Tuesday, July 25,2017. Crossing The Pond.
The Marys are in Atlanta for a long time, but they ultimately get what they want: flights to London on their low-price passes. In first class, yet. Mary Ann brushes all obstacles aside, again.
My little sister Lynn calls, and recalls that I mentioned Maypop to her, and suggested that we could have dinner there. I need one more dinner there to have the kind of facts that I will build into a review. Lynn is a fan of Asian food, and a semi-vegetarian. Both of those characteristics are inherent in Maypop's concept.
Lynn is highly literate and notices things that would be lost on me. She didn't have to ask what a maypop is, for example. It's a much-loved wildflower in the southern U.S. Lynn was charmed especially by a painting of maypop in the dining room.
[caption id="attachment_55464" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Hard fruit salad at Maypop.[/caption]We order several courses of dishes ranging from salads to charcuterie and fish to oysters and pasta. We agree on two matters. First, here is an assortment of food whose flavors are heading off in in many directions, all intriguing. Not much thought has gone into plate aesthetics--quite a lot of the menu seems to be thrown onto the plate. Or maybe they did think about it, and here's what they came up with.
[caption id="attachment_55465" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Lamb belly at Maypop.[/caption]
The chef and owner--who does not give himself much billing in the restaurant--is Michael Gulotta, a man who has a track record of trying new ideas, resulting in some unique enjoyment for his customers. Lynn and I sample six dishes, almost all of which new to us. Oysters, speckled trout, shrimp (and in one occasion, ruby-red shrimp) and soft shell crab tell us that we might be in New Orleans. A charred oyster dish with squid ink pasta says the opposite.
The best dish of the evening is roasted lamb belly, whose strata of fat and lean are about equal in depth. The fatty part fires up the other flavors. That takes care of about a third of the menu, and this is my fourth meat at Maypop. Only one datum is steady across these experiences: no two courses here will remind a diner of the last time he was here.
I now am ready to write the review for publication next week.
As I was digging around for facts about Maypop, I discover that Altamura--where I've spent about $400 researching the review that will pay back around the same amount of money. Restaurant critics aren't wealthy. They just act that way.
Maypop. CBD: 611 O’Keefe Ave. 504-518-6345.
