Trace

This evening I dined at Trace located at the W Atlanta hotel in Midtown.  What I love most about this restaurant is their concept.  This restaurant is called Trace because each location — there are only four locations: Atlanta, Austin, San Francisco, and Seattle — only uses traceable ingredients from local farms, which I love!  I don’t know about you, but I like knowing where my food is coming from. Trace takes classic southern dishes and adds an innovative flare, which is quite genius and most importantly, tasty.  When I dined, Chef Shean Suter provided some pretty interesting facts about this awesome restaurant.  Everything is made from scratch each day, except the ketchup.

 GRILLED RIBEYE

I also had grilled ribeye, which was served with potato gratin and charred broccoli.  It was a great cut of steak.  Trace has some great beef.

CHICKEN AND WAFFLES

I have tried all types of chicken and waffles.  This was the first time that I had heard about creating chicken and waffles the way that I experienced it this particular night.  First, they take bacon-spiked chicken and dip it in waffle batter and then fry it to perfection.  It was served with Sweetwater bacon syrup.  It was a must-try for me, and it ended up being my favorite dish of the evening.

PEACH TOAST

I thoroughly enjoyed the peach toast.  I once attended a Vidalia onion media dinner, and ever since then, I’ve been a fan.  The peach toast was so full of flavor.  They used house-made ricotta confit, and it’s topped with Vidalia onion sautéed peaches!

PIMENTO MAC & CHEESE

Once I saw the pimento mac & cheese on the menu, I knew that I had to have it.  It was so rich and had huge chunks of the pimento cheese, which was right up my alley because I am major lover of pimento cheese.  The cavatappi pasta and pimento cheese was baked as it was topped with toasted bread crumbs.

GA SHRIMP & GRITS

Creamed Corn Ice Cream With Blackberry Cobbler
Creamed corn ice cream with blackberry cobbler?  When Chef Shean first mentioned this unlikely pair, I was curious as to what it would taste like.  When I finally tried it, I was really surprised.  It really tasted like sweet creamed corn, and it was delish!  It was served with blackberry cobbler.  I was totally impressed.

Besides the food, I loved the handcrafted cocktails.  All the ingredients used were fresh, and of course, locally sourced!  When you dine at Trace, you have to try everything that I mentioned.  They’re open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I had such a great experience, and I’m sure you will as well!