Harold’s Barbecue, Atlanta GA (CLOSED)

There are so many barbecue restaurants in this state that I’ve never tried. Even the old ones, like Harold’s, which has been around since 1947, I’ve just never got around to before. Well, on Saturday, we had originally intended to take another short road trip, this time out to Augusta. Unfortunately, the bank balance is a little low, so we elected to save the gasoline and find a new meal intown instead. There are four restaurants in Atlanta that are reviewed on roadfood.com that we have not written up for our blog yet. A roll of the dice brought up Harold’s, so I rang my parents and asked if they’d like to join us.

Harold’s is a simply perfect destination for a Saturday lunch. It’s very easy to find, just a quick little hop off the downtown connector at exit 244 and south less than a mile. It is in a pretty rough-looking neighborhood about a stone’s throw up the street from the federal pen. If you’ve never seen this gigantic building, you should, as it’s an architectural masterpiece. Unfortunately, Harold’s itself is in a pretty basic and deeply ugly building, and the bars around the windows and the air conditioning units don’t inspire great confidence in the local residents’ rap sheets.

I apologize for repeating much of the online information about this restaurant, but some things are so blatant that I can’t avoid coming back to it.

I’m very glad we finally stopped into this Atlanta institution. Despite the “keep driving, and fast” exterior, the inside is cozy and relaxing, and also quite chilly, since one of the air conditioners seemed to be working overtime. There’s a glorious smell of thick smoke throughout the building, and interior walls in the kitchen that are blackened from more than sixty years of smoking. It’s a building with a lot of history; we were taken care of by Harold and Hugh’s granddaughter, who’s been here for forty years herself.

As for the food, the chopped pork is pretty good. It’s very soft and dry, almost incandescently white. Unfortunately, I didn’t like either of the sauces at all, and made the considerable mistake – the novice mistake – of just pouring the hot sauce all over my food before testing it. Theirs is a thick, red, tomato-and-pepper concoction that leaves a Tabasco-style aftertaste and overpowers the subtle, smoky taste of the soft pork. While I would certainly recommend Harold’s, I would caution anybody going to try a little on the side before indulging too much.

The main dish is pretty good, but the sides are just outstanding. The Brunswick stew is probably the best anywhere near Atlanta. It’s really thick, with a very heavy corn flavor, and lots of tomatoes and stringy shreds of meat. The corn taste reminded me of the wonderful Zeb’s in Danielsville. The plates are served with a generous helping of cracklin’ cornbread. Crumble just a little of that into your stew and scoop it right back out, and that’s perfect. If I have had cracklin’ cornbread – named for the little pork cracklings that Food Network describes as “little pieces of pork fat, fatty meats, or ham skin which are left crisp and brown after the lard or fat has been rendered from them” – before, I don’t recall it. Honestly, there’s not a great deal of meat in the bread, but it’s so tasty that didn’t feel that I was missing anything.

The slaw is also excellent; a perfect blend of mayo and vinegar that goes extremely well with the stew and pork. It’s simply a perfectly balanced meal, even if the sauce was disappointing.

Harold’s attempted to expand just a little from this neighborhood, but unfortunately it didn’t last. There were two outposts south of the city, in Jonesboro and in McDonough, and a third up near us in Kennesaw, but apparently all three have closed. Only the original remains, which, honestly, is kind of the way it should be. Older joints with this much history, well, visitors should go to them for the experience almost as much as the food. With stew this good, I hope to be back for both before too long.

Pete’s Famous Hot Dogs, Birmingham AL (CLOSED)

So I was sketching out this trip and my daughter requested a hot dog while we were in Birmingham. That suited me just fine; I’m mercenary enough to want to add more chapters to this blog, and we had bypassed Pete’s Famous Hot Dogs, arguably the best-known restaurant in the city, in favor of one of its competitors the last time we visited. Having now tried both, I’m prepared to make an unusual claim: I prefer the dog that George makes at Gus’s to the one that Gus makes at Pete’s. Continue reading “Pete’s Famous Hot Dogs, Birmingham AL (CLOSED)” →

Country’s Barbecue, Columbus GA

Our day trip to middle Georgia and Alabama brought us back to Columbus after some time spent shopping at Hastings. We spent better than an hour enjoying the city’s Riverwalk along the Chattahoochee before going to visit our friend Cheryl, who had recommended we stop at Mrs. Story’s earlier in the day. We had a good time telling stories and hearing about her new stepdaughters before we decamped to get some supper at one of the town’s roadfood heavyweights, the incredibly popular Country’s Barbecue. Continue reading “Country’s Barbecue, Columbus GA” →

Old South Bar-B-Q, Smyrna GA

The last time I wrote, I was talking about Alpharetta’s oldest surviving restaurant. This time, it’s Old South Bar-B-Q, which, since the closure of Fat Boy a couple of years back, has become the longest-lasting place in Smyrna to get something to eat. It’s managed this through three generations of family ownership by creating some remarkable loyalty in their customer base.

Honestly, Old South is about the living definition of hit and miss. You never know what you’re going to get here. I’ve had some very good meals, and I’ve always enjoyed their really, really thick original sauce, but man, can you ever tell when somebody new is in the kitchen chopping, pulling or slicing the meat. Unfortunately, everybody’s meat was a little disappointing this time out. There was just too much fat and gristle on display.

Normally, I get chopped pork whenever I have barbecue, but I guess I was feeling a little contrary and, this past Friday night, asked for pulled pork instead. Marie and I were visiting my folks with my daughter in tow and Old South was my bright idea. My dad didn’t really feel like going out, so I phoned in an order of quite unreasonable complexity – my brother, God bless him, has really specific requirements about how he wants his grub – and they got it exactly right.

The sides here are pretty inconsistent. While I never cared for their potato salad or slaw, their Brunswick stew is among the best around. It’s an almost black brew with lots of stringy meat and corn. Some years back, I took three of my friends from Nashville, Brooke, Dash and Tory, here. None of them had tried Brunswick stew before, and I was glad to set ’em straight with the good stuff first.

Their rings and beans are certainly just fine, but I knew that my dad, who likes their onion rings better than anybody else’s, would have more than enough to share. Dad loves these, especially dipped in Heinz 57 sauce. He has been doing this for better than twenty years and still asks whether I want some, because I “really need to try this.” Overall, this meal was just “okay,” let down by the inconsistent meat. I’ve certainly had considerably better meals here, but I think the next time the road takes us to Old South, I’ll stick to having my pork chopped. It is, nevertheless, better than many of their competitors in this part of Cobb, although I can name two within a hop, skip and a jump that I have not yet tried. There’s something else I need to get on with.

The Smith House, Dahlonega GA (take two)

Okay, so we’re driving up Georgia 400 to the wonderful little town of Dahlonega, and a few miles past that first, always-surprising, traffic light a few miles into Forsyth County, there’s a billboard for the Smith House that encourages traveling diners: “Now, more than ever, rediscover the tradition.” Continue reading “The Smith House, Dahlonega GA (take two)” →

The Bulloch House, Warm Springs GA

Marie and I had set aside a Saturday to take a day trip with the children somewhere for lunch. We decided against anywhere south down I-75 as she and my son had just come back from that direction the week before, so I turned to roadfood.com for a little help. I decided that as long as we’re still living in Georgia, we should try and hit each of the restaurants in the state to get featured reviews on that site. Except the one I’ve heard awful things about, which you’ll just have to figure out from its regular and consistent absence from this blog. This time out, we moseyed down to the town of Warm Springs in Meriwether County for a lunch at the Bulloch House, so you can cross that off the list of “Places Marie and Grant are not going to visit.”

I’d been to Warm Springs only once before, when I was around my son’s age and we took a school trip to the Little White House, where Franklin Roosevelt kept a home, and where he passed away. I think we had packed brown bag lunches; we certainly didn’t have a meal as good as the buffet here. It’s a classic Southern-styled selection, on this Saturday featuring three meats and a variety of veggies and a salad.

It reminded me of the better-known Blue Willow Inn up in Social Circle, although it must be said that the Blue Willow, with its much larger selection, is the better of the two. On the other hand, the Bulloch House still has much to recommend it.

Truth be told, this is exactly the right time to be enjoying big country lunches with lots of fresh vegetables. The salad bar at the Bulloch House proved to be one of the best I have had in ages, with really wonderful tomatoes, pickles and bell peppers. The fried apples were extremely good, as was a soupy serving of spicy stewed tomatoes. Chicken livers and tuna croquettes were nice additions to the meal, and while I wasn’t mad about either the pork or the fried chicken, they got better reviews from the rest of the family. Besides, with veggies this good, I can overlook personal disappointment about the meat.

I have to say that while this place is by no means outstanding, it’s nevertheless quite good and probably the best restaurant in the region, making it a sensible destination for anybody touring the area. We arrived alongside several tables of bikers who were making their way through, along with some antiquers and junkers who were planning to hit the restored downtown of Warm Springs. The place went into a steep decline after the president’s death, the closure of the old spa and swimming pool and the shutdown of the railroad, but it began crawling back to life in the late eighties. The Little White House and grounds is said to be a really attractive park and good for a nice hike, but probably not in the middle of July. We did just a bit of looking around before making our way back home, and it seems like an attractive getaway from the city, really. There’s an old hotel with a teeny little ice cream parlor in one of the front windows, and a couple of bed & breakfasts in the region, and it’s all very cute and quiet. I could totally see the attraction in making this place a fine little escape destination.

Actually, and I’m sure the good people behind the Bulloch House won’t appreciate me saying this, but no matter how good the lunch was, the best part of the trip came a few minutes before we arrived. We got off I-85 near Hogansville and took GA-100 down to the town of Greenville to get there. I had my fingers crossed that if we found a grocery store that close to the Alabama line, we might get lucky and find some Buffalo Rock. Sure as shooting, we did, at an old Piggly Wiggly store which must hold the state record for most anti-vandalism signs pasted up outside a retail establishment. We brought home two twelve-packs and some Grapico as well, and I figure that if I tell enough people that you can buy my favorite soft drink this close to Atlanta after all, then maybe they can afford a night security guard or something.

Pancake Pantry, Nashville TN

Nashville has not made an appearance in this blog before now, despite it being one of my favorite cities and one which we try to visit at least twice a year. It’s absolutely packed with good restaurants, great people and some wonderful friends, and I wasn’t about to consider a trip to Memphis without swinging back through Nashville to shop, visit and eat. Continue reading “Pancake Pantry, Nashville TN” →