Located in pedestrian friendly downtown
The restaurant is open only for dinner Tuesday through Saturday, so be sure to make reservations to guarantee a place at this new neighborhood favorite.
Atmosphere: The decor of the dining room, with its clean lines, booth seating and simple black-and-silver color scheme, has a sophisticated retro feel that suits the downtown location. Despite the use of black, the restaurant still has a bright and airy feel, courtesy of the floor-to-ceiling windows that make up one long wall. Daily specials are written in white chalk on a blackboard that hangs at the front of the restaurant.
Though the space is intimate, there’s still plenty of room between each table. This keeps the restaurant from feeling overcrowded even on busy Friday and Saturday nights. While you’ll definitely be able to eavesdrop on nearby conversations, the dining room isn’t so loud that you’ll have trouble hearing what the people at your own table are saying.
Chef: At Cakes
& Ale, the chef is Billy Allin, a native of South Carolina who studied at
the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco. His experience includes two
years as sous chef at Watershed, a nationally recognized
Food: With a focus on seasonal fare and locally produced items, including Georgia-grown grains, vegetables and fruits, the restaurant’s offerings change daily. The menu, which is printed on a sheet of long paper, is divided into three sections.
The first features a list of appetizers and salads—including pimento cheese fingers and pickles, which are a house favorite. The pimento fingers can be compared to a grilled cheese sandwich, cut into easy-to-eat sticks, and are made with enough butter to make Paula Deen proud. They come four to an order, along with a bowl of housemade sweet pickles, but you could easily eat many, many more of them.
However, you must control your urge for more of the cheesy, buttery delights to save room for a main course, chosen from the second section of the menu. Though the list of entrees changes often, the Cakes & Ale burger is a constant. Made with a mix of beef brisket and pork, this burger goes miles beyond typical ground beef in terms of flavor and appeal. On the plate, the burger supports a huge pile of crunchy and irresistible shoestring fries.
The potato gnocchi is the kind of dish that you won’t be able to stop thinking about, even days after you try it. The presentation of this dish varies and the gnocchi may be tossed with peas and fennel sausage, a mushroom cream sauce or greens and slivers of parmesan cheese.
The restaurant also serves up entrees of organic chicken, as well as flatiron steak, salmon and lamb.
Section three of the menu is dedicated to sweets, including the signature “phatty” cakes, which are more like cookie sandwiches than the cake the name implies. The frozen treats are particularly hard to resist during the hot days of June, July and August. Keep an eye out for the watermelon-and-honeydew slushie on the ever-changing menu. This fresh fruit treat perfectly captures the flavors of summer.
Drinks: Beer
is a major focus, of course, but the restaurant also stocks quite a few bottles
of wine that come everywhere from
The beer list also changes frequently, but could include
draft choices such as Allagash White from
Cakes & Ale
254
404-377-7994
Hours: Tue.-Sat. 5:30 p.m.-10:30 p.m.
Reservations recommended
What other people are saying...
ClaireCWID from Inman Park - July 21, 2009 at 3:48 PM
Absolutely it delivers and in such a beautiful space! If you don't get your fill of sweets here, stop by The Chocolate Bar next door.
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