Omnivore - STG Trattoria: great meal with a few glitches
Dinner at the city's newest trattoria,
- Cliff Bostock's iPhone
- Peach bruschetta
I finally made it to the much-reviewed STG Trattoria in Buckhead last Friday night. I was worried that, considering the mainly positive reviews, it would be packed with a long wait for a party of five.
But we were seated right away on the patio. It's quieter outside, of course, but you don't get to take in another dramatic interior by ai3. Owner Brian Lewis also operates Bocado in West Midtown and if you know that space, you know basically what to expect at STG: minimalism. But STG, with community tables and an open kitchen, is more intimate.
John Hopkins, a refugee from Abattoir, is head chef here. I heard recently that Bruce Logue, former chef at La Pietra Cucina, had joined the STG team to handle the pasta. So I ordered a dish of garganelli with shredded duck, cremini mushrooms, sweet potato greens, and a hit of chili peppers.
Other dishes on the table included a roasted pork chop with a ragu of tomato, eggplant, and sweet onions, as well as a 16-inch pizza topped with lamb sausage, sweet onion, ricotta, and mint leaves. We shared a small plate of pork meatballs in a lick-worthy tomato sugo. We also tried the Georgia peach bruschetta (above) with gorgonzola cheese, arugula, and a touch of balsamic vinegar. For dessert, I ordered flawless honey-fig ice cream.
Overall, I give the the restaurant a B. There were noticeable glitches here and there. This may be purely subjective, but I found some bites of my garganelli tough, and the pizza, although delicious, was super-floppy. The greatest shortcoming was the service. Wrong dishes were brought to the table and to others on the patio.
Still, it's a great experience for the most part. There's a large wine list, to be read on an iPad, which crashed as soon as we picked it up.
With time, I have no doubt STG will grow smoother.