FoodieBuddha.com

Two establishments, one building, and one curious story.  That’s the deal with two new eateries going in at Renaissance Walk, a struggling (aka foreclosed) downtown condominium complex just a few steps from Georgia State.  One Café and Yoeshi are siblings spots that have been in production for quite sometime.  If recent grumblings (spurred by self-promotion) are to be taken at face value, then the two newborns will say hello sometime in mid-February.  Still, details are muddled.

Tucked in at the corner of Auburn Ave. and Piedmont, the location for these two restaurants is not nearly as ideal as one would think.  In that same location, several restaurants have opened and closed faster than you can say recession.  Still, that hasn’t stopped one restaurateur from trying to open not one, but two, fast casual concepts.

One Café is purportedly set to offer a mind-boggling array of cuisines with everything from burritos to burgers and all the way through pastries.  They’ve actually named just about every restaurant in Atlanta as their source of unoriginality inspiration.  Speaking of names, according to the Renaissance Walk website, the name of the restaurant is actually spelled One Caffe.

As for that other gig, Yoeshi will serve Japanese street food as well as Japanese pastries and desserts.

According to their own musings, these will be a walk-up and order establishments with no service staff.  They have a chef, but no word on who that actually is at this time.  Anywho, there y’all have it.

One Cafe / Yoeshi Address:
171 Auburn Avenue NE, Atlanta, GA 30303-2552

As I hobble through life with a Droid as my sole camera, it’s time for another one of my first impressions that really isn’t a first impression.  Falafel King sits on the Emory campus just off the junction of Oxford and N. Decatur.  Though it’s purveyors are of Korean lineage, this shack sized, spit using restaurant actually sells the oddly married cuisines of Japan (in this case sushi) and the Mediterranean.  This odd mish mash of grub, combined with a distinct facade (displayed at right by babythekitten) and pocket book friendly prices, helps to draw customers from areas well beyond Emory.

In many circles, the King is treated as royalty.  The reality is closer to something more understated; however, for a place that freshly pats down their chickpea mixture, they do just fine.

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While this is a food blog, there is no doubt that the techie in me wants to take every opportunity to drop some nugget of wisdom every once in a blue moon.  Today is just such a day.  UrbanSpoon, a social review site for restaurants, just launched an Android version of their popular iPhone app.

For those of you with accounts (like me), you can use the app to login to the site and go about your daily business.  However, the coolest feature doesn’t require an account.  As you’ll see below, they have a slot machine toy.  Shake your phone, and US will suggest a nearby location for you to eat based on neighborhood, cuisine type, and budget.  Pretty slick and I’m glad they’ve ported the application over to the Android ecosystem.

For those of you who are still with me, this only works on Droid and Nexus One phones.  If you’ve got the barcode scanner, here’s the direct link to install:

Download UrbanSpoon:

[via us]

Chef Todd Annis has definitely earned his knives.  As the current head of Bold American Catering, Annis is in charge of the catering arm of Fifth Group Restaurants.  Prior to that, he spent time slinging pans at places like Carbo’s Café, Araxi, and the much discussed but now defunct Rainwater.  If you’ve ever snacked on some grub while at the King Plow Art Center or Studio 887, chances are … you tasted some of Annis’ food.

You can see some of the blurb on Annis over at Creative Loafing.  It’s a piece from ‘01 when he was at Rainwater.  Meanwhile, you can also show your appreciation by giving his Facebook fan page some love.  But before you move on, kick back on this rainy Atlanta day and enjoy some musings.  And with that, welcome to ITCK!

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Yesterday, I mentioned that Food Network’s Chefs Vs City was philandering around Atlanta (in the foodie sense of the term).  Turns out, their trip to Holeman + Finch was just one in a series of stops.  As luck of the draw would have it, we caught CvC setting up shop in the Sweet Auburn Curb Market for a chitlins engagement.  In between tasty burger bites at Grindhouse, I managed to snap the above picture.

If chitlins sound unappealing (cuz lord knows they stank something awful), it shouldn’t be a surprise feature.  The premise of the show is that the two hosts (Aaron Sanchez and Chris Cosentino) hit up a city and challenge two local chefs to sample their cities most adventurous food.  However, it appears that this episode will feature challengers of a different breed.  Though I checked out a bit before filming began, I was told that Robert Irvine was one of the contestants.  Irvine is a celebrity chef who has a habit of turning up on the FN.

Ah but the info doesn’t end there.  Thanks to a heads up from @AtlantaDining, we’ve learned that CvC stopped in at The Buckhead Bread Company and the Atlanta Fish Market, two Buckhead Life restaurants.  Though I haven’t been able to get secondary confirmation of that, AtlantaDining is a reliable source … definitely worth the follow.

Last but not least, some investigative blogging turned up that the Atlanta episode will air sometime this summer, during season two of the program.

Recently I had the opportunity to try out Two Urban Licks, a restaurant owned by the same folks that run One Midtown Kitchen and Trois.  Self described as ‘fiery American food,’ Two Urban Licks offers a diverse menu that changes daily, and offers hearty seasonal dishes with options that even fill up gluten-free bellies.

I went with a group of friends on a Friday night to Two Urban Licks and it was quite a happening place.  With high ceilings, live music, full tables, and the kitchen located in the center of the restaurant, surrounded by glass, there’s action everywhere.  Being that it was a weekend night, it was particularly loud and I was glad that our table was far away from the band.  (Does that make me old and lame?)

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Later today, Atlanta’s best bar meets restaurant (a.k.a. Holeman + Finch) is set to be a location for an upcoming episode of the Food Network’s Chefs Vs City.

The premise of the show centers around a challenge from the show’s hosts (one part Aarón Sánchez and one part Chris Cosentino).  They find two local foodies chefs and dare the challengers to eat some of the more adventurous dishes from the city they call home.  While I’m not one of the challengers (good thing – cuz I’ll put most any dish in my tummy), it’s no surprise the H+F showed up on the schedule.

The gastro pub is best known for their burger, their hot dog [it is freakin awesome], and their cocktails.  However, true fans know that the establishment serves up what most people would call “exotic” parts of the animal.  Chances that the veal brains and/or the rabbit livers show up? I’d say strong to very strong.  More later as the details leak out.

In a tragic move of epic journalistic failure, Slice, the ever popular pizza blog from the gang at Serious Eats, just undermined their years of good work in one fell swoop.  In an attempt to unlock the Rubik’s cube that is frozen pizza, one of their bloggers posted the results of a frozen pizza taste test.

Shamefully, the competition was limited to DiGiorno, Red Baron, Freschetta PizzAmore, Tombstone, and the Whole Foods house brand.  What a crock … there is just no way to talk frozen discs of goodness unless you mention Totino’s … it’s ridiculously cheap, amazing delicious, and just the best damn frozen product on earth.

To make my ire known to others, I have penned this post and shamed serious eats on their blog!  Rise up and join me!  Viva La Frozen Pizza Revolution!

(image via now public)

While the Food Network seems the likely destination for all the best food TV shows, that heavy weight belt might actually go to The Travel Channel.  In addition to Tony’s food porn-erific No Reservations, TC is home to Man v. Food, Adam Richman’s tribute to all things gluttonous.  The competitive eating show lands in Miami tonight, February 3rd, for a 2-hour special that starts at 9pm EST.

Included in the festivities is a live broadcast of Richman trying to take down a 48 oz. steak from none other than Don Shula’s eponymous Shula’s Steakhouse.  As the Super Bowl hits Miami on the 7th, it’s no surprise that Man V Food decided to incorporate grub from the restaurant of the only man to ever lead an NFL team to a undefeated season through their super bowl (my Pats were still better yo!).

For the past few weeks, Travel-C has been bringing the media blitz.  Like the slave to trends that I am, I’ll ride that wave and grab you a copy of the gratuitously bikini clad Nori … who has 3-minutes to down three milkshakes in Babe v Food.  If you want more Adam, be sure to check out 411 Mania’s interview with the dude.

Café Alice is one of those non-descript restaurants that exists in every strip center in every city around the country.  In this case, you’ll find this glorified sandwich shop in the Windy Hill Shopping Center off Cobb Pkwy.  It’s probably family owned (seemingly Asian in persuasion) and the idea of being “chef driven” is as foreign to the staff as nuclear physics is to me.  They aren’t trying to win any awards or garner the attention of foodies near and far.  No, it seems instead that this is one of those business run by people who want to do the best they can without any misconceptions or false hopes.  Mind you, that statement is entirely assumptive.

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