Atlanta Food: Part III

The last installment: Although Rathbun's was the best meal by far, there were some other highlights of the trip. Last night, Francesca and Erin and I were supposed to meeting Roohi and some others for dinner at a Tapas place about a mile from the hotel. We decided to go early and have a drink nearby so we choose Eno, which was mentioned in the ASC Guide to Atlanta Restaurants. Eno is a mediterranean wine bar/restaurant - we sat at the bar and all chose the house wine flight - 4 2 oz tastes. Erin and I had the red and Francesca had the white. I think we all enjoyed 3 of the 4 wines - they weren't anything fabulous but for $9.50, it was worth doing. We shared some olives and a delicious roman style pizza with chanterelles and ricotta salata - yum!

It was only when we were ready to leave when we found out the dinner plan had changed so we decided to ditch the others and go to the place they had chosen for dinner - Loca Luna. This was a neat tapas place just around the corner. The room was enormous with a little waterfall and sculptures - it was sort of like being outside. Decent sangria and food - the highlight for me was the sauteed spinach with pine nuts and raisins, and their trio of Spanish cheeses with fig cake and honey.

Last night I persuaded the ladies that instead of ordering breakfast in bed, we should go for a Southern breakfast so we set off this morning for Thumb's Up, apparently a local favorite. Instead of cabbing it we walked the 1.5 miles there and back. It's located in the historic 4th Ward and we walked past the King Center on the way (we were pressed for time so didn't get a chance to go in). I think Erin had the best breakfast - biscuits and sausage gravy with grits. I was too hungry to order smart so I had the heap - basically a huge hash with sausage and grilled vegetables, cheese and poached eggs. I also ordered grits with cheese (totally unnecessary!) I'm still full now, even after the walk back!

My final thought - grits are good, but they really need to spiced up - I think they are just too bland without adding to them - the country ham grits at Rathbun's were the best of the three versions I had here, although the soupy shrimp and grits were good too.