Cochon 555

April 24, 2010 · 5 comments

I attended Cochon 555 this past Sunday, a nightcap on a fantastic birthday weekend. The weekend was jammed full of exercise, drinking, eating, and acquiring a solid sunburn at the Atlanta Braves game on Sunday. I went straight from the Braves game to the W downtown for the pig/wine event, and I didn’t feel like lugging my large camera around, so below are some poor photos of the event. It was fun. I ate a lot, drank a lot of wine, talked to some cool people, and finished off the night with some cocktails at Drinkshop and contraband charcuterie from Chef Craig Deihl of Cypress (Charleston). You can read some actual comprehensive accounts of the event here and here. Sean Brock and Mike Lata went all out, as expected. As Besha noted, Charleston waxed the floor with us. If this was Karate Kid, you might say they swept the leg.

Tagged as: atlanta events, pork, wine

http://www.melissalibbypr.com Melissa

Didn’t see you there! What a fun event!! I’m finally considering eating pork again – one week later.
http://www.suburbanwino.com joe

Thanks for the link up, Jimmy. We should find an event like this every weekend.
Sean M

so… did you pay for the event or no? I talked to someone who went and paid and was a little underwhelmed given the price.
http://eatitatlanta.com jimmy

Sean – I did not pay. I should have mentioned that in the interest of full disclosure. I do think the price was a bit steep. If I hadn’t just paid for a food trip to NYC I would have considered paying out of pocket, but until I received a free ticket I was going to pass to save $.

That being said, I have no idea what it costs to execute an event like this. I’m sure it’s not cheap logistically. Though I think it could be argued that a ticket that was $50 cheaper would have drawn a lot more people, and the resulting increase in volume would make up for the thinner margins. And outdoor festival vibe would have been more desirable, too. The unfinished hotel floor had a trade show feel.

I don’t want to diminish the effort put forth by the chefs involved. There were some great people making amazing food. As mentioned, Chef’s Lata and Brock were really impressive and I’m glad I was able to sample their stuff.
Sean M

thanks the the clarification. I don’t doubt that some good things were being done there food wise. Just sounded like it might have been artificially priced high to up the exclusivity factor. The complaints I heard had to do with the not so free flowing wine, and I think the amount of food might have been an issue. I’m sure it was fun, but I think most people would have preferred to spend $125 at a fine dining experience. I admit I was interested, but I looked at the past events and realized I probably wouldn’t be that crazy about the food. I’m not really a whole animal person.

anyway, cool that they are getting good chefs together and doing interesting thing with food, I just wish it was kept a little less “exclusive”.