Scout

The semi-highly anticipated Scout has recently opened in Oakhurst... This area needed a boost of something new... Not that it was garbage before but the same stagnant handful of places gets old pretty quick when you have ADD and BED (binge eating disorder) like me. The Scout is a spacious lair, it's open concept help create an airy feel to the place. The joint took awhile to open but I think it was worth it. The local mossbacks around these here parts seem to enjoy this new and shiny noshing and imbibing spot... Me too. I know the bar crew won't let me down since they are coming from P&P, but the kitchen, also veterans of the Georgian Terrace, will be dishing out a new menu that should cater towards the locals and the funky neighborhood... I assume it will be more family friendly but who knows... After a few rounds of brown juice cocktails, I was ready to nosh... Let's check it out and see what they got up their sleeves.

Bangs Island Mussels. A nice heaping bowl of mussels supplied with enough bread to sop up the broth and the broth was quite decent. It's a good start... 

Wood Smoked Chicken Wings. I love whole wings, it's the new trend nowadays in this town. The menu says 3 wings but there was 4, perhaps the 4th one was to make up for the smaller size... Who knows, I ain't complaining. The wings were kinda smokey, the rub was pretty tasty but the inside was kinda dry. The jalapeno ranch sauce was so watery and devoid of flavor that it was kinda useless... It just dripped right off the wing. I would pass on this until they work it out... It was kinda forgettable at this stage.

Chubbies Clam Roll. I fucking love clam rolls, lobster rolls, oyster roll, shrimp rolls... Any kinda roll with fried sea nuggets in it, I will eat it. The top split bun was correct but it wasn't even buttered or toasted/grilled. C'mon, any roll needs to buttered and toasted, that's like cooking 101. Besides the fail on the bun, the fried clam strips were passable... Even though it was more batter than clams. I get it, the clam strip shrinks when it's fried. At least the batter was light and crispy. I really wished there were clam bellies in there... That woulda been fucking sick. But I will have to monitor the development of this dish.

Pabst Battered Cauliflower, gruyere, horseradish sour cream. Ok, $7 for this... Talk about getting fucked in the ass. While it tasted as expected, nothing ground breaking or addictive... The 3 1/2 or is that 4 cauliflower, just looks chintzy... Seriously, cauliflower, the cheap red headed stepchild to the broccoli and they couldn't give you more than 4 florets. I would get more cauliflower in a MMA cage match... Get it? Cauliflower ears? Nevermind... Let's just skip this and go to the next dish.

Shaved Carrot & Brussels Sprouts, dates, barrel aged feta, pear dressing. Ok, first off, does the dates look like fried intestines you find at a Chino joint on Buford Hwy? It could be just me because I love that offal shit... No one eats that shit except me, literally, sometimes there's shit in there but after it's fried, it's amazing. But anyways, this salad looked so sad and boring... It's like something you make on the first week of culinary school. This was a real snoozer.

Twice Fried Chicken Quarters, savannah rice, pepita, baby bok choy. The idea of 2 whole leg quarters floured and fried sounds amazing on paper... But the logistics of eating a whole fried leg is quite a challenge in real life. You are going to cut that mother clucker in half anyways, so why not just do quarters... Plus, 4 pieces of fwied cheekan on a plate looks so much more value added to the paying customer. The crust/skin was really nice, great color, good crunch on the thin crusty skin... It could be seasoned a bit more but it worked. The flesh inside was half way between dry and moist... I don't know, maybe it was fried in advance and held in a warm box until service. It just didn't tasted made to order. See, if they did it in quarters (4 pieces), they coulda made this to order... Shit, do it Korean style, fried it once and hold it, then refry it a second time to order. The mushy bland "Spanish" rice was silly and the bok choy doesn't even work with fried chicken... Just stick with taters or mac with a simple country greens.

Roasted Salmon and Corn Cake, Pearl Couscous Souffle. Again, another dish that sounds great on paper but just didn't work as hoped in real life... This salmon corn cake "burger" was a tepid mess and didn't even taste good. One bite and I was down for the count. There's just something about chopped up salmon formed into a patty that's just weird. The pearl couscous souffle was flat and barely warmed. 

5 Hour Hanger Steak, spicy fries, blue cheese aioli. No one fucks up a steak, it's like the easiest thing to cook... But was I surprised that the first attempt at this didn't go as planned? Nope. Ok, first off, who puts skinny fries in a pool of jus or sauce... Second, that said sauce tasted like seafood, actually tasted like reduced lobster stock. Wait, was this a surf and turf... The steak looked well executed with the nice char and beet red interior, until you took a bite of it... It was chewy as fuck. How can that be... It looked so good. I don't know what happened to this but it was like some Twilight Zone shit. The server was nice enough to send it back to do over... The second attempt worked out a lot better with the sauce on the side... Which was some green peppercorn/juniper berry sauce, perhaps that's what tasted "fishy". The fries were dry and crispy and the steak was nicely executed. So, it wasn't a total loss.  

I ain't rushing back for the food here but hey, they just opened... You can't expect them to get this cooking shit down just yet but the bar side was on point with the cocktails and drinks. Even with all the misses on the grub, I still like the vibe and space... The service was pretty good even with a small staff on hand in the beginning. They got a good foundation to build upon but I think they should really reduce the menu and keep it simple in the beginning and focus on making a few items really really good, get that shit down and then be a little bit more adventurous later on. It's Oakhurst, no one is expecting fine dining here, but they are expecting fun dining. The place has a lot going for them, just try not to do everything for everybody on the first day, month or year because you know you will fail. But I have a feeling the locals around here won't even care about the food, it's a hip space that they can bring their kids to while feeling trendy and fashionable at the same time because they're just happy that they are out of the house.

321 W Hill St.
Decatur, GA 30030
http://scoutoakhurst.com/