I shed a tear for the Shed at Glenwood.

I really want to love the Shed. I mean, it's the closest eatery to our house, and it's trying to be much nicer than the other establishments in the vicinity. But I think maybe they're trying too hard.

We arrived around a quarter past 7 on a Friday evening. There were a fair number of parties already seated, but also open tables. The space was attractive, and the soundtrack was '60s pop music. The crowd was pretty diverse--a lot more baby boomers than I generally see in Grant Park.

We sat on the patio since this is the time of year in Atlanta when one must seize the rare opportunity to dine al fresco when one won't sweat one's ass off.

The service was outstanding--dishes were well-paced and attractively plated. They sent out some fresh potato chips with a blue cheese dip and two small cups of boiled peanuts for a quite hefty amuse bouche. The chips were good--thin and crisp, but the dip didn't taste like blue cheese at all. I love boiled peanuts; my husband does not, so I polished off both cups. They were tasty, but I would have liked them to be a little more seasoned than they were.

We had an order of the marinated olives, which were fine, with these two while we were in negotiations over what to order. He had a Stella Artois on draft--they had a long list of beers on draft which is pretty cool. I ordered a glass of the weekly red wine. The server actually brought the bottle to the table to pour my glass which is cool so I could actually see the label. The pour was also extremely generous--probably slightly more than 1/4 bottle.

After a delicate weaving of our inclinations and the server's recommendations, we ordered to share:

the charcuterie plate: mostly good, but a lot of the cured meats were duck, and I think I decided that I like cured pig better than cured duck. The chicken liver pate was quite tasty. The whole think was a little dry...maybe a little olive oil or a vinaigrette would loosen it up?

the roasted beet salad: the best thing we had all night. The creaminess of the goat cheese complemented the tang of the beets. It was beautiful--a blend of yellow and red beets with oranges and some little sprigs of watercress or some similar green leafy stuff. Apparently after 30 years of shunning them, this is the summer in my life where I start to like beets.

the braised short ribs:LOVE LOVE LOVE that they split this and plated each half separately, but that was kind of the best part about it. The broccolini was good, but the meat and the grits were oddly flavorless. I felt like the whole dish needed salt...or something. I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but I was definitely disappointed. I ate it and it was fine, but in my opinion, an $18 entree should be more than fine.

the truffled fries: tasty, but not crispy enough.

By the time we left, the patio was completely full. I didn't peek inside, but it seemed like the restaurant got pretty busy.

The service was fantastic, and we got out of there for about $70 including the tip. At this point, I should also probably factor in that our total travel cost to the restaurant was $0 since we walked. With gas at $4+ a gallon, that is a luxury that made me think about giving the Shed an extra star.

We'll definitely be back. I love the concept, I love that they are starting a Saturday morning farmer's market, I love the staff. The importance of food trumps all that for me, though. Get your menu up to snuff, Shed, and we'll be BFFs.