Sidecar (1072 Baxter St., 706-201-9216) is not exactly a proper restaurant, as its name suggests. Instead, it’s an add-on to Mimi Maumus’ home.made, a small and adorable room just off the dining room of her main gig that serves as a fun bar and a place for experimentation by chef and customers alike. It does not take itself too seriously. Find one of the little plastic animals hidden around the room, and you’ll get a dollar off your total. The final two pages of the menu (which is somewhat hidden under the table, hanging from a little hook and encased in a children’s book) have instructions for various card games, and there are packs of cards that you can grab off a small shelf that runs the length of the space. The last half hour of operations brings half-off prices, too.
The restaurant isn’t afraid to play around and mix things up, but it doesn’t feel like it’s too cool, just like a lark. A cocktail special on the chalkboard listed as Nerds & Tonic is actually a gin and tonic, made with a rhubarb-infused gin that does, in fact, blossom in the mouth like the classic crunchy candy. It’s delicious. It’s light. It’s drinkable. The mint julep is a little too heavy on the crushed ice, served in a classic silver cup with a mound of ice like a sno-cone. There are beers, wines and a nice section of nonalcoholic cocktails to ease one’s transition (permanent or temporary) into sobriety.
The food is snacky and bar-influenced. The FOMO burger is named so because the kitchen only makes 10 a night. Miss out, and you won’t have the chance to experience it. Like the best burgers, it skips ketchup entirely and relies on two thin, smashed patties on a bun cooked with an amazing amount of butter and combined with comeback sauce, cheddar, onions, lettuce and pickled green tomatoes. Served with a scattering of Zapps dill potato chips, it’s all savory, no sweet, and intensely meaty—one of the best burgers in town. That said, it’s not my favorite thing on that menu. That goes to the smoked fish gyoza, tiny pockets of salty umami that come with a charred scallion sauce that adds some sweetness and is both tasty with the dumplings and unnecessary to enjoy them. One word of caution: Take a beat before you pop one in your mouth lest you burn your tongue in eagerness.
The charc bites, sort of upscale corndogs, are just as cute, shaped like fat triangles with rounded corners, each encasing a hunk of mortadella (although, really, it might as well be a cocktail wiener; the flavor of everything around it overpowers the meat pretty effectively). They are served in a puddle of Creole mustard and diluted pepper jelly, a combination of condiments both utterly new and strangely familiar. The spring salad (little gem lettuce with English peas in celery pistou, sugar snaps, fromage blanc, compressed honeydew with black pepper and shaved prosciutto) is a big plate of veggies, better at the beginning of the meal where its delicate flavors can unfurl without being upstaged by salt bombs. Is it too delicate? Maybe a touch for a bar. A better opener is the snack plate of poached and chilled shrimp (big, firm, flavorful) and pickled okra redolent of malt vinegar, plus a little container of shmancy cocktail sauce. It’s cold and wonderful, full of different briny flavors hanging out together.
The plates aren’t tiny, and they aren’t huge. Five seems about right for two folks, so it’s not a super cheap meal, but the ingredients are good, and the kitchen aims to please while subtly slipping in a little challenge. Dessert is nice, too, with the chocolate ice cream with miso caramel and black sesame crunch (yay for savory again, although the wee crystal-stemmed bowl it’s served in is a little too small to contain it, meaning you’re likely to send some sesame crunch across the table) besting the strawberry pistachio blondie (perfectly nice but less interesting). You could have a full meal, or you could just get a cocktail and a dessert, or you could opt for a bucket of beers and hang out for hours, munching on pepper jelly pecans and cheese straws or enjoying some nice oysters on the half-shell. It’s flexible, depending on your needs and desires, which should help it find an audience that’s a bit different from home.made’s, but no less loyal. The kitchen at Sidecar is open Wednesday through Saturday from 5–9 p.m., but the bar stays open until 10 or 11 p.m. There is theoretically outdoor dining, with heaters when the weather is cold, but it isn’t always set up.
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