BeetleCat

Ford Fry restos are spreading faster than gonorrhea at a whorehouse...  Even though, he's just a restaurateur now, finding competent chefs to run his restos will always be a challenge. While most people have stroked his shaft and licked his balls on all his restos, the pouch maybe the only one that didn't swallow his load. I had very average experiences on all his restos, multiple times just to make sure it wasn't an one-off. Marcel, Superica, Optimist, King+Duke, St. Cecila, No. 246 were all just ok, JCT may still be the most consistent of them all but I haven't been back in years... So, let's see what the little sister of the Optimist can do in the recently overdeveloped trendy Inman Park area... This area has been Buckhead army central lately and there's no end in sight. And this joint is their newest plaything.
They got a bar downstairs which is smart and the main dining room upstairs. Keep all the drunk rowdy riff raffs downstairs but the menu is also available to those gimps in the dungeon. The upstairs is more organized with the seating. They got a wood burning oven and a barely open kitchen but you can see them at work from certain spots at the bar. The dinner menu is an assortment of things but one thing I find lacking is that they don't continue the fried clam strips and bellies nor the fisherman's platter, seafood chowder and chowder poutine that is only found on the Friday lunch menu. Fried clam bellies are scarce around these here parts. But let's work with what they got on the dinner menu first... Maybe we don't want the fried clams after all.

Oysters, vineyard, mystic, misty point, otter island. First off, they are no Kimball House,.. Shit, no one has an oyster program like Kimball House, not even close. But.. they do have a decent selection of good oysters and they were pretty good overall. They were presented nicely but they weren't shucked/cleaned very well. Bits of shell had flaked off into the oyster/brine, not a big deal but for prices like these you should have zero flakes when you slurp it down. I have never had any flakes at KH with the dozens and dozens of oysters had there.

Lobster Roll. Look at that giant dollop of Aioli/mayo on this creasture. This was no lobster roll, more like a lobster bun. I get it, you want to serve that whole half a tail on the bun for the wow factor and presentation. I like tail but this looked better than it tasted... Kinda like a couple of my ex-gf's. No one wants to bite on an uncut tail... Grinding your teeth into it to saw off a piece of tail. That is just too much work to enjoy a $23 lobster bun. For that much money, I almost want you to chew it for me and then spit it into my mouth like a baby bird. Lobster rolls/buns keep appearing on their restos' menus but they keep coming up short.

Hamachi, cranberry, jalapeno, radish, green apple. The slices were just way too thick in this alternate universe bizzaro version of Nobu's classic. If you're gonna do a crudo at least cut it correctly. I'm not eating a piece of steak here, I want thin delicate slices of raw fish that I can savor. The cranberry coloring made it looked kinda plasticky to me. The hamachi was pretty fresh but chewing on those thick pieces made this just ok.

Beef Tartare, shrimp toast. The shrimp toast was good. The tartare was pretty decent, too. I love raw meat but this version just didn't wow me. It was acceptable but prolly wouldn't get it again... If they put those shrimp toast on the sides menu, it would be a hit.

Salt & Pepper Squid. What a fucking Hong Kong Harbor rip off!!! I had to get this for shits and giggles because it was such a robbery in progress. No one will ever best HKH's version. This version was ok, the crust was very light and the portion was small... If you order this and don't think of HKH's S&P Squid while you eat this... You prolly never have been to HKH... Those mofos are addictive. This one not so much.

Moqueca Soup, day boat fish, coconut, plantains, yucca, sticky rice, jalapeño, cilantro, cashew. When they are not making fucking Napoletana style pizza in the wood burning oven for the kitchen staff during the dinner shift, they make this fish stew dish in the oven for customers when there is room after their pizza. It looked very decent, so I had to take a sneak peek for my own... The stew/soup was pretty good. Had good flavor and a decent portion of assorted fish/shellfish/etc. The sticky rice sucked ass, it was way too wet and looked like they just used the bowl to scoop it in. If you drowned the rice with the fish stew, it's not half bad. This was one of the better dishes of the night.

I get what they're trying to do here but if they really want to be a seafood shack, you gotta have fried clams, oysters, shrimp, scallops, fish, etc available all day... Don't be like the Optimist, be a genuine seafood shack and with lotsa lotsa big fried clam bellies. I do like the setup with the downstairs bar and upstairs dining. His one investor obviously poured a lot of money into this joint just like all the others. This spot will be a hit with all the transplants from Buckhead/OTP, zombie-ing their way into the Inman Park area... No matter how bad the food is. All they care about is the scene. Their late night menu shows more promise with the seafood shack theme... The clam roll, fish n chips, shrimp chips and oysters on the half is more on point for the pouch. And don't forget about the fat fried clam bellies...Oh, don't worry, I didn't forget about those.

299 North Highland Ave.
Atlanta, GA 30307
678-732-0360
http://www.beetlecatatl.com/