A really fun resource for people looking for fun things to look at while driving around is Debra Jane Seltzer’s Roadside Architecture. I look at it from time to time wondering what might be nice to see. You know what we don’t have a lot of in Georgia? Buildings shaped like ice cream cones. That’s okay. Florida’s got that covered. There’s a small chain of ice cream shops around central Florida called Twistee Treat, and we drove out to the one on E. Colonial Drive (FL-50) to get some milkshakes. Continue reading “Ice Cream in Orlando”
Category: local chains
Tin Lizzy’s Cantina, Dunwoody GA
This is Marie, contributing a short article about Tin Lizzy’s new lobster taco. Tin Lizzy’s has been growing pretty steadily since they opened their first store in 2005. They now have nine locations around Atlanta, and. since our last story about them, they have added their first out-of-town store, in Augusta GA. Next month, they plan to open in Columbia SC. Continue reading “Tin Lizzy’s Cantina, Dunwoody GA”
Ankar’s Hoagies, Chattanooga TN
In his book Southern Belly, John T. Edge wrote about the Jacksonville-area “camel rider” pita sandwiches. This served as background for a longer 2012 story in The New York Times, in which he mentioned that the riders have been spotted in a few other cities around the southeast. Edge mentioned Birmingham and Columbus (where, our friend Matt pointed out, camel riders have been a staple at a restaurant called Speakeasy for decades), but it turns out that camel riders have also made it as far as Chattanooga. Continue reading “Ankar’s Hoagies, Chattanooga TN”
Taco Casa, Tuscaloosa AL
Other than eating, the first thing that we did in Tuscaloosa was visit the campus of The University of Alabama for our daughter, and the next thing that we did was visit The Children’s Hands-On Museum for our son. We had such a good time here! Like the similar, but unrelated, Hands-On Museum in Johnson City TN, this is a two-story museum (three in the summer) that took over some old, unused storefront space on the main drag in the city. Continue reading “Taco Casa, Tuscaloosa AL”
Golden Rule Bar-B-Q, Irondale AL
For our final stop on this road trip, we visited one of the oldest restaurants in the southeast. Golden Rule Bar-B-Q is on at least its fourth set of owners, and the current home of its flagship store is, again, at least the fourth, but it traces its history back to 1891, when a family named Williams opened the original stop on the long Alabama to Birmingham highway. In the late 1930s, a gentleman named Jabo Stone, who had married into the Williams family, became the owner. He sold it in 1969 to Michael Matsos, and, in 2010, CM Foodservice, LLC took over Golden Rule as well as Matsos’s popular Michael’s Steakhouse. They run a few other small brands with locations dotted around the southeast, including La Paz, which, until recently, had a store within walking distance of my childhood home in Vinings GA. Continue reading “Golden Rule Bar-B-Q, Irondale AL”
Tops Bar-B-Que, Memphis TN
Well, I done Tops wrong, to be blunt. I had mistakenly assumed that they were a sort of Memphis version of some other regional fast food barbecue chains, like Whitt’s or Rick’s in middle Tennessee / northern Alabama, or Buddy’s around Knoxville, where meat is smoked in one location and moved around to others and kept in warmers. It turns out that Tops, which has fourteen stores in the area – one of which is across the river in Arkansas, and another two in Mississippi – smokes the meat in each location. They use an indoor pit in each store, and the children and I visited the oldest existing restaurant on Rhodes Avenue in East Memphis, thinking, incorrectly, that they do all the smoking here. Continue reading “Tops Bar-B-Que, Memphis TN”
Christophe’s to Go, Atlanta GA
Marie and I were invited to check out a very interesting business with four locations around Atlanta, putting together really interesting grab-and-go meals to eat at home. Sure, lots of stores do this sort of thing, but few do it with such efficiency and ease and with as many unique choices. Christophe’s to Go, with dinners and lunches designed by Executive Chef Christophe Le Metayer, emphasizes organic and healthy eating, with no preservatives or artificial elements in the meals, and the four dishes that we tried were very successful around our table. Continue reading “Christophe’s to Go, Atlanta GA”
Marie, Let's Eat! 