Review: Le Bistro by Roswell Provisions

Seriously, this sandwich is huge. 

We were dismayed to hear last month that Party Chic would be closing. I'd been a fan for years of their affordable menu, geared towards the ladies who lunch crowd in Roswell. It took awhile to get my husband on board, but he eventually caved to the lure of fancy cupcakes and five dollar martini specials. So it was a sad thing to hear the owners were closing it in favor of a new concept, more closely tied with the Roswell Provisions store downstairs that they also own. Our friends at Provisions assured us that we'd love the new place, that the recipes were being updated and that everything we loved would still be there, just better. Their enthusiasm was well placed, because the new Le Bistro is everything good about Party Chic, but better.

Spinach salad

In France, a "bistro" is a small, casual, moderately priced restaurant. Le Bistro is precisely that. The menu is traditional french cooking, made well and not nearly as pricey as some of the other offerings in the Historic District. It's a welcome break from the trend towards destination dining on Canton street. Which shouldn't be taken as a knock on Le Bistro, Canton street needs a mix of styles and prices ranges to stay vibrant and growing. I like having a super fancy steak house on the same street as a boisterous Irish pub. Tucking a casual French bistro upstairs over a wine and cheese shop is precisely what's needed.

My natterings about the proper mix of restaurants aside, how is the food? Good? Great? Terrifying? It's pretty good. This isn't fine dining, but you could take a first date here and no be embarrassed or break the bank. The menu is standard French classics, such as the French Dip, savory crepes and various other sandwiches and salads. The aforementioned French Dip is an improvement on the previous version, featuring a big pile of tender, slow roasted beef, tangy horseradish and a savory au ju that I'm told starts with roasted bone marrow and red wine. The pan bagnat is a big, sloppy pile of tuna salad spiked with potatoes, green beans, olives and more and served on what seems like half a loaf of bread. Seriously, it's like two meals worth of sandwich.

Chicken & mushroom crepe.

The spinach salad entree comes with almost too much bacon, but the warm vinaigrette  comes in a cute container and is the perfect balance of fat and vinegar. Most entrees come with house made kettle chips, but you can add a side salad with dijion mustard vinaigrette.

The wine list is small, it's a couple of varietals served in either a large carafe suitable for sharing, or a small one that equals about a glass and a half. You can also purchase a bottle from the shop downstairs and drink it at dinner for a $20 corking fee. They also have a full bar, featuring the fancy cocktails that made Party Chic so attractive, as well as the menu of cupcakes and other desserts by Kelly's Kakes.

The space itself has been lightly remade to fit the retro chic look of the Provisions store. Think lots of burlap and destressed wood and things made out of old wine barrels. They found a video of Roswell during the 1940's and it plays on continuous loop on a back wall, giving everything a nostalgic air. The front porch overlooking Canton street is still the best seat in the city for people watching on a pleasant, early spring day and the back patio is still lively and cozy with live music on the weekends.

All in all, I say the move from Party Chic to Le Bistro was a worthwhile one. They've kept the charm and added better food and a more appealing aesthetic.




Like my poorly lit iPhone pictures? I'm on Flickr now!  And you can like me on Facebook!

Four Easy Soup Recipes

Soup is one of my favorite winter time meals. It can be light and healthy, but still fill you up and feel indulgent on a cold day. I usually make a big pot of a vegetable heavy soup at the beginning of the week and take the leftovers to work for lunch along with a piece of fruit or a small salad. I have something like several dozen soup recipes in my rotation. The favorites have been blogged here, but going through my archives I can't believe I've never posted the chicken and rice soup I make when one of us is sick, or the black bean and vegetable soup that uses up all the summer time veggies. Clearly, I need to blog more.

In the meantime, here are four easy soup recipes to tide you over.

You can be super healthy with this vegetarian Tofu and Bok Choy Soup. Not only does it use up the ridiculous amount of bok choy we get in our CSA this time of year, but it's a filling soup with lots of nutrition and very few calories. Perfect for balancing out the holiday excess.

Kale and Sausage Soup is another tasty way to use up winter greens. This soup is really fast and easy to prepare and one of my favorites for leftovers.

Curry Butternut Squash Soup is a delicious and healthier alternative to the traditional cream based version. It's easy to make this one vegetarian by simply swapping the chicken broth for vegetable.

We love a good beef stew here and this one is our favorite version. Beef and Cremini Mushroom stew works equally well in your dutch oven or slow cooker. Its a great cold weather meal alongside a batch of No-Knead Dinner Rolls.

Wolf Mountain Winery in Dahlonega

So a couple days ago my husband came to pick me up at work. My truck died over the summer and we're down to one car right now. Anyways, he mentions something about having a surprise for me this weekend.

"Oh, what is it?", I ask.

"If I tell you, it won't be a surprise anymore."

"No, I'll just be surprised NOW."

Which is how I found out I was having lunch at Wolf Mountain Winery in north Georgia on Saturday. I had visited the winery for a tasting last summer when I went on a tour of three north Georgia wineries from LivingSocial with one of my sisters. (I've uploaded my pictures from that day to Flickr.)

Wolf Mountain is owned by the Boegner family. Karl Boegner was the original manager of Chateau Elan in Braselton and you can see that same attentiveness to detail and the experience at Wolf Mountain. In fact, I think they do a better job at making your time at the winery feel like a special occasion. It's definitely a smaller winery, but they make up for it in wonderful ways. I hesitate to call it "off the beaten path", because it's a pretty busy and well known winery, but it's not the same kind of resort destination.

Anyways, let's talk about our day! Look at that gorgeous building. That's the cafe and tasting room. You have to walk up the incredibly steep driveway to get there from the parking lot. My calves burned. But the walk is totally worth it, because at the top you have a gorgeous view of the valley and the vines themselves.

The tasting room is a beautiful glass enclosed patio that overlooks the vineyard. You can go out to sit a tables to enjoy your glass, or stand at the dark wood bar where they pour.  My husband and I shared a tasting flight of eight wines for $20. They tell you this will equal about two glasses, but the pours are generous, so its really just a bit more than that. I won't get into too much detail about the wines, since eight is a lot to keep track of in your head (I think it's tacky to take notes while I'm eating and drinking in public. I also think it's tacky to snap pictures with my phone, but my blog would be pretty boring without that. Sorry good taste and propriety.) But Wolf Mountain is an award winning wine maker and none of the wines offered disappointed.  Our server was knowledgeable and chatty and though he was busy with several other patrons, I never felt rushed or unattended. We could have taken longer, but we had a lunch reservation at the cafe upstairs.

The cafe is another beautiful, light, airy room overlooking the valley. We had a table on the patio, which was perfect with this early fall weather we are having.  We started with a tomato mozzarella spread with pita chips. The cheese spread was savory and delicious. The pita chips were thick toast points that were lightly fried, not baked. It makes a chip that's both chewy and crispy. It was a little much for two people, but we ate it all anyways. We're both gluttons for good cheese and bread.

I ordered the crab cake sandwich special. It was a large crab cake that included kernels of grilled corn, but otherwise very little filler and a house made mustard sauce. It came with fries, which were just fries. Very few places put effort into their fries. The bun overpowered the crab cake, so I just ate the cake by itself and left the bread. It was a pretty tasty crab cake by itself and I'd probably order it like that if I saw it on their menu.

I paired my sandwich with a glass of their Plentitude white wine. This is a 70/30 blend of Chardonnay and Viognier grapes. It's dry and crisp and just the sort of thing I like drinking on a pleasant almost fall day.  I've had it before and I think it's about a perfect wine for this time of year.

My husband ordered a smoked brisket sandwich which was served with a horse radish sauce on soft focaccia bread. This was a pretty amazing beef brisket. Mr. Northside is from Texas and they know their smoked beef down there. So if his semi-hysterical natterings while eating are any indication, this is really good brisket. You should eat it.

All the prices are pretty moderate, especially considering this is a "fancy" place. This isn't a cheap date, but it's not going to break your piggy bank either.

After lunch, we walked around the grounds again and enjoyed the gorgeous scenery. Everything seems to have been placed to give you just the perfect view or backdrop wherever you go at Wolf Mountain. Like I said before, attention to detail.

So yeah. My husband pretty much wins at surprises. Aren't you jealous now?

Like my poorly lit iPhone pictures? I'm on Flickr now! And you can like me on Facebook!

Easy Leek Potato Soup with Yogurt

The last few months have seen me ridiculously busy. I've been working two part time jobs, going to grad school and chairing a fantasy literature convention. But as of yesterday, I've finished all my school work for this term (I'm on a self paced program via Western Governors University. I finished approximately two months ahead of schedule according to my pacing guide. I'll just add more classes later this week so I can get my Masters in Special Education just that much faster.), my convention was two weeks ago and for the first time in a long time, I find myself with nothing more pressing this afternoon than reading and updating my sorely out of date blog. It's kinda nice.

After some fitful half starts, spring is truly underway here in Roswell and it is glorious. The awful storms from last week have given way to warm afternoons, low humidity and light breezes. Even the pollen isn't so bad today. I'm typing this on my netbook from the back porch. With spring has also come fresh produce from farm stands and the Alpharetta Farmer's Market. My husband and I have been a little giddy at the prospect of fresh fruit and vegetables, straight from the ground, instead of the limp, pale imitations we've endured all winter.

The primary source of our spring time bounty has been a farm stand run by Floyd Kessler of Moss Hill Farm, in Milton. Every week, Floyd sends out a cheerful email update with pictures of the produce having equal weight with those of his grandchildren. We've been buying from Floyd for several years now, usually through the Roswell Farmers Market. This year, we're ordering from Floyd directly and picking up our vegetables at his charming farm every Saturday.

This week's haul includes two pounds of joi choi, an Asian greens stir fry mix, green onions so large and heavy you could club a man to death with them, and a leek. I could not recall if I'd ever eaten a leek before, so I only ordered one for this week. Today it became a delicious potato leek soup. I liked it. Leeks now have a place at my table.

1 leek, cleaned and chopped, about a cup
1/4 cup spring onion, cleaned and chopped
2 cups potatoes, diced
3 tablespoons butter
1 cup milk
1/4 yogurt
Salt and pepper to taste

Melt butter in pan. Add leeks, onions, cook until soft and translucent. Add potatoes and enough water to cover. Simmer until potatoes are soft. Add milk and yogurt, use immersion blender to combine and puree ingredients. Add generous pinches of salt and pepper. (I actually salt at every step of this recipe, and still needed to add a big pinch here.) Simmer gently for five minutes to combine flavors, and serve.

This soup is tangy and delicious, and is slightly lighter than the one I converted using whipping cream and buttermilk. The leeks and onions give it a nice flavor, and the potatoes add body. Over all, it's a good soup and one I'd make again. I highly suggest getting on Floyd's mailing list so you can try it yourself.

Picture Dump

I'm behind on posts, so I'm going to do my classic "Post a bunch of pictures that I planned to do posts about, but didn't" thing. You know you love it.

From blog

Ham sandwich. I pack my husband's lunch for him every morning. He likes the most boring sandwiches ever. White bread, mayo, turkey and processed cheese. I have slowly managed to coax him into more interesting sandwiches. This one is ham and swiss on wheat bread (from a bakery) with arugula. He still likes plain mayo, but I feel a little better about it.

As an aside, he used to complain about my "gourmet" taste in lunch meat. I like to get the fresh Boar's Head from the deli counter, where he would buy Oscar Meyer if left to his own devices. But then I pointed out that the cost of a half pound each of meat and cheese (a week's worth) is still not quite equal to the cost of him going out for one meal.

From blog

Some Pumpkin Curry Soup I made. I'm almost out of my pumpkin puree now. This makes me very sad.

From blog

I'm doing a Day of the Dead party/ project with my International Studies elective class. The kids have done a ton of research about this holiday and Mexican culture in general. They are particularly taken with the cheerful and colorful skull imagery that predominates. Gotta love middle school. Anyways, these are "Skullipops". Pretzel sticks dipped in white chocolate and decorated with black gel frosting. A very simple and easy project to do with kids. They are currently hiding in a corner of my office, otherwise I'm afraid my co workers will steal them.

I'll conclude with some shots from the Cumming Greek Festival a few weeks ago. This was way better than the Atlanta Greek Festival.

From blog

Lamb cooking on the spit.

From blog

Crowd shot. See how not crowded everything is?

From blog

Greek salad, roast lamb and potatoes with lemon and herbs. Delicious.

Pyrex

Last week, we ordered a set of Pyrex containers from amazon. I don't know how it is in your house, but I assume it's like ours. We're constantly buying resealable plastic containers, and losing them. We got a set of Rubbermaid containers for a wedding present five years ago, and have lost everything but one container and two lids. Most of our containers now are of the Gladware variety.

Reusable containers, especially small ones are a big deal for me. I always try to pack a waste free lunch to take to school with me. So if I can't find enough containers to pack my lunch in, I get rather cranky. This is widely considered to be a bad thing.

The Pyrex containers are very pretty. Once I had them out of the box, I realized that they have a slight blue tint to the glass. None of my other Pyrex has this, so I assume it's something new. Even the small ones seem too heavy and bulky to fit in my Vera Bradley lunchbox (Designer lunchboxes? Where did I wrong in life?) I plan to use them mainly at home, to free up the lighter plastic containers for me to tote back and forth. I also like them, because I think my husband will be less likely to look at the dirt containers and say "Screw it." and throw them out rather than clean them out for me.

There's been considerable recently about plastic containers leaching chemicals into food. I'm not one hundred percent sold on that one yet. However, if I can reduce a possible health risk and use a pretty, reusable container, why not?