Keoni and Bonnie

This restaurant on Canton Rd. in Marietta is the first one that I blogged about and it’s still one of my favorites!  I said I would try everything on the menu and I just about have.  The food is Meditarranean and it tastes like your Mom’s cooking if she’s a wonderful Lebanese woman!  The grape leaves are the best I’ve ever had.  They are hand rolled so if you’ve only had the ones out of a can, you haven’t had a good one.  Her lentil soup is so lemony and scrumptious.  The falafels are another favorite of mine.  Fadia is the owner and she does all the cooking and also does catering.  This is not a trendy place and they don’t have an alcohol liscence, this is just delciously prepared food and healthy, too.

For our second “Dinner Club” outing, Tammy chose La Tavola, located in Virginia Highlands.  I must say it was an excellent choice!  We had seven in attendance this time but we did sadly miss Tri.  He was skiing with his brother in Vermont!

We started out with an antipasti of mixed olives, parmesean cheese, marinated vegetables and roasted garlic served with Italian bread.  We ordered a bottle of Edmeades Zinfadel (this later turned into 3 bottles).  Most in the group ordered Tagliolini with a mushhroom ragu with truffle oil and pecorino ramano.  It was delicious!  I talked Tammy into sharing with me.  We shared a striped bass with castelluccio lentils and artichoke crema with speck( a type of proscuitto).  We also shared a mixed greens salad.  Everything was so good!  We received excellent service from Willy and Alli, the bartender was also very helpful in pointing out her favorite dishes on the menu.

Willy brought over a “sweet” surprise at the end of the meal.  An assortment of about 5 desserts, including tira misu, lemon cheesecake and a chocolate flourless cake.  All were so delicious and decadent!  What a great night out with friends!

We went to this place right after Top Flr to have another glass of wine. It’s located in downtown Atlanta on West Peachtree Place. It was a quiet Monday night so we had a chance to talk with the bartender/manager and server, Douglas and Joelle. They were so nice! They opened a couple of different wines for us to try. I was interested in the menu, French and North African cuisine. They have small plates, salads and entrees. I noticed on their website that they have specials on Mondays and Tuesdays. Monday is a choice of 3 different pastas and a glass of wine for $15.00 and Tuesday is steak and frites and a glass of wine for $15.00. Looks like we have another place to go!

This is a great tucked away place in Midtown! I was staying at a hotel in Atlanta and the Greek restaurant we were going to check out was closed. It wasn’t meant to be! With a shake of his iphone, Keoni came up with Top Flr which was right around the corner. It is a tall, narrow building on the corner of Ponce and Myrtle Streets.

When you walk in there’s a bar to the left and one to the right. Here I am, stuck in the middle. We decided to go to the smaller right side and eat at the bar. The bartender was very helpful and went over the menu in sections, giving us his favorite dishes and/or the most popular ones. I ordered a nice glass of Easton Zinfadel and Keoni ordered rum and coke. We decided to order something from each section and share. We started with a tuna tartare on flatbread with Thai miso pesto and avocado. It was delicious and a huge portion! Next we had a mixed green salad which had blueberries, chevre (the best I’ve ever tasted, so creamy!) and a honey lavender dressing. We also had the hangar steak with ginger aujus cooked medium, which was perfection. I told Keoni I only wanted a couple of bites and he said I ate more than he did! We also had spaetzle ( a type of egg noodle found in German cuisine) with petite mushrooms, roasted shallots and grenobloise (sauce of browned butter, capers, parsley and bits of lemon). Next time I would like to try the white bean hummus and the pizza with carmelized onions, olive tapenade and parmesean.

This is definitely a place we would go back to. We loved the intimate feel of the place along with the fresh ingredients and good, simple food!

Atlanta has been exceptionally cold and rainy this winter and Keoni always wants to go play in the sun.  We decided at the last minute to go to Montego Bay, Jamaica.  The decision all had to do with flight availability (standby because of my flight priveliges) and the cheapest hotel that wasn’t a dump.  Keoni worked tirelessly on Saturday while I impatiently waited for his decision.  Usually, I choose our mini vacation destination but I wanted him to just tell me where we were going.  We knew it was going to be an island in the Carribean so the packing was easy.

Keoni found a deal in at the Holiday Inn Susnspree Resort for $204.00 a night which is an all inclusive resort.  We were pleased to find the staff friendly and the room more than adequate.  We even had an ocean view!  It’s nothing real extravagant , the rooms are kind of dated but clean, and really, who spends that much time in the room?

Since it was all inclusive, we wanted to get started on the food and drinks!   There are several restaurants, bars and food stands so that you never go hungry or thirsty.  The main restaurant was run-of- the-mill buffet style and the other restaurant that we went to was Seabreeze, which was Carribean. They also have a couple of higher end restaurants that for some reason did not have availability. At Seabreeze you just ordered off the menu whatever you wanted so we ordered all the appetizers and a couple of entrees.  They serve an appetizer made out of a local fruit called ackee.  It was really good, kind of reminded me of guacomole except it was yellow.  Keoni wanted to try the oxtail stew and I had pork fajitas.  Very good!  I tried the oxtail and can’t say I’m a fan.  Too bony!  One of the stands had jerk chicken that was really good.  Another place had burgers, hot dogs and grilled cheese sandwiches that came with french fries that Keoni thought were exceptional!  There were a few items on the buffet that were unusual.  Boiled bananas, for instance.  I did not try those but I saw people piling them on their plates so somebody liked them.  I did try a fruit that the server called a Jamaican apple that was very red on the outside, very white on the inside and was shaped like an avocado.  I also tried smoked marlin and won’t be ordering that again anytime soon!

Ok, let’s talk about the drinks.  The only beer they served was Red Stripe and after trying it, I decided to make Shandys (beer mixed with a little sprite) Refreshing!  The liquors, for the most part, were cheaper brands.  I did enjoy some pina coladas but kept thinking about all the calories!  Don’t even think about ordering wine unless you like cheap, tasteless wine.  I know it’s not a red wine kind of place but at night the weather was cool and it would have been nice to sit on the deck with a glass of heart healthy red wine.  I’m just saying!

Keoni woke up early and secured chairs and an umbrella (for me).  We stayed out on the relatively quiet beach all day and enjoyed the glorious sun and ocean breeze!

The hotel does have a decent gym with free weights and machines that looks onto the beach.  They also have water aerobics and yoga classes daily.  There is also constant entertainment on the stage near the main pool.  They also have an adults only pool where you can belly up to the bar!

What a fun and relaxing mini vacation!

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