Category: atlanta

Barbecue Street, Kennesaw GA (take two)

A couple of months ago, I posted a chapter about a barbecue place in Columbus GA called Chicken Comer. This seems to be the origin of a very interesting mustard sauce that is occasionally found in Atlanta’s western and northwestern suburbs. It’s lava-hot, laced with cayenne, and I wondered how Chicken’s sauce, which was developed in Phenix City AL around 1929, had become standard on the tables of restaurants in places like Austell and Douglasville GA. Continue reading “Barbecue Street, Kennesaw GA (take two)” →

Hoboken Cafe, Marietta GA

If you drive west on Whitlock away from the Marietta Square, you’ll soon come to that dying strip mall which is home to the very good Dave Poe’s BBQ. Beyond that is an unusual and very small shopping center, built in a zig-zag style that was briefly fashionable in the late 1960s. Over the years, several businesses that I’ve found interesting have set up there, including a record shop and a comic store. Those are gone, but today, you can find a place to buy vintage video games, and a more traditional gaming shop. Anchoring the plaza on the street side is Hoboken Cafe, which opened two years ago and which I had never noticed before. Continue reading “Hoboken Cafe, Marietta GA” →

Ray’s Rio Bravo, Sandy Springs GA (CLOSED)

If you’ve lived in Atlanta for any length of time, you’ve heard of Rio Bravo. This isn’t a failed restaurant chain with one or two deeply oddball fans, like me and Shrimp Boats. Thousands of people loved Rio Bravo, which opened its first location in 1984. For a while, it was by leagues the best Tex-Mex in town. Continue reading “Ray’s Rio Bravo, Sandy Springs GA (CLOSED)” →

Chicken Salad Chick, Kennesaw GA

So, my daughter. God bless her, she’s a teenager. Is she ever a teenager. Because on the one hand, she’s prone to push back against what we’d like her to do, and eat, and because on the other hand, she wants to eat where all her friends eat, she doesn’t often join us when we pick a place that sounds too weird. And by weird, we mean a Chinese place that doesn’t offer sweet and sour chicken with broccoli. Meryn Cadell once sang of a girl who longed for “the boy of your dreams who is the same boy in the dreams of all your friends.” My girl. Continue reading “Chicken Salad Chick, Kennesaw GA” →

Havana Sandwich Shop, Brookhaven GA

In 1976, Buford Highway looked very, very different. While today we celebrate it as the Atlanta area’s original home for cooking and cuisines from around the world, in ’76, it was just another busy suburban four-lane with all the same restaurants and shops as every other busy suburban four-lane. The Baldinos was then a Pizza Inn, the Monterrey was then a Shrimp Boats, the Farmers Market was then a Lionel Play World, and that patch of demolished flat ground at the intersection with Oakcliff was then a Hardee’s. Also, that porn theater that everybody giggles about was a mainstream movie house, showing Freaky Friday. Seriously. Continue reading “Havana Sandwich Shop, Brookhaven GA” →

Man Chun Hong, Doraville GA (take two)

I had half a mind to order something different at Man Chun Hong, but I didn’t. I’ve eaten here half a dozen times now and I get the Shan City chicken each time. It’s just amazing. We found this restaurant a little more than a year ago and it’s completely defeated any interest we may have in trying new things and exploring. Other than a few reliable plates of barbecue, a couple of burritos and a particular chili dog, this dish is my favorite comfort food in the metro Atlanta area. Continue reading “Man Chun Hong, Doraville GA (take two)” →