3400 Around Lenox Road, Suite 217
Atlanta, Georgia 30326
http://www.sevenlampsatl.comI had a good time at our mixed meet-up at 7 Lamps, the restaurant is nestled away in that strip mall thingy just South of Lenox Square behind the Westin hotel. I know it is harder to find in the rain then on a nice bright lunchtime day.
An amuse-bouche was served at each end of the table consisting of a variety of house cured pickles and some house made Crème Fraîche, it was delicious, especially the pickled Brussels sprouts.
The food I was served was very good, for a starter I ordered a dozen raw Kumamotto oysters with interesting tubes of both house-made hot sauce and Mignonette, along with plump lemons. They were perfect, well served and well shucked. There was that West Coast memorable cucumber freshness in each small bite.
For my main I ordered the wonderful Idaho potato gnocchi - braised octopus, fennel salami, saffron, amatriciana. The amatriciana sauce was wonderful, I wished I had a chunk of bread to sop up the last bits of it (Amatriciana - a traditional Italian pasta sauce based on guanciale (cured pork cheek), pecorino cheese, and tomato). The gnocchi was possibly the best gnocchi I have ever had, feather light, wonderfully perfect. The octopus was very tender and though just a couple tentacles were served it was terrific.
I know Emily (UltraFoodie) ordered the Arugula salad and it looked terrific, but some of the components were missing and had to be brought out from the kitchen part way through the salad.
Emily ordered the Steamed Lobster Bun with celery aioli on a brioche roll, I heard comparisons to the Lobster roll at Bite Restaurant and others, I didn't taste it but it is on my to-do list some lunchtime with Deanne (it is near her office). Emily can fill in here and tell you about the comparisons. The Lobster Bun comes with hand cut cottage fries with Duke's mayonnaise, espelette peppers on the cottage fries.
Lobster Bun
Cottage Fries
Some folks around the table ordered the "not on the menu" 50/50 burger it being touted as one of the best in the city. From the comments it is just one of the best not the best but it certainly looked delicious.
At our table were a nice mix of folks with Jay sitting next to me and across from him were a mother and daughter with impeccable taste buds, the daughter being the first woman to win a Grand Champion status on the Sam's Club KCBS tour just a couple weeks ago. Tina's mom Sherry Simpson Hirsch, was really great company and while I didn't pay attention to what she ordered she was part of our loudly-spoken conversation because of the high level of noise.
I don't remember exactly the names of the other folks at the far end of the table but they all seemed to enjoy what they ordered and stayed with us through the long-paced dinner we had.
I Ordered the Lemon Buttermilk Panna Cotta - grapefruit champagne granita, tarragon shortbreads. It was wonderful, and well served.
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