Atlanta Underground Market: Encore

Last night, Atlanta played host to its second Underground Market.  Though I thoroughly enjoyed the last one, last night's market was infinitely better.  For those of you just catching wind of these events, allow me to introduce you to the concept.  The idea was born in San Francisco, a city adored by foodies worldwide.  Lots of local food vendors get together to provide generously sized samples for reasonable prices.  The event is kept so hush-hush, the location of the Underground Market was only announced through private emails 24 hours prior to the event.

Like the inaugural Atlanta Underground Market, which took place in Sweet Auburn, this event's location was central, convenient, and significant.  The Market was held in Atlanta's historic Castleberry Hill, a neighborhood that was originally part of the Snake Nation community during the Civil War, then later evolved into a thriving industrial area.  Today, the area is known for its art strolls and its quirky dive bars.  Castleberry Point, a set of lofts in Castleberry Hill, was the perfect venue for the Atlanta Underground Market.

{via Atlanta City Homes}

The facade of the building was unassuming.  I don't think you'd be able to find the Underground Market unless you were looking for it!  Fortunately, we were.

"AUM?"  Love it.

My friend, Emily, and I entered the market to find a much more manageable crowd than last time.  During the first market, we waited for about an hour only to enter a very crowded Curb Market.  This time, delicious smells filled the wide open spaces; and we were easily able to navigate our way through the venue with plenty of elbow room.

We started at MoMo's Kitchen and Catering, where we enjoyed turkey bacon wrapped dates with sage and goat cheese, accompanied by fried mashed potatoes.

Not only was the food delicious, these folks were so darn nice!  They were so pleased to see how much we were enjoying their food, they gave us each an extra bacon-wrapped date...for free!  It's always nice to meet chefs who truly love what they do.

Next, we hit up my favorite vendor from last time, Chubby's Kitchen.  They were serving up zucchini-mint soup with lemon cream.  The dish included a "Spicy Cheddar-Pecan Coin," also known as the most delicious cracker I've ever eaten.

We were a little skeptical at first...zucchini, mint, and lemon?  Seemed like an odd combo, but the flavors married perfectly.  Kudos to Chubby's Kitchen for their creativity!

Next, we tried some homemade salami from Finely Cured.

The salami was spicy and fatty and flavorful and authentic.  The bread and cheese selections perfectly complimented it.  My mouth is watering remembering it.

We then tried a Southwestern Burrito from Jer'Vay's.  This burrito came in two options: vegetable or chicken.  I chose the vegetarian option, which was served with spicy ranch sauce.

The burrito shell was just the right amount of chewy, the flavors inside were just the right amount of spicy, and the sauce provided just the right amount of cool to the hot.

We finished up our savory tour with some shrimp and grits.  I failed to take a picture of the shop providing this tasty dish (Bad blogger! Bad!), so if you were there and remember, kindly comment so that I can provide credit!

It wasn't how I usually picture shrimp and grits, but different was good in this case!  It was more like a gumbo, and the sauteed veggies provided an interesting texture in combination with the creamy grits.

We moved on to dessert, starting with Cake Balls by Nikki.

The cake itself was incredibly moist, and the concept of putting it on a stick made it super fun to eat!  Plus, they were a lot bigger than Starbucks' new creation.  No offense, Starbucks!

Next up on our dessert tour was the "Lazy Cake" from Bear Maker Bakery.

I'm calling it right now.  Push up cupcakes are the new big thing.  Move over cupcakes, cake pops, whoopie pies, and macaroons; this was just too much fun to eat!  I also really enjoyed the taste...yay rum!

Next, we had some ice cream from Morelli's.

Look at all those unique flavors!  We tried the salted caramel, which was to die for.  It was very salty, very creamy, very sweet...and the fact that they were able to cram that much flavor into an ice cream was very impressive.  Plus, their website is awesome AND they gave us a 25% off coupon to visit their shop on Moreland.  Now that's how it's done!

We finished up with The Pop Shop.

It's hard to compare these guys with The King of Pops; they're both so good!  It was a similar concept, natural ingredients with lots of a flavor packed into a small bite.  But these guys did a little more with combining sweet with savory.  We had the tangerine rosemary pop, and the flavors worked really well together.

Like the last Atlanta Underground Market, this event contributed to a cause.  A portion of proceeds benefited Whole Planet Foundation, Whole Food's nonprofit which provides microloans to communities in developing countries in an effort to help create sustainable businesses.  Awesome.

My only critique of the event? Though all of the vendors had very memorable food, a couple of them didn't have very memorable branding.  Vendors, the Atlanta Underground Market is an easy way to drive in business...but it doesn't do you any good if you don't provide some way to follow up!  If you don't want to spend the money printing business cards or hosting a website, print out a sign linking to your Facebook page or your Twitter handle.  Those are free!

I appreciated the fact that we didn't have to wait in line and sift through crowds, but the best part of the Atlanta Underground Market was the food.  It was great last time, but this time there was more of an identity.  There were vegan dishes, but it wasn't all about international cuisine for different diets.  There were more options.  Best of all, there was a lot more Atlanta flavor; lots of sweet + salty, lots of Southern fusion, and lots of bacon.  More of that next time, please!

Be sure to check out www.atlantaundergroundmarket.com and sign up for the mailing list so that you can join me next time!  It's definitely worth the hype.