Lunch at Atlanta's King + Duke

Hello. It's me. The birthday girl.
Yep, I just had my birthday and wanted to go somewhere new in Atlanta to celebrate. 
Ford Fry's restaurants are always good, so I decided to check out King + Duke for the first time. The restaurant is located in the heart of Buckhead and is focused on seasonal, sustainable, and smoky goodness. With their 24-foot open hearth taking center stage, cooking "over fire" is what it's all about. And I'm not complaining.

I don't usually order up cocktails during lunchtime, but a girl has gotta let her hair down occasionally...you with me???
No better excuse than a birthday and being thirsty.
Although they had some good-looking libations on the menu with fun names like "Little Speck in Garnered Fruit, Passport to Danger, and A Rose for Emily" - I asked the bartender to create one for me with my favorite....smoky mezcal. That's a Leo for you!
Honestly, I don't remember all of what he put in it, but it was perfect.

I really like the atmosphere of this place. Big windows, lots of light, very cozy seating, unique art, modern, dark wood, cool serving/dish ware. We arrived early for lunch and it was pretty quiet. Within a matter of 10-15 minutes, the dining room was full and had a decent whir of chatter, laughter, and busy servers. It never got too loud though, which was kind of lovely. I like to be able to have a conversation when dining out.

We started with Deviled Eggs with pickled vegetables and herbs. Presentation was really nice. Jay and I could probably eat deviled eggs daily...we like them so very much. These were some of the best.

For our mains, I ordered the Crab Sandwich with avocado aioli, bibb lettuce and "dilly" chips {crunchy little potato chips with dill}. Jay went for the Filet of Fish Sandwich with delicious crispy cod, American cheese, tartar sauce, and dilly chips. 
Both were really good, but I will admit that I liked Jay's just a little bit better. It was the smoky flavor of the cod that caught us both by surprise and left us smiling and licking our lips. The bread on both was soft and tasty.
I watched other diner's dishes coming out of the kitchen and everything looked great. I've got to come back for the Avocado Toast + Lobster.....it looked amazing!

 
Dessert is always a tough call for me. Being a baker and having worked in pastry...I am a pretty discriminating about it. Generally, I am all about contrasts with dessert, creamy and crunchy, hot and cold.
Dessert was pretty good. Not mind-blowing but good. We got the Chocolate Swiss Roll with Heath, cookie crumble ice cream, and fudge. And a candle {sweet}.
Next time I'd love to sample the Sticky Toffee Pudding, that was my second choice.

Here's to all the August birthdays out there! If you are celebrating this month, let me know what you did. And did you stretch it out to last the entire month? 
Oh, by the way. We are moving to our new house this week.
Happy Birthday to us big time! {Jay's a Leo too}.

Cheers!