Omnivore - Sauced (finally) opens

Here’s a kind of kinky riff on a popular dish from the past (above). It’s Ria Pell’s version of  Beef Wellington, featuring a Guiness-braised short rib inside a pastry shell. Pell, who owns Ria’s Bluebird, is serving this dish at her new restaurant, Sauced, which opened in Inman Park on Monday.

Sauced is delightfully designed with curved banquettes, wood paneling and lamps from the early ’60s. Taxidermied fish and antlers, along with copper mallards, decorate the walls.

There’s a full bar.

We also ordered rosemary-skewered chicken livers (with fennel-apple jam); a Caesar salad made with char-grilled romaine lettuce; and blackened cod with grits, fontina cheese and tomato chutney.

Dessert was this “lemon Moon Pie,” made with lemon mousse between two ginger cookies dipped in white chocolate. It was yummy, but the cookies were so hard we had to stab them with a knife to break them up.

One warning: the restaurant only accepts cash. There is an ATM in a cabinet on the patio. This seems to be a trend. Nearby Thumbs Up has long required cash, as does the new Pizzeria Vesuvius.

I’ll have more to say in a few weeks in my “Grazing” column.

(Photos by Cliff Bostock)