This is Marie, contributing an article on the stuffed pepper recipe I mentioned in our previous story about a Kristen Sollenne dinner. I finally got around to it and can share the results. I did cheat and used a good quality tomato sauce rather than making my own as the recipe called for, but the sauce recipe is similar to others I’ve made before and should be fine. Continue reading “Kristin Sollenne’s Stuffed Peppers”
Month: October 2015
Briar Patch Bar-B-Que, Hiram GA (take two)
Last month, the boychild and I drove out GA-120 to Hiram to revisit Briar Patch, a big barn of a restaurant that we last visited more than four years ago. I was hoping to get some more information about their mustard sauce, which is very, very similar to Chicken Comer’s sauce from Phenix City and which can be found at many of the older restaurants in the western suburbs of Atlanta. Continue reading “Briar Patch Bar-B-Que, Hiram GA (take two)”
Memphis BBQ Company, Dunwoody GA
Last month, Marie and I were invited to visit Memphis BBQ Company, which opened last year in a great big space in Dunwoody that had previously been the home of a British-themed pub called Firkin & Gryphon, and, for many years before that, a Smokey Bones. It looks like too large a space for a barbecue restaurant in Atlanta. Acknowledging that Jim ‘n Nick’s has done pretty well here, quite a few other large-store chains, including Famous Dave’s, Corky’s and indeed Smokey Bones, have all failed in this market, and Sonny’s seems to have closed as many stores as they’ve opened. On the other hand, Melissa Cookston, the owner of this restaurant, has a very small-growth approach to her chain. The Atlanta store is only the third, and while she is considering a fourth and looking at spaces around the southeast, right now her focus is on this market. Continue reading “Memphis BBQ Company, Dunwoody GA”
Lowcountry Boil with Penzeys Spices
This is Marie, contributing a story about a meal I’ve made a couple of times now and plan to put into our regular rotation. It was inspired by a truly excellent meal at Thibodeaux’s in Columbus, after which I said to myself “I need more of this!” This isn’t quite as good, but then I haven’t been making Cajun food for decades, now have I? The portions below are designed for 3.5 people plus another 1/2 portion for lunch, so scale up or down depending on your crowd. I advise shucking your corn and shrimp ahead of time unless you enjoy rushing, but it can be done in a pinch if your amounts are small, because of the staggered cooking times. Continue reading “Lowcountry Boil with Penzeys Spices”
Dave Poe’s BBQ, Marietta GA (take two)
I’ve been exchanging emails with several readers and writers who have also been noticing, as I suggested in July, that the quality of beef brisket being served in some of the Atlanta area’s barbecue joints has been improving massively. Now this is certainly not universal, and older restaurants don’t seem to quite have that same background of competition-circuit training that is really responsible for the uptick in brisket quality. Continue reading “Dave Poe’s BBQ, Marietta GA (take two)”
Barbara Jean’s, Saint Simons Island GA
One of the most inexplicable facts about our dining is this: we had never been to Barbara Jean’s before this stop on Saint Simons last month. The owner, Barbara Jean Barta, opened the restaurant in 1998 and has published a pair of popular cookbooks as well as two additional locations in northeast Florida, above and below Jacksonville. The restaurant is very well known for its crab cakes, and very simply blends the best of both local seafood and nice southern cuisine. I don’t know why we’ve never stopped in before, but we will definitely add it to our rotation of Saint Simons restaurants. Continue reading “Barbara Jean’s, Saint Simons Island GA”
Beach Road Chicken Dinners, Jacksonville FL
After spending the Saturday of our trip exploring Orlando, we left Sunday morning to spend a few hours with each of Marie’s parents on Saint Simons Island. The road there takes us through Jacksonville, and I was looking forward to trying a place that we’d been thinking about sampling for quite some time. Beach Road Chicken Dinners originally opened in 1939, and we arrived just as the place started to fill up with both the after-church crowd and the Jaguars tailgating crowd. Since it’s one of the oldest existing restaurants in town, they’ve got a set, old-fashioned way of doing things. It’s not quite family-style dining, as everybody orders their own proteins, but they do offer up unlimited sides. Continue reading “Beach Road Chicken Dinners, Jacksonville FL”
Marie, Let's Eat! 