A year back, after our last visit to Jacksonville, I was looking at Urbanspoon to make sure that the links to our most recent blog updates for that city looked okay, and somebody had recently posted some photos of the mural on the outside of TacoLu. I took one look and said we’d visit on our next trip to Florida. How could we pass this up? Continue reading “TacoLu, Jacksonville Beach FL”
Photo Post 14: The Rex in Jacksonville FL
In August of last year, we spent a day in Chattanooga and made a stop by Sir Goony’s for me to run around with the camera shooting the various mini-golf obstacles. One of these obstacles was a big orange tyrannosaur. The Goony Golf chain was a 1960s-era ripoff of Florida’s Goofy Golf. Roadside Architecture has documented all these surviving places fairly well – about a million times better than we can ever do – and while I was looking around her site for ideas for toddler-friendly things to do and see in Jacksonville, I was pleased to see that a lone Goony tyrannosaur was still standing guard at a shopping center. (You want dinosaurs in Florida? She’s got two pages of them!) Continue reading “Photo Post 14: The Rex in Jacksonville FL”
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”
Jerk Shack, Brunswick GA
We are always looking out for restaurants to try in Brunswick, since we think that we have covered Saint Simons Island pretty well. I have my eye on a couple of places on the mainland, but when a review of Jerk Shack bubbled up at just the right time, I decided to give that place a try ahead of the competition. Marie really enjoys Jamaican cuisine and has hinted that we never quite get enough of it for her liking. So on our second day on the coast, we took a little drive back across the causeway. First we let the girlchild do some shopping in some vintage clothing stores, while Marie let the toddler enjoy some reading and relaxation in the public library. I looked through old city directories, chasing a lead that went nowhere, and then we drove north to Altama Avenue to find this ramshackle little business. Continue reading “Jerk Shack, Brunswick GA”
Zunzi’s, Savannah GA
Last month, we enjoyed a six-day trip in south Georgia for Christmas, and we’ll be covering our new experiences over the next week and a half. I wanted to make sure that we got a new story from Savannah this time out. I figure any opportunity to stop into this great city is one worth taking, and I’m glad that we’ve resolved to come here a little more frequently on our travels. Last year, one of our readers recommended that we visit this teeny little carry-out room on York Street and try their amazing hummus. I’m not quite sure that Marie is one hundred percent satisfied that we did. I think she liked the food okay, but she got humbled in a no-holds barred battle of puns with one of the employees here. It really was a sight to see. Continue reading “Zunzi’s, Savannah GA”
Mustard Chicken
This is Marie, contributing an article about a recipe I tried for Mustard Chicken. Here’s the original recipe that Grant found for me. This one didn’t turn out perfect, but it was intriguing enough to require a return for more experimentation. I want to tweak this a bit and make it work better. Continue reading “Mustard Chicken”
Jeni’s Ice Creams, Atlanta GA
Once upon a time, I didn’t object much to Ohio State. Part of it’s because I always thought that Jim Tressel was a class act, but basically, while I have little interest and no real concern about the activities of other, lesser, conferences, it’s kind of hard for me to muster much passion or antipathy for what goes on in the Big Ten. Then they went and hired Urban Meyer and packed their schedule with a bunch of loser teams and had the audacity to announce that they were number two in the country and stood in the way of Auburn playing FSU for the title. Continue reading “Jeni’s Ice Creams, Atlanta GA”
Marie, Let's Eat! 