My student Chung-Ching and I celebrated his newly minted Ph.D. with lunch at Pricci. It's on Pharr Road, a section of Buckhead that is surprisingly quiet given its proximity to the hectic buzzing surrounding Lenox Square. (Believe it or not, there's another restaurant in Forest Park named Pricci that is listed as serving Argentinian and Afghan cuisine. Perhaps they bought a cookbook and started at the A's...)
I started with a caprese salad of buffalo mozarella and tomato. I don't know of many places in Atlanta that serve this dish. I came to love it when I lived in New Jersey and this was an outstanding specimen. Chung-Ching had proscuitto and melon. That tasted great as well; you can see the ham in the meat slicer in the menu, ready at a moment's notice.
Here is Chung-Ching with his seafood pasta. All the portions at Pricci were very generous in size.
I had veal picatta, which hit the perfect balance between tartness and buttery richness.
Chung-Ching somehow managed to find room for dessert. He had tiramisu. I decided to try the cheese sampler, which came with three very different cheeses and a pickled pepper. Everything on my cheese plate balanced out wonderfully.
Luella's is a nouvelle BBQ outfit on the north side of Asheville. It is nestled among the trees in a lovely neighborhood. The restaurant has lots of windows for inside seating and plenty of outside seating. Service was courteous and amazingly fast. This is a combination plate with pork and brisket. Both were very moist and tender. For the pork, I tried both the mild and hot vinegar sauces. To my surprise, I preferred the milder one because it didn't assert itself too much. I enjoyed the spicy tomato sauce for my brisket. The hushpuppies were very good. The fried okra was fresh out of the fryer and excellent. The slaw was of the vinegary variety, which I usually enjoy, but this version is heavy on the white stuff and didn't have quite enough variety in tastes for me.
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