The Real Chow Baby, Atlanta GA (take two) (CLOSED)

This is Marie, contributing an article about another location of a place we’d been to and enjoyed, and we wanted to see what (and how) the original was doing. Booming business, it appeared; the place was completely packed and there were ridiculous lines for the food bar. But I get ahead of myself. Continue reading “The Real Chow Baby, Atlanta GA (take two) (CLOSED)” →

The Sheik, Jacksonville FL

In the 1960s, as fast food really began to take off, every business owner was looking for an angle. In Jacksonville, a fellow named Tarzan Akel came up with a winking little way to get attention. Several of the area’s delis had been building sandwiches in pita bread for a few years, looking to win the attention of the city’s large Arabic population, and he decided to go full-bore into middle eastern imagery. In 1965, he opened the first of what would be a six-store chain called The Sheik, specializing in a pita sandwich filled with ham, salami, bologna, cheese, lettuce, tomato and onion, along with a special sauce. It’s called a camel rider. Continue reading “The Sheik, Jacksonville FL” →

Familiar Flavors in Different Locations, Macon GA

Late last month, Marie and I took another short trip to Macon to meet her mother and let Marie drive her the rest of the way into the traffic and sprawl of Atlanta. This gave us another chance to quickly visit a couple of places before those two went home, leaving me the chance to mosey on home at my own darn speed. Continue reading “Familiar Flavors in Different Locations, Macon GA” →

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)” →

Edgewood Corner Tavern, Atlanta GA

There are many places that I’ve read about and said “Hmmm, I’d like to go there,” and many others that I’ve read about and said “I’d like to go there along with Marie.” That’s the case with Edgewood Corner Tavern in the Old Fourth Ward. It’s one of four Corner Taverns in the city, the most popular of which is probably the one in Little Five Points. Each of them has their own specialties, along with a dense menu of reliable bar food and a very satisfactory and deep list of beers, but the Edgewood location was spotlighted last year in this report at A Hamburger Today. Continue reading “Edgewood Corner Tavern, Atlanta GA” →

Pizza 3.14, Marietta GA (CLOSED)

This is Marie, contributing a small article about a local pizza joint we tried out. No one enjoyed the visit more than the baby did, because they have an arcade with a game that shows trucks jumping Monster-Truck-style over unlikely bits of terrain, and the game had a wheel and lever and buttons. He did not care in the least that all he got to see was the teaser footage; for him, it was an unending free video game. Continue reading “Pizza 3.14, Marietta GA (CLOSED)” →

Zesto, Columbia SC

Our readers in Atlanta are probably loosely aware that our small chain of Zesto stores is not entirely unique. Thanks to the wonderful work of Roadside Architecture, we know that there are Zesto restaurants, called, in some cases, “Zesto Drive-In,” all over the country, but they’re slowly but surely vanishing to time. The corporate chain, which launched in 1945, only lasted for a few years. A newspaper story on the wall of the store in West Columbia, SC claims that it disintegrated in 1951, but the Atlanta Zesto says that their one-time corporate owner, Taylor Freezer Corporation, didn’t halt operations for another four years. This left all of the original franchisees independent and able to grow, expand, or mutate at their own pace, no later than 1955. Continue reading “Zesto, Columbia SC” →