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” →

Return Visits to Two Favorites in Nashville TN

It worked out that on our trip to Nashville, I had an appetizer at one restaurant, a main course at a second, and a dessert at a third. I think that I’d do that every evening if only I could. Continue reading “Return Visits to Two Favorites in Nashville TN” →

Jalisco, Atlanta GA

In January, I wrote about the popular Nuevo Laredo Cantina, and noted then that every three or four months, I get a little peckish for El-This-Los-That Atlanta-styled “Mexican” food. The story goes that the red sauce-and-cheese style of Mexican food – the sort of place where, in the late 1980s, we all gorged on cheese dip – was brought to Atlanta by the founder of the local chain of Monterrey restaurants around 1974. Continue reading “Jalisco, Atlanta GA” →

Defining Tacos

We should probably all agree that there must be at least two types of hot dogs.

It really feels like The Atlanta Journal-Constitution polls its readers every other month on the best of this food in Atlanta or the best of that. I want to say that it was burgers most recently. Proving that people just don’t define anything the same way as anybody else, whenever it’s time for people to nominate and argue about hot dogs, scores and scores of people name The Varsity. They do this in much the same way that the runaway nominee for the “people’s choice” for best milkshake in the city is that machine-pumped peach-flavored goo that shows up in the summers at Chick-fil-A stores. Continue reading “Defining Tacos” →

Don’t Ask Me Why

Dear Krystal,

We’ve been together a long time, and exclusively for a few years now, haven’t we? It’s been a good time, and I have no complaints, honestly. But I find myself in the awkward position of having to write you an unhappy letter now. Well, just remember that I love you, and maybe always will, and let me tell you the whole story. Continue reading “Don’t Ask Me Why” →

Bell Street Burritos, Atlanta GA (CLOSED)

Every once in a while, objectivity flies right out the window here at our blog in favor of wild, emphatic gushing. This is one of those chapters.

When I was living in Athens, and waxing eloquent about the amazing Mean Bean to anybody who would listen, I would occasionally get reports back from Atlanta about a place called Tortillas. They predated the Mean Bean by a few years, long enough to already have an imitator, Frijoleros, that I tried once in the late eighties. Somehow, though, possibly because high schoolers have far less of an awareness of the world around them than they would like to think, I never heard of Tortillas, or it never registered, until the early nineties, when I started reading papers like Creative Loafing and hearing every one of the burrito joints in Atlanta compared, unfavorably, to the mighty Tortillas. In time, there was a craze that started. Raging Burrito, Z-Teca (which became Qdoba), Chipotle, Willy’s, Moe’s and plenty of others started up, and, in time, Tortillas started feeling the effects. They shuttered in the spring of 2003, after a 19-year run. Continue reading “Bell Street Burritos, Atlanta GA (CLOSED)” →

Perla Taqueria, Atlanta GA (CLOSED)

I don’t know whether they’re ever apparent to you good readers, but I do like to occasionally find some kind of an angle to a chapter here, especially when I write a chapter with two different restaurants. Well, beyond just “here are two places where we ate recently,” I mean. Last week, I thought that I was onto a good one when David suggested that we follow up our lunch at Decatur’s No. 246 with a visit to Perla Taqueria near Cheshire Bridge. He had eaten here a couple of weeks previously, and emailed just about all his local friends as soon as he got back to the office to warn everybody about their incredibly hot sauce. Evidently, he seemed to think that I had not actually read that email when he then told me how I really had to try this place. Continue reading “Perla Taqueria, Atlanta GA (CLOSED)” →