Omnivore - Eating cheap

Who says you can’t eat well and inexpensively in Atlanta?

Saturday was a beautiful day. My friend Jeff was in town from Florida for the weekend and we brunched on the patio at Eclipse di Sol (640 N. Highland Ave., 404-724-0711). Both of us had salads — flank steak with roasted tomatoes and crispy, browned onions for me (right).

Jeff had a Cobb salad and we shared a couple of biscuits.

It’s good to see Eclipse doing so well. Multiple restaurants have failed in the location since longtime tenant Cafe Diem moved to Midtown Promenade. The evening menu of inexpensive entrees, small plates and sandwiches attracts a very mixed crowd.

Later Saturday, Wayne and I went to Grant Central Pizza (451 Cherokee Ave., 404-523-8900), which is just three blocks from our house. The place was packed with children in Halloween costumes who had attended an event at nearby Zoo Atlanta. Above are two grown-up ghouls who apparently gave birth to Superman. Check out that hair on the caped superhero.

Grant Central continues to surprise me with its nightly specials. Saturday night, I had a bowl of fat, juicy mussels over angel hair pasta with a spicy puttanesca sauce full of kalamata olives and capers (above). It was quite a bargain at $11.