Georgia

I had a great meal last night at Cafe-Bakery Tbilisi (1871 86th St, Brooklyn, NY; 347-492-3808), a new off-shoot of the better known Restaurant Tbilisi(811 Kings Hwy, Brooklyn, NY; 845-480-0088). Let me offer that first URLonce again, and beg you to click and let the slide show load - the accompanying Georgian music is amazing.

I love Georgian food; hordes of different nationalities have run through, each leaving a distinctive mark on the cuisine. The result is vast depth and soul. And Georgia is one of those rare places where deliciousness is a top mainstream priority, so it's unimaginable that someone would open a lousy Georgian restaurant. In fact, I've never had even mediocre Georgian.

But this place is extraordinary even by Georgian standards. I'll let the photos, below, do most of the talking. No fancy camera tricks were used; I just shot, as usual, with my iPhone camera. This is really what the food looked like, and it tastes just as it looks.

This eggplant with walnut sauce was devastating; we ate in hushed awe (please click to expand!):

Fried chicken in garlic sauce. God.

Potatoes with mushrooms. The potatoes tasted exactly like classic Nathan's fries without the crinkle cut. But the mushrooms...oh, God, the mushrooms:

Also great: chicken in walnut sauce, "Khinkali" (Georgian soup dumplings, here with half a cup of soup in each), the noodlier of their kachapuris (I forgot the name)...and the hellish little bodega across the street, which, along with Michelob and Miller, sells, for some unfathomable reason, Sierra Nevada Torpedo Extra IPA , at a mere $10 per six pack, which is 1. hard to find, and 2. miraculously happens to be the perfect drink to go with Georgian food (divine providence?)