Ok, I’m bringing back Elle Woods. Wednesday, EZ and I went for our annual 01/20 “day-between-our-birthdays” dinner at Woodfire Grill and I think a Pro-Con-Pro is in order. (if you are unfamiliar, please refer to a previous Pro-Con-Pro by clicking here)
I KNOW you know how excited I was for this dinner. I’m a Top Chef FREAK, I am overly excited by any kind of celebrity (especially Kevin Gillespie and his beard)… 
…I ADORE hype, and I love food and fancy restaurants more than probably anything else in the word (except handbags and lip-gloss. Duh). I have to tell you, the food at Woodfire did NOT disappoint, but the chances of my return are slim. (I just deleted “to none” when I remembered the restaurants proximity to my condo. It’s CLOSE.) Here we go: 
PRO: The restaurant itself is awesome. It’s in a really unexpected location (Cheshire Bridge. Not 7-8 months ago did Lindsay drive me to where I left my car on CB to find a full-fledge police hold-up happening ON. MY. CAR. Luckily, Taqueria is close and there’s not a whole lot a stiff margarita can’t cure.)
I digress.
The interior is very cozy and homey and chic all at the same time and I absolutely adored it. It’s earthy and warm and very simply decorated. The crowd was pretty (EZ and I saw a gorgeous woman in a fabulous romper. A ROMPER, y’all!), and these super slick .com guys from Cali bought us some incredible vino. Plus, it is very difficult to get a reservation, and you know how I dig that sort of thing. (That is, if I can score a reservation myself.)
CON: I am just going to say it: the wait staff was a liiiiiiiiiittle obnoxious and pretentious. Sorry. They were. I was sad about it because on Top Chef, Gillespie always seemed really down-to-earth. The perception is that he’s just this super nice guy from Georgia with a natural talent for cooking who just wants to make delicious food and help elevate the national (international?) opinion of American Southern cuisine.
I thought the experience (read: the wait staff) would be equally earnest, but it wasn’t. I’d have to launch into a whole new pro-con-pro to tell you about the hostess’s customer service skills, but to make a long story short, we ended up eating at the bar. (Which is fine, I love to eat at the bar. It worked out.) Anyway. The bartender who was serving us was so condescending. In a voice my sister used to use with her Kindergarten class, “this menu is different than anything you’ve seen before. It has the date on it. It was printed today.” (Thank you! Good to know. They don’t do that at McDonalds!) and when we asked about various items on the menu she felt the need to repeatedly tell us that “everything is executed perfectly.” My general opinion is that if you need to tell everyone how great you are, you probably aren’t. (And for some reason, this chafed me more than if you ask a server about an item and they don’t know anything about any of the menu items) Plus, no lie, she actually used the term ” je ne sais quoi.” With a straight face. Woodfire wait staff: if I have one piece of advice for you, it would be to focus on connecting rather than impressing.
Pro: The food. The food was inspired. Brilliant. We adored our food and weren’t at all disappointed. First of all, I can’t remember what it was, but we were served a really refreshing amuse-bouche, phenomenal house-made bread and delicious herbed butter. Then we shared the foie gras (pan seared with braised pistachios on foie buttered toast), the sunchoke risotto (fried sunchoke. Celery “salsa.” Toasted walnuts. TaDIEfah!) and the duck (Grilled. With warm farro salad. Insane.) Our foodie bar-neighbors-turned-dinner partners were equally impressed with their meal. It was just a perfect flavor combination, perfect portion size…everything on our plates was JUST PERFECT.
So I guess the Q+DD is that this is a situation where I can’t wait for the hype to die down. I hope that Woodfire survives this little bout of celebrity and endures as one of our city’s fabulous little restaurants. Please, someone just let me know when that happens, I like to dine with a bit less ego…
xx, L
Woodfire Grill
www.woodfiregrill.com
1782 Cheshire Bridge Rd NE
Atlanta, GA 30324-4922
(404) 347-9055
Tags: Beef., EZ, I'm just saying..., PLU, You Can Find Me in the A
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If you go back, I’d go to the one at Perimeter. I’ve been there and I was pretty impressed with the service.
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You know, I think you’re thinking of a different restaurant, Wildfire, which is a steak chain:
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OMG- I LOVE , LOVE, LOVE sunchokes. I was first introduced to them at The Shed and now I look at my sunflowers in a whole new light. Beautiful to look at; delicious to eat! A perfect two-fer!
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It’s not a chain. The place at Perimeter is called Wildfire.
I’m surprised you found the service so pretentious. I’m equally surprised that with the food being so exquisite you’d probably not go back just because the service got on your nerves. It’s hard to find a meal as top notch as at Woodfire Grill. If I end up rolling my eyes because my server is condescending….well that just makes for a good story.
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Only One,
You know, I can appreciate your point. (and thanks for sharing it!) I had a similar conversation with a friend of mine who writes an actual Atlanta food blog that very night.
Yes, the food was amazing, and that is, of course, very important a restaurant (duh!), but, at least for me, that’s not the ONLY important factor.
I’ve said this several times, I’m not a “foodie” – I’m more like a party girl who likes to eat. I’ll leave the foodie stuff up to the trained folks and my parents. Yes, I want to eat delicious food, but I also want to have a good time and feel like nothing less than a valued guest while I’m at the restaurant.
Having lived 4 great food towns (Yes, y’all, I’m counting Birmingham with Austin and NYC) and being fairly well-traveled, I’ve been fortunate enough to experience some spectacular restaurants and yes, as far as food goes, I think Woodfire is definitely notable, especially for Atlanta. But for me, there is just no excuse for poor customer service. (I’m willing to admit that may be debatable, because I know plenty of people that will suffer through rude service for a “perfectly executed” meal.)
The Q+DD is that I chose to spend my birthday there, and I wanted to feel like a million bucks and unfortunately, I didn’t.
For the record, EZ was with you. She thought this girl was hilaaaaarious and was happy to roll her eyes and move on. Additionally, she hasn’t stopped asking about my je ne sais quoi for days now…
Thanks for reading!
xx, L
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Ugh I didn’t talk to my kiddies in a mean way like that server. But I agree I think the service counts as half your meal/experience. Sad because I heart Kevin. He needs to have a talkin to with his staff!
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not mean. just s.l.o.w. and d.e.l.i.b.e.r.a.t.e. so we would r.e.t.a.i.n. all the information
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We went to the Woodfire Grill twice this year once the first week of Feb and then again in May. We did the Chef Tasting both times because we like the surprise of getting whatever he picks as the best of the day and it is fun not knowing what you are going to eat. So the food was awsome both times and inspired with the depth of layers of flavor. The first time the staff was not pretentious but the second time the inital hostess was a little but our waiter wasn’t and then the waiter we had from the first time in Feb saw us and came over to welcome us back and said he was glad to see us again ! Wow that impressed me!! So give it a go again! Make a reservation so you can have a real waiter at a table
Hope you enjoy it ! -
Thanks, Renee! I have had several friends who have gone and had wonderful experiences (please see the most recent post by my friend http://www.foodiebuddha.com)
We did have a reservation, but my friend had a conference call at work that lasted longer than expected so we missed our table, unfortunately. However, I think that either at the bar or at a table, there is no room for rude service. I will probably go again, and hopefully have a better experience. But first impressions last a looooong time!
Thanks for reading!
xo, LK
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