No. 246, Decatur

I have driven past this restaurant many a times but didn’t really give it much thought. However, on Friday while brainstorming good Italian restaurants in Atlanta with two friends this one came up. I was meeting someone for dinner on Saturday and she was up for anything. Since I don’t have much patience for waiting to try new restaurants once I hear about them I decided to make a reservation and check it out. We started out with Toasts (mini bruschetta), you can order an assortment but we each got one to try, our topping of choice was roasted summer squash. We then moved on to the Heirloom Summer Salad with green beans, a pairing I have not tried before but the different textures together were awesome. Luckily Susan was up for splitting a pasta and a pizza so we got to try both! We picked the special,  a Ricotta Ravioli but the ricotta was made with goat cheese and it had a fantastic tang to it, on top were wild mushrooms along with a browned butter red wine sauce. Sounds intense but all the flavors melded super well together. Next up was the pizza, just the Margherita but the crust was thin and perfectly cooked. Finally came time for dessert, neither of us could decide so we asked for our servers favorite. I’m not sure what it was called exactly but there was an outer shell made out of chocolate with a caramel filling, it wasn’t cake or cream like, (this was just one of those desserts you remember how it tastes but can’t remember all the details)  and it was topped with extra dark chocolate gelato coated with cocoa powder. It knocked my socks off. A fabulous ending to fabulous meal. The service was good and our table was always well attended to but I will warn future attendees that it can be loud so if you don’t like that perhaps don’t go on a busy Friday or Saturday night. I am rather ashamed that I mistakenly drove by this restaurant unassuming for so long, I guess the rule can hold true even for restaurants… never judge a book by its cover, or in this case a restaurant by its door.