I think that like all of us, even the directors of films that didn’t pass muster with him, I had to pause for a moment of heartbreak when Roger Ebert passed this month. I don’t believe there’s a person in the United States that has penned any kind of film or TV or music or literary or video criticism in the last thirty years who has done so without the influence of “Uncle Roger.” Since I’ve walked those avenues, both professionally and blog-a-fessionally, for more than twenty myself, I’ve always been acutely aware of his writing and his passions. I stopped reading him regularly quite some time ago, around the point where feature films stopped thrilling me the way that they once did, but I almost always went back to check his opinion on whatever movie I had just seen. Or whatever Pedro Almodovar has made lately; I never actually get out to see his movies anymore. Continue reading “Remembering Roger at Steak ‘n Shake”
Month: April 2013
Bo Bo Garden, Doraville GA
We finally got back over to Doraville to try a place whose big, sizzling impact on the local food hobbyists has long since faded away, but I’ve got to tell you, Bo Bo Garden still knows how to put together a fine evening full of excellent food. Marie and the baby and I joined a huge mob – 23 adults – for a senses-disorienting couple of hours here and enjoyed ourselves tremendously. Continue reading “Bo Bo Garden, Doraville GA”
Crawfish Shack, Atlanta GA (take two)
This is Marie, contributing an article about Crawfish Shack on Buford Highway. Our regular readers know that we have been diligently collecting restaurants along this stretch of road for a while, though our travels have not left us many opportunities for revisits, or for the family to go together to a place that Grant first visited on his own. But we made time for this one after our friend Leslie, who writes The Food and Me, suggested that we meet here. Continue reading “Crawfish Shack, Atlanta GA (take two)”
Cheeseburger Bobby’s, Atlanta GA
Not unreasonably, we were once asked whether we ever eat at the same place twice. Clearly we do – hence this month’s trio of “take two” entries – but we don’t really go back to even favorite places all that frequently. One exception, however, is the Cheeseburger Bobby’s near us on Barrett Parkway, where we go as a family about three times a month. Admittedly, you can find three or four better burgers in the city, but we find Bobby’s perfectly fine, especially for the price, and we love the customization and, especially, the service. If there’s a restaurant in Atlanta with a better crew than the Cheeseburger Bobby’s on Barrett, it’s news to us, and you might have noticed that we eat out a lot. Continue reading “Cheeseburger Bobby’s, Atlanta GA”
License to Spill at the Dogwood Festival
We’re breaking away from our usual chronological format to talk about what we did this past Saturday, so that – hopefully – we can let some friends and readers up the road know about an event traveling in their direction. The syndicated Better Show – shown locally on CBS affiliate WGCL – has teamed up with sponsor Mohawk Flooring for a tour called License to Spill, and they’ve been showing up at festivals and fairs eating messy food and, at some stops, smearing this messy food all over carpet samples to demonstrate that no matter what homeowners can do to their floor, Mohawk carpets can be cleaned. We rarely go in for product testimonials here, but I can truly say that when I lived in Oconee County some years ago, and the then-baby girlchild and her older brother routinely tossed their chocolate milk everywhere, I wished that we had carpet that cleaned like I saw this stuff. Continue reading “License to Spill at the Dogwood Festival”
Cali-N-Tito’s, Athens GA
There’s a terrific building in Athens, south of the campus and adjacent to one of the athletic tracks on Lumpkin. For many years, it was the home of Cruiser’s, which served up some of the city’s best burgers. Later, it was Achim’s K-Bob’s, the ancestor of Keba Spitfire Grill. Around 2006, Cali-N-Tito’s, a Central American restaurant that had, if I remember correctly, been serving up Cuban sandwiches, tamales, and burritos from a little trailer on Tallassee, moved in and turned the old concrete patio into a pebbled beach with palm trees and playground equipment for kids. Inside, the lights are low and the line is long. Continue reading “Cali-N-Tito’s, Athens GA”
Pulaski Heights BBQ, Athens GA
I had bigger plans for this trip to Athens than would see the light of day. I was going to spend all darn afternoon in town, and take a really nice springtime walk at the Botanical Gardens, and visit four places for the blog, and have a couple of beers at Trappeze. Then I had that first meal, recounted in the previous chapter, and, my stomach laden with more grease than I can remember having anywhere, ever, I began scaling back plans massively. There wasn’t going to be any beer, for starters. The thought of drinking anything other than water made my stomach hurt more. I made the decision to be a little more explicit about the effect it had on my system in this separate chapter, because it wasn’t that first restaurant’s fault that I put more food in my gut sixty minutes later. Continue reading “Pulaski Heights BBQ, Athens GA”
Marie, Let's Eat! 