TONIGHT!!!!!

I’m sorry I’m not sorry. 

I can’t even help it. Please don’t judge. And I am EXTRA excited because I LOVE EMILY MAYNARD.  

I don’t care if you think she’s boring. She’s so pretty and classy (please don’t let me down, Em) I can’t WAIT to see the degree of idiocy these guys reach over her.  It’s going to be amazing.   Plus, I can stare at her and her amazing clothes for 12 episodes.  #GirlCrush

Tonight at 9:30PM CANNOT come soon enough! 

I love you Emily…

xx, L

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Kevin is a regular at Street Food Thursdays in Midtown.  Almost every Thursday night he’ll come home to report how amazing his lunch was, and he’ll almost always tell me about what he’s eaten from the Ibiza Bites food truck.  Without a doubt, it’s his favorite.

I’ve definitely seen the truck before, and Dennis Dean is our favorite Atlanta caterer, so I’ve wanted to try Ibiza Bites for a while now, but I haven’t had the opportunity to do so until last Wednesday night when the truck was parked on 12th Street + Piedmont.  (Which we were told is going to become a weekly dinnertime thing for them…)

The very Q+DD on Ibiza Bites Food Truck:
Recently named by Jezebel Magazine as one of the top food trucks to watch in 2012, Ibiza Bites offers a brand new style of cuisine called “SoLa.”  It’s a bit South American, Latin American, and deep South – with a whole lot of deliciousness!  Cute.

I met Kev at the truck for dinner + we ordered up a few of his favorite items.  The truck was bumping Rihanna – so I knew I liked them immediately.  While they prepped our order, I found a high boy table waiting for us complete with a lovely floral arrangement.  Eating food out of a truck has never been so classy before! 

Our meal was sooooo decadently delicious!  We shared a pulled pork entree over cheese grits with a side of coconut/ plantain rice…

…crab cakes, fried green tomato, lemon thyme aioli over arugula w/ orange segments, pecans + fresh shaved manchego + sherry vinaigrette…

…and finally, sweet potato fries covered with melted marshmallow for dessert!

It was fantastic food truck fare, and ever since Wednesday night I’ve been stalking Ibiza Bites on Twitter to see where they’re headed next!  Follow the truck HERE! 

Next time, I’m all about trying their lobster mac ’n cheese!  Yummmmmmm…

xx, L

Ibiza Bites
Various Locations Around Atlanta
404.857.9308
www.ibizabites.com

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…if this is on my wedding diet?

I mean – it’s an egg, right? 

Just checking…

xx, L

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Lauren and I recently had a lovely dinner at an adorable, new-ish restaurant in Town Brookhaven called Baci (owned by the Cafe at Pharr folks).  Baci is a cute + cozy eatery that was packed with curious locals the night we visited.  It immediately struck us as the kinda of place where you could become a regular and the friendly staff would remember your name/ favorite menu items.

baci interior

We sat down and cracked open a bottle of red, which we brought with us since Baci didn’t have its liquor license yet. CODE RED(wine) is what LK called it!  And, we looked over the menu as we grilled the server about her favorite items and house specialties.

We started off our meal with Baci’s Caprese Salad: tomatoes, mozzarella, basil + creamy balsamic vinegar.  It was beautifully plated, and it absolutely hit the spot.

We quickly moved onto our entrees.  We shared the Seared Scallops: scallops + house risotto (pesto risotto the evening we dined)…

…and the Chilean Sea Bass: hong-kong style sea bass with white rice.  Both entrees were delicious, but in my opinion the sea bass was totally the way to go.

As a side, we couldn’t help ourselves when we spotted the Lobster Mac n’ Cheese on the menu.  It was incredibly decadent - a very welcomed splurge!

Check us out with our divine spread…

We weren’t actually hungry for dessert, but as soon as the server told us that the Gelato of the Week was salted caramel, the deal was SEALED!  Two scoops please – we’re not sharing!  It blew my mind.  I looooove salted caramel, but it has to be prepared JUST right or you can’t quite taste the saltiness or it’s terribly overpowering.  This gelato was fan-freaking-tastic!

We very much enjoyed our evening at Baci, and we recommend you try it before a movie at Cinebistro or for a quiet dinner date.  We know that you will love it as much as we do!  LK + I give Baci two thumbs up AND two big hugs.  Such an adorable spot! 

xx, L

Baci
705 Town Blvd. Ste. 510
Atlanta, GA  30319
404.771.7557
www.baciatlanta.com

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It’s not news that Richard Blais, our Atlanta Top Chef + Top Chef Masters celeb chef, opened a hot dog joint called HD1 (Haute Doggery), but what IS news (at least to me) is how enjoyable the HD1-experience was to someone who is honestly not that into the hot dog thang.

HD1 is situated next to Pura Vida and San Fran Coffee in between Ponce de Leon and North Ave. on North Highland.  I think it’s a brilliant location pulling from the Poncey-Highlands hipsters, the Virginia Highlands college kids, the Fernbank area families, and the Little Five and Candler Park folks.  Kev and I visited HD1 on Sunday afternoon around 1:30 p.m. and it was P.A.C.K.E.D.  Admittedly, I was shocked by how popular it seemed to be.

Location, Location, Location – right?  Right.

A glimpse at HD1′s elaborate hot dog menu…

We found two cozy seats set aside from the otherwise communal seating, and were greeted by a pleasantly laid-back waitress who took our drink orders and informed us about her favorite HD1 dogs.  We perused the menu for a bit, and I frequently looked up to see Kev’s eyes get wider and wider.  Everything we were reading sounded more and more decadent and delicious than the former!  Eventually, we settled on a few things.

We started with the HD Waffle Fries with maple-oy sauce.

They were different. 

I found the maple-oy sauce to be pretty overpowering, and wished that we would have just ordered the plain waffle fries and soaked them in good ol’ fashioned ketchup.  Now we know…

Next, we moved on to THESE.  Beef ‘n pork wieners served on toasted sweet Ghana rolls.

From left to right – The Whiz: cheese sauce + shoestring frites (my fav.)/ Eastbound and Down: Carolina pulled pork, sweet mustard slaw + mop sauce (Kev’s fav.)/ Plain Jane: HD mustard, ketchup, sweet relish + onion.

Kev and I both agreed that the hot dogs were delicious and definitely creative, but the sweet Ghana rolls were really what made the major difference for us!  Y-U-M!

check out those buns!

Other hot dogs that we thought sounded great:

- Chow-down: chow-chow + brown mustard.

- Freemont St.: garlic cream cheese + red onion-tomato salad.

- Kenturkey: turkey sausage, tomato-pimento marmalade, mornay, bacon + parmesan.

See the full HD1 menu HERE!

Although we’d stuffed ourselves with hot dogs, we HAD to try the Caramel Popcorn Vanilla Soft Serve at the end of our meal. 

It was out-of-this-world good! 

We had such a fun time at HD1.  The food was an interesting change up to an otherwise potentially boring Sunday lunch.  While I might not want to eat hot dogs every weekend (Kev disagrees with me on that point), I would absolutely bring out-of-towners and first-timers to HD1 to show it off.  And, next time I’m definitely trying the Kenturkey.

So, about that wedding diet…  

xx, L

HD1
664 Highland Avenue NE
Atlanta, GA  30306
404.815.1127
www.hd1restaurant.com

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