Pig Art and Pig Parts

When I was working with the nice lady on the High Museum Wine Auction a few months back, we had a seminar at Restaurant Eugene. This soiree started next door at Holeman Finch Public House. That’s the name of the new place Linton and Gina Hopkins, of Restaurant Eugene have opened along with a few of Atlanta’s best barchef’s. The bartenders are owners and operators. It’s a really cool joint, very causal, very good food and drink. They specialize in the pig. They also specialize in the Cocktail. At the seminar that day they ordered a painting for the restaurant. I sat down with one of the bartenders and we came up with an idea for their painting. I did it, they loved it and it hangs proudly in the modern glass, steel and wood dining room.

The day we were there for the seminar on pork, they had hung candied bacon from the small tree’s in the restaurant. I was talking to this guy and we decided to try some. Tasted like candied bacon. Tasted GOOOOOOD. They were not yet open, but as soon as they did Stacey and I went to pig out. They cure their own meat and mix speciality cocktails. The meat hangs in the glass walls that have been designed just for that and for storing wine. It’s a neat visual and a great use of space.

We went early the night of the Tom Waits concert here in Atlanta. We sat at the bar and let Greg do his thing with drinks. Our only input was vodka and not to sweet for me and bourbon and ginger for the Little Lady. Holeman Finch practice mixing drinks with the same philosophy as the best chefs these days. They use fresh ingredients, they use local when they can and they are seasonal. The drinks were great, he made each of us two different cocktails.

Like I said they are a pig joint if you will, and you should. They did have oysters from Alabama. We started with a salad of mixed greens, topped with fried oysters. I think it had blue cheese on it, very little blue cheese, it was a really good salad. The oysters we fried up just right. We also had a bone marrow dish. It was a split bone with the marrow and crispy bread crumb’s and butter toasted on top of the bone. It was good also, but as with most marrow dishes, there’s never enough. We had scallops, George Banks scallops. Canadian scallops, good. We also had pork belly. Berkshire hogs raised on a farm less then one hour out of Atlanta. The belly was served on top of grits, roasted cipolini, and B & B pickles. The pickles are made next door at Restaurant Eugene. It’s the best stuff, in season, done up real simple. You can’t beat it.

Go eat at Holeman Finch, have some food. They claim the grilled cheese is one of the best eats on the menu. Have a cocktail, the Brown Derby was an awesome concoction. Tony Seichrist is one of the chefs and he’s good. I think he just spent time in Italy learning about curing meat. So there ya go!