{Atlanta} Flip Burger (or, Jamie Geeks Out)

So, I've mentioned before that we really, really like to eat on vacation, but our Atlanta trip was the first time I geeked out by eating a the restaurant of a famous chef. Steve and I love Bravo's Top Chef, and when we first started talking about going to Hotlanta (we were quoting the Office the whole time--any time someone cut us off on the freeway or cut in line or anything I would obnoxiously say, "That town is whack!") Steve remembered that our favorite Top Chef contestant, Richard Blaise, had an amazingly cool burger "boutique" there.

I seriously felt like a little kid, I was such a bundle of nervous excitement. I was secretly hoping to have a celebrity chef encounter.

He wasn't there, of course, but I am such a huge fan of (a) Richard Blaise, (b) burgers, and (c) fancy shakes, that I was pretty much losing it with happiness just to be there. See?

They seated us in a padded booth, which the kids found very funny/comfy. Gracie was exhausted and kept laying down on the seat cushions, and Charlie thought it was hilarious to bang his head against the padded walls.

It was seriously cool looking. We loved that they had framed their TVs out in ornate, chunky picture frames.

Blaise is famous for his "molecular gastronomy" techniques, which basically means he combines science and cooking. So we had to start off with a liquid nitrogen milkshake (frozen by pouring N2 over it).

I got the Nutella and burnt marshmallow shake, which was, as I'm sure you can guess, amazing.

Steve got a summer peach with raspberry and almond cream.

The pictures don't do them justice.

The kids were kind of crazy. Gracie was just not in the mood to be awake and about, and didn't even want to eat. Charlie was all over the place. His favorite activity was dangling his legs over the edge of the booth and kicking.

But we just decided that we were going to enjoy ourselves, so between wrangling them we ordered our fancy schmancy burgers. I got the turkey flip burger--I was particularly excited about the pomegranate ketchup, and a little nervous about the sprouts--with sweet potato tots on the side, which came with a blue cheese foam dipping sauce.

Steve got the lamburger, which as you can see had some amazing stuff on it--and I am super proud of Steve because he ate it with everything on it even though he is one of the world's pickiest eaters. ;) He got a side of french fries that came with a smoked mayo dipping sauce. Neither one of us likes mayo at. all. but we both thought it was pretty tasty.

We ate and enjoyed and I felt just happy and giddy, and a little sad when my shake was gone (all too soon--though it did end with several spoonfuls of toasted marshmallow!), and while we liked our burgers, we also decided that we don't have refined enough palates to have really appreciated the all the flavors he had going on. That's okay--we're willing to learn.