Ecco - (404) 537-2850

• "Best New Restaurant" -Esquire
• Award-winning wine list
• Group and priviate dining

we got there at 8pm on a beautiful sunday evening and for some reason the hostess was averse to seating us outside. we said we wanted a table outside and she said the wait would be an hour. which was a blatant lie to discourage us from waiting for an outside spot. there was literally not one single person waiting ahead of us. so I said ok we will wait, and she was clearly surprised that we called this bluff. A table became available for us in less than 5 minutes, which she begrudgingly acknolwedged to us, but then she intentionally took about 25 minutes to clear it and seat us. It was so weird. The patio was full of people so it is a total mystery to me why we were unwanted outside. And ditto on the fern pizza - it's funky and no good. Plus the pizzas are teeny tiny. Pappardelle is great.

Let me first say, this was completely my fault, and not the restaurant's. I love Ecco. Think it's a great concept, has outstanding service and the space is beautiful. Went there recently for dinner and they had a pizza on the menu that had fiddlehead ferns, mushrooms, talleggio, and aged balsamic. I love fiddlehead ferns and their only in season in the spring, so we went for it. In my fern enthusiasm, I forgot, however, that I have an amazing dislike for talleggio cheese. I first had it on a hotdog at Ormsby's, and instantly vowed never to eat it again. Maybe it's different when it's not melted, but this over-powering queso has a fairly stinky taste and a REALLY stinky smell. And so much of food's taste depends on the smell. Thankfully, we had ordered a bunch of apps and weren't even that hungry when I made the boneheaded order... I could only handle two slices. Should have gone with the magarita pie.

I think for someone in their late-late 20's, I've had the opportunity to sample a nice array of Atlanta's top restaurants. I have a good enough memory, that if given a directory, I could probably list just about every place I've been to and whether I liked it or not. However, it would be a bit more difficult to tell you specifically what I liked about each place. In other words, if you ask "why should I go there?" there might only be a handful of places I could give you a convincingly definitive answer. Ecco is in that handful. As I'm writing this review it has been more than a year since my one and only visit, and that now seems plain irresponsible on my part. From that one visit, I remember the wood-fired pizza I ordered being quite good, but I couldn't tell you which one it was. My most intensely lingering recollection from the exeperience was the fried goat cheese with honey and black pepper. I've never had anything quite like it. These brilliant golden sweet little nuggets seemed so simple. Why aren't they standard fare at every restaurant? I wanted to order a bucket full of them. They are that good. If you're like me, and you find that some of these upscale trendy dining halls often begin to blur together, go to Ecco and order the fried goat cheese. Over a year later I still can't get it out of my head.