Goodbye Duuurrtty South

My last full day in Atlanta brought me to a Civil War museum and of course, good eats.

Atlanta itself is an interesting city.  As we were driving around, Jen explained to me why you can drive down one street, and the street name will change 3 or 4 times.  During the antebellum period and post civil war, freed slaves would live in one congregated area that would basically be along the same street as the white citizens of Atlanta.  To separate themselves, the white people would rename their streets so they would technically not live on the same street as the freed slaves.  Although much time has passed since the Emancipation Proclamation, the street names were never changed and there is still a lingering racism against black people.

Thanks to Hannah's encouragement, Jen and I headed over to the one and only.... Cyclorama.  It is the world's largest oil painting, at 42 feet high, 358 ft in circumference and weighs in at over 9000 lbs.  It is also over 120 years old.  It is a circular oil painting that depicts the Battle of Atlanta, and the exhibit involves revolving stadium chairs as it revolves with the painting to retell the battle.  Interesting facts:  It was originally commissioned for $43,000 (crazy!), and eventually sold to what was essentially a traveling circus.  Eventually, the circus ran out of money, and the painting was sold again, but sold with the animals.  This is why the Cyclorama is right next to the Atlanta Zoo - the original animals that started the zoo were from the circus!

 

Following the very interesting exhibit, Jen took me to have authentic southern BBQ at Fox Bros BBQ.  and I thought the portions at Highland Bakery were large... We ordered fried short ribs (yes, fried - only in the South I tell you), the Logan (tots covered with brisket chili and cheese), brisket and pulled pork plate, and short ribs. I think we had enough food for about 10 people.  Luckily, my old friend Mike and his wife Lee joined us to help us with our gluttony.

 

 

My original plan was to leave Atlanta in the late afternoon so I wouldn't arrive too late in DC.  Jen easily convinced me to push back my flight so we could have one last good meal together.  Bribe me with food - I'm that easy.  So for dinner, we went to Rathbun's, opened by Kevin Rathbun, a local well known chef.  And if this isn't a testament to the portion sizes in the South, entrees are called "big plates" and "second mortgage plates."  Due to several days of over-indulgence, Jen and I decided to order several small plates to share, rather than order individual entrees.

We started with an amuse of African squash bisque with cranberry essence and shaved foie gras.  For our shared plates, we ordered eggplant steak fries, bone marrow, a salad of ellijay apples with blue cheese, wildflower honey, and shaved white truffle, a sirloin carpacio with sea salt and truffle aioli, and a charred corn with gouda.  Overall, the food was generally pretty good - but not something to cry home about.  The eggplant fries were nicely fried, but the portion was way too large for an appetizer.  The salad was nice and fresh, and overall nicely balanced with the honey and touch of sea salt.  The carpacio though was not one of my favorites.  The meat was completely covered in a bed of shaved parmesan that was probably 1/4 of an inch thick.  I think if they simply shaved some parmesan slices on top it would have been better for the presentation and palate.  The meat itself was pretty good, although the truffle flavor was a little too subtle, you definitely had to search for it.  The bone marrow was delightful (really, can you go wrong with bone marrow?).  It came with a side of jam and also some fleur de sel.  Personally, I though the jam was too acidic for the bone marrow, but just a pinch of salt brought out the rich flavors of the bone marrow perfectly.  Overall, I would say Rathbun's was a nice restaurant, but I wouldn't add it to my restaurant bucket list.