Last month, the good people at Urbanspoon reached out to Atlanta’s awesome blogging community to hang out and talk shop for a while. 5 Seasons, a brewpub that opened in 2001 and has expanded to three locations in the region, hosted us and gave us the chance to sample some of their appetizers and a few of their beers. We had a terrific evening and enjoyed catching up with friends and meeting a few new people. A couple of awesome Prime users were present, as were Bella Vivere, Food Near Snellville, Iron Stef, and Spatialdrift.
5 Seasons boasts that they use more locally-grown produce, by volume, than any other group of restaurants in Atlanta. Executive Chef David Larkworthy opened the restaurant in the then-new Prado development in 2001. Locations in Alpharetta and on Marietta Street at Howell Mill followed in 2007 and 2009. We enjoyed a few of the kitchen’s creations, including some flatbread pizzas, ahi tuna tataki slices, and cured serrano skewers, all of which were pretty good, but Marie and I were most taken with a completely wonderful black-eyed pea hummus. Apparently, this is, tragically, not always available. I haven’t run into a special that needed to be elevated to regular menu status so badly in months.
I tried two of the beers, from a selection of nine available. Apparently, they try to have five of their beers available all the time, and a rotation of six to eight others. My favorite was the first that I tried, REV-olution Coffee Milk Stout. I don’t actually care for coffee, but I do prefer stouts and porters, and this was the only one of those available. I liked it a lot, and I appreciated that they get their coffee from REV in Smyrna. In any case, the coffee taste was quite mild, leaving a deep, dark and very creamy flavor. Somewhat less thrilling was the Hopgasm IPA, which I understand is one of the regularly-available brews. This had too many competing flavors for my taste, but it was still a good deal more interesting than many beers that I have tried.
We really enjoyed the evening, visiting friends and talking shop. Thanks a lot to Urbanspoon for putting the evening together, and to 5 Seasons for hosting us. And if you’re blogging about food in Atlanta, keep an ear out for any future Urbanspoon events. We love breaking bread with our fellow hobbyists!
(Naturally, this was a media event and our meal was complementary. It’s our policy to always note when we’ve received our meal without charge. If you would like to invite us to your restaurant’s media events, please drop Grant a line at gmslegion@gmail.com .)
Other blog posts about 5 Seasons:
Atlanta etc. (Dec. 22 2009)
Food Near Snellville (Sep. 9 2011)
J. Krabbits Inc. (Apr. 19 2012)
Friday Date Night (Mar. 24 2013)
If you’re only reading these chapters, then you are missing part of the story! We have a fantastic Facebook page, where you’ll be able to follow along with much more than just links to chapters here, but additional information about our favorite places, including PR announcements, links when our friends-in-blogging visit them, and other follow-up news about the places we’ve been when we can find it. Give us a like and tell your friends to come see us!
Marie, Let's Eat! 