There are many small difficulties, none insurmountable, with writing this blog the way we do. Probably the most critical are the time and money factors. Considering that Marie and I each have excellent jobs in Atlanta, and a baby, it is not quite so easy to just take off, explore, immerse and learn in the way we’d like. The added challenge of a busy teenager adds to it. So many months will fly by between my expressing a desire to go someplace and learn more, and actually getting out and doing it. It was November of last year that I resolved to come back to Columbus to find some more places that serve the region’s particular mustard sauce. Continue reading “Barbecue and Doughnuts in Columbus GA”
Tag: barbecue
Miss Betty’s House of Ribs, Atlanta GA (CLOSED)
I’ll confess that there are some times when I select a new barbecue place purely by geography. I looked over our barbecue map – see the link down below – and reflected that Marie and I just don’t get south of I-20 all that often unless we’re leaving Atlanta entirely. So a few months back, I looked for places in that direction and set out for Miss Betty’s House of Ribs on Bouldercrest. I found it easily enough. It’s in a doublewide between a gas station and a house that, while technically abandoned and posted with no trespassing signs, has an awful lot of clothes hanging out to dry out back. It also wouldn’t open for another hour. My unusual schedule leaves me with a short day to go get some lunch in the city once a week around 10 am. I’m used to bringing books to read to pass the time until most places open for lunch at eleven, but joints that open at noon require a lot of patience. I decided that I would come back some other time. Continue reading “Miss Betty’s House of Ribs, Atlanta GA (CLOSED)”
The Greater Good Barbecue, Tucker GA
It has been several weeks since we last mentioned a barbecue place in our blog! We have, recently, been enjoying some pretty good ‘cue, but at places that we’ve visited previously. In July, we enjoyed stopping by Bub-Ba-Q, Ebony & Ivory, and Big Shanty Smokehouse. A couple of weeks ago, Marie and the baby and I also visited a very new place that opened in Tucker last month. The Greater Good Barbecue is owned by Clay Harper and Mike Nelson, who own Fellini’s Pizza and La Fonda Latina, and are, I believe, co-owners of Ringside Franks & Shakes, all of which we enjoy and have also featured here. (I’d link you, but too many blue words in a single paragraph is bad for your eyes, you know. Seriously.) Continue reading “The Greater Good Barbecue, Tucker GA”
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”
Sweet House BBQ at Jaemor Farm, Alto GA (CLOSED)
It’s fair to say that I was not in the best mood that I’ve ever been on this trip to the Upstate and back. We were just getting ready to flex some legal muscle over some unpleasantness – since resolved, to about our 95% satisfaction – and Marie was about to go interview for a position in Ohio – stay tuned – and so I had some cobwebs and stress in my attic that needed a long drive and lots of barbecue to clear. And sometimes, you need the company of strangers more than friends. So when Matt phoned while I was in Clemson and invited me to swing back through Gainesville on my way home and get some barbecue with him, I was a little reluctant, because I knew that I wasn’t going to be good company, but I had been cheered up enough by Saturday morning’s drive to make my way his direction. Continue reading “Sweet House BBQ at Jaemor Farm, Alto GA (CLOSED)”
Mutt’s BBQ, Greer SC
I never realized how difficult it would be to find new barbecue in South Carolina’s Upstate! On Friday evening, I told the girl at the register at Brioso in Clemson that I would be going to Greenville the next day. She told me that she had gone to school at Furman, and I asked her whether she could recommend a place to get some barbecue. She said that she always went to Henry’s Smokehouse, which Marie and I had visited in February. Since I knew that one, could she recommend another? She thought for a moment and shook her head. She honestly couldn’t think of another barbecue place besides Henry’s. Continue reading “Mutt’s BBQ, Greer SC”
Marie, Let's Eat! 