Georgia Trend Magazine, January 2000
"East Meets West" by Ed Lightsey

In most university towns, dining out centers around gyros, pizza, hamburgers and other fast-food staples. But in most cases there is at least one distinct restaurant that offers fine dining for professors, professionals and others who appreciate a serene setting for a quiet, well-prepared and well-presented meal accompanied by the appropriate wines.

Walk along Broad Street in front of the arched entrance to the University of Georgia in Athens and you'll find collegiate cuisine. You'll also discover the East West Bistro, an unexpected oasis of excellent food.

The East West Bistro is steadily building a reputation as a classic example of the fusion of cultures and their foods that marks the American experience. Here dining is an experiment, a collision of flavors served up by Lamar Thomas, a native Georgian with ambitious talents. A veteran of Nikolai's Roof and The Abbey restaurants in Atlanta, Thomas is encouraged in his gambles by owner Renee Crymes, who can never be accused of timidity in structuring her menu. "I guess you could say we're eclectic," says Crymes. The diversity and quality of the menu has garnered it the Award of Excellence from Wine Spectator magazine for four consecutive years.

The restaurant features four distinct dining areas, including the street-level room known as "Downtown," which offers food with a definite Asian influence. For a recent dinner appetizer there, Chef Thomas sent out shitake mushroom egg rolls with a wasabi and sweet soy sauce served in the less formal Downtown room. These light, croissant-shaped beginnings were accompanied by a McPherson Shiraz, and it was a perfect hint of things to come - an Asian dish with a wine of Persian origins.

Tables downstairs are covered in butcher paper, and the dining room features bare brick walls and a row of booths as well as tables. The bar in this area turns into a student hangout at 10:30 nightly, so it's wise to begin early if you want to have a leisurely dinner in quiet surroundings.

Upstairs, the diner finds a decidedly more formal atmosphere, in which not-so-classic northern Italian fare is offered, along with innovative dishes that could best be described as "outré" cuisine. We began with black mussels steamed in a lobster/clam stock with lemon grass, garlic, spinach and Parmesan cheese. The dish was remarkable for the tenderness for the mussels and the slight hint of curry. It was generous enough for tow to share, especially when immediately followed by a plate of Italian bread topped with grappa-marinated salmon and Mascarpone cheese.

Such beginnings were best enjoyed with a well-chilled 1997 Cosentino Chardonnay ($24). Over 70 choices are featured on the East West wine list, priced from $16 to $47. Selections from European, South American and Californian vineyards give the diner enough variety to complete any meal.

For entrees we found the blackened filet with caramelized onions brushed with honey to be exceptional. Simple extraordinary was a beautifully presented roasted pork loin stuffed with leeks, sun-dried tomatoes, peppers, shallots and Parmesan cheese, and served with squid ink over pasta.

A strong candidate for most interesting dish of the night was the wasabi-crusted Tilapia with mango chutney, served on a bed of Japanese soba noodles. This was truly a collision of several cultures that left us lamenting the limits of human capacity.

Finally, the chocolate walnut pie and banana chocolate ice cream brought an interesting and fun dining experience to a close, that is, unless you have daring and a designated driver. In which case, you might want to try the chocolate martini, a wicked blend of Godiva liqueur, ice cream and vodka.

While all dining experiences begin in one of the tastefully decorated areas of the restaurant, there's another way to start at the East West Bistro - outside. Begin with a glass of wine at one of the street-side tables in front of the restaurant and recall the vagaries of youth. Here you'll find punk, grunge, preppie, jock, and hippie cultures. Even the occasional boulevardier strolls by.

Spotted this night was a young man with a parrot on his shoulder walking down the street. Athens is almost a shrine to the diversity of youth, and it's only fitting that one restaurant -the East West Bistro-is becoming a shrine to the diversity of food from many cultures.