Tavernpointe

This space was first Midcity Cuisine under Shaun which did pretty well, then it got sold, business turned to shit and went bankrupt, then the space became La Pietra Cucina under Concentrics which was a very decent Eyetalian joint when Bruce was cooking, then he left and they shortened it to LPC with a contestant hack cook from Hells Kitchen which bombed and disappeared quietly into the night... Then the space sat empty for a long time. This location has been plagued with problems over the years no matter who was in there. Now, it's alive again as Tavernointe... An upscale-ish casual bar/resto by a mix of dudebros from Cypress/Grain/Seven Lamps. Too many investors usually spells doom for many concepts like this because everyone wants their name and ideas on it but none wants to be involved in the daily operations and promotion of it. I'm not as concerned about the execution of the menu and staff than I am of the location... It is a cursed location. Nothing has lasted within 500 feet of this place. Even Joli Kobe, gone. I don't think even Mex-Tex magic man Ford Fry would touch this space. But the pouch does need to check it out and give it a fair shake before the grim reaper claims another victim...

The cocktail menu looked sooo boring... So, I went back to the classic old fashioned. No cocktail menu should ever not have this on the list. This was not too shabby, at least I didn't find a disgusting muddled up pulp and all slice of orange in there.

Octopus. When I see octopus on any menu that is not Asian, I kinda cringe and intrigued at the same time. The lightly charred tentacle were sliced into meaty pieces and they were pretty damn tender. I liked this octopus.

Lump Crab Fritter. This is just weird... It looks like a pet rock I had when I was a kid. It has no uniform shape to it... I guess you can call it a freestyle crab fritter. There were more filler than the minced lump crab meat inside. It may look ok on the outside but this was just plain boring.

Beef & Bacon Meatballs. It has beef and bacon and grits... What's not to love. They were tender and meaty. The geechie boy grits were creamy and toothy. It's just good comfort food.

Rosemary Pan Seared Sea Scallops. I hate ordering scallops in restos because they are the biggest fucking rip off of a dish. For $27, you get 3 decent size diver scallops which still kinda pricey (at least they were seasoned and seared spot on)... Even with the bowl filled with a few shrooms, hazelnuts, farro, aruglua and soft apple, this serving barely constitute as a meal for da pouch. It would be a good dish at $19.

Steak Frites. According to the WHO... This flap of cancer was cooked spot on. Seasoned well, nice char on the outside, great color on the inside. It's hard to really screw up a nice slab of meat... Wait, strike that, I had a really fucked up piece of meat at the ultra pricey Marcel. The parmesan herb fries were crispy and pretty good... Not all dried out like some other places.

GA Shrimp & Grits. This is new look for this classic southern staple... Suppose to have some type of poblano broth, looks kinda not wet to me. Moving along... The shrimpz were plump and cooked properly, the tasso ham were a bit chunky on the size and you get a mouthful of saltiness, but I guess you should be shoveling in a bit of each item on every bite to balance out the flavor. Shit, my face gash can only stretch so wide... For two bites at a time. It was a decent dish, wish I had some of that broth woulda been interesting, though.

Maine Lobster Roll. There's a sucker born every minute... And P.T. Barnum was right... About me. I am a sucka for any lobster roll. Might as well live up to that image... $21 seems to be the going rate for a lob roll in this town... Except Optimist tried to fuck me over for $25 on a 3" lobster roll. Will I get bent over and rammed up the ass with a hot poker? Prolly but I will pretend to like it. Ok, it doesn't look halfway bad when it was placed in front of my snout. The side of the roll was grilled but there was a tad too much color, it was almost black. The lobster filler was a decent portion. The flavor of the sea was there even if it was a bit faint. The sweetness was a tad muted but the seasoning was not bad. The crunch to soft meat ratio was acceptable. It's an above average lobster roll but I'm not craving it the next day like I do with some N.E. specimens. This dish fills a void, I guess. But I won't be returning to this part of the sea, again.

Pumpkin & Brown Butter Mezzluna. These little half moons filled with pumpkin puree were pretty tasty. Could use more brown butter because it was a bit dry looking. The candied pecans, bread crumbs, parmesan were adequate but coulda used more sage. Totally decent dish.

Spaghetti Carbonara. So, they say a little old lady comes in the AM and makes a whole shitload of fresh pastas... I'm like fuck yeah, this would prolly be a damn decent carbonara version since LPC's pastas still haunts this space. Too bad this tri-color pasta looked like it came out of a Ronzoni box... All of the sudden I wanted to make a tuna casserole... Y'all know what the fuck I'm talking about. This was no carbonara... More like a Carbonaro Effect and made it disappeared and replaced with this grade school specimen. Tasted weird and it was just not pleasing to the eyeballs and pouch. Just keep it simple and do a real one instead.

Smoked Sliced Beef Brisket, creamy blue cheese slaw. I'm confused... Is this a turducken? Can those slices be any thicker? And what is with that sauce all over it? I'mma skeered... I hate brisket that is drenched in sauce, makes it looks like they're trying to hide something. The sauce basically destroyed the bark/char. While the meat itself was tender, that sauce ruined the natural flavors of the brisket. Why take the time to smoke it when you're gonna blanket it with crap all over it. I hated the sauce, I hated what this brisket had to endure from the smoker to the pass and ultimately to my snout. Do not sauce this, put it on the side, let me dip my meat in it. That blue cheese slaw was a bit too over powering with the cheese... And I love blue cheese.

Smoked Springer Mountain Chicken. When I saw Peruvian chicken on the menu, I'm like yeah whatever bro... But yet I knew I had to have it because the new Las Brasas was pretty much a let down on the cheekan. When this also came out soaking in the same sauce as with the brisket, my pouch dropped. This was no Peruvian cheekan... There's no mistaking a Peruvian and they ain't slathered with some sauce either... Just a nice aji verde (green sauce) on the side for dipping that crispy skinned and juicy aromatic cheekan in to. Too bad this was far from it. It's just a plain old smoked/roasted chicken bathing in some brown drippings. Oh, look and there's that funky coleslaw again.

Brussels Sprouts Gratin, Crackling Cornbread, Seasonal Mushrooms. The sprouts were pretty good, the cheddar bechamel and bacon bits paired well with it. The mixed shrooms were real earthy and juicy, real nice. The cornbread was presented flipped over which was nice to see the beautiful brown crust from the cast iron but it needed to be more cornbread, it was bland, dry and grainy, just plain pedestrian. It's sad because it looked great sitting there on the plate.

Overall, the food were a balance of hits and misses... Some dishes were totally acceptable and some totally forgettable, but nothing outstanding. The menu is fine but the execution needs work. There really isn't a bar scene here because of the weird location and even with a big crowd letting out of the theater one Saturday night, only a couple of people came in for a drink. The place was barely half packed and the space is quite large. At this rate, it looks like the curse may be winning. I don't know what else they can do to get this place on the map when all the other past concepts faded away after awhile... And they all had a great showing in the beginning. If it's this quiet now on the weekends, one can only imagine the weekdays. There were valet issues even before them and it's just as bad now (no show, but to find stickers on the windows when we came out), maybe it was only that night but I doubt it. I just couldn't figure out why they would even entertain this location with their industry experience and knowing this space's track record. I really hope it works out for them with more crowds coming in but the pouch's instincts are usually spot on... Poor fellas, bless your hearts.


1545 Peachtree St NE #101
Atlanta, GA 30309
404-549-3954
http://tavernpointe.com/