An educational dinner at Two Urban Licks
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Karen Hamilton
April 22, 2008
Two Urban Licks is located in a quiet stretch of Atlanta’s Midtown, which proved to be difficult to get to for a tourist without a car. The stormy weather also succeeded in postponing my original Saturday night reservations to Sunday evening. It was as if the powers that be didn’t want me to check out this restaurant. But I’m glad I did.
I was escorted to the centre of the humongous hangar-like dining space where the Chef’s Bar is situated. The floor to ceiling sconces and red cloth lanterns that were hung everywhere warmed the otherwise industrial feel of the place and lent it a Pan-Asian flare. From my seat, I had a fantastic vantage point for watching the sous chef, Daniel, and chefs de batterie Spence, Dave, and Alonso at work.
Observing their teamwork and getting the chance to chat with them and my server Joanna was the highlight of the night. Dave and Alonso were gracefully in sync and seemed to really enjoy what they were doing. I watched them churn out dish after dish, often building it in front of me, before handing it over to Daniel for the finishing touches. They were having so much fun and were so willing to attend to my questions that I completely forgot to feel self-conscious for dining alone yet another time.
First up: a pear and pomegranate salad with blue cheese and watercress. The pears were poached in vanilla and were incredibly sweet, almost candied. It seemed a little early for this much sugar. The bitterness of the watercress managed to balance it out somewhat. The rest of the flavours were muddled together when I expected the pomegranate to jump and the blue cheese to hit me like a ton of bricks. Instead, the cheese was so mild and white that I mistook it for goat’s milk in my notes. I don’t know that I’d order this again, but the concept is interesting enough to try it in our kitchen one day.
As Dave and Alonso prepped my main course, Alonso mentioned that his lawyer brother in New Jersey was thinking about starting up a food blog. If you guys are reading this: do it! It took years before I separated my food articles from my personal blog, but once I did, things had a funny way of clicking into place. Getting to know the people behind the food that you buy and eat is one of the best ways to get inspired in the kitchen and discover restaurants that you may have never found on your own.
Um, Karen. Get back to the food.
Right. So the main I chose was a somewhat local redfish, caught off the Gulf of Mexico. It was seared to a fantastic crisp on the skin side yet remained wonderfully creamy and slightly rare in the centre. That made me a happy camper, as I cannot abide an overly cooked fish.
The chile rice was very mild for a chile rice. It reminded me of paella without necessarily having that oozy risotto-y texture. Went very well with the redfish. The best part of this dish was the charred tomato vinaigrette. Mutedly tart like a good malt vinegar, with the darker profile of roasted sweet tomato. Daniel explained that he took the tomato broth used in the bronzed scallop dish, which was smoked with red onion on their wood grill, and reduced it further with red wine. He even gave me a sample of the smoked tomato broth to compare the two sauces.
Dave was also kind enough to let me sample the NY baked cheddar macaroni that he and Alonso would tag-team on. It was undeniably well made, unlike the craptacular twisted mac & cheese I had earlier in the day at the Hard Rock Cafe. I asked after their smooth and creamy cheese base: it is a variation on the classic Mornay sauce, subsituting the usual gruyère with NY white cheddar.
I wrapped up my meal with a cheese plate consisting of 4 types of Spanish origin. I wasn’t a fan of any of them, unfortunately. The Valdeon Blue was minty and alarmingly rancid (bottom left). The drunken goat cheese, bottom right, was the most palatable of the four. In general, the selection was too similar to each other, and there wasn’t a truly soft cheese offered (Daniel tried to find me some but they were plain out). Looks like the good folk at Salt ruined yet another cheese plate for me!
The Verdict
If you are in the Atlanta area and like me, are a little uncomfortable with dining alone, try eating at the Chef’s Bar at Two Urban Licks. I hope they keep you entertained like they certainly did for me, and that in the process, you learn a little more about the inner workings of a professional kitchen.
Two Urban Licks
820 Ralph McGill Road | Atlanta, GA
+1 (404) 522-4622
Categories: Atlanta, Beyond Vancouver, Food, Restaurants, Travel, USA
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Articles by Karen Hamilton
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