Local Three

This week my friend, Sophia, from Birmingham was in town for work, and as we both love to eat, I got to pick out a restaurant for dinner while she picked up the tab using that wonderful corporate AmEx.  I always turn into a 5 year old kid in a candy store when I get to choose a restaurant for dinner even if I'm not even going!  I am just happy someone I know will be enjoying great food that I have been eager to try myself.  So I went through my list of places I have yet to visit and we finally decided on Local Three!  

Local Three is owned by Chef Todd Mussman and Ryan Turner of Muss & Turners in Vinings and Chef Chris Hall, who coincidentally grew up on my old street Peachtree Battle Avenue! They focus on all things southern and even have a whole Bourbon section in their drink menu.  I mean you can't get more southern than that!  

The restaurant was in a bit of an odd location I thought.  I found it on the bottom floor of some random luxury condos off of Northside Drive near West Paces.  You walk into a very modern lobby and turn the corner to see this wooden, speakeasy looking door that was so unexpected.  I almost couldn't even find the door handle! So I made my way into this hidden place and played with the toys in the basket on the floor which I guess is meant for kids, but we found them quite entertaining for the little wait we had.

We started off the night with some delicious deviled eggs, again, so southern.  They were dusted with paprika and little bacon bits which just added a great crunch to the softness of the eggs.  It had me at bacon, duh.  Next, we ordered the boiled peanuts that caught the apple of Sophia's eye when we were previewing the menu earlier that week.  They were perfectly salty and hot and they just added to the southern feel of our meal thus far.  Too bad we didn't have a bourbon drink, but I think that might have just put us over the edge, and her and I would have started screaming "Roll Tide!" and "Go Dawgs!", respectively.

For my main course I chose the pork chop that came with roasted potatoes and swiss chard all immersed in a cipollini onion agrodolce sauce.  Agrodolce is a sweet sauce, which in this case, was made from caramelized cipollini onions.  I thought the sauce had a great taste especially with the pork, but I did think it became quite sweet as I kept eating especially the swiss chard since it was underneath the pork on the plate and had soaked up a lot of the sauce.  The chop itself was insanely huge! I swear the thing was 4 inches thick and was the size of my head, but the other amazing part was how tender and juicy the meat was.   For a piece of meat that size, I would think it's rather difficult getting it perfectly pink in the middle while not over cooking the outside, but I have to say this was a finely cooked pork chop.  Due to the enormous size of this steroid chop, needless to say I did not even come close to finishing the plate, and I made a whole 2nd meal of it the next day!  They don't call me frugal for nothin people!

Sophia chose the almond crusted flounder for her main course which was served atop a spinach and sunchoke risotto with yellow beans to top it all off.  Of course I tasted her dish!  The fish was fluffy and the crust on the outside was not too dried and hard.  The risotto was so creamy and went well with the almond crunch.  I don't think I paid much attention to the menu because the whole time we were eating our entrees I though the yellow beans were very long skinny versions of some ziti pasta, so when I reached over to grab what I thought would be pasta, I was shocked when it was actually a veggie!  That is such a strange feeling when you eat something thinking it is one thing and it is actually something totally different.  Even if the taste is so familiar, your taste buds and brain are so confused you cannot think what you could have possibly just put in your mouth.  Is that just me? Anyone? Oh well, on to dessert!

While I wasn't really thinking we would be getting a dessert, Sophia just happened to be eavesdropping at another table and heard some mention of a snickers bar as a dessert choice.  As I love me some snickers which is proven at every Halloween when I buy a bag of them and use the holiday as an excuse and I have no children to blame the empty wrappers on, we both decided we would have to get this dessert.  If you're a big Top Chef fan such as myself, you probably have heard them utter the word, "deconstructed," from time to time.  If I were Padma, I would have to say this would probably count as Local Three's version of a deconstructed Snicker's Bar.  It was simply amazing.  The outside consisted of chocolate mousse with a dark chocolate inside and caramel sauce and candied peanuts on the plate.  Once you got all the components on your fork it tasted like a gourmet freaking snickers bar!  Incredible.  Brought me back to the CVS where I get my $3 bags of those mini candy bars. Good times.

All in all this was a great experience.  We had good service, good food, and good wine and it was so great seeing my girl who also loves to eat as much as I do!