Parish Again
New restaurants spring up in Atlanta at an incredibly rapid rate. But a new restaurant in my opinion is not always worth checking out. I usually wait a few weeks, see what others are saying/writing about and then judge whether or not I'll go from those assessments.
Friday night, I departed from this guarded way of approaching a meal at a new dining establishment.
Last week, I wrote on the restaurant Parish. This time I am writing it as a patron. My fist impression is of it's thriving crowd, people were walking back and forth, drinks in hand, the valet line was packed, the café and the upstairs restaurant all extremely busy. It's the kind of thing I like to see in Atlanta, and which I miss when I am reminded of cities like New York or Chicago.
The menu is written on 3 different chalk boards on contrasting walls, the space is loud and airy. The service was friendly but off, it took fifteen minutes to have someone greet us, another 5 to be poured water. Out appetizers were good but a bit cold, I tried the oysters-my date tried the wedge salad with roasted golden beets.
I really enjoyed the wine list, it's reasonable and varied with a bit of Italian, Spanish and French. Our entrees were very good, I had the roasted pork, my date loved her andouille crusted catfish-I tried it and it really was fantastic.
Because of our trouble earlier with not having a waiter for so long-the manager provided us with a buttery banana bread pudding that was as good as it gets.
I gurantee that you'll be hearing more about Parish in the near future, I think it's worth trying again, I just think that when they settle out the kinks, this restaurant could go from very good-to very great in a short time.