Cocktails in the Garden

Last Thursday, I came face to face with two fixtures of Atlanta culture - Atlanta Botanical Garden and resident Atlanta author Emily Giffin (both of which are gorgeous, by the way). The gardens open on Thursday evenings during the summer for Cocktails in the Garden, where you can enjoy flora and libations aplenty. My boss Katherine generously invited me to join her this past Thursday, when Emily Giffin made an appearance to promote her newest book, The Heart of the Matter. As some of the first guests to arrive at the book signing, we happily chatted with Emily about oppressive sweating, mosquito bites and childhood romance. The heat was sweltering and I think I was even sporting the ever-embarrassing sweat-stache - my boyfriend claims this ONLY happens to me, but I refuse to believe this is true.

Drinks in hand, Katherine and I made our way through the vegetation to the Outdoor Kitchen, where the chef of Parish served up spicy shrimp gazpacho soup shooters and mini oatmeal cream pies. The gazpacho shooters were addictingly tasty - by the time I was done, I'd knocked back so many that our table resembled a freshman dorm room. Unfortunately (and entirely out of character for me) we waited too long to snatch an oatmeal cream pie before they disappeared. I can only imagine that they, too, were a delightful tease of what I'm sure is an incredible menu at Parish.

For an alternative to your typical happy hour bar, trade low-watt indoor lighting for a beautiful evening of vines and vino right after work.  Plus "Cocktails in the Garden" just sounds like an event for elegant ladies of leisure...gotta keep dreaming, right? 

Wheelin' and Dealin' in Atlanta

A friend in Atlanta amazed me yesterday by telling me she had never heard of Groupon. What?! Clearly she's never read my blog. More importantly, she's missing out on a ton of wonderful bargains from all of the daily deal sites taking over Atlanta these days. In 2010, I've saved over $300 using these sites - and I'm sure there are plenty of savvy shoppers who have far surpassed that number. For those of you living in Atlanta under a rock or moving here anytime soon, here are the best sites for finding incredible deals on shopping, dining, services, events and more. For the most part, they function on the basis of collective buying power, so the more people that know, the better they get!

Groupon

Twitter @grouponatlanta

Scoutmob

Twitter @scoutmob

MyDailyThread

Twitter @mydailythread

Living Social

Twitter @livingsocialATL

Living on the cheap in Atlanta has never been so easy! Each site offers similar types of deals, so follow and subscribe to all of them! How much can YOU save?

Panita Thai Kitchen

I would typically avoid a restaurant that foregoes air conditioning in 90-degree weather and where a bottle of bug spray comes standard with your table. And I'd usually be a bit suspect of a place which, at a time when every hole-in-the -wall deli has an interactive website with menus, twitter and RSS feeds, has zero internet presence at all save a bundle of positive reviews. So I'm glad I knew none of these things when I showed up at Panita Thai Kitchen in the VA Highlands for my friend Sara's birthday.

Walking through the vine-covered walkway into Panita was unbelievable - I've never been to Thailand so I have no idea how authentic it was, but if I had a sweet Asian grandmother with a knack for hoarding collectibles and plants, this is how I imagine she'd decorate her home. It strangely reminded of the place where the Caribbean witch-woman in Pirates of the Caribbean lived. Nerd alert. Anyway, there were Buddhas, flowers, statues, pictures all over the place. It was a sweltering night, so our group of six decided to sit outside, fully equipped with a can of OFF. It was still pretty sweaty, but the guy filling our water glasses was a champ, so the heat was bearable.

Onto the food...I love Thai food and have been to a good few of Atlanta's Thai restaurants over the past few years, but I've yet to master their long and embarassingly unprounceable (ok I know that's not a word) menus. Usually my ordering strategy consists of closing my eyes and pointing my finger, hoping for the best. I was glad when four of us decided to order a few dishes together to share. Since there's no menu online, I won't even try to spell what these were, but they were all delicious. I especially loved the center dish pictured below, which was a spicy eggplant concoction of some sort. The pad thai tofu was good, much more authentic and tasty than your Doc Chey's counterpart, but still pretty tame. The vegetable curry (top picture and again, no clue about it's real name) was absolutely wonderful, with a really strong flavor and a little kick to it. Check out their creative plating and presentation:

                            

Yes, that's a foil swan. Such a unique, tasty hidden gem in the middle of the Highlands, a must-see for Thai food lovers or for those who love foil animals.

Atlanta's Taste of the Nation

On Wednesday, I was incredibly lucky to volunteer at Atlanta's 2010 Taste of the Nation, a benefit event for Share our Strength, an organization dedicated to ending childhood hunger. Along with a live and silent auction, more than 50 of Atlanta's top restaurants housed tasting booths with their best food and wine. So when I say volunteer, I actually mean eat a ton of fantastic food without footing the $250 bill for a ticket. I worked with a well-known Atlanta photographer, who knew absolutely everyone and shot that gem of a picture above of me with Pano Karatassos, the co-chair of the event. Also, Jane Fonda appeared as a distinguished guest and most of my responsibilities consisted of following her around all night (further proof that the celeb gods are shining down on me).

After stopping by most of the tables at least once, I've compiled a Top Five List of Atlanta restaurants that I need to visit. I obviously lied here when I said I was going to stop spending money at great restaurants this summer, who was I kidding?

1.Woodfire Grill - Chef Kevin Gillespie (formerly on Top Chef) just seems so cool

2. Ted's Montana Grill - One word: Milkshake

3. Tuk Tuk Thai Loft

4. Bluepointe - I've already written about this place, but I desperately need to rediscover the chocolate/caramel parfait dessert featured at Taste

5. Spice Market

Celeb Sightings

I have an abysmal record of recognizing celebrities and pseudo-celebs in the real world. The last time I was in NYC, I found myself strolling along behind Jay Leno for minutes until I finally realized that all the smiles and stares of passersby were not, to my dismay, directed at me but at the owner of the significantly more voluminous head of hair in front of me. But for some reason, the celebrity gods have smiled upon me this year and thrown some very unforgettable stars in my direction.

In order of how much I want to date them (from most to least), here are the three most recent sightings. I've also included then and now pictures for your amusement.

Mark-Paul Gosselaar aka ZACH Freakin' MORRIS

He's seriously adorable. And his hair defies all laws of gravity. As Emory's 2010 Class Day Speaker, Zach (yeah, I really can't call him by his real name) reminded many of us why this guy was our first crush and reassured us that sixteen years after Saved by the Bell went off the air, he can still make us swoon.

Owen Wilson

See his signature above. I watched him write it, probably with a little bit of drool hanging out, at Emory's outdoor pool, where I've worked for the past few years. In Atlanta to shoot Hall Pass, Wilson fancied a bit of a swim and thought the best place to go unrecognized was at a college campus with students reading People magazine at poolside. He even used those little hand-flipper things. Definitely not conspicuous. Ranking him at number 2 was a close call, since he and Zach are equally hunky, but his downfall was that he wore a plaid shirt - I've mentioned how I feel about this - in 90 degree weather.

Ahhnuld Schwarzenegger

      

Sorry Arnold, you are a huge human being and your hand is bigger than my face, so you are number 3 on my list of dateability. But you did, as promised, "pump me up" during the keynote address at commencement, so you hold a soft spot in my heart. All politics aside, the Governator was an entertaining and fun commencement speaker. Parts of his speech read more like a comedy routine, and the most memorialized line will surely be his timely remark that "I was going to speak in Arizona but I thought I'd be deported."

I realize that had I not gone to Emory, and been present at work, Class Day and graduation - three things I really had little choice over whether or not to go - I wouldn't have come face to face with these celebs. So really (Dad, I hope you're reading this), that $200 grand was TOTALLY worth it.

Goodbye, Good Food

Got lots to catch up on, folks. I'm going to give a semi-brief overview of most of the restaurants I've visited in May, which I have lovingly dubbed "The Month of the Food I Will Not Be Able to Afford For Years After Graduation." Some of these places aren't even expensive, but due to my 'I'd rather travel than eat real food' attitude, I'm planning that most of my meals this summer will consist of Kroger brand oatmeal. And since I'm living with Casey, it will obviously involve heavy amounts of chocolate.

So this lovely month commenced with my birthday meal at TAP in Midtown. Props to this place for being open at 3:45pm, which oddly enough, is the time that most restaurants close between lunch and dinner. I admit that was my primary motivation for taking my parents here when they arrived for this in-between meal (linner? dunch? hmm...) but it turned out to be a great place to go. Dad and I ordered the Steak Eggs Benedict, which was fantastic. It had a flavorful mustard bearnaise instead of hollandaise and came with some roasted potatoes. I don't remember what Mom got at this point, which means it was probably too healthy to be memorable. I feel obligated to recommend that you avoid sitting on their outdoor patio when windy - although it was fun for me to watch a table fly off the ground and into a busy sidewalk, I doubt the pedestrians found humor in the situation.

Next, for my birthday dinner with friends, a group of 10 met up at Apres Diem, right next to Midtown Arts Cinema. Pre-dinner was a bit of a comedy of errors, since originally our reservation was at Park Tavern at 7pm. When I got a call at 4pm from Park Tavern's manager saying they had to cancel the reservation, I had a minor freak out being that it was Cinco de Mayo and few restaurants had open reservations for such a big group. But the manager pulled through and made reservations for us at Apres Diem, including a round of drinks and appetizers for everyone. He's got it figured out - to all men discovering the subtleties of how to make up for your mistake(s), I suggest offering free food and drinks as your first reconcilatory move. Long story short, absolutely wonderful night with great food and friends.

Onto the graduation celebrations! Half of our grad meals took place in Daytona Beach for my brother's big day, but we had a couple great meals when we came back to Atlanta. The parents and I dropped in to Osteria 832 in the Highlands, and we all ordered pizzas. I remember that I loved the bread basket, but that might have been the bottle of wine talking. Pizza was nothing to rave about, but was good and definitely hit the spot.

Okay, I saved the best for last. The top meal of this honored month was easily my graduation dinner at Nava, a restaurant that brings some much-needed southwestern flavor to Buckhead. I knew that it was going to be a great meal when our peppy waiter brought out the jalapeno cornbread. I seriously cannot stop thinking about this bread. I want it always. Next, I ordered Sangria and shared a slew of tasty appetizers with the fam - favorites were the Grouper ceviche and Jumbo Lumb Crab fritters. For my entree, I got the Carolina Trout (with some cactus on the side, naturally) which was absolutely perfect. My only concern with this month of heavenly food is that I'm basically asking for Mercury poisoning with the amount of fish I've consumed. Whatever, everyone says to die happy. Anyway, we all loved our meals and like everything else, the dessert was phenomenal (see below).

Also, I'll be staying in Atlanta at least through August so I've gotten an extension on my excursions through the city! All suggestions welcome.

Groupon - Urban Body Studios

Luckily, I caught this Groupon while it's still hot. I deleted myself from their email list after getting perpetually woken up every morning by the local deal and consequently becoming unreasonably angry and cranky at Groupon. Which is a wonderful website. I apologize for all of the horrible things I've said about you pre-8:00 am.

Check out today's deal - $39 for a one month fitness membership and UNLIMITED yoga and pilates classes. I have no patience for yoga, but I've promised myself I'm going to try to get into pilates this summer.

Who wants to join me?