MM: Task Force Celebrates 30 Years, Las Brasas First Look, and Have E-Books Peaked?
Decatur Metro | October 13, 2015 | 10:20 am
- Task Force celebrates 30 years of global health equity and compassion [Saporta Report]
- First Look: Las Brasas reopens in new Decatur location [AJC]
- Eye on Decatur – Twain’s [Next Stop…Decatur]
- Poem: “The Bridge” by Linda Pastan – Selected by Natasha Trethewey [NYTimes]
- 33 spooktacular October events for Atlanta families [Atlanta Magazine]
- The Plot Twist: E-Book Sales Slip, and Print Is Far From Dead [NYTimes]
Poster courtesy of Wikipedia
Wow. Didn’t know Las Brasas was moving sans original family owners. Hope the food stays as good…
Just got our first takeout since the move – $15+ for a smallish chicken? It was good, but not that good. Back to Publix, Sam’s or YDFM for us.
Holy Hell. Just looked at the menu online. $15 for a chicken is bad but $7 for fries is criminal. Or at least Kimball. I never minded paying a little more for their chicken as opposed to Publix, but it seems like they’ve almost doubled their prices. Did a little success and a new partner make them overestimate what people will pay for some simple food? Still might work in Decatur, though. First they gentrified our houses. Then they gentrified our beer. Now they’re gentrifying our chicken. Thank God I’ve pretty much perfected my copy cat version of their chicken, complete with the huacatay dipping sauce.
Agreed. One less restaurant I will visit.
As for Las Brasas’s replacement at the old site, Doggy Dogg…$8 for a hot dog is also a bit rich for my blood.
Victory remains the best deal in town.
Care to share the recipe with all of us?
Sure. I just found a few recipes online and modified them slightly. Best starting point for the chicken is:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/peruvian-grilled-chicken-239923
And for the sauce:
http://www.daringgourmet.com/2013/09/26/peruvian-aji-verde-sauce/
You can get the Peruvian pepper and black mint pastes at BuHI Farmer’s Market. I leave out the cheese in the dipping sauce because I think it gives it a weird consistency but that’s just personal preference.
The key is the cooking method. You really want a rotisserie smoker. I don’t have a rotisserie for it, but I cook it on my Big Green Egg over natural lump charcoal with a bit of pecan wood thrown in, at about 400 degrees until it’s about 160 degrees in the breast (45 minutes or so, depending on the chicken). This gives it a nice smokey flavor which you won’t get if you just roast it in the oven.
Good luck and good eats!
Thanks! My oven has a rotisserie but I have never used it…this may be the inspiration to finally try it out…
Have you tried it in the egg with a vertical/beer can roaster? Or does it need the direct heat? The recipe shows heavy grill marks.
Vertical roasters and beer cans are more trouble than they’re worth. I spatchcock/butterfly the chicken or use already separated parts and then cook it flat on a cast iron grate. Ignore the pics, you don’t need or want those heavy grill marks. I cook it indirect to better get some smoke flavor and approximate a real pollo a la brasa flavor. Using natural lump and some other wood thrown in, you can cook it higher in the dome over direct heat and won’t notice much difference.
I tried, but DM won’t let me. He must have a stake in Las Brasas or else he hates my Big Green Egg.
Can’t it be both?
Same family. They just added a partner.
I’m also super disappointed at Las Brasas re-opening. For months we waited and craved their chicken. But it’s obvious they are trying to cover their investment expenses in the entire backs of the costumer with no major changes or improvements to the food that merits the increase. For our family, the attractiveness of Las Brasas was to have a great and affordable meal I could pick up any time in the week. They have doubled the price of the chicken and everything else in the menu, and really, as much as I love your Papas a la Huancaina, there is so much I’m willing to pay for boiled eggs and potatoes. I knew the prices were going to go up, but they hiked them too much to make it worth it for me. I used to have Brasas chicken at least once a week, now I’m back to Publix too.
One more thing, on the first week of re-opening, it was clear in yelp that the rating of the new place was lower than the rating in the old one. Suddenly, me and my husband noticed a huge hike in the rating and some negative comments we have read before were not in the list of comments anymore. After digging a bit, we noticed all the negative comments (reasonable comments with lower ratings) had been moved to the “not recommended” section of comments. Not only you could not rate the usefulness of the comments to make them more relevant, but it is obvious that the negative ratings were not been averaged towards the total rating of Las Brasas. Now, I have not only lost my favorite chicken to-go spot, but my faith in yelp and it’s accuracy.
I am sad to hear the prices have doubled. That brings the cost of a take out meal for my family into the “not often if at all range”. We were frequent Las Brasas customers too…
I checked out the menu and I don’t think the prices have doubled. Missing some of our favorite sides like the corn. And the $15 chicken is for a whole chicken, right? we get one for the entire family and share sides. As long as the portions are the same I think it would be still under $50 …maybe even under $45 to feed a family of 5… Now if the portions are reduced my calculations are off..
Each item did not go up to twice the price, but overall between the reduction in portions and the price hike in each item, the total increase is about the double. When we went this time to the new place, we paid for a chicken, one portion or rice and one of beans, the same we used to pay for the chicken the rice and beans, papas and la Huancaina and a flan. We got the same quality for the food we got, half the food, and about twice the price.
And to Volvo Liberal’s comment below: this is not an issue of not supporting a local business, but if we want to remain the community we are today (vibrant and with minimal diversity), we need to support business that merit it, and alternatives that cater to a variety of groups and people. We are not talking about sophisticated food here, this is cheap, home-made Peruvian food. The Marlay House is a great example that you can have homely food, with affordable prices in a restaurant in Decatur and thrive. To assume that Decatur should only be for the wealthy family that does not have to pause and think about their expenses, or that supporting local business means paying outrageous prices for food or services that do not deserve it, it’s….well…..sad.
Is takeout still a central part of their business? Or is it mostly about more expensive sit-down dining now?
You all make Decatur sound like it’s inhabited by cheapskates. Overhead, a move and new space, come on. I got takeout there and it was very good, the cost was high, but worth it and not unlike anywhere else in this miserly, snobby town.
Its just chicken. Its not gourmet chicken, just chicken.
Everyone will do their own math and make their owns decisions on value. But at $22+ for a small chicken and very modest serving of sweet potato chips, we’re out.
Shame too, cause they’re a lot closer and much easier for us in the new spot.
Yes, yes they will.
Anyone up for fried chicken and grits for $19+? Or chicken and pub fritas for $26+? Or just chicken roulade for $22?
This cheapskate is happy to go elsewhere and leave the overpriced chicken (and all the other too-expensive places I can’t afford) to you.
I’m also wondering if it’s actually possible to be simultaneously miserly AND snobby.
Absolutely, it is. Time for you to re-read your Dickens. Mr. Ebenezer Scrooge lives forever for succeeding at both.
Thanks, Parker. Never read Dickens (yes I know, gasp, the educational system failed me), but now I know.
Still not spending $15 on a chicken, though. Or, as Bin Birru says, fried chicken and grits for $19+, chicken and pub fritas for $26, or chicken roulade for $22. I’ll just wait for J_T’s invitation. 🙂
“I’m also wondering if it’s actually possible to be simultaneously miserly AND snobby.”
So far this year, I’ve spent $19 on clothes (3 items on clearance at Old Navy and Kohls), but you couldn’t pay me to drink a PBR or Budweiser or eat a BIg Mac.
Fortunately the majority of us in this city still seem to be willing to support local businesses even if it means paying a few bucks more.
Of course you can get it cheaper elsewhere/make it yourself if you have the time and the inclination. If everyone decided to make their own chicken at home and order everything else they need/want from Amazon then we wouldn’t have to worry about having a city at all.
That’s not the point. It was just nice to have a cheap alternative in the city. And there is nothing gourmet about their chicken to warrant the price. I think most people would have just preferred that they stayed where they were and kept the prices the same. I understand the owner’s decision though.
Above-market chicken prices are what holds us together as a community?
Of course. Can’t believe you didn’t know that. And our desire to not overpay for chicken means we don’t support local businesses and the city will collapse.
One more to add to my list of worries that keep me up at night.
Why worry? Open a locally-owned restaurant or store of some kind and proudly advertise “the highest prices in town, for the benefit of the community!”
I have not tried the new location. I always went to the old location for a 1/4 chicken lunch and it was tasty and reasonably priced (and the papas Huancaina rocked). However, the price for a whole chicken at the old location was $11 – already too pricey IMO. You can get a Bell and Evans whole rotisserie chicken at YDFM for $8. YDFM only offers lemon pepper seasoning, which is not my fave, but it is good quality chicken. $15 for a chicken is waaaay too much.