Omnivore - Young love, appetizing young love

I dined at Lola Bellini Bar & Restaurant last night, Sunday, in the Mussolini-esque Terminus Building (3280 Peachtree Road, 404-892-9292). This is the latest in the Here To Serve group owned by Tom Catherall.

The restaurant is another looker by the Johnson Studio, which seems to be getting into natural wood these days. There’s plenty of it in Lola, as there is in Kevin Rathbun Steak.

We mainly sampled antipasti — seven of them. Our favorites were the rotisserie of the day, duck, and the caponata. Others ranged from OK to below mediocre. For entrees we sampled a mushroom ravioli and chicken milanese topped with arugula (above).

We enjoyed our server, Leo, shown above with his girlfriend Naomi. They are both students at Georgia State. I noted with shock that Leo, who looks 10 years old, was wearing what appeared to be a wedding band, and he explained that it was a “friendship ring” indicating his faithfulness to Naomi. In case we thought he was bullshitting, he brought Naomi over to meet us. Young love. It’s sweeter than the almond cake with dried fruit (left) we had for dessert, along with a very strange tiramisu that tasted more like pudding with crumbled cookies.

I’ll have a full report in the paper in a few weeks.