Shakey’s Pizza, Warner Robins GA (CLOSED)

Shakey’s Pizza was not part of my childhood, but it was a part of a whole mess of other people’s. Every so often, it sparks a happy memory or ten among some of the regulars at forums where I visit. If you’re in California, you’re never too far from a Shakey’s, as there are still about fifty stores in that state, but only ten others in the country. In the southeast, there is one in Auburn, and one in Warner Robins. Every week, a delivery truck comes east, bringing food for both of these stores. Perhaps they still have local-market TV ads for Shakey’s in California. Here’s one from the early 1970s, starring Kathy Coleman, who’d later play Holly in Sid and Marty Krofft’s Land of the Lost. The ad shows what Shakey’s used to be: a bizarre mix of Tudor design and Dixieland jazz with styrofoam boaters. Continue reading “Shakey’s Pizza, Warner Robins GA (CLOSED)” →

Circumnavigating the Tennessee River Valley – part nine

I left Leo & Susie’s ahead of schedule, and I’ll tell you folks, it is a good thing that I did because Birmingham’s rush hour turned out to be every bit as bad as I’d heard. I won’t complain about Atlanta’s again for at least three weeks. Complicating things up front, there’s about a two-mile stretch between not-quite-finished I-22 and I-65 that hasn’t been completed yet, and eastbound traffic exits onto a road called Coalburg, and absolutely everybody takes that down to 41st Avenue and cuts over. These roads were not meant for this volume of traffic. It’s like driving across trenches. Then you get on the I-59/I-20 connector and it’s every man for himself. For the rest of my life, I’m going to do my level best to avoid Birmingham Fridays between four and six. Continue reading “Circumnavigating the Tennessee River Valley – part nine” →

Gu’s Bistro, Doraville GA (CLOSED)

In some of the chapters here over the last couple of weeks, we have spotlighted a few of the restaurants that have, happily and wonderfully, kicked down our biases and our preconceived notions about Chinese cooking. That’s not to say “out with the old,” permanently. Marie will, unaccountably, get occasional cravings for Golden-This-Happy-That stuff for the rest of her life, just as I will, equally unaccountably, get occasional cravings for El-This-Los-That Tex-Mex food for the rest of mine despite since learning to appreciate authentic cooking, because when you find a “favorite food” around the time that you’re in high school, it’s nigh impossible to get rid of it for good. Continue reading “Gu’s Bistro, Doraville GA (CLOSED)” →

Chow Bing Chinese Grill, Atlanta GA (CLOSED)

This is Marie, contributing a description of a visit to Chow Bing, a Chinese restaurant in a tough location that I hope it can overcome. With any luck the Grady Hospital staff will discover the place and prop it up as more people discover it. It’s just around the curve from the hospital in the new Pencil Factory Lofts building. Continue reading “Chow Bing Chinese Grill, Atlanta GA (CLOSED)” →

Jeanne’s House, Doraville GA (CLOSED)

This is Marie, contributing a visit to a Chinese place with a singularly unusual name.

Sometime a while ago, Grant started calling generic Mexican places “El-this-Los-that” and generic Chinese places “Happy-this-Golden-that” because honestly, how many Mexican or Chinese places in the suburbs have you gone to that DON”T use that pattern for their names? And if you go to the Golden China in the mall, isn’t that pretty much a guarantee of a choice between incandescent red glop versus opalescent whitish glop, over chicken or beef? Plus broccoli and carrots, of course. Continue reading “Jeanne’s House, Doraville GA (CLOSED)” →

Villains Wicked Heroes, Atlanta GA (CLOSED)

One of my other blogs is a tribute to the British comic 2000 AD, and I recently finished writing a story there about what we might term believable villainy. Meanwhile, at the intersection of Peachtree and 8th Street in Midtown, a new restaurant called Villains opened last month. It draws its design elements from unbelievable villainy, celebrating comic book arch-enemies and box office bad guys. If you’re looking for a place to meet up with another member of the Legion of Doom and discuss your nefarious schemes for global domination, then this might be the place for you. Continue reading “Villains Wicked Heroes, Atlanta GA (CLOSED)” →

Alison’s Restaurant, Dunwoody GA (CLOSED)

Once every blue moon, I suggest that I bring the baby and meet Marie for supper in Dunwoody on a Friday night, sparing her the awful, awful evening rush hour drive home. Once every blue moon, in other words, I subject myself to it rather than her. Continue reading “Alison’s Restaurant, Dunwoody GA (CLOSED)” →