Marie and I had been dating for long enough that her father had asked whether I was thinking of making an honest woman out of her. This was something that I intended to ask him about a couple of months later. Getting the parents’ permission first, that sort of thing. That came in time, a few months down the road. But she was still living in Athens and we were enjoying an agreeable long-distance relationship for a little more than a year at that point. I don’t remember whether we rode down from Athens or from Atlanta, but it was Christmas four years ago, and her dad took us to supper at Bennie’s Red Barn, which is the oldest restaurant on Saint Simons Island, and one of my favorites. Continue reading “Bennie’s Red Barn, Saint Simons Island GA”
Category: georgia
Fox Brothers Bar-B-Q, Atlanta GA
Since we started the blog almost two years ago, we have been asked once or twice when we were going to feature the city’s most popular and praised barbecue place. The honest answer is that we were in no particular rush. After we tried the place in 2009, we knew that anything and everything else was shooting for second place, and that we’d come back to Fox Brothers on some special occasion or other. The occasion turned out to be my fortieth birthday, and so we invited a host of friends in town to come join us. If you’re going to do this, I’d make sure to do it on a nice day when everybody can sit outdoors. We had a party of thirteen, and since Fox Brothers neither takes reservations nor really has the space to handle large groups like ours inside, it was a little challenging and frustrating getting everything together. Continue reading “Fox Brothers Bar-B-Q, Atlanta GA”
Chicago Delights and The Cuban Diner, Marietta GA
(Sticky Note June 2015: The first paragraph of this story is no longer accurate. Chicago Delights has since moved about a third of a mile away. Its former home, and the old Long John Silver’s described here, were both demolished earlier this month to make way for the Northwest Corridor / Braves Turnpike.)
The good people at Not Fooling Anybody might get a kick out of a little intersection in Marietta between the Big Chicken and I-75, where, once upon a time, three different national fast food chains once stood. These days, all three buildings house local ventures. Continue reading “Chicago Delights and The Cuban Diner, Marietta GA”
Your Pie and The Royal Peasant, Athens GA
A growing little pizza business that started in Athens has been on my radar for ages, since they started getting lots of press and regular notices from one of that city’s best food writers, the wonderful Hillary Brown of Flagpole. Unfortunately, at the time that I’m writing this, that newspaper’s web site archive is unavailable, thanks to an alleged attack of “spam monkey trolls,” so I can’t look back and refresh my memory about anything, but if I remember correctly, Your Pie sort of arrived fully-formed, corporate and ready for franchising in 2008. There are already eight stores in Georgia – it was spotting the lone Atlanta-area location, in Roswell, that reminded me to try these guys out – along with two stores each in Florida and South Carolina. There’s a thirteenth coming to Murfreesboro, near the MTSU campus, pretty soon. Continue reading “Your Pie and The Royal Peasant, Athens GA”
Trappeze Pub, Athens GA
My older son has been largely absent from this blog lately, on account of him, miserably, choosing to live with his mother in the end. But before he went up to Kentucky the first time, he and I had a very neat visit to Trappeze Pub on Washington Street in Athens. The wonderful artist Sergio Aragonés, best known for his work in Mad and his lovable character Groo the Wanderer, was in town to receive an award from UGA’s art school, and our friend Patrick gave us a heads-up that he and some of the other local comic artists and cartoonists were hoping to have a beer with him before the ceremony. So my son and I went to Athens early and were at Bizarro Wuxtry when the call came, and, after getting turned around and not knowing where the heck Trappeze was, we found the group, met some new acquaintances and enjoyed Sergio’s company. I had a beer and asked for a Sprite for my son, joking that he was my designated driver. Continue reading “Trappeze Pub, Athens GA”
JD’s Bar-B-Que, Woodstock GA
I’ll tell you, friends and readers, it is always a pleasure when a new, good, local barbecue blog sets up shop and makes an effort to use Urbanspoon to connect with readers. I’ve mentioned previously that there are a few awesome ones in the region, such as Buster’s BBQ Blog, Chopped Onion, and Where’s the Best BBQ?, that just don’t have any interest in connecting with readers through Urbanspoon, and I think that’s a shame. It’s easier for readers to catch updates, and it brings them extra eyeballs and traffic with very, very little work. Seriously, scroll to the bottom of this entry. See the little blue and yellow box with the restaurant address? It takes fewer than five seconds to add to each entry, and it brings me more than a thousand visitors a month. Everybody wins. Continue reading “JD’s Bar-B-Que, Woodstock GA”
Ringside Franks & Shakes, Atlanta GA (CLOSED)
The day after Thanksgiving, I spent the morning exhausting my baby boy. He started crawling the day before, and, with his day care closed and potential baby sitters out of town, I took him to work with me. It was one of my short shifts and he got appropriate levels of admiration and tickling, and really showed off some crawling. We then drove to Dunwoody to visit Marie at work and allow her to nurse him and visit with her co-workers, and then he and I went to lunch. He missed it entirely. He fell asleep on the way there, and snoozed all the way through the meal, only waking when we returned home to the suburbs. Continue reading “Ringside Franks & Shakes, Atlanta GA (CLOSED)”
Marie, Let's Eat! 