A very brief history of burrito joints in Georgia: for about ten years after the first of the region’s Tex-Mex restaurants, Monterrey, opened, burritos were those things served on hot plates at El-This-Los-That joints, covered in sauce. In the mid-1980s, The Mean Bean in Athens might have been the first in the area to serve up burritos that you could eat on the go, wraps filled with – in their case – deliciously seasoned refried beans and other fillings. Right around that time (1984), a couple of legendary shops opened in Atlanta that gave guests more traditional San Francisco “Mission”-style burritos that, instead of refried beans, used either pinto or black beans. Frijoleros and Tortillas are still mentioned in hushed tones by the faithful. Oddly, Frijoleros fumbled when it tried to open a second location in Athens, failing after a couple of years, and the Mean Bean was even less successful when it crashed and burned in Atlanta’s Little Five Points. I recall that Creative Loafing‘s Cliff Bostock, a loud proponent of Tortillas and their fresh veggies, was utterly baffled by the Mean Bean’s use of refried beans and canned peppers. Continue reading “Willy’s Mexicana Grill, Atlanta GA”
Category: georgia
Monday Night Brewing, Atlanta GA
I have felt for some time that our blog is most lacking in two areas: the city of Savannah, and information about beer. I’ve thought about how best to tackle the second of those, and what I decided to do is highlight a few breweries that seem particularly interesting or make beers that I really enjoy. Savannah, of course, is going to require more concerted effort to actually go there and learn a few stories. Continue reading “Monday Night Brewing, Atlanta GA”
That Pie Place, Dunwoody GA (CLOSED)
This is Marie, contributing an article about pies. There is hardly any food substance short of chocolate that is dearer to my heart than pies, and unfortunately that means that many a time I have had my heart broken. You know that exciting feeling you used to get as a kid when you emptied out your Halloween bag onto the bed and saw that someone had given you a couple of full-sized chocolate bars? Or the disappointment when you saw that nearly all the chocolate was that generic chalky stuff that comes in foil wrappers with badly-drawn cartoon ghosts and no brand name on them? Well, that experience is very like how I feel about pies, which is why, unless I can actually see the pie in a display case, I hardly ever order a slice. Because all too often, you get a plate of disappointment that reminds you of the chalk-olate Halloween candy. Continue reading “That Pie Place, Dunwoody GA (CLOSED)”
Old Brick Pit, Chamblee GA (take two)
One of these days, I need to go up to Roswell and do a proper expedition of all the sixty-eleven taco joints on Highway 9 below Holcomb Bridge Road. There are quite a few of them. The kids and I were in town one Saturday to do a little beer shopping and I thought we’d get a hamburger. Driving north through the area, however, I changed my mind and pulled into Tacos Linda Vista. It is one of the newest places to set up here, in a building that had previously been home to another taqueria, Tacos Frisa. We’ve all been going back and forth about what the restaurant was before that. I say it was a Kentucky Fried Chicken, but I can’t get any consensus on that point. What say you, dear reader? Continue reading “Old Brick Pit, Chamblee GA (take two)”
Tempo Doeloe, Doraville GA
Well, here was an eye-opener. Of all the cuisines from around the world that we have sampled over the last few years, we haven’t looked at Indonesian before. There are a few dishes and flavors common to both Indonesian and Malaysian cooking, and we did enjoy visiting Panang with friends earlier this year and trying Malaysian, but there are only a handful of Indonesian-only restaurants in the Atlanta area. These include Waroeng in a mall food court in Norcross, and Batavia, which has two locations in northeast Atlanta, but this time I got to visit Tempo Doeloe, which is attached to the Ariesandi family’s grocery store, Java, in the Intown Plaza shopping center, with some friends and acquaintances in a Meetup group. Continue reading “Tempo Doeloe, Doraville GA”
Gelato in Chattanooga and Froyo in Dalton
Earlier this year, one of our readers, Bobby C., left us a comment suggesting that the next time that we’re traveling through the Dalton area, we should bring the girlchild by a frozen yogurt place called Jandy’s. We love getting recommendations. Personalized recommendations that are aware of my daughter’s blogname and her favorite foods, well, shucks, we’re thrilled that anybody reads us that closely. Continue reading “Gelato in Chattanooga and Froyo in Dalton”
Roy’s Grill, Rossville GA (CLOSED)
Several months ago, I was browsing around Roadside Architecture, as I often do, daydreaming of the funds to spend weeks on the road like she does, and thought about some pictures of a little grill and diner in Rossville that looked completely fascinating. Rossville is the northernmost city in Georgia to border Tennessee. In fact, the state line and city limits of Chattanooga are one block north of the restaurant. When we finished eating, we took a short walk, just so that we could say that we walked from one state into another, and we took some silly pictures of us clowning around with our feet on either side of the sign, while the teenage girlchild seethed in mortification that we are so incredibly embarrassing. Continue reading “Roy’s Grill, Rossville GA (CLOSED)”
Marie, Let's Eat! 