each one from a different vineyard. Our server was great at explaining the various offerings to us and making suggestions. He poured us water out of a bottle (it may have been bottled still water. It may have been tap water in a wine bottle for presentation and flair. I don’t know. I didn’t ask) and we ordered a pitcher of sangria and began to peruse the menu.
The menu is comprised of all tapas, or small plates. Our server said most people order around three plates each, each plate with 3-5 bites, but I found that that was pretty understated. The menu is split into four sections: garden, land, sea and dessert, with each section having a set price ($5 for garden, $6.5o for land, $7 for sea and $5 for dessert). And with that…we ordered what seemed like half the menu.
We each ordered three dishes. Mom ordered the Super Lump Crabmeat/Avocado/Grapefruit Mojo, Grilled Flatbread/Roma Tomatoes/Maplebrook Farms Mozzarella and Guiness Braised Boneless Short Rib/Unnatural Reduction. Stephanie ordered the Grilled Flatbread/Slow Roasted Pork/Chipotle Cheddar, Herb Roasted Prestige Farms Chicken/Caramelized Shallot Butter and Cornmeal Fried Green Tomatoes/Cilantro Buttermilk/Goat Cheese. I ordered the Green Chile/Prosciutto Mac & Cheese, Grilled Flat Iron/Chimichurri/Arugula and Sautee of Wild Mushrooms/Locatelli Polenta, and then ordered the White Chocolate Caramel Bread Pudding/Maker’s Mark Carmel for dessert. Well that’s a mouthful of flavorful words. What can I say? Everything was phenomenal. Beyond words. We shared and tasted each others dishes and there was more than enough food for all of us. My favorite dish of the night, by far, was Stephanie’s fried green tomatoes dish. It was tangy, it was crunchy and the addition of soft goat cheese added a nice flavor and textural contrast to the thick, breaded tomato slice. Mom’s short rib was another big winner, soft and fork-tender and so, so flavorful. Mom really loved my mac and cheese, with thick chunks of salty prosciutto and thinly julienned pieces of spicy green chiles. Stephanie’s favorite dish was her pork flatbread, which was like a much more flavorful and complex BBQ chicken pizza. I was the only one to order dessert and I just about licked my plate clean. That Makers Mart caramel is the most flavorful dessert sauce I’ve ever tasted. Bar none. Pour some of that on anything and it’ll be heavenly. And I found out today that they use Krispy Kreme doughnuts in the bread pudding, which helps explain the richness of the dish. What I didn’t care for? The mushrooms with polenta was the clear weak link in the meal. The mushrooms didn’t have much flavor to begin with, but the polenta was literally flavorless, which made it unpleasant. My flat iron steak was a bit dry but tasty, but it was accompanied by a large helping of arugula and I really, really dislike arugula.
Super Lump Crabmeat, Avocado, Grapefruit Mojo
Green Chile/Prosciutto Mac & Cheese
Grilled Flat Iron, Chimichurri, Arugula
Grilled Flatbread, Roma Tomatoes, Maplebrook Farms Mozzarella
Grilled Flatbread, Slow Roasted Pork, Chipotle Cheddar
Herb Roasted Prestige Farms Chicken, Caramelized Shallot Butter
Cornmeal Fried Green Tomatoes, Cilantro Buttermilk, Goat Cheese
Guiness Braised Boneless Short Rib, Unnatural Reduction
Sautee of Wild Mushrooms, Locatelli Polenta
White Chocolate Carmel Bread Pudding, Maker’s Mark Caramel
Cellar 56 isn’t a place for the budget-minded. Even with our $30 Groupon, adding in tax and tip, we easily dropped an additional $90 or so on top of that. Was it worth it? We left feeling full, satisfied and talking about amazing this tasted or how we could eat that every day for the rest of our lives and how fun the experience was, so for *us* it was. I imagine many people wouldn’t feel the same dropping over $100 on tapas and sangria.
After dinner, we hauled back to the hotel. Stephanie and I watched Modern Family and Mr. Sunshine with grandma while Mom got everything in order for our 10-hour drive the next day. And then I hopped in the shower, dried my hair, we popped in The Social Network (Stephanie always hooks up her portable DVD player to the TVs in our hotel rooms) and went to bed.
And after all of that? I only have one thing I’d like to say: I still want to go to that zoo.
