A couple of weeks ago, we were in Macon, having dinner with our friends Rex and Rachel, and I mentioned a restaurant that I’d like to visit one of these days. Rex said that it’s become one of those restaurants where only much older people eat. I knew what he meant; we’ve been to a few ourselves, like The Epicurean in East Ridge TN or Jim Stalvey’s in Covington GA. Heck, for all that youth-skewing magazines like Garden & Gun have celebrated barbecue in the last few years, I am not sure that any students at Wake Forest are joining the crowd at Hill’s Lexington in Winston-Salem. I went there for breakfast last year and the servers there looked at me like they had never before seen anybody in their forties out of bed that early. Continue reading “California Dreaming, Kennesaw GA”
Tag: atlanta
Simply Thai, Dunwoody GA
A few weeks ago, our friend Kevin came to town from Washington to see his family, and we met up with him at a Thai restaurant that promises a “hot and passionate menu.” We noticed Simply Thai a couple of months ago when we visited Cafe Sababa, which is in the space next door, and even after deciding that Erawan has the best Thai cuisine that we’ve ever had, we wanted to sample someplace new. So we went out and fought worse-than-usual traffic – turns out that the whole Perimeter Mall area is nightmarish the week before Christmas, surprise! – and sat down to a pretty good meal with our old pal. Continue reading “Simply Thai, Dunwoody GA”
Cook Out, Kennesaw GA
Cook Out has continued their slow and inexorable and honestly quite confusing expansion into Georgia. There’s no sense to be made in looking over their list of Georgia locations. I think that the presence of colleges must play a role, so that inebriated undergraduates can get a whole lot of greasy fast food at two in the morning and, what the heck, a milkshake while we’re here. That’s why we see restaurants in Athens (albeit nowhere sensible between the bars and the student housing, confounding that theory), Statesboro, Rome, and Milledgeville. But then there’s one in Pooler, and two stores in Augusta, and one in Atlanta off Moreland that serves the godawfulest barbecue ever. Two more Atlanta stores also opened last month, alongside this one, on Northside and in the former Zesto on Ponce. Continue reading “Cook Out, Kennesaw GA”
Marlow’s Tavern, Dunwoody GA
Marie and I were invited to visit Marlow’s Tavern and sample their winter menu. This local chain continues to impress us with their slow and careful expansion, with the quality of their food, and with the very fresh rotations of their menu. It changes twice a year, but it doesn’t have a simple A- and B- menu. Each new rollout with summer- and winter-themed selections is a little different, with executive chef John Metz tweaking last year’s popular choices. Continue reading “Marlow’s Tavern, Dunwoody GA”
Shake Shack, Atlanta GA
The unbelievable mob at our city’s first Shake Shack, part of the new Buckhead Atlanta development and located right on Peachtree Road, underneath Gypsy Kitchen and The Southern Gentleman, gives us some indication what the crowd might be like should In-N-Out Burger ever open in our fair town. About a month ago, Marie treated me to lunch here for my birthday. Our friend David joined us and it was quite a crowd. David commented that he’d never seen a restaurant dedicate one staff member to “queue control” duty. Continue reading “Shake Shack, Atlanta GA”
Blaxican Mexican Soul Food, Roswell GA (CLOSED)
I’ve been a huge fan of Will Turner’s cooking since the first time we stumbled upon the Blaxican food truck. It’s been a go-to ever since; when we go to food trucks, I’m more likely to want to have a couple of his tacos and that amazing “Mexi mac and cheese” than sample something from anybody else, which isn’t really in line with our mission, but heck, we’re only human. Continue reading “Blaxican Mexican Soul Food, Roswell GA (CLOSED)”
Old McDonald’s Bar-B-Que, Buford GA (CLOSED)
I have a very soft spot in my heart for Bob Burley, who ran Old McDonald’s Bar-B-Que from 1982 to 2008. When I first started writing (badly) about barbecue – this was when I had a lousy Geocities page about barbecue – I tended to just walk into a restaurant, eat, leave, and write a pompous paragraph, learning nothing and imparting less. Mr. Burley was the first person to take a few minutes and explain his process. Eventually, I started inquiring from other people about the food I was eating, learning more about traditions and styles, and having my preconceived notions upended, and then I quit writing about food for eight or nine years. Continue reading “Old McDonald’s Bar-B-Que, Buford GA (CLOSED)”
Marie, Let's Eat! 