Sunday, September 18, 2011

sometimes we are really fancy...


last week kris and i celebrated out two year wedding anniversary with a fancy pants dinner at woodfire grill. top chef fans may know that woodfire is kevin's (from season 6) restaurant. i know he's super bacon dude but please recall he also won the natalie portman vegan challenge. when i called to make a reservation i mentioned that we are vegetarian and vegan and they said thanks for the notice, no problem! and is it a special occasion? well since you asked....

i was blown away by food and dining experience. we opted for the vegetarian and vegan 5 course tasting menu and our waitress was so sweet she took notes on all of our dishes, typed out our customized menus and mailed them to us. we ordered a bottle of wine that the sommalier suggested - Gamay Joulienas - it had something to do with beaujolais and it was incredible. it tasted like strawberries in the best way. then we started in with our 5 courses plus and amuse and taste of a shot of soup. it was all delicious but i think my favorite was my second course which was a super flavorful pumpkin mushroom dish. you can see the descriptions on the picture of my menu (or maybe you can't...), the only thing is it has the regular dessert (kris said it was yummy yummy!) my dessert was strawberry rhubarb sorbet with cocoa nibs and sun dried cherries (i think).

as if you can't tell i was really impressed with my vegan creations from woodfire. they are by no means a vegetarian/vegan restaurant and i really feel like they put some thought and love into our dishes and didn't just throw some random vegetables together and call it a day. i remember reading one vegan food writer say that the best vegan meal he ever ate was at the french laundry and i kind of felt like this was our french laundry experience (unless we one day get really really fancy and make it there...). great atmosphere and delicious vegan food where you might not expect it.

we're still working on finding our go-to spots here in atlanta but i think it's safe to say that we have found our special occasion spot. thanks, woodfire!

-d