to travel & eat / {january 2012} atlanta – chick-fil-a dwarf house & alon’s & goldfish
I love Chick-fil-a. Is it because I don’t have one locally? Maybe. We went twice and also stopped at the original location (Dwarf House) right outside of the Atlanta airport on the way out. After two lunches at Chick-fil-a, I got grossed out and started going to Alon’s, which is a local food market with made-to-order sandwiches, salads, etc. They are also full of imported food items and have an in-house bakery. I fell in love with their beet salad, so I ended up eating there for about 3-4 meals in a row – I’m a creature of habit when I’m busy. I fully overcompensated the salad with baked goods. It was also my coworker’s birthday so I grabbed pastries for her there.
There was one off meal at Goldfish on the outside of Perimeter Mall. It is a huge seafood restaurant… we were starving at this point (since the boys obliged my request for a 5 minute visit to the local Anthropologie) and definitely ate too many carbs. If it were up to me, I would’ve gone to Cheesecake Factory next door.
Alon’s – The pesto sandwich was a bit too garlicy. I guess I never bothered taking a picture of the West Coast salad with orange wedges, goat cheese, beets, greens, with perfectly grilled chicken breast. It inspired me enough to buy some beets, goat cheese, and oranges to make my own salad. The madeleines were great. They had financiers with different fruit – I picked raspberry. Their canelé (unpictured) was also good. I also picked up some flaky snack from Brittany… sure enough it tasted like a stick of salted butter, what Brittany is known for.
Chick-fil-a is everywhere here. I can’t come here and not have a spicy chicken salad. I went the salad route for the other meals and didn’t even try the milkshake. Once I had a peppermint milkshake and promptly got a cold.
Dwarf House. I have no idea why they call the original Chick-fil-a the Dwarf House, but I’m sure the explanation is on the Internet somewhere. There is a dwarf sized door but it’s not in use. My coworkers were equally curious and asked the cashier why the place was called Dwarf House, not noticing she was a dwarf. Awful. There is table service and an fast food counter. The fast food side does have some unique menu items. There was a long wait for tables, so I just ditched my coworkers who insisted on going to the fast food side and sat at the counter. I got waffles and chicken, hash browns, and then two slices of pie (chocolate pudding and coconut cream) to go. The gentleman next to me leaned over and had a sparkle in his eye when he told me about the strawberry pie. Too bad it’s not in season! The kids were rushing me to eat, so I ate at superspeed. I’m the type to arrive just in time to board for the gate.
Goldfish. Last but not least, my most unfavorite meal. Nothing is wrong with the restaurant, except that I’m spoiled by NYC and not into the generic TGI Fridays-ish restaurants. Scallops and ravioli.
