Category: georgia

Taqueria Los Hermanos, Lilburn GA

I keep telling myself that Marie and I need to do a better job covering the northeastern suburbs (and the southeastern ones, and the southwestern ones, too…), but we just don’t get out that way very often. Well, a couple of Saturdays ago, my real-world job called on me to work a festival near Tucker, and I looked around for some lunch suggestions. I wasn’t specifically looking for Mexican, but the road ended up taking me a few miles north of Tucker to try something that came with a good recommendation. Continue reading “Taqueria Los Hermanos, Lilburn GA” →

Bartaco, Atlanta GA

A couple of Fridays ago, Marie and the three year-old came down to see me at work and we drove a short distance away for some lunch. Bartaco opened in August in a former industrial space on Marietta Street right at Howell Mill Road, continuing the ongoing prettification of this little stretch, which had been old city blight for such a long time. Going in next door are an Arden’s Garden and a boutique called A Ma Maniére. It must have been an expensive buildout for the small chain, which is based in Connecticut and has three stores there and one just across the state line in Port Chester NY. Continue reading “Bartaco, Atlanta GA” →

Joe’s BBQ, Blue Ridge GA

Aha! I knew that TripAdvisor list would demonstrate a hiccup eventually!

You remember all the hoopla, right? TripAdvisor said, correctly, that Georgia was the best state in the nation for barbecue, and that we were home to three of the ten best barbecue joints in the country. Texas and North Carolina, after collecting their jaws from sawdust-covered floors, bitched and bellyached and those of us who know better smiled and said, “Darn right.” Then Marie and I went to Wylie’s Championship BBQ in Savannah, one of those three prize-winners, and just got knocked off our chairs by how good it was. Continue reading “Joe’s BBQ, Blue Ridge GA” →

Mojo Burrito, Dunwoody GA (CLOSED)

A few chapters back, I playfully insisted that we don’t think of ourselves as experts in much of anything, and yet Marie and I are frequently asked for dining suggestions, especially from acquaintances and co-workers who are going out of town. Chattanooga is a fairly regular destination for people whom we know, and I always include Mojo Burrito in my suggestions. I don’t believe that it gets a whole lot of visits, though. People seem very willing to try different barbecue or pizza places in other towns, which is good, but how many different ways are there to make burritos? Continue reading “Mojo Burrito, Dunwoody GA (CLOSED)” →

Ribalta, Atlanta GA

This is Marie, contributing an article about a visit to Ribalta, which invited me and some of our blogging friends, Atlanta Restaurant Blog and Iron Stef, to visit their new store in midtown. They just opened in Atlanta,expanding from their original New York location, with a process for pizza dough that they say results in a lighter, lower gluten crust. Chef Pasquale Cozzolino regenerates his dough every day from a yeast starter that has been used for the past 80 years. It’s a symptom of the times that when I heard the starter had been brought over from Italy, the first thought I had was “Yeah, right, they’d never let THAT through Customs!” But Customs wasn’t quite so strict in the past. Continue reading “Ribalta, Atlanta GA” →

Sam’s BBQ-1 West, Marietta GA

A few Saturdays ago, I took my son out to west Cobb to look for the long-rumored second location of Sam’s BBQ. I had heard that it was out here somewhere, but had never spotted it whenever I was driving around this area. It turns out that the restaurant has absolutely no street visibility at all. If you can find The Avenues at West Cobb (home of Otter’s Chicken), then Sam’s is literally across the street in a shopping mall with a Kroger and a Belk, but you cannot see it from GA-120. Continue reading “Sam’s BBQ-1 West, Marietta GA” →