Dutch Monkey Doughnuts

Could it be I stayed away too long? You would look for me and I was gone...

It is good to be back working the blog and I am back with a BANG!!!

I can hardly believe that I have not blogged about this place by now! I guess I had my "blog in a box" about fine dining experiences...this is one of them!
Dutch Monkey Doughnuts is the TRUTH!! (http://www.dutchmonkeydoughnuts.com/)



My wife and I happened upon this place by accident being recent residents of the Cumming area. On my initial visit, I run into one of my Martial Arts buddies Rob Tuttle (also a world class Barista www.everythingcoffeeandtea.com) who is excited about EVERY doughnut in the place and the resident coffee guy.







The space is nice and in a brand new mini shopping plaza across the street form the Avenues Forsyth...it has a hip funky coffee house kind of feel. For the non coffee drinker, they have homemade flavored milks and also awesome hot cocoa...they even make their own marshmallows...just sayin.

The menu changes on a daily basis and the best way to see the daily line up is to take one of these options:
1. Check out their website
2. Check out their facebook page
3. Follow them on twitter

What makes Dutch Monkey stand out against your average doughnut spot?
1. No overly sweet doughnuts that destroy your taste buds after the second bite.
2. True artisan doughnuts made by REAL chefs (read the bio on their site)
3. A variety that changes daily basis

Now, I must admit, I do still have an affinity for the "Hot Now" sign glowing at the Krispy Kreme...nothing like em, but that aside, these are some VERY GOOD doughnuts. The experience is bar none. These guys are also not stuffy and thinking that they have all of the best ideas. If you have a good idea for a doughnut, feel free to make a suggestion. Here are two that are "Clyde inspired)...


Ok..so what's the downside?

Well... there is no guarantee that your favorite doughnut will be made that day or not sold out by the time you get there. Because their doughnut offerings are dependent on what items are good and locally available you have to get while the getting is good.

i.e. Their take on the strawberry short cake, the Strawberry and cream bismark:




They do have some staples that are out of this world: Buttered Maple Bacon- A doughnut, wrapped in bacon, fried, and covered with a warm maple glaze when you order it...YUM.



So as not to bore you any longer, here are some shots of Dutch Monkey:

Tiramasu Cake Doughnut!!!

My synopsis: Even though eating these delights may not be good for the waistline, they are good for the soul. If you are no where near the Alpharetta/Cumming area, plan to come out early and enjoy Dutch monkey and then head over to the Avenues Forsyth or further up 400 N to the outlets. After eatiing these doughnuts, you can really tell the difference in the quality of what else is out there.

Dogwood restaurant

This epicurean event takes us to a restaurant in Midtown Atlanta- Dogwood. For this adventure, we are accompanied by two of Donna and David's friends. It was good having them with us.

Dogwood is a Southern cuisine restaurant with an upscale flair. When David 1st suggested this restaurant, the 1st thing that stood out about this menu was their grits. :-)

Dave suggested Chappellet Mountain Cuvee as the wine of choice for the night. GOOD CHOICE!









The ladies are breaking down the menu. It is always interesting to see what the ladies order with the different types of palates...

The grits with pulled pork and a tea BBQ sauce topped with coleslaw was incredible.

Grits with bay scallops and mushrooms in a sherry cream sauce. VERY GOOD. ( At this point, David and I are thinking that we could just come here for grits and wine,)

Dogwood sports an open kitchen. Good to see that they have nothing to hide. ;-)

Even though the grits flight was top on my list, I opted for the chicken liver mousse, bacon jam, grilled country bread and apple jelly. It was pretty darn good.

Dave ordered the caramelized goat cheese, hydro mache (we had to ask our waitress what it was), red wine vinaigrette, and apple-pear chutney. It was a really good taste combination.

This salad was wonderful! Arugula, red grapes, red onion, marcona almonds(YUM),and apple cider vinaigrette. This was so good...I only got one bite.

The soup of the day was a veggie beef soup with rosemary popcorn on top.




I opted for the braised short ribs with glazed fall veggies. I opted to switch out the potatoes for grits...good choice.

Donna opted for the springer mountain chicken with the baked mac and cheese with collards.

Porter can always be counted on to try something different. Way to go!

He had the quail with low country stuffing, grits, brown butter, and fried sage. The flavors were pretty good when you tried everything together.

The restaurant was not able to get fresh flounder that day and substituted halibut as the fish of choice for this dish. The only downside to this dish is that the fish was overcooked. Note: there is a short window of cooking time with seafood. It can go from perfect to horrible in a matter of seconds.

This is the herb grilled NY strip with grilled asparagus, trumpet mushrooms, onions and fingerling potatoes.

Donna does not do greens...they were pretty good.

Chocolate martinis were ordered and I think they came close to getting it right after a couple of tries( Just CLOSE though).

Desert was pretty darn good. I had the chocolate creme brule with a toasted marshmallow and graham cracker biscotti. It was a good take on a S'mores.

The bread budding was not bad at all.

We added some of our chocolate to the martini to try to help it out... No such luck

Synopsis: Dogwood was a pretty good restaurant. The decor was befitting of it's upscale southern appeal. Overall we had a good meal, but I would not say it was great. It is worth checking out and the bar has quite a few innovative cocktails on the menu. Compared to comparable restaurants of it's style, I would put it near the top of the list...but only compared to other restaurants with southern-style cuisine.

Brookwood Grill- Alpharetta/Roswell

The Brookwood Grill

After the wedding, the wife and I decided to use one of our coupons from restaurants.com to grab a bite to eat. We wanted something nearby and decided on Brookwood Grill. I had only been there once after a Martial Arts testing for a Burger with a friend (it was a good burger). We get there and the atmosphere was pretty nice (really steakhouse-esque). Our waiter is on point and runs down the specials for the evening and we order. We were without our camera and had to opt for the camera phone.

I had the special for the night. It was a pan seared 9oz Hallibut fillet with a caper sauce and the gorganzola Mac and Cheese. The Halibut was perfectly prepared and the caper sauce was really good. I can hardly wait to recreate the Gorgonzola mac and cheese...it was THAT good.

Angela opted for the grilled marinated chicken breast which was perfectly grilled and NOT dried out. The pineapple marinade was a nice touch. The garlic mashed potatoes were really good. There was not much one could do with some steamed broccoli.

For desert, we shared the grilled strawberry shortcake. It was pretty good. They grilled the pound cake until it had a bit of char on it and the strawberries had this bananas fosters cooked in some sauce kind of thing going on with it. The only thing that was missing was a scoop of ice cream to round it all out.

Ruth's Chris Steakhouse

Ruth's Chris Steakhouse

Once again a chance to make use of Restaurant Week! Ruth's Chris Steakhouse is one of those spots that I had been meaning to try and never made it to try. Restaurant Week was just the excuse that I needed to make my visit. The ambiance was pretty cool and had the "upscale steakhouse" thing working. It was also cool that this location was in a nice hotel and the validated the Valet parking.

The salad was as good as it looked. The greens were fresh and the dressing was pretty darn good.

I ordered the filet medium with the lyonnaise potatoes. I must admit that bringing the steak on a 500 degree plate is awesome. Talk about keeping your food warm. Hearing the food sizzle as it reaches your table does remind you of a fajita plate, but the steak was perfectly cooked.

My fiance' ordered her filet well and butterflied. Note: I normally don't suggest ordering a GOOD steak well, but if you do, butterfly the filet to keep it from drying out too much or getting burnt.

The desert course really showed that this spot is one that really focuses on the meat course. The deserts were o.k., but nothing that could not be reproduced from thawing and baking something out of the freezer section of your local grocers.

We wondered if there was wine in these autographed bottles...

The synopsis: Ruth's Chris is a pretty decent spot to visit and you are definitely in for a treat when you order the steak. It may not be on the top 5 of the best meals that you will ever eat, but I will put it on the top 5 of chain steakhouses.

Morton's: The Steakhouse

Morton's Steakhouse

Once again...Restaurant Week! If you have not tried dining out during restaurant week...do it. This affords you the opportunity to try out restaurants to see if you enjoyed the food and dining experience without a large price tag. On that wise, I had been hearing lots about Morton's (some good, some bad). It does give you that "restaurant that high class mobsters in NY would frequent" feel...real "steak housey". I did like that they had an area that had lockers with bottles of wine in them. I'm assuming that these were for "regulars" so that they could house their favorite vintage.

1st course: We both ordered the Cesar salad...I had mine with the anchovies...nothing too special about it.

The filet was perfectly cooked and was not bad at all.
(not blown away though)

Now, I must admit that the Lyonnaise potatoes were darn near incredible.
I know that these were just potatoes and onions but they were great!

The grilled asparagus was pretty darn good...firm yet fully cooked with just the right amount of char from the grill.

Angela ordered her filet butterflied and well done. The steak guy really knows his stuff because it was still not dry.

I was surprised to find deserts this good in a steak house.

The chocolate mousse was wonderful.

When in doubt...get the creme brule'. It was very well done.

Synopsis: Over all, I was not not really blown away by this spot. I can not say that I would drive all of the way across town to visit this place...maybe just for Restaurant Week...maybe.