Category: atlanta

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” →

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)” →

Gus’s World Famous Fried Chicken, Atlanta GA

Earlier this year, I saw advance word that the small Memphis-based chain Gus’s was going to open its eleventh location, and first east of I-65, in Atlanta. In Peachtree Center, of all places. It wasn’t April 1, and I didn’t have a single brandy at lunch. It’s in one of those weird off-the-path corridors of that strange little mall that doesn’t get any foot traffic. We’ve had dinner here once and I promise, I was not hallucinating. Some of the very best fried chicken on the planet is available in Atlanta. You can go get some today. Continue reading “Gus’s World Famous Fried Chicken, Atlanta GA” →

Tin Lizzy’s Cantina, Dunwoody GA

This is Marie, contributing a short article about Tin Lizzy’s new lobster taco. Tin Lizzy’s has been growing pretty steadily since they opened their first store in 2005. They now have nine locations around Atlanta, and. since our last story about them, they have added their first out-of-town store, in Augusta GA. Next month, they plan to open in Columbia SC. Continue reading “Tin Lizzy’s Cantina, Dunwoody GA” →

Tap, Atlanta GA

I was recently invited to join some other bloggers and media types for a preview dinner of Chef David Connolly’s autumn menu at Tap, the popular gastropub in the King & Spalding building on Peachtree and 14th Street in midtown. If you’re familiar with Article 14, one of our favorite restaurants in that area, Tap is in the same building, but on the other side, with a separate lane for valet parking. It’s a very nice two story space with lots of stairs if you’d like to go up to the somewhat quieter area above the noise and activity of the main floor. Continue reading “Tap, Atlanta GA” →