Flavor Fare

Eeach month eGeneva Magazine reviews a different Geneva restaurant and touts their wares. Last month with the Flavor Fare right across the street from our offices, we couldn’t help but be reminded what a truly diverse menu of restaurants we have.

The four of us here at the magazine had no problem making the personal sacrifice to attend each day to sample these favorites on your behalf. It was a tough job, but someone had to do it!

The Flavor Fare featured appetizers, entrées and desserts from 18 of the area’s restaurants. Chianti’s
had their garlic crab pasta available for all to indulge, Moveable Feast had Oprah’s Favorite Brownies,
Atwater’s at The Herrington Inn offered their sautéed forest mushrooms in a puff pastry and Urban Grille shared their banana cream pie. And that’s just to name a few. Yes, I know we could have done it in one day; but we felt we owed it to you to try everything on the menu at least once. Okay, maybe twice.

And our reason for sharing with you our three-day food binge? To remind you of the varied and unique culinary experiences that exist in your own backyard. Next time you celebrate a special occasion or just want to try a new restaurant, you won’t have to travel far to find how our restaurants are another reason Geneva is unique.

This article first appeared in the October 2009 issue of eGeneva Magazine.

Restaurant Review: Atwater’s

It is really fun to sit down to write a restaurant review when you have had a truly spectacular dinner.

That was our experience dining at Atwater’s, located in the Herrington Inn, 15 S. River Lane. We are really fortunate to have such a truly unique restaurant in Geneva.

I am not a food criti; I just love food! I love to cook and eat. I am the professed “meat man” by my kids. My wife, Lesley, and I love to try all foods and restaurants, from five-star restaurants to roadside shacks. A key part of vacations is trying to find all local restaurants. I think our kids were going to kill us after five stops for different BBQ in Tennessee… Enough on that, back to Atwater’s.

Atwater’s is a warm and inviting place. It is an intimate setting that provides a great view of the river. Our waitress, Renee, was excellent!

The wine list at Atwater’s was very good. The staff made a great recommendation of a pinot noir.

We started with two appetizers prepared by executive chef Thomas Hiestand. Our appetizers were the carpaccio and the ahi tuna. The carpaccio was sliced paper thin, and the ahi tuna was wok-seared. The carpaccio was out of this world!

For a salad, we had the kasseri spinach salad prepared with saganaki. We both marveled at how much flavor it had for a salad; it was a winner!

Our entrées were the horseradish bleu cheese rib eye and the Moroccan chicken. Being a hard-core steak guy, I was blown away by the great flavor of the rib eye. I usually like my steaks plain, as I love the flavor of the beef, but this was just awesome, and it was cooked perfectly.

The Moroccan chicken was a real treat–great flavor. What made the chicken was the fresh-baked nan it was served on top of. Nan, we learned, is fresh-baked bread that is just awesome; it provided a great buttery flavor that really complemented the chicken.

No great dinner is complete without dessert! We sampled the crème brûlée, molten chocolate cake and the hazelnut cream. The crème brûlée was to die for!

We loved the whole experience at Atwater’s. This is a great place to dine. Reservations are recommended.

This article first appeared in the July 2008 issue of eGeneva Magazine.