Dinner at Home

When I heard Richard Blais would be taking over the kitchen at Posh, I made a reservation within the same minute. I thought it would be the perfect place to celebrate my birthday. It was announced that the name of the restaurant would be changing to Home and that it would be a modern, southern farm to table concept... which is quite popular these days if you ask me. I have been a Top Chef addict this season and have had Richard on my list of favorites since episode one, so needless to say I was very excited to go. Our fab neighbor Holly came with us to celebrate the occasion. In all my excitement I forgot my camera, so if you would like to see some great pictures of Richard's fare, please go here. The ambiance of the restaurant was surprising. Nestled in a cute little house, I was expecting a bit more of a casual cozy environment. Instead, I kind of felt like I was sitting in someone's rich aunt's dining room. I will say the draperies were beautiful and the lighting was very well done. Just not quite what I was expecting. Most of the diners were much older than us, kind of the Buckhead Baby Boomer see-and-be-seen set. They stuck us younguns in a corner though, as not to disturb the other diners. ;) Service was a little slow at first. It seems they have a beverage steward as well as a regular waiter for each table. I'm pretty sure the GM was our waiter that night. Holly and I each had a blackberry vodka lemonade to begin and hubster had a mint julep. Not usually the whiskey fan, I will say that this mint julep was delicious. I totally had drink envy at this point. We began our meal with two starters: the fried green tomatoes and the pimento cheese on crackers. Much to my surprise, our dining companion was born and raised in Atlanta and had never had FGT's or pimento cheese. She's played it pretty safe in the food arena, so of course we could not leave without sampling these two southern specialties. I love fried green tomatoes and was expecting the best from Richard. Sadly I was very disappointed, as was our first time FGT eater. The tomatoes were small pieces or chunks really, not the nice slices I normally like. The breading was very thick and not very crispy, although the color was a nice golden brown. The 'maters were served with a light creamy sauce and also a cool chive ice cream which was a nice change. Overall though, the dish was a big let down. The pimento cheese was a delight though. Perfectly punchy and topped with thinly sliced celery, I truly enjoyed this dish. For my second course, hubs and I both had a butter lettuce salad with green apple, black walnuts and blue cheese. This is a fairly standard restaurant salad and is difficult to screw up. The salad was light and refreshing and I liked the sweetened nuts along with the pungent blue cheese. If we do go back, I'll probably opt for the tomato soup and grilled cheese course... it looked very good. I was just worried about having too much heavy food. I was very excited about the main course being that fried chicken is pretty much on my top 3 list of favorite foods. Holly and I both ordered the fried chicken with macaroni and cheese and honey vinaigrette. Mason had the brisket. Vegetables are served family style, with each table receiving small portions of four kinds of veggies. Ours were carrots in a creamy thyme-ish/oregano sauce, brussels sprouts, collard greens, and creamy mashed potatoes. I loved all of the veggies except for the collards... those are just too bitter for me and I can't get myself to like them no matter how they are prepared. The mashers were perfectly velvety and quite delicious. Entree wise, I had very high hopes for my chicken...all of which were crushed by the end of the first bite. The honey vinaigrette made the chicken entirely too sweet and ruined the dish in my opinion. I don't mind a bit of sweet with my savory, but this was over the top. Needless to say, I was quite bummed. The macaroni and cheese had a lovely bechamel sauce and the bread crumbs on top were toasty and crisp. The chef was just a bit heavy handed with the truffle oil though. I know many of you are probably thinking that this is a physical impossibility, but I'm just a traditionalist like that... I'd rather taste the cheese in mac and cheese rather than mushrooms. On to dessert. Red velvet cake with cream cheese icing AND cream cheese ice cream. Hello gorgeous.....or so I thought. One bite into the cake and we were looking at a dry, crumbly mess. At first glance the cake looked nice and dense and perfectly moist, but unfortunately the bite revealed something entirely different. Definitely a less than satisfying way to end our meal. I heard from the valet that Richard had not even been at the restaurant for more than a week, so maybe some of these shortcomings were just sous chef oversights. Some other friends paid Home a visit a few weeks back, and said that the celebrity chef actually came out and sat with them for 15 minutes or so. Had that happened to us, I probably would have forgotten about how let down I was by our meal. Maybe next time.