Every month, the Rough Draft dining team of Beth McKibben and Sarra Sedghi share where they’ve been eating, along with standout dishes, cocktails, and drinks you should put on your restaurant radar. Beth and Sarra’s favorite dishes and drinks appear first in their weekly dining newsletters, “Family Meal” (Tuesday) and “Side Dish” (Thursday).
Check out Beth and Sarra’s best bites and sips from February.
Beth’s Best Dishes
Lunch/dinner at Halfway Crooks Beer in Summerhill ($$)
From the Feb. 3 edition of Family Meal
Halfway Crooks Beer operates like a cozy European brewpub – full service and family friendly – rather than a brewery offering snacks while you drink.
Along with trays of Belgian fries and soft pretzels accompanied by beer cheese and whole grain mustard, you can also order quinoa and cashew pate (vegan) made from winter herb pesto, mushrooms, curly endive, and shaved beets. Pulled pork sliders topped with pimento cheese and bread and butter pickles make worthy companions to a Czech-style pilsner like Var or a crisp kölsch like Farina. The cheeseburger here is in my top five (add Benton’s bacon). But keep your eye on the cafe specials served weekly at Halfway Crooks. That’s the real magic on this menu. Take the recent duck leg confit cassoulet special ($30).
A tender leg of duck crowned a pile of starchy butter beans and black lentils garnished with a petite salad of fresh parsley, red onions, and winter citrus for zest. I paired the cassoulet with a Farina (4.8 percent ABV) to help cut the fatty richness of the duck meat and to pick up the mild sweet notes of the butter beans.
Ceviche negro at Oaxaca ATL in Chamblee ($$)
From the Feb. 10 edition of Family Meal
The dining room and bar were already full by 6:30 p.m. when I arrived for dinner. From my seat, I watched the kitchen crank out dish after dish, as tickets continuously hit the point of sales system throughout the night. Expeditious service accompanied courteousness and patience, while people mulled over the menu or asked questions. It was a pleasure to see a restaurant running at full tilt on a Friday night, but without harried staff, a stressed out kitchen, or diners who didn’t understand the painstaking dance routine restaurants do on high-volume nights.
Ceviches are a must at Oaxaca, which come with large shards of fried tortilla you break off into pieces to pile on with seafood. We kicked off our meal with ceviche negro ($18), a shrimp aguachile that sees the crustaceans marinated in a zingy soy lime juice that punches up the umami. Poached shrimp mixed with pickled white onions sponge up all that good juice. Slivers of habanero peppers bring the heat, cooled by dollops of avocado. Add in crunch from the tortilla, and this ceviche might have you longing for the coast.
Mole tamal at Mi Oaxaquena Authentic Mexican Food in Doraville ($-$$)
From the Feb. 24 edition of Family Meal
Mi Oaxaquena Authentic Mexican Food could get lost amongst its more well-known restaurant neighbors at the tiny Doraville shopping center on Shallowford Road. It shares real estate with Indonesian restaurant Batavia and popular Colombian restaurant Casa Vieja.
But Mi Oaxaquena holds its own just fine. And while the traditional Oaxacan tlayuda, served folded over here like a giant quesadilla, takes pride of place on the menu, I’m smitten with the mole chicken tamal ($4).
Mole negro infuses the masa with a subtle nuttiness. The nixtamalized corn dough is then stuffed with savory shredded chicken and wrapped in a banana leaf. As the banana leaf steams, it imparts a vegetal earthiness to the masa, resulting in a velvety richness that isn’t overpowering and is a pure pleasure to eat.
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Sarra’s Best Dishes
“Casa Select” menu at Casa Balam in Decatur ($$$)
From the Feb. 5 edition of Side Dish
I had dinner at Casa Balam in Decatur with family and friends, where I encountered the “Casa Select” menu. It features an unlimited soup or salad, appetizer, entree, and dessert deal for $45. I cannot speak for the soup, but I loved the Caesar salad topped with crunchy, baked parmesan and the appropriate amount of anchovies. The salmon made a great entree, and the dulce de leche flan was rich and satisfying enough to pass around the table.
Unlike with other set menus at restaurants, the entire table doesn’t have to order the Casa Select. While $45 per person isn’t exactly cheap, the Casa Select comes with a good bit of food. The portion sizes aren’t reduced, and you can keep ordering soup or salad until the chef tasked with making the dishes leaves for the night.
Watermelon carpaccio at Rosa Cantina in Virginia-Highland ($$)
From the Feb. 12 edition of Side Dish
Have you been to Rosa Cantina on Highland Avenue? If not, you may not know that they have a new chef, Juan Hormiga, and a few new menu items.
My husband and I tried some of these additions last week, including the watermelon carpaccio, ceviche, and the Cotija wedge salad. While they were all good, my favorite was the watermelon carpaccio, which comes topped with a salsa macha – reminding me of chamoy, and our server likened it to chili crisp – and smoked peaches. This dish really surprised me in the best of ways – a true complement to the new menu.
Biang biang noodles at Authentic Hand-Pulled Noodle House in Decatur ($$)
From the Feb. 26 edition of Side Dish
I was Authentic Hand-Pulled Noodle House’s first customer on Lunar New Year. I sat in the corner and watched customers occupy tables – a mix of families, couples, and another lone diner like myself. People ran into acquaintances, both by intention and happenstance. The chef carried out noodle bowls from the kitchen himself.
I ordered three vastly different dishes — cucumber salad, a chicken burger, and biang biang noodles with pork belly to take home and let my husband finish later. Each came with an ideal degree of flavor and texture: the chicken burger’s ultra-savory notes cut with a bit of tangy sweetness; the cucumber salad hit the right degree of fermentation; and the noodles alternated between vinegary, chili crisp-crusted and juicy and always intoxicatingly chewy. (I like noodles that deviate from the norm best. There’s just something extra engaging about those squiggly lines.)