There have been a few instances over the course of this story where I have written about, and sneered about, the fake nostalgia of “fifties diners.” You know the ones that I’m talking about. In the actual 1950s, there were probably no posters of James Dean or Marilyn Monroe in diners, any more than today you see posters of, I dunno, George Clooney or Jennifer Lawrence in contemporary-designed restaurants. And you certainly didn’t see any posters of James Dean and Marilyn Monroe, drawn by some barely-adequate airbrush artist, sharing a chocolate malt back then. I like authenticity. Continue reading “Peace Love and Pizza, Kennesaw GA (CLOSED)”
Category: georgia
Yeah! Burger, Atlanta GA
One of Atlanta’s celebrity chefs is a fellow named Shaun Doty, and two years ago, he opened the first of what’s now two locations of Yeah! Burger. It’s a fun, upbeat little place with a nice covered patio to better enjoy the lovely spring weather that we’ve been having. A couple of Saturdays ago, the overnight rain having washed away the pollen, the four of us made our way over to the Howell Mill location, having spent the morning playing with the baby at the Children’s Museum. Continue reading “Yeah! Burger, Atlanta GA”
Crawfish Shack Seafood, Atlanta GA
A couple of Fridays ago, I did not have any lunch plans, and my manager, Krista, suggested I try Crawfish Shack, a restaurant that she and her boyfriend visit for special occasions. While not even remotely a “shack” – it’s in a reasonably new strip mall near the shuttered driving range on Buford Highway, fairly invisible to the street – it looked like this place had won the attention and praise of many of my fellow hobbyists since it opened in 2008. It hit a rough patch of no business soon after it opened and was forced to close for a few months, but it’s been going like gangbusters since they reopened, with a very respectable crowd coming in for lunch and sharing the long picnic tables. Continue reading “Crawfish Shack Seafood, Atlanta GA”
Seasons 52, Atlanta GA
A couple of weeks ago, Marie and I were invited to join other local media at the Buckhead location of Seasons 52 to sample their spring menu. We were not familiar with this restaurant before. It’s a reasonably new “concept,” as it is termed in this business, from Darden, the corporation that owns such excessive-consumption chains as Red Lobster and Olive Garden. The first Seasons 52 opened in Orlando in 2003 and this store, one of two in Atlanta, opened in 2006. They have 27 locations in thirteen states. Continue reading “Seasons 52, Atlanta GA”
Rumi’s Kitchen, Sandy Springs GA
A couple of weeks ago, Marie and I had dropped off our daughter with her godmother for an evening of pizza and dressmaking, and then joined the long, slow crawl of cars making their way along Hammond to replenish our stock of Penzeys Spices from their wonderful store in Sandy Springs. Among other things, we had run out of Penzeys Sandwich Sprinkle; bread was not tasting right anymore. We did not have any specific plans for supper; we figured that we would eat wherever the mood struck. Once we finally made it to Roswell Road, we started moving and passed Rumi’s Kitchen. The name was familiar, but I couldn’t place it. We got a fabulous recommendation from the girl who rang us up at Penzeys, who told us that their Persian dinners were completely wonderful. Continue reading “Rumi’s Kitchen, Sandy Springs GA”
Fuzzy’s Taco Shop and ADD Drug, Athens GA
I got stymied for the umpteenth time with this one place that I wanted to eat in Athens. Let’s not go into it now. Maybe the time after next.
Anyway, on one of my previous trips to town, I noticed that a big sports bar was going in the space near the Morton that had previously been home to that tapas place. Actually, I don’t think that it registered then as a sports bar; I just saw that it was a taco place. I’ve always got time for a taco place, but I somehow wonder whether Athens is large enough to have room for a new one. In college towns, you occasionally see a little friction between established restaurants with a lot of history, the fun and trendy new places, and the out-of-town interlopers who come in and suck business away, particularly downtown. Fuzzy’s is definitely in the latter category. It’s a chain from Texas with, at the time of writing, forty-eight locations in ten states, all of which have cropped up since 2005. The Athens store is their first in the southeast; a second, in Charlotte, is due to open in the spring. Continue reading “Fuzzy’s Taco Shop and ADD Drug, Athens GA”
Bay Breeze, Marietta GA
This is Marie, contributing an article about Bay Breeze, a locally-owned restaurant with two branches. We went to the one in Marietta on a lunch date with some of our neighbors. There were quite a few tween and teen girls in the party plus the baby, so as you can imagine the party was a bit on the loud side, but the restaurant has their floor space divided up into a few sections so hopefully there was at least a bit of a sound barrier. Regular readers may remember that I prefer to write about desserts, and have no fear, there was a rather magnificent dessert involved in this trip – but more on that later. Continue reading “Bay Breeze, Marietta GA”
Marie, Let's Eat! 