a world of fire!

So back in January when I moved out here to Atlanta I started getting more active on twitter. One of my first "followers" was @fuegomundo a soon to be opened South American wood fire grill restaurant opening just 5 miles north of me in Sandy Springs. I was excited to have a follower and since I hadn't seen too many South American Style restaurants around my area of Atlanta except for those super expensive Brazilian steakhouses which are yummy but more like a couple times a year restaurant than anything else. I was super excited about this future restaurant. Well, over the course of these past five months they've been tweeting the progress of their restaurant, sharing pictures of the construction, sneak peek of the menus, etc, etc. and tomorrow, June 5th is going to be their grand opening! Tuesday, I along with probably about 25 other lucky Atlantians got to go to Fuego Mundo for a private tasting! Super fun and hella yummy! I got there and met Todd , the guy I've been tweeting back and forth with for the past few months on Fuego Mundo's twitter page. I sat down and the introduction began, we were there to taste whatever we wanted on the menu and give our feedback and critiques after we got to nosh on some amazingly yummy food. While we were waiting to order our food I got to meet the people I was sitting with LaTasha and her mother were the first two people I had met that day, really nice, also from California which was tripping me out because not only were they also from California, they lived in the Inland Empire where I lived probably half of my life up until moving here! Well, back to the food, they have a great variety and it's all super healthy. Everything is cooked on a wood fire grill which is right in the middle of the restaurant so you can see them cooking your food which is a very cool idea! (entertainment while you wait), So the way you order your food is you choose an entree then a side category, they have "the latin" which has rice, black beans and sweet plantains, "the american" which has grilled corn and a choice of roasted red potatoes (heaven!) or fries and last but not least is "the health-nut" which has quinoa, black beans and baked plantains. I ordered the Honey Citrus Pepper Salmon with the Health Nut side. All I could say was YUM!!!! the salmon was super fresh, everything was just right! you could taste all the flavors in the marinade on the salmon but it didn't overpower the dish which is perfection to me. it came with a side of grilled onions which i pretty much just scooped up and inhaled within a couple bites and I also had a house sangria which Masha, one of the owners, makes from scratch. I was able to get a couple of the secrets for it out of her but not everything, I am definitely going to try her techniques along with mine and think I will end up with thee perfect sangria for the summer. For dessert LaTasha, her mother and I split their Chocolate Lovers Cake and a slice of the Mango Pie. uh, sorry to repeat myself but YUM!!!!! me, not being a chocolate lover had to hold back and remember that I was sharing the cake with two other people, it was so moist and thick and the frosting was thee yummiest fudge frosting i've ever had. the mango pie was like biting into a mango, my mouth watered a little, i got that fuzzy feeling in my mouth that i get when i eat a mango and it wasn't super sweet, just the zing of mango which was perfect. All in all I really think this restaurant is going to flourish. they've got a great staff, the owners are very personable and walked around and talked to all of us and seemed very nice. the food is amazing and they're filling a hole in Atlanta that needed to be filled. good, healthy, filling, tasty inexpensive food fast but in a cozy setting. Oh! one more thing, I really liked that on each table there's a "service request" sign you just pop up on top of your number holder at any time and that lets them know you need something and someone goes over to your table and helps you out. Which in my honest opinion is ingenious! No more server coming to your table every two minutes asking how each one of your bites is :D

(fuego mundo steak)

(steak skewers with yucca fries!)

(this is the salmon dish i had....YUMMERS!)

(outdoor seating)

(my sangria)

(this is the cooking area in the middle of the restaurant)

(detail of number holder)

(mango pie. sorry, couldn't help myself! it's that good)

Another cool thing about the restaurant is that they will have a rotating collection of artwork from local artists. This months artwork is from the late David Hleap. I recorded the info for him but it came out really fuzzy so I don't have much information on him or the names of these paintings.....guess you'll have to go to Fuego Mundo to find out for yourself! ;)

As we were all getting up to stretch and get ready to leave I had met Taryn P. who is a real cool chick and just so happens to also have a mutual interest in music and politics and come to find out we have mutual friends! So Fuego Mundo is also a great place to meet new people. If you're near Atlanta/Sandy Springs you definitely need to get your patookas over there and get hooked.

D.