Center Point Pit Barbecue, Hendersonville TN

After lunching in Chattanooga, my daughter and I continued up I-24 listening to her Eighties Alternative station on Pandora, prompting her to note, after the station played “Blue Monday” and “How Soon is Now” back to back, that songs were really long in the 1980s. Our next stop was in Antioch, where we picked up our friends Brooke and Matt. Regular readers might recall that the last time we were in the Nashville area, it was to attend their wedding. They helped schedule an afternoon of shopping and finding a few vintage and thrift places for my girlchild to look at clothes. Appropriately, considering how she’s been enjoying New Order and The Smiths, she picked up a very, very 1980s sweater. Continue reading “Center Point Pit Barbecue, Hendersonville TN” →

The Yellow Deli, Chattanooga TN

Since 2012, I’ve taken five “circumnavigations,” little two-day eating fests around areas that we don’t often visit. I checked the calendar, and another one was coming up on the horizon as a maybe, and my daughter expressed a desire to see her mother in Kentucky for a little while. I decided to turn the traditional circumnavigation into a drop-off trip instead and expanded it with extra time in Nashville on the way up and a great big wonderful detour on the way back. Continue reading “The Yellow Deli, Chattanooga TN” →

10th & Piedmont, Atlanta GA

Last week, Marie and I were invited to 10th & Piedmont to meet Executive Chef Javier Rivera sample some of this two year-old restaurant’s popular menu items. It’s in a really lovely space on the corner of… well, you know… in the former home of a bookstore, OutWrite. It’s more than just a restaurant; every other Wednesday evening, they open the huge windows and move some of the tables around for a painting class! Co-owner Gilbert Yeremyan was there to talk with us as well, His company, Communitas Hospitality, also owns two sister restaurants in midtown: Hobnob, which is on the corner of Monroe and Piedmont, and G’s, which is in the space next door. Continue reading “10th & Piedmont, Atlanta GA” →

Bill’s Bar-B-Q, Hull GA (take two)

The only really disagreeable part of this hobby is noting when a restaurant that we’ve visited has closed. It’s especially irritating when it’s a place that we never really gave a fair chance. Many years ago (mid-nineties, I guess), I decided that Bill’s Bar-B-Q in Hull, just north of Athens, wasn’t quite as thrilling as Zeb’s, about twenty miles up the road. Over time, this deteriorated in my dingbat head into thinking it wasn’t all that good. We revisited the place in 2011, and I was half-aggravated about how I gave them a shorter shrift than they deserved, and half-thrilled by how good it was. Continue reading “Bill’s Bar-B-Q, Hull GA (take two)” →

Preserve, Athens GA (CLOSED)

In the previous chapter, I mentioned how some restaurant spaces seem cursed. You might think that one particular building on Broad Street is another contender for that name. For about the last nine months, it has been home to Preserve, a modern American place that boasts a really nice brunch and is owned by local musicians Ella Sternberg and Lenny Miller. The building, erected in the late 1950s, was the home of a drive-up dairy bar called Arctic Girl for many years, but it has also been the home of three barbecue joints: Walter’s, JB’s, and Hollis Ribs. Just to put things in perspective, I mentioned Hollis Ribs in January 2011 and intended then to get over there, but never did. Two different restaurants, a hot dog place and a coffee shop, have come and gone since that story. Continue reading “Preserve, Athens GA (CLOSED)” →