My favorite restaurant in the entire world closed more than five years ago, in January 2009. Here is a farewell that I wrote for it a few days later, about a year before we began writing our blog. I was reminded of it when Cinco y Diez closed last month, and I realized that I’ve been to Athens so few times in the last ten months that I never found the opportunity to try it. Cinco y Diez was located across the parking lot from where the Five Points Mean Bean had been located. The former location has been home, for several years, to The Royal Peasant. Continue reading “Remembering The Mean Bean, Athens GA”
Month: November 2014
Gypsy Kitchen, Atlanta GA
Buckhead Atlanta, the not-all-that-imaginatively-named development at the corner of Peachtree and Pharr in the Buckhead neighborhood of Atlanta, is home to some luxury apartment homes, high-end boutiques, and some interesting restaurants. At the time of writing, nine of the thirteen restaurants are yet to open, but four are already doing good business, including the first Atlanta location of the celebrated Shake Shack, and a quite neat tapa place called Gypsy Kitchen. It’s the latest opening for Southern Proper Hospitality, the team behind Big Ketch Saltwater Grill and Smokebelly; another of their restaurants, The Southern Gentleman, will be among the next to open in Buckhead Atlanta. Continue reading “Gypsy Kitchen, Atlanta GA”
Little’s Food Store, Atlanta GA
We’d heard from a couple of people that the burgers at Little’s, a small grocery store in Cabbagetown that traces its origins to 1929, are among the best in the city. What nobody told us, criminally, is that they also make some of the best onion rings on the planet. No kidding; I might like these as much as the amazing rings at Pizza Palace in Knoxville, if not more. Continue reading “Little’s Food Store, Atlanta GA”
Hwy 58 BBQ, Chattanooga TN
On the Sunday morning of our trip, our son got us up bright and early and we had a light breakfast in the hotel, and then took a relaxed and fun drive through middle Tennessee to get to Chattanooga for lunch. Instead of going the usual way (I-24), since we were a little east of Nashville on I-40, we just continued that way for 40-odd miles, and then, around Cookeville, picked up TN-111 and went south, up and down over a couple of mountains. We’d seen the southern edge of this road once before, in the summer of 2010, when we visited Fall Creek Falls State Park. It’s all very, very pretty. Continue reading “Hwy 58 BBQ, Chattanooga TN”
Snow White Drive-In, Lebanon TN
On my Nashville to-do list: visit a whole lot more hot chicken places, visit a whole lot more barbecue places, and see Brooke and Matt get married. We marked off one of the three on this trip, and slightly dented the very, very long barbecue to-do list. Continue reading “Snow White Drive-In, Lebanon TN”
Gondola Pizza House, Tullahoma TN
Well, this is faintly ridiculous. I count at least five restaurants in middle Tennessee calling themselves Gondola Pizza House, in the towns of Cookeville (which has branded itself “The Original”), Crossville, Hermitage, McMinnville, and Tullahoma. I saw the sign for the Tullahoma store online someplace and insisted that we had to detour and visit it one day. Then I learned of the other stores, and phoned them, wondering whether they were ever part of a chain. Everybody with whom I spoke insisted that they were independent and were never affiliated with each other. Continue reading “Gondola Pizza House, Tullahoma TN”
Tara Humata, Alpharetta GA
There was one little period last month where, across three days, we published three stories about Mexican-style food. We wrote about the opening of the Kennesaw Tin Lizzy’s, and then Marie wrote about her trip to a new burrito joint in Athens, and then I shared my trip to the mostly traditional Mama’s in Atlanta. The result, of course, that about the time I clicked “publish” on that third story, I was craving chips and salsa, and didn’t care where I got it. This happens about four times a year. Fortunately, I had some comp time at work and was leaving early to go visit that new Whole Foods in Avalon, and an old favorite was just a couple of miles away. Continue reading “Tara Humata, Alpharetta GA”
Marie, Let's Eat! 