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Id | NEWS YOU CAN EAT Restaurants • Wine • Events
The Grande Dame of Dining Out
Food critic Christiane Lauterbach roams Atlanta seeking the next great meal
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Christiane Lauterbach at the
Daily Chew in Morningside-Lenox Park.
(Photo by Isadora Pennington)
By Dyana Bagby
C hristiane Lauterbach would rather
eat an Oscar Meyer hot dog
slathered in German mustard than
a seasoned sausage that costs ten
bucks.
“I would never say one duplicates the
other,” says Lauterbach, the renowned
restaurant critic for Atlanta magazine
who is not afraid to share her opinions
— glowing and critical — about the city’s
dining scene.
“But nobody talks about the ratio of
price to pleasure ... there is a simplicity
factor,” she says, explaining the difference
between a cheap, tasty mass-produced hot
dog and a chef-made, tasty hot dog.
“But I do love hot dogs, they are one
of my vices,” she adds with a chuckle.
This is pretty high praise from someone
who served nearly 20 years on the James
Beard Awards Committee tasked with
selecting the best of America’s food
culture.
Lauterbach, who says she is “70ish,”
was born in Paris. Her mother abandoned
her when she was an infant and she
was raised by her father and a stern
grandmother. As a child, she wandered
the streets of Paris and discovered a world
of architecture, parks, and food.
“I was a very lonely kid growing up in
a very big city,” she says. “So, when you
don’t have anybody and you live in Paris,
you walk incessantly. And you look at
stuff, you follow your own intuition.”
The young explorer observed what her
family could and could not afford, and
she was very interested to see what other
people were eating. She would taste the
free bites of food handed out by vendors,
noticing the textures of a pate or a pastry,
for example. She also began paying
attention to how different foods made
her feel — excited, warm, sensual. These
emotions come back to her still today
when she writes about dining.
She continued her explorations and
moved to Munich, Germany, in her 20s
and then later to New York City. She
eventually settled in Atlanta where her
husband attended Emory Law School. In
the early 1980s, she helped found Knife
and Fork, the premier guide to local
restaurants that was mailed to subscribers.
The popular newsletter is currently on
hiatus after nearly 40 years. In Knife and
Fork’s heyday not too long ago, however,
it caught the attention of Jeff Bezos who
advertised subscriptions to the newsletter
on Amazon. He didn’t ask Lauterbach
before doing so and didn’t have copies
of Knife and Fork. Lauterbach angrily
sent him a letter demanding he take her
product off his website. He did.
“He listed it for so much more money
than it really is,” she says, anger in her
voice. And she adds, only half-joking. “It
is worth living long enough to see him
die.”
Although she has lived in Atlanta since
the 1970s, Lauterbach identifies solidly as
a Parisian.
“There’s many, many cultural
differences between Americans in general,
but of course between Southerners and
NEW RESTAURANT RADAR
Westside Motor
Lounge is open at
Echo Street West in
the English Avenue
neighborhood serving
up serving a menu
of Southern dishes,
snacks, and cocktails.
Info: westsidemotor-
lounge.com
22 NOVEMBER 2022 | [E]
UK-based brewpub
BrewDog is now
open at Krog Street
Market with 28 taps,
beers brewed onsite,
and a full kitchen
serving pub grub. Info:
brewdog.com/usa/
atlanta.
Dolo’s Pizza, which
combines New York
pizzas and Caribbean
flavors, has opened its
brick-and-mortar res
taurant along Lower
Alabama Street at
Underground Atlanta.
Info: @dolospizza.co
on IG.
Atlanta coffee lovers
can now experience
the full taste of Italy
with illy Caffe, the
European-style cafe
and coffee bar set
to open at Atlantic
Station at 26419th
Street.
AtlantalntownPaper.com