grub notes Taking Flight Summer Fare: When Flight Tapas and Wine Bar (225 N. Lumpkin St.) announced it was opening in the former Kaplan tutoring space next to the Georgia Theatre, it didn’t sound too impressive. Many a restaurant has tried to do tapas and wine, aiming for sophistication and ending up with bar snacks that weren’t even too glorified. Flight doesn’t succeed at everything it does, but for every failure on the menu, there’s a success, and the alcohol side of things appears to be far better than many another establishments’ in town. The concept, mirrored in a restaurant of the same name in Memphis, is there in the name: flights, or small tastings in groups of three, of both food and wine. You don’t have to order things this way, but it’s an option, with flights of soup, spring rolls, sea creatures and land critters as well as flights of wine. The sea flight will run you $14 for a plate of tuna tartare with wasabi vinaigrette, chili-powder-dusted fried calamari with an apricot-shallot sauce that sounds gross but is actually nice and black-tea-seared scallops served over shiitakes with a bit of truffle oil. There’s a lot that sounds potentially unsuccessful but works out decently, and while none of these items will blow your mind, all three have been well executed. The land flight, on the other hand, has one good thing (the grilled petite filet, well salted and crusted) and two not worth your time (too-thick beef carpaccio and bland chicken satay). A trio of soups has a strange attempt at gazpacho that is far closer to a pico de gallo, but it doesn’t taste bad; the silky porcini soup is better, and the carrot-ginger soup with basil oil is better yet, transcending all three of its named ingredients. Presentation is generally paid attention to. The mixed olive plate with marinated feta and pickled onions arrives with the olives in a ramekin that the staff then ceremonially pours onto the plate itself, creating a pretty and random arrangement. The warm spinach salad with blue cheese, pickled onions and …the briny, meaty bacon vinaigrette is a keeper, taste of the snails… and although the ingredients are kind of a no-brainer, they’ve still been pitched well, with the blue not too strong and the bacon diced just right. By contrast, the frisee salad, which has the same delicious bacon, fails in its undercooked fried egg and the lackluster texture of the greens. The kitchen isn’t great with potatoes. Both the ones that accompany the petite filet and those that make up the purple potato salad on the side of the bocadillo (a panini-style with sweet-tea-brined pulled pork and brie) aren’t great, but purple potatoes are almost always bound to fail, with their weird, dry consistency. The sandwich, incidentally, ain’t bad, but the description beats the reality. The two hearty, starch-based dishes—a porcini-gorgonzola risotto and gnocchi with spinach, prosciutto and pecorino—are hard to think of ordering in this kind of weather, and they’re flawed in execution. The risotto is soupy and the gnocchi too bogged down in their cream sauce, although the flavors of both have been well chosen. What’s the most exciting thing on the menu? The restaurant has escargot in a garlic butter flavored with Pernod that beautifully accents while never overpowering the briny, meaty taste of the snails themselves. Nowhere else in Athens is this even an option, and I would encourage you to pop over to the restaurant for this dish alone, which is satisfying, tasty and paired perfectly with a recommended white. The pairings seem smart, not obvious, and the wine list has plenty of French selections, which is rare these days. A light summer flight of a Jacqueline blanc de blancs (sparkling), a Hughes Beaulieu pic poul (white) and a Domaine Houchart rosé wasn’t 100 percent awesome, but it was intelligently put together and accessible. The cocktail list, likewise, has some silly dessert martinis but some choices for grown-ups, too, including drinks made with St. Germain elderflower liqueur and house-infused liquors. The atmosphere in the now unrecognizable space is comfortable and at least trying for something higher-end, but the customers in shorts and t-shirts (it’s Athens, after all) tend to bring it down. Flight has recently tacked up a banner on the fence around the Georgia Theatre announcing its existence, which may help it find its clientele. The restaurant does dinner Tuesday through Saturday from 4 p.m., and the bar is open until 2 a.m. There is a wine cellar downstairs that can be rented for events, and the restaurant accepts credit cards. Hillary Brown food@flagpole.com
Drink Specials: Entrée Specials:
2.00
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16oz. Bottles of Coors Light
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HAIR
Sunday Beach Brunch Buffett on the “GNAT-io”
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STUDIO
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Welcomes Matthew Buzzetta!
Matthew comes to us from Van Michael and Bernard Daugoud Salons in Atlanta. He has worked fashion shoots with some of the top stylists in the world and has extensive training with Aveda, Karastas, Vidal Sassoon, Sebastian and Whella. Matthew specializes in the technique of French cutting, Keratin straightening and a variety of color services ranging from corrective color to foil placement.
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Thurs, July 22 - TJ MIMBS Fri, July 23 - NATHAN SHEPPARD Sat, July 24 - LEAVING COUNTRIES All Music starts at 6:30pm
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JULY 21, 2010 · FLAGPOLE.COM
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