On one of those whirlwind tours around Nashville that I experienced from the back seat of one of my friends’ cars in the early 2000s, we whizzed past San Antonio Taco Company and I said that I must try them one day. It took me a few years, and while I was never a regular, I ate there three or four times before we began blogging. It is a fun and very busy place that goes a small way toward remedying the inescapable reality of being a Vanderbilt undergrad. Nashville isn’t a college town. There’s no culture here, like you see in Oxford or Athens, of small, quirky, inexpensive places for college students to go off campus and eat dirt cheap. Well, there’s a stretch a little down the road in the Belcourt neighborhood, where Pancake Pantry is, that almost feels right, but on the north end of campus, there’s Rotier’s and Hog Heaven and the Ellison Place Soda Shop going one direction, and this place and Noshville on another, but it’s all spread out across very busy roads and punctuated by lots of national chains. Continue reading “San Antonio Taco Company, Nashville TN”
Rick’s Barbecue, Murfreesboro TN
So the road took us back to Tennessee for a couple of days. Marie had some time off and wanted to visit her family, and I didn’t quite have the hours accrued to take the days that she wanted, so instead, she took the baby and went south, and I took the girlchild and went north. I even did the good deed, perhaps, of ringing the girlchild’s mother and offering to let the two of ’em have a few hours together. Continue reading “Rick’s Barbecue, Murfreesboro TN”
Himalayan Spice, Atlanta GA
Last week, when I was talking about Chai Pani, I referenced the upscale presentation of the typical Indian restaurant that we most often see in America, the tuxedo-n-curry type of business. I hope that I was very clear that my statements in no way belittled the food itself, which is frequently very good, but expressed a malaise with the tedious predictability of the dining experience, from knowing what you’ll find on the menu to what you’ll see on the walls, to what you’ll hear played over the PA system: polite, unthreatening, softly played music, the sort of gentle sitar pieces, occasionally with plaintive vocal accompaniment, that you might hear while getting a massage. This is why the raucous and joyful cacaphony that we now associate with Bollywood soundtracks was such a pleasant surprise to me; at least two generations in this country were convinced that all Indian music sounds like Ravi Shankar and his pals tuning their instruments at the start of the Concert for Bangla Desh, when there was so much more to learn. Continue reading “Himalayan Spice, Atlanta GA”
The Rib Ranch, Marietta GA
If readers will forgive a little boasting when we usually strive for a little humility and, particularly where our fumbling photography is concerned, forgiveness, today’s entry is quite a milestone for us. The Rib Ranch is the 200th barbecue restaurant that we have featured at our blog. We’ve a long ways to go before scaling the dizzy heights of some of those Texas-based barbecue blogs – the astonishing Full Custom Gospel BBQ has three times as many, but also a four-year head start – but we are quite proud to have visited and photographed and presented so many places. Continue reading “The Rib Ranch, Marietta GA”
Cazadores, Marietta GA
Several years ago, an online buddy of mine named Michael came from California to meet in person the sixty-eleven friends that he’d made in Atlanta. The trip worked out really well for him; one of those circles of friends had another friend visiting from Jacksonville. They met at a party and hit it off so well that she moved out to California to be with him; they’ve been happily married for about six years now. Continue reading “Cazadores, Marietta GA”
Harmony Vegetarian Chinese, Chamblee GA
Earlier this month, we finally synched schedules with Emily and Adam of Spatial Drift and got to join them for supper. They’ve got a really fun lifestyle blog that I stumbled across while looking for links in the “other blog posts about” section that you see at the bottom of many of our entries here. A little over a year ago, Emily started a really neat project. Her goal has been to eat at every single restaurant on Buford Highway, starting at the southernmost, Pancho’s, and going north one by one. Continue reading “Harmony Vegetarian Chinese, Chamblee GA”
El Señor Taco, Atlanta GA (CLOSED)
One of the many reasons that it’s pretty easy to focus on the Buford Highway corridor is that there are piles of restaurants up and down this street that, happily, open for lunch at the sensible hour of 10. Well, I say “sensible,” but it’s really that, for the last few years I had worked an unusual schedule, and, two days a week, I had time on my hands and a cravin’ in my belly, and waiting around until 11.30 for some of these places to open actually is an inconvenience when I live out in the ‘burbs but work nearby. Earlier this month, happily, my schedule at work changed to something a little more sensible and convenient, but noting where a fellow could get lunch at an earlier hour became an ongoing concern. Continue reading “El Señor Taco, Atlanta GA (CLOSED)”
Marie, Let's Eat! 