The Twelve Dates of Christmas 2013, The First Date: Re-living Restaurant Eugene

On the First Date of Christmas, my true love (my husband John) gave to me:  a memory of a wonderful “date” at Restaurant Eugene.  Actually my whole family, and Restaurant Eugene’s Chef/Owner Linton Hopkins whom we both adore, have been in on it. What you see in the video obviously wasn’t a “date” – having cameras film your every move is no one’s idea of a real date. But the dining experience at Restaurant Eugene is magical. It is worth the trip (preferably without the cameras:).

We recently returned to Atlanta and…did not do that. Everything is different with kids.  Wonderful, but different.  My husband John loves to relive his kid-less Buckhead days on our (fairly frequent due to my work with Delta Air Lines) trips to Atlanta–lucky me because as an ATL expert he makes it super-fun.  So he will invariably finagle a great rate at the Ritz-Carlton or Mandarin Oriental, but of course things are way-different when you are booking a two-queen room, packing tot-sized roller-boards and Crest kids toothpaste.

So, no Restaurant Eugene–not because my kids are not foodies, they are, but Chef Hopkins’ newer place Holeman & Finch was more the ticket.  Still there is date material: at either Restaurant Eugene or H&F you must have some form of fried crustacean–might be a clam like in the picture at RE.  It was crispy oysters at H&F. Both are of course aphrodisiacs and so indeed the affable, capable and incredibly knowledgeable staff will bring you a bubbly glass in your price range to clinch the deal should you last past story time and bedtime :).

Being a Delta team member (I pick the Business Elite wines) I am kinda ridiculously proud that Chef Hopkins has joined that team–after a hard-fought Cabin Pressure Cookoff –you must watch! But I’ll remember both our RE date and our H&F “family date” fondly for the rest of my life.  Here’s to the First Date of Christmas!