King + Duke First Look; Three Stars for the General Muir

Behind the new paywall at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Jenny Turknett reviews the General Muir. She awards the Jewish deli concept three stars. "The General Muir is both delicatessen and appetizing, seamlessly blending the offerings of each," she says, adding later that "the General Muir is the future of the deli, telling the stories of both the past and the present." Here's more:

For traditionalists, the General Muir offers several incarnations of the pastrami sandwich ($13) on steamy-soft rye, but I'll take my pastrami on the poutine ($11). This dish of rich fries with a deluge of heart-warmingly rich gravy and melty cheese curds has become popular on Atlanta menus of late. [Executive chef Todd Ginsberg] distinguishes his with chunky cubes of salty pastrami. Order the refreshing, effervescent celery-flavored Dr. Brown soda Cel-Ray to accompany the reuben and poutine.

The deli's comfort foods continue with Ginsberg's version of items like the matzoh ball soup ($6), a deeply golden broth studded with a fine brunoise of carrot and celery and one fat matzoh ball, creamy in the way of a Southern cornbread dressing. And then there's the schmaltz-laden chopped liver ($7), smooth with just enough texture to spread on fluffy onion-and-poppy-seed-studded pletzel bread.

Also behind paywall at the AJC, John Kessler takes a first look at new Buckhead restaurant King + Duke:

[If] there's one theme that runs through [Ford Fry's] restaurants, it's a kind of nostalgia. This yearning for the past helps explain the enigmatic but appealing stylings of King + Duke, Fry's latest restaurant, which opened in May at the prominent Buckhead corner long occupied by Nava. Its components include a clothbound drinks list stuffed with a surfeit of obscure literary references, an open-air dining space set under striped canvas awnings that makes you feel like you landed in the Hamptons, and a front bar designed to look like someone's expansive home library.

[The menu] seems timeless but pays heed to trends, and culinary finesse sneaks into the "primitive" cooking methods. The Mississippi rabbit — furred game you practically expect to see hanging in the larder as part of the set decoration — arrives on the plate as a confit leg, pancetta-wrapped loin, fat sausage, and toast spread with liver parfait. The seasoning on ours needed a dialing down (the kitchen likes salt), but the presentation came as an unexpected delight.

THE ELSEWHERE AND THE BLOGS: Blogger Savory Exposure snaps a pic of the Wrecking Bar Brewpub "rediscovery" by Atlanta Magazine, Tom Sietsma calls the La Tagliatella chain a "threat to our nation" in the Washington Post, Roots in Alpharetta deems BurgerFi's burgers "firmly in the middle of the pack," and Atlanta Restaurant Blog calls Boccalupo's Bruce Logue the "godfather of pasta."
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