Ladies who lunch!

I started the week off with a lovely lunch in Midtown Atlanta. I met a few girlfriends who also work in the Midtown/Downtown area at the Loews Hotel on Monday to try out the salad bar  that the restaurant Eleven offers during lunch hours. We sat outside, and the weather was absolutely perfect — definitely didn’t feel like July in Georgia.

For just $10, you can create your own salad from a variety of  lettuces, vegetables, nuts, dried fruits, meat, and dressings. The meal also includes an assortment of fresh breads (including corn bread and individual ramekins of soft butter) and a dessert of the day. It’s not huge, but it’s certainly the nicest salad bar I’ve ever been to.

We started off with gigantic mixing bowls to go through the line with, which was sort of funny. I think we all made the mistake of filling our bowls too full, because we all had leftovers. The salad was delicious, the cornbread was sweet and buttery, and the dessert (flourless chocolate cake with some sort of cream center) was sinfully rich. They also brought out a bowl of what looked to be salty homemade potato chips, which I couldn’t stop eating. And one of my favorite parts was the iced tea presentation! It was served with a mini glass pitcher for refills as well as a flight of 4 different simple syrup sweeteners. So pretty!

They have a regular lunch menu that includes options like the McDaddy Burger (double decker georgia beef patty, local cheddar, bacon, mushrooms, sunny side up egg) that also sound tasty, but I will definitely be back for the salad bar. I loved having an excuse to do something a little different for lunch during the work week with some lovely ladies!