Mayflower Restaurant, Athens GA

The last time I went to Athens, in January with Randy, we stopped at the very good Bar-B-Q Shack. Upon reflection, what we should have done then, for thematic reasons that I like to keep in order, was gone to the Mayflower Restaurant downtown. That’s because Randy’s father, a wonderful man who was lost to us in a stupid traffic accident about eight years ago, had been a student at the University of Georgia in the mid-1950s, by which time the Mayflower was already established. In a town with restaurant turnover as brutal as Athens, finding a place that’s been around for twenty years is uncommon. A place like the Mayflower, which opened in 1948, is one of a kind. Continue reading “Mayflower Restaurant, Athens GA” →

Vingenzo’s, Woodstock GA

Well, here’s a surprise. This pizza restaurant in Woodstock completely blindsided me. A couple of years ago, when everybody was going nuts – and rightly so – about the mighty and wonderful Varasano’s, this place calmly opened and casually revealed a product every bit as good, only with a wider menu and a much more laid-back and relaxed atmosphere, with no pretension or artifice. Seriously, I’ve had several truly great pies at Varasano’s, and one visit which was a little disappointing, but Vingenzo’s is every bit as wonderful as Varasano’s at their best and, honestly, surpasses them in an area or two. I think that I might have found a new favorite pizza place in the Atlanta area.

Neopolitan pies are the order of the day here. Just about everything is handmade, down to the cheeses, and served up on eleven-inch pies. I think that two of these should feed three people.

On Wednesday, the four of us came up here, meeting our friends Neal, Donna and Eric for supper. My daughter was under orders not to protest or make any hints; she was on my list for overindulging at breakfast. My son, getting over a cold, had lost his voice, and so he, literally, pointed out several interesting pies from their menu that he’d like to try. I recommend that everybody try this out themselves one day soon. It’s so much nicer and more pleasant selecting pizza when one child cannot protest and the other has been strongly warned not to.

We had an awesome server who went over everything and made some suggestions, encouraging us to try their mozzarella pairings. These appetizers, priced between $7-10 each, give you a good portion of cheese along with something else to complement the taste. I tried the very soft mozzarella di bufala with a little pepper, served with a few leaves of mixed greens and two white anchovies. It was completely delicious. Neal had a different, creamier cheese, Stracciatella di Burrata, that came with greens, cherry tomatoes and capers. If you’re sharing, then for $18 you can get the “Grand Tasting,” which gives you each of Vingenzo’s three cheeses along with the small salad, peppers, capers and two types of olives. You don’t get the delicious anchovies this way, but I expect that many of my readers probably don’t care for those anyway.

Marie was not feeling especially hungry, so she enjoyed a bowl of pasta e fagioli soup for dinner along with a good bit of bread. You’ll definitely want to try this; it’s a pizza crust, basically, with olive oil and a little parmesan. The children and I, meanwhile, split two pizzas and I think that we chose well. The Regina comes with sausage and wild mushrooms and that was pretty knockdown good on its own, but the other pie, Bianca con Prosciutto e Fontina, was the master stroke. It came with prosciutto and a heap of arugula atop more of this amazing cheese. It is very similar to the excellent Nucci pizza at Varasano’s, but heaven help me, I liked this even better. I don’t know where the notion of mixing arugula and salty meats together originated, but I sure am glad that somebody figured it out.

Vingenzo’s also makes fresh pasta – Neal said that his was wonderful and Donna and Eric also enjoyed their linguine – with a variety of sauces and toppings that all sound amazing. With an introductory meal this good and a menu this dense, this is absolutely a place that needs revisiting, and without delay. Heck, one of these days, I’d like to start working on the wine list here, too. I am really glad that we found this place, and look forward to another visit soon.

Tin Can Fish House and Oyster Bar, Sandy Springs GA

I’d been hoping for several weeks to get a chance to visit Tin Can Fish House and Oyster Bar, as several of the region’s food writers have been raving about it. This past Saturday, Marie wanted to visit a maternity consignment shop in Buckhead. It was a really gorgeous and warm day – far too warm for it to really be February! – and so the two of us left the children to their own devices and drove over to Sandy Springs for an early lunch. We arrived a little too early, as it turned out – they do not open until 11.30 – and so that gave us twenty minutes to walk around the curious strip mall where the restaurant is located. The development is centered around a Kroger, but rather than a conventional strip, it’s four or five short two-story buildings, all hidden above and behind Roswell Road and Hammond. It’s really not that easy to find; basically, if you are standing at the entrance to Kroger, then Tin Can is ahead of you and to the right, next door to their older sister restaurant, Teela Taquiera.

Interestingly, it appears that the spot was previously taken by the same brother and sister ownership team’s Italian restaurant, but back in September, they elected to convert it to a seafood place. They had previously run a seafood restaurant called Fishmonger in the same area of town. I never tried it, but it was said to be pretty good. I read an article over at the Atlanta Business Chronicle where co-owner Arte Antoniades said that our area was lacking in casual, relaxed places to get good seafood. I’d agree with that. It’s all big-roomed family places full of long waits and screaming kids or high-end joints.

The closest that I can recall of a simple, no-wait place for great, reasonably-priced seafood was Blue Ocean in Alpharetta. Unfortunately, they chose to build on Windward Parkway and were part of that gigantic and regular restaurant turnover that I mentioned in this blog earlier in the month.

Tin Can certainly has the casual and relaxed part down pat. Despite the trappings of the very nice strip mall, this is a really laid-back and friendly place. Marie picked a table by the window – we missed a trick not going outside, but then again it was awfully bright – with a wobbly bit on the floor that no chair would evenly sit. She ordered grilled grouper with a salad and saffron rice. The salad was excellent – mixed greens with tomatoes, figs and walnuts in a light balsamic dressing, although the rice was a little saltier than she liked.

The grouper itself was really tasty, but I preferred my selection. I had the standard cod and fries with slaw, and if there’s a better seafood meal around town for nine bucks, I never heard of it. The cod was flaky and delicate and just wonderful. The shoestring fries were almost just right; they could have used a hair of the salt from Marie’s rice. The slaw was really good, with just the right blend of vinegar and thin mayo. I also ordered a side of fried green tomatoes, unsurprisingly. A side order comes with three slices and a small cup of spicy remoulade.

Honestly, the cod and grouper were as good as any I’ve had, and for a little bit less than I’m used to spending. It’s a hair more of a drive from our neighborhood than would be ideal, but it’s certainly worth another visit the next time we are in the area. And relaxing with some good food like this put me in a much better mood than I had been, just in time to spend the next hour or so thumbing through baby clothes. See, told you I’d be diverting some of our disposable income and dining money on clothes for the kid. I’m not a complete beast.

Thumbs Up Diner, Atlanta GA

The problem with mile-long to-do lists, like mine, is that I cannot remember how on earth some of the things that have been on there the longest got there in the first place. Take Thumbs Up Diner, for instance. I haven’t been in Decatur in months, but one time I was there, I pointed out the Thumbs Up location there – it is one of five in the Atlanta area – to Marie and told her that I had heard you can get a really good breakfast here and that we need to stop in one of these days. Not long afterward, our friend David, who’s always looking out for a good place to eat, forwarded me a link to the restaurant’s web site. “Yep,” I said. “It’s on the list!” So are, if we’re honest, something like fifty other places. I have really got to get up to Cincinnati to take care of the three or four places up there I want to try.

The problem, as ever, is finding the free time and the pennies to make it to any place at the same time that my enthusiasm and curiosity push a place up to the top of the wishlist. It helps that Thumbs Up has a location about a mile from where I work, and so, with a short day last week, I decided to drive over to the Marietta Street location for a late breakfast. It has a beautiful view of the midtown skyline, except some guy at Georgia Tech decided to stick the backside of some big athletic facility in the way.

I spent what seemed like a lot of time trying to figure out what I wanted. I hear that their pancakes and waffles are really good, and thought about trying one, but I went with one of the house specialties, The Heap, instead. This is a skillet filled with cheesy potatoes, scrambled eggs, onions and peppers, and I added chicken. I’m very glad that I resisted the temptation to get a waffle with it, because the Heap alone was considerably more food than any one person needs, and I was not able to finish it. It wasn’t at all bad, but it needed some salt and pepper and Texas Pete hot sauce to bring things to life. It came with a very tasty biscuit. That, I did finish.

My little breakfast was a very pleasant getaway. I didn’t learn anything much about the diner; even if the waitresses weren’t busy refilling coffee throughout their near-full house, I really just felt like relaxing in a nice, reasonably quiet place and watching the world pass by. Sadly, there’s not a lot of pedestrian traffic on this stretch of Marietta Street, so I couldn’t do much in the way of people watching. But for sitting back with a good book and watching the world go by, this is a fine place to do it. Might have to do it again sometime soon, now that it’s no longer collecting dust on a to-do list.

Bradley’s BBQ, Sweetwater TN

When I learned that I’d be making a second out-of-state trip in two weeks, I was really pleased. I realized a little more than a year ago that my dream job would be driving around the country and eating. If I could get out of town with some family or friends three times a month, I’d do it. The problem – and I use that world loosely – is finding the new things that would make this adventure perpetually thrilling. Over the year or so that Marie and I have been doing this blog, we’ve been eating at known favorites less and less in favor of trying new places. There are one or two big favorites of ours in Atlanta that we haven’t revisited all year. Continue reading “Bradley’s BBQ, Sweetwater TN” →

The Tomato Head, Knoxville TN

If you’ve been following our stories here, you’ve read that my son has returned to the Atlanta area and is living with us again. When we started the blog about a year ago, my son had been with his mother in Louisville, Kentucky, for about five months. We were glad to have him back for spring break last year, and for a few months in the summer, and anticipated him returning this coming fall for high school. He decided over Christmas break, a few days before my father passed, that he wanted to stay with us, and not return to Louisville. Continue reading “The Tomato Head, Knoxville TN” →

Zarzour’s Cafe, Chattanooga TN

Here’s a really interesting restaurant that I supposed I would not get the chance to try. Zarzour’s Cafe opened in 1918 and has a wonderful reputation for their meat-and-three meals, but, sadly, the restaurant, for years, has only been open from 11 am to 2 in the afternoon, and only on weekdays. That’s not a very good window for out-of-town guests! Fortunately, they have elected to stay open a little bit longer each weekday – to the comparatively late hour of 3.30 – even though the kitchen itself still closes at 2. Guests in this last ninety minute window can still order some of their very famous burgers, grilled up by an exceptionally sassy lady who let us know how she drank her way out of college in Knoxville. Yes, this place is a dive in the finest possible sense of the word, and I love it absolutely. Continue reading “Zarzour’s Cafe, Chattanooga TN” →