Pit Boss BBQ, Hapeville GA

In April, I visited Hapeville after work and had a very good lunch at Hambones. That restaurant is located within sight of Pit Boss BBQ, and I considered trying them both, but didn’t feel that I had room that trip. Everything worked out just fine, because while Marie is on maternity leave, she and I are getting the opportunity to enjoy a midweek lunch or two together on my short days. I wanted to bring her back down to Hapeville so that she could have a milkshake at Chapman Drugs, giving us the chance to stop by and see what Pit Boss had to offer.

This is yet another Atlanta barbecue place that doesn’t get very much attention from the foodies and bloggers in the region, but I think that it is definitely worth a visit. It has a very loyal customer base. I think that every Delta employee who could have fit inside the building tried to during our visit, and the staff seemed to know them all by name. Unfortunately, so many people arrived around 11:15 that at least one party got discouraged by the line and left. I hope they come back; they missed out on a good lunch.

Marie and I each had the chopped pork, which comes presauced with Pit Boss’s mild sauce. It’s a great mix; the meat is very smoky and full of flavor, and the sauce is incredibly sweet. However, there was a little more sauce than I would have liked, and I preferred the other table sauce, which was hotter, instead. It’s an odd case of very good food not quite prepared the way I would like it. For sides, we had Brunswick stew and fried green beans. Neither were exceptional, but perfectly good.

Honestly, I enjoyed the food at Hambones more, but where Pit Boss shines is just how incredibly friendly and upbeat and downright wonderful the staff is. At Hambones, which becomes similarly packed for a weekday lunch, I got the impression of the (somewhat larger) staff hunkering down for the madness, and was left to my own devices once my food arrived. The ladies on the front line at Pit Boss threatened to become overwhelmed with so many guests, but before things got crazy, we had a very good experience chatting with them and showing off our baby.

Interestingly, the staff was not able to clear up a little confusion about this place. There is (or was) a listing on Urbanspoon for a restaurant with the same address but a different name, Smokin’ Sam’s. I asked whether Pit Boss used to be that other store, and the girl said they were not, but that somebody else asked her that a few weeks previously. This space had once been the home of The Flying Pig in the 1990s, but never the disputed name. I wonder where that came from.

After lunch, as promised, I bought Marie a milkshake from Chapman’s. She got a double chocolate malted and I got the same amazing peach-n-vanilla malt that I enjoyed on my previous visit. Both were wonderful, but mine, honestly, was better. Would I lie to you? It was so much better that when we got back to my work to pick up my car, I realized that I had left my book inside. So I went to grab that and give a co-worker a sip. Man, Chapman mixes a good milkshake. I’m going to have to head back to Hapeville and eat somewhere else so I can justify another one of these.

Beaver Creek Biscuits and Barbeque, Lithia Springs GA

I think that, to hear Marie tell it, my worst habit might be my swearing, which she kindly suggests might have improved a little bit over the last few years. Since I try to write this blog for all audiences, I am very cautious about swearing or being offensive. That was not a consideration last week. See, I had been wanting to go to Beaver Creek for quite some time after reading Jon Watson in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution‘s “Food and More” blog rave about it, suggesting they might offer the best pulled pork around Atlanta. I had it on my calendar for a visit at the beginning of the month, but then the baby surprised us by arriving early, and I had to put it off. This worked out for the best; fortunately, with my older children off school, I could phone them – maybe I should get a data plan – and ask them where in greebledy-gronk sassin’-frassin’ tarnation this consarned dadburned barbecue place was. My older son had to navigate me here without using either Urbanspoon or Google.

See, Urbanspoon had the wrong address listed. Six Flags Drive, where this restaurant is not located, is north of I-20, off exit 46. The restaurant is actually on Six Flags Road, off exit 44 and just south of the interstate. But it gets worse. Google Maps – and yes, this is the second time in ten days that I am writing to report a failure there – had the wrong physical location of the (incorrect) address. Once I finally got to where 1451 Six Flags Drive should actually be, there was no restaurant there. Do you really blame me for cussing a blue streak?

So I had wasted valuable time and gasoline getting here, I had to talk my son into believing that it was more likely that the internet was actually wrong than I was not reading street signs correctly, and what’s more, this Harry Kemleman novel that I was reading had turned out to be one of the lousy ones. This was going to have to be some excellent barbecue to talk me down off this ledge. Happily, it was better than I hoped. About my only quibble, apart from the restaurant foolishly letting its website expire, is that this place definitely needs to pick one name and stick with it. This is more than just the expected idiosyncrasies in the spelling of “barbecue,” which our blog usually settles by going with the name on the building’s sign. Depending on where you are looking, this place is either called “Beaver Creek Biscuit Company,” “Turner’s Barbecue” or “Turner’s Store.” I’m going with “Beaver Creek Biscuits and Barbeque,” because that is what is on the staff’s T-shirts.

Although, between you and me, at home and with company, I am probably going to call this place “That Blankety-Blank Place Out By Six Flags That Nobody Can Freaking Find and I Drove Around for Half a Flippin’ Hour Looking For.” Well, that’s not entirely accurate. This place was absolutely packed by 11:30, drawing an enormous lunch rush from the businesses around Thornton Road, so plenty of people know where it is. Once you find this place, you’re not likely to forget it, for it is terrific. Watson was right; this is easily among the best, if not the outright, hands-down best, pulled pork in the region.

The pork itself is simply excellent, smoked just right and full of flavor. Accompanied by some decent fries and pretty good, oniony, Brunswick stew, it would have been a pleasant success without the sauces, but those turned some great meat into something memorable. Beaver Creek talks up what they call their Seminole sauce, a mustard-vinegar mix, surprisingly thin, and I really liked that. But the other sauce, the hot stuff, that’s what you’re going to want to sample. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen something like this at any of the barbecue places that I’ve tried. It’s a thick, bright orange sauce and it is the absolutely perfect accompaniment to this meat. Make sure that you order your pork plate pulled and dry so that you may experiment with each. I’m not sure what is in the hot sauce. Possibly mustard, peppers, and maybe a little mayo? Whatever, it was one of the most interesting finds that I have had on my barbecue travels. Also surprising was the complete lack of a tomato-based sauce. I’m pleased that they made that decision; it makes their business stand out a little more.

One other thing that I really liked was the inclusion of Fanta Cherry in the soda fountain. You never see that at restaurants other than Zaxby’s. One other thing that I didn’t really like so much was the unusual reaction of the woman cleaning the tables as she saw me snapping pictures of my lunch. She furrowed her brow and, with a hint of hostility and a drop of confusion, asked “Why are you taking pictures?”

If I had been reading Gregory Mcdonald, I might have introduced myself as Ted Nugent and told her I was from the health department. Fortunately, I was only reading a mediocre Harry Kemelman and told her, “My wife couldn’t be with me today. I want her to see what I’m having for lunch.”

She should probably get used to food bloggers taking photos here. Once the word gets out, a few more folk in this hobby might want to come out this way. Just remember, gang, south of I-20. I sent the address correction into Urbanspoon already.

The Sound Table and Café Intermezzo, Atlanta GA

Date night! Marie and I got a very pleasant surprise from her father when he came to visit last weekend. He gave us a big wad of money and told us to go enjoy each other’s company at a nice restaurant or two while he watched the children and read A.A. Milne to his new grandson. Unfortunately, I left it too late to make reservations at Two Urban Licks, so I went with a backup plan, The Sound Table. This is a popular new place, just starting its second year, at the intersection of Edgewood and Boulevard in the Old Fourth Ward neighborhood, and its chef and owners had previously collaborated on the popular Top FLR.

Marie and I enjoyed a very good meal here. We were early, before it apparently gets pretty loud, and got to enjoy some conversation without yelling across the table to each other. They have an amazing cocktail list here, for diners looking for something unusual. I was briefly tempted by a simple glass of Cointreau and orange juice – it really has been a while since I had one – but we just had water, as we almost always do.

Sound Table’s menu changes quarterly, and even then they make changes each evening based on what vegetables they can source, so guests will not have much luck reading blogs and getting ideas. That said, we did enjoy an appetizer of fried chickpeas salted with curry and a wonderful small serving of lamb meatballs with Roma tomatoes that got us ready for some excellent entrees. I ordered the hanger steak with a beet salad. This was very simple but so incredibly delicious. It was merely a small plate of arugula, beets, avocado slices and anchovies, but each complemented the other very well.

My meal was good enough that I did not quite get menu envy, but I came close. Happily, the perfectly seasoned steak was tasty enough to make it quite a standout. Marie enjoyed a grilled pork chop that was just heavenly, served over butter beans and greens. She also had a bowl – a huge one, as it turns out – of excellent cauliflower, cooked with red curry and peanuts. Everything was extremely tasty and appropriately portioned. This was a very good date night detination.

We passed on dessert, as I had planned to really give Marie’s sweet tooth a workout. Unfortunately, my desire to pick up some caramels from a reasonably new place called The Sugar-Coated Radical was foiled, as they closed earlier than I was planning. We will return some other time, now that we know to arrive before the dinner hour. We drove on instead to Café Intermezzo on Peachtree, near Collier, for some decadent cake, arriving just as the sun was going down.

One day, we might return to Café Intermezzo for a full meal; it certainly has an interesting menu. Speaking of which, the drinks menu here – or perhaps “beverage book” is more appropriate, as it’s a full fifty pages long – is just about the most overwhelming and mad thing that I’ve seen in ages. I’ve occasionally wondered whether there might be a place in town, other than the GSU dorms, that serves absinthe, and now I know. Since the days of me drinking myself stupid over some damn girl in French class are long gone, I’ll pass.

Café Intermezzo has a dessert showcase that rivals the ones we see in Cobb County at Marietta Diner and its sister places. A gigantic slice of cake here will run you about eight bucks and you know with every bite that you’re indulging in something sinful. I had choclate and Marie had cheesecake and, somewhere in the beverage book, we noticed that they sell bottles of Hank’s soda. I have been on a black cherry kick lately, although the cream soda that Marie enjoyed probably complmented her cake a little better. Although really, a tall glass of milk might have done just as well.

Eventually, we had to leave the patio and get back to the suburbs, and end our date night, as parents often do, swinging by the grocery store to pick up things for the kids. We’re just so romantic, you know.

Café de Paris, Marietta GA (CLOSED)

Last Friday, Marie’s father came to visit and to see his first grandchild. He’s been an awesome stepgrandfather to my older two kids, but this is the first grandbaby that he’s been able to cuddle and to whom he can read poems. It was a good visit, even if it did reinforce his negative feelings about Atlanta’s sprawl and traffic, and we enjoyed a couple of good meals while he was here.

He suggested that the six of us go to a French restaurant. Urbanspoon showed that Café de Paris was not very far from us and it had a good review from the enjoyable Atlanta Restaurant Blog, so that made our decision easy. Friday rush hour traffic through all this sprawl was still pretty awful, but we got there in about twenty minutes.

We all had very good meals here, although my daughter, still confused as to whether or not she actually likes coffee, found her cappuccino too bitter and had to add about a half-pound of Sugar in the Raw to it. Marie had Quiche Lorraine and her father had a shrimp carbonara dish. I had pan-fried grouper and my daughter had a Divan crepe, which comes with chicken, mushrooms and broccoli.

To be honest, the entrees all seemed very good, but I was most impressed by the soup. None of us had their lemon artichoke, which comes highly recommended, but we each had either the tomato basil or the shrimp and corn chowder, which was excellent. The chowder is not on the menu every day; it should be.

For desserts, most of us enjoyed the creme brulee, but Marie chose to have a strawberry crepe. I think she made the better choice. She was very pleased with it, and we were very pleased with the experience.

Traveling Fare, Marietta GA

This is Marie, contributing a chapter on Traveling Fare, or rather more specifically Paul’s Pot Pies. It may seem a little odd considering that it’s May in Georgia, but we had a couple of very cool days that made a baked hot pie something to look forward to as an evening meal. My mother had come to visit and wanted to offer a treat, and this was just the thing.

Traveling Fare is a local Marietta business that has been around for over a quarter of a century. You can go to the small storefront just off the Square and get a lunch, or buy some of the pot pies to take home and bake for dinner.

Our latest opportunity to try these came when my mother came up to visit our new baby and wanted to provide a no-fuss meal that would still let her enjoy his company. Since the little guy tends to be a bit fussy around dinner time (probably the only time of day he regrets the whole milk diet thing) and needs extra care and attention then to be happy, a meal we could pop into the oven and forget about for an hour was just the thing.

I have to admit I would never have given them a try if it weren’t for the Marietta Square Farmer’s Market. There’s nothing like a free sample for making you want to go spend money to get more of what you just tasted. They are a regular at the market and show up with large casserole dishes that let them give quite respectably-sized samples. The pies themselves are really cute, with a hand-cut flower made out of pastry dough decorating each one.

I don’t know how many of our readers might have spent some of their starving-student or strapped-newlywed meal budget on those under-a-dollar frozen soup-with-a-crust things that went by the name of pot pie and would therefore flinch away from the mere idea. These are not those pies; these are something delectable and substantial, filling and a pleasure to eat. Also, aside from the traditional chicken or beef stew-type varieties, you can get Jambalaya with sausage and rice, creole shrimp with lots of shrimp, and several other varieties. I’m a fan of comfort food and have to admit that the chicken is my favorite, but the rest of my family prefers the Jambalaya. I haven’t had the opportunity to try all the flavors yet, but so far there hasn’t been one that was unsatisfactory or even slightly disappointing.

The storefront is quite small, and the bulk of the business seems to be take-out and catering, but if you choose to have lunch there you can chat with Paul behind the counter. The lunch menu includes some intriguing salads that I should check out soon. He’s quite friendly and willing to tell you about his products or just talk.

Red Burrito, Woodstock GA

About a week and a half ago, I got so aggravated with this girl that I used to date that I have to tell you about it. Now, you might think that “girls that Grant used to date” would not necessarily be on top of the list of people whom I would want to stop and visit with my newborn baby on the way home from the hospital, and normally, you would be right. However, I’ve stayed friendly with Jennifer for years, even if we are not as close as we once were, and she’s known Marie since before Marie and I began dating. Jennifer manages a comic book store in Woodstock, which is not at all bad as far as Diamond catalog stores go. It is downright terrific for anybody interested in buying modern comic books and superhero tchotchkes, although sadly lacking in boxes full of embarrassing dot matrix Star Trek fanzines, untranslated Brazilian James Bond comics, indefineable weird Japanese things and stacks of 1960s British newspaper comics, and there’s not a single 1970s National Lampoon with since-unreprinted Gahan Wilson pages in the joint. That’s why I never visit. Screw Iron Man, I’m into the good stuff.

Well, since I wanted to show off the baby, and since Jennifer’s store was on the way home, and since Jennifer’s more than midway through her own pregnancy, I suggested to Marie that we swing by and see whether she was in. Marie, sleepy but still glowing, agreed that we should, and so we stopped by for a few minutes to say hello and brag about our youngun. Jennifer invited us to come by the next day for Free Comic Book Day, we waved goodbye, pulled back out onto Towne Lake Parkway, and I did a complete double-take because I thought I saw something quite unexpected. After we got the baby back home and settled, I went online and confirmed it. Yes, the Hardee’s people have opened a Red Burrito in Woodstock.

Red Burrito is the fast-food Mexican chain run by CKE, which is the parent corporation of Carl’s Jr. They bought Hardee’s in 1997 and seemed to shut down about a third of them, which was just about the closest thing to a mercy killing I’ve ever seen in the restaurant business. This is actually a point I’ve been meaning to come back to for ages; remind me to tell you about Chicken Express one day. Anyway, noticing the success of their rival Yum! Brands and their dual-branded Taco Bell / KFC / Long John Silver / A&W stores, CKE decided to make similar restaurants with double menus. On the far side of the Rockies, there are Carl’s Jr. stores dual-branded with Green Burrito, and on this side, there are Hardee’s dual-branded with Red Burrito. These have steadfastedly avoided the Atlanta area until about a month ago. The first two Red Burritos have finally opened in Lithia Springs and in Woodstock. There’s another one up the road outside of Rome.

So the next evening, the older children and I went back to the comic store for my son to get a free Sonic the Hedgehog book, and for me to express my aggravation. I could not believe that, knowing how I feel about small-market regional fast food, she would work one parking lot’s distance from this place and not tell me that it had opened. Jennifer, kindly, explained that she remembered well how I feel about regional, small market sodas, but had no idea that I cared about regional fast food chains. I suspect that she was drawing a polite veil of no-longer-caring-in-the-slightest about how, for years, I have gone on about White Castle and Whataburger and Jack in the Box.

Oh, all right, so I wasn’t really aggravated, but I get so few opportunities to aggravate other people by showing up at their place of business and yammering on about fast food chains when they’re exhausted and tired of working a big promotional day with hundreds of extra visitors these days. How could I resist?

So, aggravation duly caused, the children and I went up to finally try a Red Burrito. I first heard of them ages ago when, curious about some point or other, I looked up Hardee’s on Wikipedia and saw the reference. I’ve since seen a billboard for one on I-95 in northern Florida, and we drove past one in Asheville when we were last there, but my curiosity over a fast food taco wasn’t enough to pull me from our schedule in one of America’s best food cities.

And the result was, well, about what you’d expect. The burrito itself – I ordered chicken – was not bad, although the thin, light green sauce that the poor kids behind the counter claimed was guacamole was pretty laughable. The chips, rice and beans were salty and perfectly acceptable for this sort of food. It’s better than Taco Bell, whatever that’s worth. It’s multiple orders of magnitude better than that godawful Taco Bell in Canton.

However, these tacos here are just absolutely pathetic. I’ve never seen something so sad. They just drizzled a few crumbs of ground beef into the bottom of a shell, added six or seven shreds of lettuce and a baby’s handful of cheese and served it up with, literally, two fingers’ width of space remaining between the cheese and the top of the shell. I ordered two tacos and I very much doubt that I got as much filling as I would have in just one from Taco Bell. Now, whomever is in charge of quality control here needs to step in and do something about this. They hired a simply terrific high schooler to take our order, but whomever is in the back actually making the food needs to go build ships in bottles if he’s that obsessed with very small things.

My curiosity has been sated. The food here is pretty good. “Better than Taco Bell” isn’t much of a recommendation, especially when it’s still not even close to being on par with Del Taco. Still, it’s nice to enjoy something new, isn’t it?

The Festival of Nitrates, 2011

When Marie learned she was pregnant, she did some research and found that nitrates are really bad for carrying babies. So she excised hot dogs and sausages and salami from her diet, and suffered silently without some of her favorite foods. She consoled herself with hamburgers when we visited America’s Top Dog, and when we were in Nashville in November of last year, we did not make the requisite stop by Noshville for a big salami to pack for the ride home.

Now that the baby’s with us, I took her out for a little splurging. Over three days, we had hot dogs at what I would argue are the three best hot dog places in the city, and we picked up some salami to make some terrific sandwiches for dinner. We’ve been to all three of these places before and love them all. First up, on Thursday, just as soon as she was discharged and we kissed byes to the baby (who stayed in the hospital for 24 more hours), was a lunchtime trip to Brandi’s World Famous Hot Dogs.

As ever, there was a mob here, and the topic of conversation around the counter was why in the world Guy Fieri had not featured this place on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives yet. Heaven knows it qualifies. Marie had two dogs, one with slaw and one with chili. The chili here is really finely ground beef in a devilishly hot sauce. I prefer to eat them with chili and slaw together. The slaw cools the burn of this firey concoction somewhat.

On Friday, the baby now safely home and he and Marie napping peacefully, my older son and I ran out to get some meat. We drove over to Austell’s Patak-Bohemia, an incredibly popular meat market located in the middle of nowhere, down past some industrial blight. Sort of an all-purpose European-styled butcher shop, guests can order more than a dozen varieties of salami here, along with everything from kielbasa to bacon, and fill their basket with imported treats and sodas like hazelnut Kit Kat bars and fizzy lemonade.

We went home with three bags of salami, enough for several sandwiches. I had enjoyed their house version the last time we came here, but they didn’t have any on this visit, offering the tourist salami instead. I felt faintly disappointed by the name. My son enjoyed the Hungarian salami the most, while I liked the spicy Durango salami. A small stack of that on a bakery bun with mustard, horseradish sauce and a slice of Havarti cheese was quite excellent, and we used not even a third of what we purchased that evening, leaving us plenty of salami for the next week.

On Saturday, we took our baby out for his first visit to a restaurant. Marie suggested that we go to America’s Top Dog first, as she was already familiar with our other destination. We arrived just as they were opening and had a short wait as the grill warmed up.

We each had a half-smoke, and I’m glad to say that my hype of this remarkable little beef and pork sausage didn’t overwhelm the reality. Marie agreed that this was completely amazing. I top mine with brown mustard, Cincinnati chili and a small pile of cheddar cheese. It’s just unmissably good. I also had an original top dog with Texas chili and giardiniera relish and it was also as wonderful as I hoped. The fries were just a little bland this time out; they seem to have been sitting for a few seconds longer than they should have been, but with dogs this great, we weren’t all that interested in the fries anyway. Besides, the onion rings are even better.

For our final stop on the tour, we came back to I-75 and Windy Hill for the wonderfully good Barker’s Red Hots.

Barker’s is another of our favorite places to visit, although we haven’t gone very often lately, in part because they are no longer open for dinner and in part because I’ve been enjoying their beef on weck sandwich even more than their dogs. Oh, and Marie being pregnant. The staff greeted us like old friends and asked where we’d been, and you’ve just got to love service like that. ATD might have the best dog in town with their half-smoke and topping bar, and Brandi’s might win on chili and charm, but really, for overall quality, Barker’s is indeed something special. Asking me which of the three is my favorite will net you a different answer any day of the week.

Marie and I each ordered lightly grilled red hots. They cook over charcoal here and the results are never less than excellent. She had hers with slaw and I had mine with mustard, thick hot sauce, onions and pickles. Since we had the fries at ATD, we went with onion rings here. Marie and I differ on this point; I think we flat out got them backwards. Barker’s fries are so darn delicious it’s sinful, but their onion rings, while excellent, are not quite as good as ATD’s. Marie loves the sweet crisp to Barker’s rings, and prefers them to the fries. Whichever, a meal here is a genuine treat, and we wouldn’t think of eating here without a cup of loganberry punch.

The baby seemed to enjoy the day out and his first real look at this weird world of ours. He didn’t enjoy being changed in the teeny restroom at ATD, and one day down the line, he’ll probably give me an earful for not sharing any chili with him. Kid’s got plenty of time for chili, though, and we’ve got a lot more of it to eat.