Once in a while, we visit a barbecue restaurant and we just know going in that it’s going to be discussed in comparison to something nearby. That’s the nature of this blog; these aren’t isolated “restaurant reviews,” objective and in a vacuum, but slices from our life and experiences. Roger Hardman and his sister Heather opened a little place called Beachcomber BBQ in 2001 and, for a few years, enjoyed the distinction of being the only barbecue joint on Saint Simons Island. Continue reading “Beachcomber BBQ & Grill, Saint Simons Island GA”
Category: georgia
Keith-A-Que, Ashburn GA
So there was this giant peanut that I wanted to see again.
In December of 2011, on our way back from Moultrie, we had passed a really big peanut statue on the side of I-75. I was going to be content to photograph it from the car, but by chance, it was almost right next door to our next stop. We were drawn into Carroll’s Sausage and Meats by their billboards, and, as we pulled in, we saw the peanut right across an empty field. The girlchild napped in the car, and Marie and the baby went in to shop, and I traipsed across the field to take pictures. Continue reading “Keith-A-Que, Ashburn GA”
Smoakies Bar-B-Que, Cordele GA
The time has come, at last, to wave farewell, for now, to certain corridors and avenues in middle and south Georgia.
For the three years that we have been blogging, we have tried to take alternate paths on our regular trips from Atlanta to Saint Simons Island. For one thing, I-16 is a total bore, and for another, we’ve wanted to cover roads rarely taken, and find restaurants, meals, and stories in smaller, out-of-the-way towns. We have always anticipated moving to Asheville – and perhaps will, later this year – and, when that day comes, the big, dull expanse of central Georgia will be amazingly out of the way. It’s best to tackle it now, which is why Savannah is so poorly represented here. There will be time enough for Savannah down the line. Continue reading “Smoakies Bar-B-Que, Cordele GA”
Food 101, Sandy Springs GA
We were invited to a launch party for the new Barrel Bar at a restaurant called Food 101 a couple of weeks ago. It’s a very interesting place; they use the slogan “New South Cuisine” and seem to have anticipated the trend by quite a few years. They opened in 1999 and are a spiritual antecedent of the restaurants and ideas that Hugh Acheson and Ford Fry have been popularizing, but they were perhaps so ahead of the curve that they don’t get much press or attention. Continue reading “Food 101, Sandy Springs GA”
Moonie’s Texas Barbecue, Flowery Branch GA
A couple of chapters previously, I mentioned that we had intended to visit two barbecue places on our day out to the Dawsonville outlet mall, but we were frustrated by the second one that I chose being closed for vacation. So I asked Matt, as we kicked back at his house, whether he knew where a place called Moonie’s was. We don’t yet have smartphones or any of those new-fangled gadgets, you see, and that was the first one in the Gainesville area whose name that I remembered. Of course, Matt knew exactly where it was. If it’s anywhere in Hall, White, or northern Gwinnett County, he knows about it, and he gave us quick and accurate directions to it from their place. This brought us back down I-985, sending us home down a different artery out of Atlanta than the one we used to go north. Continue reading “Moonie’s Texas Barbecue, Flowery Branch GA”
Mountain Fresh Creamery, Clermont GA
I have not had the chance to motor around north central Georgia for many, many months. In fact, I said, more than a year ago, that I needed to stop by a little ice cream parlor near the towns of Clermont and Cleveland. That’s when a writer with the remarkable nom de blog of Foodie Asshole wrote about Mountain Fresh Creamery, which had opened a few months previously. Continue reading “Mountain Fresh Creamery, Clermont GA”
Big D’s BBQ, Dawsonville GA
When I worked in Alpharetta some years back, I used to occasionally enjoy lunch at Big D’s BBQ on Windward Parkway. They were only at that location for maybe eight months before joining the very, very long list of failed restaurants along that corridor and retreating northward to the growing sprawl around Dawsonville. Continue reading “Big D’s BBQ, Dawsonville GA”
Marie, Let's Eat! 