One thing’s certain about us food blog hobbyists: we’re an insular crowd. Oh, we don’t intend to be, but I think that, hobby-wide, there’s a sense of checking out what everybody else is doing and where everybody else is eating, and when somebody comes up from under the radar, it’s a big surprise. Westside Pizzeria is just about the most pleasant surprise that anybody’s stumbled across. Continue reading “Westside Pizzeria, Atlanta GA”
Wallace Barbecue, Austell GA (take two)
I started craving some of the interesting barbecue from Atlanta’s western side that I’ve mentioned in these pages before. This is the barbecue served with what’s called either Hudson’s-style sauce, or juice by its fans, and longtime readers may know all too well that I’ve preached its unique style many times before. What I haven’t done, however, is attempt to provide photographs of what the heck I’m talking about, relying instead on descriptions. So one Friday last month, Marie and I had a day off and decided to give the girlchild a little attention and quality time. We left the baby in daycare and took the teenager out to Austell for lunch at Wallace Barbecue. We covered this restaurant in 2010, but I don’t believe that we did a good job. I certainly no longer advise ordering the meat dry. In order to best experience Hudson’s-style sauce, you need to just get a pork and stew plate as it comes. Continue reading “Wallace Barbecue, Austell GA (take two)”
Redd’s Que & Stew, Jefferson GA
Two of our old friends announced they were getting hitched, and that they’d be having a wedding hootenanny at a farmhouse near Jefferson. I said that was perfect, because there were two barbecue joints in Jefferson and one near Commerce, about a mile and a half west of the interstate, that I wanted to try. Continue reading “Redd’s Que & Stew, Jefferson GA”
Pollo Tropical, Kennesaw GA
Hello again, readers! Did you miss us? We had a good vacation down in south Georgia. This was not really a big eating tour, but we have a handful of chapters to share, but that won’t be for a while yet. We are still working through the remarkable backlog of stories from June. We’ll try to tell you about the couple of old places in Savannah and Brunswick that we saw sometime before the stores start selling Halloween candy. Definitely before they discount it. Continue reading “Pollo Tropical, Kennesaw GA”
Rocco’s Pub, Marietta GA (CLOSED)
We’ve written many times before that we’d rather not linger on negative reviews, and if we visit a joint that’s just pretty good but otherwise uninspiring, we’d just as soon not spend the energy and time on it. But Rocco’s Pub is an unusual case. This is a joint that was once very good indeed, and took a sharp right turn into mediocrity around the time that we started blogging, and is now, perhaps, bobbing above the quality line again. Continue reading “Rocco’s Pub, Marietta GA (CLOSED)”
Circumnavigating the Tennessee River Valley – part nine
I left Leo & Susie’s ahead of schedule, and I’ll tell you folks, it is a good thing that I did because Birmingham’s rush hour turned out to be every bit as bad as I’d heard. I won’t complain about Atlanta’s again for at least three weeks. Complicating things up front, there’s about a two-mile stretch between not-quite-finished I-22 and I-65 that hasn’t been completed yet, and eastbound traffic exits onto a road called Coalburg, and absolutely everybody takes that down to 41st Avenue and cuts over. These roads were not meant for this volume of traffic. It’s like driving across trenches. Then you get on the I-59/I-20 connector and it’s every man for himself. For the rest of my life, I’m going to do my level best to avoid Birmingham Fridays between four and six. Continue reading “Circumnavigating the Tennessee River Valley – part nine”
Circumnavigating the Tennessee River Valley – part eight
Of all the restaurants that I planned to visit on this circumnavigation, Leo & Susie’s Famous Green Top Bar-B-Q – my heavens, what a great name! – was the one that I looked forward to the most. About three years ago, I discovered the work of the Southern Foodways Alliance and their “Southern BBQ Trail.” This is, if you have not already found it, an invaluable resource for barbecue lovers. In Alabama, this restaurant is one of twelve to be spotlighted via one of Amy Evans’ completely terrific oral histories. Please go give this a read and a listen if you’ve not already, and if it doesn’t leave you craving a visit, something might very well be badly wrong with you. (Evans covered all the details about how the meat and sauce are prepared in her interview with Richard Headrick, so I’ll point the curious among you that way.) Continue reading “Circumnavigating the Tennessee River Valley – part eight”
Marie, Let's Eat! 