It’s not often that I trek all the way to Decatur from the Westside, so I decided to make it worth my while during my last visit and visit a few places. It’s not tough to do there, the square is one of the best walkable areas in Atlanta, and lately there’s some really choice restaurants who’ve decided to call Decatur home.
First order of business – the bakery of the new location of Billy Allin’s Cakes & Ale, where you can now find Dave Sweeney of Dynamic Dish preparing lunch. I’ve missed Dave’s clean, feel-good food, and this mid-day addition is a coup for the already popular dinner spot.
The small bakery area feels a bit like DD, a welcome space, and the vibrant vegetable colors present so well on the light wooden tables.
We sampled a few items, including an enjoyable vegetable plate. I love the sharp, cool flavors of the German potato salad. The rest was a to-be-expected colorful mix of fresh cucumber, corn, avocado, and lettuce.
It’s pretty cool to see Billy and Dave hand preparing our meal as the restaurant gets going. These duties will be passed on to other people going forward.
Butternut squash and goat cheese crostini were quite perfect and shareable. It’s a simple dish, and as was expected the flavors were great together, but I love the little details, like just how small and uniform each little piece of red pepper is, that let me know how much care goes into the food.
The quinoa bean bowl is back, the grain deftly mixed with feta cheese, peppers, onion, chives, and a rotating legume. I don’t know that I can avoid ordering this as long it’s on the menu.
Finally, we sampled a small smoked trout sandwich. Seemingly simple, though quite enjoyable, which is sort of the theme here as it was at Dynamic Dish. I’m glad Dave’s back, and Cakes & Ale appears to be a great venue for this. I’ll definitely be returning every time I get back over to that time zone.
The best way to wash down a light, refreshing lunch is with pizza, so we swung by the newly opened Sapori di Napoli.
Sapori features the same acunto oven as Antico. You know a restaurant has some hype when a different brand-new restaurant receives media attention just for having the same oven.
I really liked the sauce, the speck was super smokey, cheese was good enough, and the dough needed flavor, better end crust texture, and some more time in the oven. They have plenty of time to work that out, and the equipment to do so, so I’ll leave it at that for now.
Just a short walk around the corner and I’m making my first visit to No. 246, the newest (and apparently loud) dining heartthrob in town.
I wish my photo didn’t suck, because this meatball sandwich is gooooooood. The bread was soft, but substantial enough to hold the mess of oh so tender and flavorful meatballs, with a generous dose of zippy sauce, basil, and small saline bits of parmesan. Everyone’s been raving about the porchetta sandwich, but if you like meatballs like I do, this sandwich will scratch that itch.
No, I didn’t up the ante and go for lunch #4, but I did stop across the street from Farm Burger…
… at Batdorf & Bronson’s Dancing Goats coffee shop. I was so full at this point I was holding onto my espresso for dear life. It got me all the way back home to the Westside, I didn’t even have to stop for gas!
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