Two months ago, Marie and I took our son to Amicalola Falls, and I had a cunning plan to swing by the new Culver’s that had opened in that long, deeply depressing strip of one-off buildings and drive-thru restaurants on GA-400 along the outlet mall. This is the stretch of road where the Varsity Jr. relocated its iconic store on Lindbergh and added a playground. A playground. You’re shaking your head right now just thinking about it, I can tell. Continue reading “Culver’s, Dawsonville GA”
Category: georgia
About “Georgia Barbecue”
Well, now that we’re just a few days away from moving to Tennessee, I’d like to look back at the barbecue in Georgia for a little bit. I don’t imagine this will be anything like a last word on the subject – we will still be visiting Saint Simons Island a couple of times a year and there are pah-lenty of places off I-16 and I-95 that I want to try – but, after many years of doing Marie, Let’s Eat!, where I have written about 391 barbecue restaurants around the south (many chapters still to post), I do not claim – at all – any level of expertise. However, I do believe that I have the experience under my belt, having written about 219 different barbecue restaurants in this state since February 2010 (plus around ten about which we didn’t care to create a story, plus another twenty or so before the blog), to make a few informed statements. Continue reading “About “Georgia Barbecue””
Frankfurt Döner & Meats, Ball Ground GA
In 1993, Detley Werner and his family moved from Germany to the United States, and made their way to the small town of Ball Ground, where they opened a butcher shop that also sells sandwiches and a really huge variety of smoked sausages. I’d first heard of his shop a couple of years ago, but we hadn’t been up the I-575 corridor in quite some time and never found an opportunity to go visit. A couple of months ago, however, I got a craving to visit Amicalola Falls, near Dawsonville, a trip which would take us right by his place. Continue reading “Frankfurt Döner & Meats, Ball Ground GA”
Jones Bar-B-Q, Temple GA
In mid-March, I took a barbecue tour of middle Georgia, and my favorite meal of the trip was the last one. Two weeks later, Marie and I took a tour of west Georgia, and the same thing happened. Continue reading “Jones Bar-B-Q, Temple GA”
Bilbo’s Bar-B-Que, Bremen GA
The meals that we had at the first two stops on our little I-20 barbecue tour were each pretty good, but they were left in the dust by the barbecue at Bilbo’s. We really enjoyed this stop, even if I did have to look over my shoulder and give the salad bar a raised eyebrow. Continue reading “Bilbo’s Bar-B-Que, Bremen GA”
J-Bo’s BBQ, Carrollton GA
The last time that I was in Carrollton, I deliberately left behind a couple of barbecue places either for a rainy day or for other writers to check out. The city of 26,000 has at least six barbecue restaurants in its metro area. One of these is J-Bo’s, which Jason May opened in 2009. Its location is certainly one of the most unusual spaces of any restaurant that I’ve visited. It’s in a two-store building, kind of like a little strip mall, with a coin laundry on the other side of the wall. Now, having a next door neighbor that doesn’t serve food is nothing out of the ordinary, but these two spaces have a window between them. So if there’s nothing good on the TV while you enjoy your lunch, you can always watch people’s down comforters tumbling around in the wash. Continue reading “J-Bo’s BBQ, Carrollton GA”
Owens Bar-B-Que, Tallapoosa GA
I decided that we’d take one more pass at west Georgia before we moved away and let the road get too long. I wasn’t sure when we’d manage it; I put a to-eat list together in February and we finally set aside the first Saturday in April to go visit four restaurants that had not been visited or documented by other writers. Then Andy from Burgers, Barbecue, and Everything Else went to two of them. I was partially jealous of the scoop but more honestly pleased, because I love seeing unheralded restaurants get a little press and spotlight. Even though we often really don’t learn very much on our anonymous, quick visits, I’d much rather read about a barbecue place that nobody has ever documented than the sixty-eleventh blog post about the same restaurants that everybody writes about, even the ones we love. Continue reading “Owens Bar-B-Que, Tallapoosa GA”
Marie, Let's Eat! 