Friday, January 28, 2011

A SCIENTIFIC FOOD STUDY

Stacey and I have been having this conversation/conducting this scientific study for about two months now. It is a very complex and intricate food study. It required some really deep thinking on our part. It also required us to eat a lot. Because of the complicated manner in which we came to our conclusions we don't expect the average person to completely grasp the results of our study.
But, we will try to explain it to you.

About 4 years ago Stacey and I were at a food event and ran into the the guys who ran the kitchen at The Feed Store. The Feed Store is in our south side neighborhood and has been open for 5 or 6 of years at that point. So when Stacey and I came across The Feed Store booth at this event we were kinda surprised as we never saw them at other food events.

We had been at this event for hours and had had our fill of food and drink by the time we came across The Feed Store booth. We were on our way out, but we had to stop to say howdy and confirm it was in fact the same restaurant in our neighborhood.
There were two chefs manning the booth. Peter was the Executive Chef and Cooper was the Sous-Chef de Cuisine. We ask if they were in fact the Feed Store in Collage Park ? "yes" they were. Pete quickly added that they were the new chefs. He said he knew that the old Feed Store sucked and told us he and Cooper had fixed that. We told them we never thought it sucked, told them it was hit or miss, but it never really sucked They told us about some of the dishes they were cooking, they seemed pretty excited, which made Stacey and I excited about trying the Feed Store again.

So we did. It wasn't long before we bellied up to some really good food It was like having a new restaurant in the neighborhood. And we hit it hard for a long time. Most times we didn't even see a menu. Usually Cooper came out and told us not to order that he would cook for us. I bet every time Cooper saw us walk in he thought to himself let's see what I can get the Hartleys to eat this time.

So that's how it was for a long time. Then Cooper left the Feed Store for Restaurant Eugene. Being considered the best restaurant in town by many, this was a good move for Cooper. But, Cooper wanted to cook. On line, in the kitchen, in the middle of all the chaos from a slammed front
house. And he wasn't getting to do that at Restaurant Eugene. So his next move was Livingston. Not sure how long he was there, but not long ago, four or five months ago, Peter went to work as the executive Chef for a huge wing and beer chain. So along comes Cooper, back to the Feed Store. Top Dog. Head Chef. With a big ole new tattoo.

So, Cooper has just come out with a new menu there at The Feed Store. It is not completely new, there was lot's of good stuff left from Peters menu. But, I'm sure Cooper was eager to get his own menu out. It's a good menu and it was a important part of data for our Scientific Food Study.

So this is how our food study went. It's complicated so try and follow. What happened was this. I had a hundred dollar gift card for Rathburns. Everybody knows Rathburns. One of the hottest restaurants in town. He actually has three restaurants in Atlanta. Anyway we had that and we had another gift card for about the same amount at another one of Atlantas best restaurants, Holman & Finch. So this is what we did. Read carefully, it gets complicated.

What we did was one night we went to Rathburns for dinner, the next night we went to Holman Finch for dinner and on the third night we rose form the dead. Just kiddin we didn't rise from the dead we went to The Feed Store for dinner. This is where we came to the startling conclusion of our food study. We concluded that the meal at The Feed Store was as good as and in some cases better than both Rathburns and Holman & Finch.

Which led me to the conclusion that if you have yet to dine at The Feed Store your stupid.