Bam? More like Eh...

I met my former boss, Bill, at Emeril's last week for lunch. Bill and I like to get together from time to time to explore the different restaurants around Atlanta. We had both been wanting to go to Emeril's so last week we made the plunge.

Walking into the restaurant (which I had to do an illegal U turn to get to...) your first thought is BAM! The place is visually stunning with warm oranges, rusts and wood tones. The ceiling is soaring and the area behind the bar is decorated with this gorgeous basket weave wood design. There is a round floor to ceiling wine rack that separates part of the dining room from the rest. Visually, the place is stunning. So far, I'm impressed.

We get seated quickly and get a U shaped booth on the side of the dining room. I love these booths - they allow you to feel like you're the only patron in the restaurant even if it's full. On the table are 4 plates (which I now think are just place holders) with a green trim and Emeril's name on top. Problem was - they were dusty! Not to worry, as soon as we sat down the bus boys came and took the plates away. I was flummoxed - what am I going to eat on???? What was the purpose of the plates to begin with? On top of this little curiosity, the table was set wrong. The forks were set tines down and the serrated edge of the knife faced the spoon rather than the plate. Now, if you set the table at my grandmother's house you would know that the serrated edge of the knife faces the plate because the knife is protecting the spoon from the fork on the other side of the plate. Why the fork has it in for the spoon always baffled me, but I could always see that it would be an unfair fight with the fork having tines and the spoon just being all rounded. But I digress...


I ordered the gumbo and a muffaletta with cajun potato salad. The service for the gumbo was quite impressive. They brought it out in it's own separate soup pan, giving you the illusion that they created this gumbo JUST FOR YOU. It is then transferred into the soup bowl for you to eat. It was a resounding OK. In fact, I think I've made better gumbo and I'm from Michigan. Same for the muffaletta - it was OK. I've had better on the streets of New Orleans. And the cajun potato salad was so overwhelmingly mustard-y that it ended up just sitting on my plate.

Now, I'm a sucker for bread pudding (as you can tell), so Bill and I split the bread pudding. That saved the meal in my opinion. Generally, I'm partial to chocolate - but this bread pudding was just as good.

So, I may go back to Emeril's just to sit in the bar, soak up the beautiful atmosphere and have some more bread pudding!