Ai! Ai! Ai!

Saturday night started out innocently enough (isn’t that the way all the best nights start?) sipping Kir Royales and vodkas on JCT Kitchen’s roof deck. We refrained from the truffle fries…but I don’t know how.

We then crossed the bridge over to Abattoir for dinner. I had been dying to go since Linds wrote about it on the Q+DD last month.

girls @ Abattoir

We had a 9:30 reservation, so we were kind of only interested in snacks. Nevertheless, between the 5 of us we shared a charcuterie and a cheese selection, the jerky (duh), the bratwurst, the pickled shrimp, the cucumber gazpacho (after it was suggested Julie announced, “that will be so exciting for the chef!“), and the burg + fries. Now, I never met a burg or fry I didn’t like, so I’m not the best reviewer on that front, but I thought they (and everything else for that matter) were just delicious.

And you know we had to order dessert. We had the maple bacon beignets, of course, which were yum, and the chocolate crème cookie and malted ice milk (cookie was divine, the malted ice milk was a little weird.) but the show stopper was really the carolina gold rice pudding with vanilla milk. EZ dipped her spoon in, slid the plate over to me and murmured, “this will change your life.” And it did. It’s like a combo rice pudding/crème brulee and it was spectacular.

We drank a gorgeous bottle of Sancerre and after dinner, EZ + Gene introduced me to the Caipiroska and I could have happily called it a night. Just when I thought it couldn’t get any better, Jules’ and Gene’s fabulous/funky/artsy-fartsy Colombian friends came to meet us for cocktails and suggested we accompany them to a “Latin Party” downtown.

Who am I to say no?

So we followed them to Social Restaurant + Wine Bar (not to be confused with Social Vinings) which had been transformed into a full-on Fiesta. Complete with mariachi band, salsa dancing and impromptu Spanish lessons. (I also learned how to properly ai! ai! ai!…much to the chagrin of everyone sharing a cab home with me.)
What happened next can be best described in pictures. Witness:

I just don’t know what else to say.

sssssigh. I love Atlanta.

xx, L

JCT Kitchen + Bar
www.jctkitchen.com
1198 Howell Mill Rd NW # 18
Atlanta, GA 30318-5580
(404) 355-2252

Abattoir Restaurant
www.starprovisions.com
1170 Howell Mill Rd NW # 100
Atlanta, GA 30318-8636
(404) 892-3335

Social Restaurant + Wine Bar
www.socialintown.com
12 W Peachtree Pl NW
Atlanta, GA 30308-3046
(404) 525-2246