Athens, GA - anything new and exciting?

[Dax]

Any must try places? Or stick with the Five and Ten, La Doce, National, etc.? What about low end? Best empanadas in town? Any particular dish at East Side Peking? Home for labor day weekend and need some updates.

[Littleman]

Farm 255 is fine dining with local farm ingredients. Chef Lamar's Iron Grill is outstanding. Mama's Boy has outstanding country food for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Jot Em Down Store has good BBQ.

Farm 255 @ 255 West Washington St., Athens, GA 706 - 549 - 4660.
http://www.farm255.com/
Chef Lamar's Iron Grill @ 1155 Mitchell Bridge Road Building A, Athens, GA 706 - 543 - 9955.
http://theirongrill.com/about.html
Mama's Boy @ 197 Oak St., Athens, GA 706 - 548 - 6249.
http://www.eatatmamasboy.com/

Jot Em Down Store & BBQ @ 480 Macon Hwy., Athens, GA. 706 - 549 - 2110.

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Farm 255
255 W Washington St, Athens, GA 30601

[Dax]

All of those except Lamar's have been open for a while.

Mama's Boy was ok on my lone visit but not necessarily destination dining.

I like Jot Em Down ok.

Farm was ok on a sole visit but want to try the food cart.

Any word from locals about Flight?

[UGA_Reader]

Sept. 24th, 2010

Has dinner at Flight for the first time tonight and hearing several good reviews of the place. It is located in a small, brick building beside Georgia Theater. It is where Kaplan Tutoring used to be if you know Athens (on N. Lumbkin).

We were celebrating my husband's 40th bday that night and decided to give it a try. It was an away game weekend and a Friday. We intentionally waited until 9:30 to go.

My first impression was that it was VERY VERY loud. There were three large 10- 15 ROP's, p;us several deuces in the middle. They did not have enough staff to cover these large parties of mainly drunken undergraduates with their daddies' credit cards.

I was DD, so hubby chose a nice, lemony William Hill Chardonnary. It was warm and buttery. While I was not drinking, I did get a sip with each course. It took our waiter forever, We had no linens, no beverages, no silverware. He apologized profusely and offered to do so and promised to give us great service all night. He stayed true to his words.

Now, we had heard endless great things about the scallops and knew they were a slam dunk. We still had yet to figure out our order. I ordered esxargot in a pernaud butter. They were quite subtle and were well cooked without being rubbery.
We also ordered a dish that was described as asparagus fried in puff pastry with prosciutto. It had a pesto creme sauce and was quite nice. It also came with quite a dose of truffle oil. This chef llllooooovvvvveeessss truffle oil.The prosciutto was not sliced thin, but tasted delightful. Also, they udes the tiniest sliver of puff pastry and Pecorino and it was never consistent. We also found it to be a little light in the portion for the price class.

We next ordered a rare maytag bleu cheese filet with red pickled onions that were then grilled with more (surprise! truffle oil!) I tasted lovely and I could still here it mooing- always a good sign. My husband ordered the black seared scallops on a base of sauteed skitake mushrooms with moooooorrrreeee truffle oil. I husband thought they were ok. I did not care for them.

We did order the dessert flight. It was a pot of chocolate cream, a bread pudding with a brown sugar glaze, and a banana gelato. I really thought the pudding and geltao were reminisciient of that wirderfuk desert, Banana Fosters. I hubby wasnted the sauce to be richer and the the pudding to be moister. I went ahead and gave it a three, but it is really a two and a half to two and three quarters.

[wekick]

Lower end-
We had a great lunch @ The White Tiger and would love to try dinner. They only have dinner a few nights a week and no liquor license so BYOB

Love Harry's Pig Shop-the Q is great and the sides stand on their own. Is there a better squash casserole?

Farm 255 has a wagon that goes places as mentioned. We had a great bánh mi and killer coffee cake when it was at the farmer's market.

Can't wait for the next trip!

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Harry's Pig Shop
2425 Jefferson Road, Athens, GA

Farm 255
255 W Washington St, Athens, GA 30601

[Dax]

I have liked Harry's in the past but had an odd experience there the last time. It's still good, but ...

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/614820

[gashrink]

Chef Lamar has a new menu The old one was fine and the specials were outstanding. I especially liked the calamari appetizer and the trout Haven't tried the new menu yet. East West is OK with the new chef. 5 & 10 is still the best.
For something different try Just Pho on Baxter for pho (duh) and also for Bahn Mi.

[Dax]

Thanks. I went to Just Pho over Christmas. Not the best banh mi I ever had, but tasty enough. Same with the Pho. It is nice to have it in Athens.

[wekick]

We will be heading that way soon. Thanks. I love Vietnamese food.