When Marie and I first began dating, we would probably most often eat in Athens at the restaurant that was nearest her house: the original location of Jot Em Down. The building was erected in the 1920s and, once upon a time, had been a small grocery store. Jot Em Down, for a time much beloved as the favorite barbecue in Athens of many writers, moved to the larger space on the old Macon Highway that had been the home of Parsons Restaurant, but it only lasted there a year or two. Continue reading “Sisters Creole Market, Athens GA (CLOSED)”
Canton House, Chamblee GA
Marie and I would love to learn more about all the interesting and curious – I’m not sold enough to say wonderful or even “good” – food choices available along Buford Highway, and so we’re going to make a more concerted effort to get out of the ‘burbs and over here for more authentic Mexican, Chinese or Korean meals more frequently. As it happens, Marie seems to appreciate most Asian-style cooking a little more than I do, so perhaps we’ll try to give these restaurants a shot when we can go together, and maybe I’ll focus on the taquerias and Latin American cuisine when I get out on my own. Continue reading “Canton House, Chamblee GA”
Curly’s Fried Chicken, Atlanta GA (CLOSED)
So, let’s get the obligatory mention of LeRoy’s out of the way. I liked LeRoy’s. It was pretty good, but pretty expensive, and it didn’t last long, and it closed and a family rented out the property and put their own recipes in the fry vats. Curly’s Chicken is even better than LeRoy’s and less expensive. Continue reading “Curly’s Fried Chicken, Atlanta GA (CLOSED)”
Brown’s BBQ, Atlanta GA (CLOSED)
Many years back, there was this terrific hole-in-the-wall barbecue place called Benny’s. It was located in that ramshackle strip mall right where Ashford-Dunwoody and Johnson Ferry have that obnoxious intersection, where so many restaurants have thrived for a year or three before vanishing. Once upon a time, French Quarter Too was here. So was this Golden-This-Happy-That Chinese delivery place that had a really curious and impossibly spicy dish called Zyu Cheng Chicken on the menu. And then there was Benny’s, one of the loudest and most wonderfully chaotic businesses that I’ve ever seen. The notion of ordering meat dry never occurred to these good people. You joined a line and a woman bellowed questions at you, ending in “HOT, MILD OR MIX?” I think that everybody who sat down with a plate of food had to wipe their brow, relieved that the interrogation had finally finished. Continue reading “Brown’s BBQ, Atlanta GA (CLOSED)”
The Sweet Auburn Curb Market, Atlanta GA
Over the years, I’ve taken my share of potshots at a certain type of Atlantan – and these are a very, very small minority of us, I trust – who cannot countenance the idea of traveling anywhere outside I-285. Now, I understand a reluctance to make long, unnecessary journeys, but having been raised as a suburbanite who would, in high school, ride or drive all over the city and the northern ‘burbs looking for certain scarce comics or records, my mindset might be a little different from some. When I was trying to assemble a complete run of Mark Evanier and Will Mueginot’s DNAgents, arbitrary boundaries like an interstate didn’t mean anything to me. Plus, we walked either under or across the darn road all the time. It was just a road, and certainly not a barrier keeping people from tracking down a really good hamburger. Continue reading “The Sweet Auburn Curb Market, Atlanta GA”
Season 52’s Summer Menu
This is Marie, contributing an article about a media event at Seasons 52 for the summer menu launch.
Seasons 52, as you may know, showed up in a prior chapter. They deserve another mention, however, as they work really hard to have a varying menu based on the freshest food available. Their original concept of having whatever was freshest and best on any particular week ran aground on the shoals of frustrated recommendations (“But my friend said you had the absolute best [whatever] and I should have it too!” “So sorry, that was last week. This week we have [new special] would you like to try that?”). Continue reading “Season 52’s Summer Menu”
Tank’s Bar & Grill, Dayton OH
This is Marie, contributing an article about two restaurants in Dayton that I had the privilege to visit during a business trip to interview for a job in Dayton, Ohio. One of these was a place rather emphatically off my beaten path, and the other just the kind of place I could wind up visiting often. It was the first time I had been away overnight entirely by myself since the baby was born, and it definitely felt odd. There was another layer of oddness to it, in that I didn’t know whether when I came back from the trip I would be able to make a true decision about whether to take the position if offered, due to some legal unpleasantness mentioned in Grant’s last post. Continue reading “Tank’s Bar & Grill, Dayton OH”
Marie, Let's Eat! 