http://www.atlantamagazine.com/blogs/covereddish/home.aspxThe <i>Atlanta</i> magazine dining blogen-usCopyright 2011, AtlantaMagazine-NAThu, 23 May 2013 01:01:04 GMTMon, 14 Feb 2011 15:08:42 GMT1http://emmisinteractive.comDon't think you can afford one of those white tablecloth, candle-lit Valentine's Day dinners today? Think again. Metro-area Waffle House locations are still taking reservations for tonight. &nbsp; For the fourth year running, the scattered, covered and chunked chain is reserving booths for customers who call in advance and make reservations. In return, you and your Valentine will be treated to a tablecloth, soft music&nbsp; candle light and the entire Waffle House menu for your enjoyment. &nbsp; And whether it's the ease on the wallet or the kitsch factor, Waffle House's 4th annual Valentine's promotion is the chain's biggest yet. &nbsp; "Last year, we had 40 locations participating and this year we have 90," Waffle House spokesperson Kelly Thrasher told Dish Monday. "As of Friday, we had 44 reservations in Birmingham alone. We currently have 21 in the metro-Atlanta area. That's awesome." &nbsp; Thrasher says a lot of Waffle House ...http://www.atlantamagazine.com/blogs/covereddish/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10204848reldredge@atlantamag.emmis.com (Richard L. Eldredge)http://www.atlantamagazine.com/blogs/covereddish/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10204848Mon, 14 Feb 2011 15:08:42 GMTAt the end of last month, we changed the way we do our dining blog. It's still called Covered Dish, and it still has all the great content you've come to expect from us (weekly ATL Food Chatter posts, weekly posts from Deborah Geering). However, it now has a spiffier landing page, and the blog has since been broken up into two smaller blogs: Dining News (where you'll find ATL Food Chatter and more news-related food updates) and Local Foods (where you'll find Deborah Geering and more posts on local food). So check out the new set-up, and change your RSS feeds!http://www.atlantamagazine.com/blogs/covereddish/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10202987jreeves@atlantamag.emmis.com (Jackson Reeves)http://www.atlantamagazine.com/blogs/covereddish/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10202987Thu, 10 Feb 2011 14:44:50 GMTIt's a weekday afternoon, inching toward two o'clock and customers are still clustered around the front door of Murphy's in Virginia Highland, anxiously anticipating lunch. In an economy where restaurant closings are an hourly occurrence in this city, owner Tom Murphy knows how fortunate he is. &nbsp; "When you've been around as long as we have, there are no real sizable booms or busts," he tells Dish during a visit to our table. "Thankfully, our regulars regard us as an extension of their homes. They know they can come in here, get one of their favorite menu items at a good value and visit with old friends. We were lucky. When the economy went south, we had more than 25 years of goodwill already in the bank." &nbsp; Murphy is paying that good will forward via Good Measure Meals, a healthy eating meal service Murphy provides in a partnership with ...http://www.atlantamagazine.com/blogs/covereddish/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10196523reldredge@atlantamag.emmis.com (Richard L. Eldredge)http://www.atlantamagazine.com/blogs/covereddish/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10196523Tue, 25 Jan 2011 13:58:52 GMT ATL Food Chatter: January 24, 2011 (To receive the Chatter and other culinary tidbits directly in your inbox, sign up for our weekly dining newsletter) &nbsp; Last October, Asha Gomez began dazzling intimate groups with her culinary skills at a series of gatherings dubbed Spice Route Supper Club, featuring the unique cuisine of her native state in India, Kerala. The Spice Route Supper Club experience is part of the expanding supper club movement here in Atlanta that allows chefs to do some creative cooking outside the constraints of a restaurant setting. Ms. Gomez, who recently filmed a short video about the supper club, shared the origins of her concept and some her plans for its growth and development: Q: Where did the idea for Spice Route Supper Club originate? AG: I was in the spa industry for twenty years, here and in New York. At the Neem Tree Spa, which ...http://www.atlantamagazine.com/blogs/covereddish/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10196335http://www.atlantamagazine.com/blogs/covereddish/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10196335Mon, 24 Jan 2011 23:53:25 GMTJonathan Hosseini oversees a 7-acre farm and a beverage company, but vegetables are not what he&rsquo;s cultivating, and drinks are not what he&rsquo;s ultimately selling. Rather, Hosseini deals in ideas. He&rsquo;s got a big one, and right now he is trying to get it to take root. So he&rsquo;s leading by example. The idea is complex, but with apologies to Hosseini, I&rsquo;m going to attempt to boil it down:Agriculture is the fundamental building block for wealth-creation in any economy. To ensure healthy local economies, communities and neighborhoods must create an agricultural base&mdash;a farm or farms, a community garden, private gardens, container gardening&mdash;and a reliable, but simple, local distribution system. &ldquo;As the food economy shifts, you&rsquo;re already seeing huge amounts of experimentation,&rdquo; Hosseini says, citing farmers markets, online local food networks, CSAs, community commercial kitchens and local farm delivery trucks as examples. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s a whole new sort of ecosystem that&rsquo;s ...http://www.atlantamagazine.com/blogs/covereddish/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10195063http://www.atlantamagazine.com/blogs/covereddish/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10195063Sun, 23 Jan 2011 01:06:22 GMT ATL Food Chatter: January 18, 2011 (To receive the Chatter and other culinary tidbits directly in your inbox, sign up for our weekly dining newsletter) Some permutation of Italian cuisine always seems to make it onto pundits&rsquo; annual list of food trends. This year, for example, Joseph Baum and Michael Whiteman, two of the country&rsquo;s most influential restaurant consultants, put &ldquo;Old Italian is Newly Respectable&rdquo; at the top of their list. I checked in with Craig Richards&mdash;who trained with Lidia Bastianich executive chef at Virginia-Highland&rsquo;s La Tavola Trattoria since 2006&mdash;on his views of Italian cooking nationally and locally. Q: What do you attribute to Italian food&rsquo;s lasting appeal? CR: Italian food is a classic cuisine that will be around and popular for a long time. It's popularity is cyclical but it never completely fades away. I think Italian food has really evolved in America and, as the dining public learns ...http://www.atlantamagazine.com/blogs/covereddish/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10193342http://www.atlantamagazine.com/blogs/covereddish/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10193342Tue, 18 Jan 2011 22:13:54 GMTLaunching a new business is challenging. Launching a food-related business can be especially difficult. &nbsp; First, there are all the costs associated with any manufacturing venture: sourcing and storing supplies, purchasing equipment, courting customers, establishing delivery and billing procedures. And then, because the end product is edible, there&rsquo;s a maze of state licensing rules to navigate, with resulting fees and inspections from various government agencies. The process can take months and cost thousands&mdash;or hundreds of thousands&mdash;of dollars.So how is it that, at any farmers market in metro Atlanta, there's never a shortage of eager vendors of baked goods, and jams, and frozen treats? How do they do it? No doubt some are flying (or baking) under the radar by operating out of their home kitchens. But many others have discovered a legitimate and cost-effective compromise for breaking into the food industry: the community commercial kitchen.Community commercial kitchens, also ...http://www.atlantamagazine.com/blogs/covereddish/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10192425http://www.atlantamagazine.com/blogs/covereddish/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10192425Mon, 17 Jan 2011 19:50:10 GMT ATL Food Chatter: January 10, 2011 (To receive the Chatter and other culinary tidbits directly in your inbox, sign up for our weekly dining newsletter) &nbsp; [Editor's note: Apologies to James for the delay in getting this posted. I was stuck in travel purgatory the last two days&mdash;B.A.] &nbsp; High Road Craft Ice Cream &amp; Sorbet&mdash;a new manufacturer of organic, premium ice cream and sorbet that caters to high-end restaurants&mdash;was founded by two Kennesaw State alums, Keith Schroeder and Hunter Thornton, who created the venture while enrolled in the university&rsquo;s Executive MBA program. They quickly found customers some of Atlanta&rsquo;s most high-profile restaurants, and they also sell to catering companies such as Affairs to Remember Catering and Bold American Catering Company. Keith Schroeder shares some of the background, philosophy and future plans for High Craft:Q: What inspired you and your business partner to enter into the ice cream business ...http://www.atlantamagazine.com/blogs/covereddish/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10190634http://www.atlantamagazine.com/blogs/covereddish/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10190634Wed, 12 Jan 2011 16:07:32 GMTIf all the snow and cold has got you down, then all I can say is, it&rsquo;s a good thing you live in the South. Not just because we have fewer wintry days here but also because we have a good cure for the blues, growing all around us: greens. There&rsquo;s a scientific reason why leafy green vegetables help keep away the blues. High folate concentrations, reduced homocysteine levels, better neuro functions, blah, blah, blah. (Do you really want to know? You can read a pretty good explanation of how high-folate foods like greens improve mental function and mood here.) But here&rsquo;s another, much simpler reason: &nbsp; &bull; Greens taste good, in an earthy, nurturing kind of way. &bull; Collards grow in this season, in this climate&mdash;snow or no snow&mdash;in this soil (yes, there&rsquo;s soil underneath that concrete you&rsquo;re standing on). &bull; When you eat greens, you feel wholesome, nourished, ...http://www.atlantamagazine.com/blogs/covereddish/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10188526http://www.atlantamagazine.com/blogs/covereddish/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10188526Mon, 10 Jan 2011 21:19:28 GMT ATL Food Chatter: January 3, 2011 (To receive the Chatter and other culinary tidbits directly in your inbox, sign up for our weekly dining newsletter) East Lake Golf Club executive chef Michael Deihl recently announced that he has accepted the nomination to run for the prestigious American Culinary Federation&rsquo;s 2011 Southeast Regional Vice Presidency. I sat down with Deihl, who has a strong commitment to community service, to find out more about the ACF, his vision for the organization, and what his election would mean for Atlanta.Q: What does the American Culinary Federation do and how long have you been involved with it?MD: The ACF [founded in 1929] is the cooking authority in America. Through seminars, competitions, accreditation, certification, we are the go-to professional chef organization in the country. I have been involved for over 30 years now.Q: How would your election to the Southeastern chapter ...http://www.atlantamagazine.com/blogs/covereddish/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10187279http://www.atlantamagazine.com/blogs/covereddish/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10187279Tue, 04 Jan 2011 19:51:54 GMT