Fact: I had the best sushi roll I’ve eaten in months at Zuma Sushi in Old Fourth Ward on Sunday night.

BEHOLD…in all its glory…the Viagra Roll.  (Yeah, it’s really called that.)

Eel, cream cheese, avocado + tobiko.  It was very simple, really fresh + totally perfect…and gone in the blink of an eye.  Woosh!  This place is GOOD.

Know before you go: (1) “Zuma” means “running horse.”  (2) Service staff can be slow.  (3) Sitting at the bar with the chefs is the way to go in my humble opinion.  (4) The Zuma Sushi in Old Fourth has better atmosphere than the one in Toco Hills.  (5) It’s on Scoutmob!  Yea!

xx, L

Zuma Sushi
701 Highland Avenue NE
Atlanta, Georgia 30312
404.381.1180
http://www.zumasushibar.com/

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I had the greatest time this weekend at Music Midtown!  And, what a gorgeous day for it, too!  The Black Keys were really awesome to see live, and while I could totally pass on Cage the Elephant, Coldplay was well worth the wait.  Really enjoyed them + thought their R.E.M. tribute was special. 

Here’s a recap of my Music Midtown experience: 

the black keys

what's better than one funnel cake??

love.

I have a feeling that Music Midtown is here to stay, people! 

In the mood for some more music?  Well, you’re in LUCK.  One of my favorite bands, Austin-based Ghostland Observatory, will be in Atlanta preforming at the Masquerade on Wednesday, October 5!

ghostland observatory

I first saw Ghostland live at Austin City Limits Music Festival (’09) playing with the University of Texas Marching Band for a few songs.  It. was. INCREDIBLE!  Anyway, they are electro-rock-funk-ish or kinda elecro-dance-soul-rock: hard to put into a box, but they have a really great, unique sound + I can guarantee that they put on an awesome live show with lots of lasers and stuff. 

For iTunes research, check out these Ghostland albums: delete.delete.i.eat.meat and Robotique Majestique.  Codename: Rondo is their newest, but I like the previous two better.

If that’s not enough to convince you, GO’s lead singer has an impressive set of braids he rocks out on stage.  You’ll def want to check them out… They’re sorta mesmerizing.  (You can kinda see below.)

And, the show is at the Masquerade on North Ave.  Not only have I never been to that venue before, but also I usually drive faster down North when I pass it because it reminds me of a haunted house or something out of a bad episode of Law & Order. 

the masquerade

However, I just Sherlock Holmes-ed Wikipedia.com and while the Masquerade looks like a pile of sticks from the street, the venue actually has a lot of history + the inside of it seems fairly reasonable.

xx, L

The Masquerade
695 North Ave NE
Atlanta, GA  30308
404.577.8178
http://www.masqueradeatlanta.com/

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Brunch is my FAVORITE meal. I love it. Pretty much anything your little heart could desire would fall under the “brunch” umbrella: eggs, salads, bagels, sandwiches, whatevs! Fab. PLUS: at “brunch,” you can have cocktails before noon and no one raises an eyebrow.

I did a lot of brunching this weekend.

I went to the reinvented Rosebud in Morningside with Brooke on Saturday morning. Now, as you may know, Rosebud used to be Food 101 and it’s always been a favorite brunch spot of mine. The food is delicious and the atmosphere is cozy (something about exposed brick really does it for me…) and you never wait in line.

I got all nervous when I heard Food 101 was no more – but never fear: it’s essentially the same restaurant. Chef Ron Eyester, who had been with the restaurant since conception, bought Food 101 and merely made a few tweaks. Among the changes, he removed the amazing Breakfast Pizza from the menu, which is sad, but don’t worry, the “Big Nasty” is still there. I had the breakfast special which was a caprese eggs benedict with heirloom tomatoes and fresh mozzarella and it was to.die.for. (After brunch, we went across the street to the Fickle Manor and although I wanted to purchase the entire store, I settled on the CUTEST long heather grey cardigan. Presh!)

Sunday, DK was in town so we rounded up L and ventured soooooouth on Monroe ’till it turned into Boulevard and headed towards the funky Old 4th Ward to try out the new-ish Serpas True Food.

The Q+DD on Serpas is that the restaurant is named for the owner and chef, Scott Serpas, who trained under Kevin Rathbun in Dallas and Atlanta, was in cahoots with the Concentrics people as the executive chef at TWO Urban Licks, and also served as the executive chef at Sia’s in Alpharetta and sister restaurant Mitra before opening his own digs last January.

The space itself is VERY cool. It’s located at the Pavillion at Studioplex (Irwin and Auburn Ave.) and used to be an old cotton storage facility built in the 1900s. Linds and I really dug the huge cotton blossom mural on the back wall. Witness:

The whole restaurant feels kind of sepia-toned with splashes of color here and there: the wait staff wears chocolate brown polos and matching chocolate brown chucks and old-school aprons fastened with enormous saftey pins, even the cloth napkins were chocolate brown, we thought it was a nice touch. (And ok, I have to say it, our server was so cute I could hardly utter my order.)

Ok, the food, the FOOD! Was delish. I snapped some shots.

We started with an order of fried oysters (which came topped with a jalapeño relish) that were p.e.r.f.e.c.t.

I had the vegetable omelet with lump crab and goat cheese

Linds had the cast iron sunny side up eggs with andouille and hash browns

And DK got the short rib eggs benedict which was the clear cut winner. Linds and I couldn’t keep our forks off her plate.

So, throw a little vodka in your tomato juice! It’s almost like a health drink.

xx, L

Rosebud Restaurant
www.rosebudatlanta.com
1397 N. Highland Avenue
Atlanta, GA 30306
404.347.9747

Serpas True Food
serpasrestaurant.com
659 Auburn Ave. NE
Atlanta, GA 30312
(404) 688-0040

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