My friend David works a mile and a bit south of a burger place called Big Al’s, which opened at the beginning of the year, and told me that it’s so popular at his work that nobody’s having lunch anywhere else lately. One Friday in April, I figured that he’d sold me and met him at the space, which is on the ground floor of a parking-crunched two-story retail center on Peachtree, along with a Firehouse Subs and a CamiCakes. Continue reading “Big Al’s Gourmet Butter Burgers, Atlanta GA”
Tag: burgers
Rama Jama’s, Tuscaloosa AL
We’re keeping things very low-key and stress-free with our daughter, who is wrapping up her sophomore year of high school, but I decided that we should incorporate some walks around colleges with our road trips, so that she can look around and get a feel for a place outside of the formality, and pressure, of actual campus visits. So since I wanted to go back to Tuscaloosa, we planned to spend a couple of hours on the incredibly attractive campus of The University of Alabama. Continue reading “Rama Jama’s, Tuscaloosa AL”
Dyer’s Cafe, Collierville TN
In 2012, Mark McMinn celebrated the hundredth anniversary of Dyer’s by moving the restaurant – the version that he owns, anyway – further out east from Memphis, to the town square of a lovely, sleepy little suburb called Collierville. There has been some pushing and pulling as to whose is the one, true Dyer’s, because there’s another restaurant by that name in downtown Memphis, on Beale Street, pulling in the tourist dollars, but after I read Hamburgers & Fries: An American Story by John T. Edge, I figured that the McMinn-owned Dyer’s was the one to visit. He says that his father, Kahn Aaron, worked for “Doc” Dyer in the 1920s and bought the restaurant from him in 1935. Continue reading “Dyer’s Cafe, Collierville TN”
SideStreet Burgers, Olive Branch MS
If I may be allowed to wear my “well, some people in this hobby take me seriously, so I’ll speak seriously once in a while” hat for two paragraphs, I really don’t like it at all when people delete their blogs. Yeah, I understand that long, long-term blogging is uncommon, and many hobbyists lose interest and find new hobbies – or start families, that seems to derail or sideline quite a few bloggers who, upon becoming a daddy or mommy, elect to eat out a lot less – and let their blogs wrap up for a while. That’s disappointing, but understandable. Continue reading “SideStreet Burgers, Olive Branch MS”
Johnnie’s Drive-In, Tupelo MS
There are certainly a number of establishments in Tupelo and in Memphis that trade as much as possible on the Elvis tourism dollar. One of these is Johnnie’s Drive-In, which originally opened in 1945 and is allegedly where the young Elvis liked to come for a meal from time to time. What’s said to be his favorite booth, one of maybe eleven in the small dining room, has a plaque on the wall. It’s easy to miss the plaque, surrounded as it is by all the memorabilia, including the newspaper accounts of his death that you see at lots of restaurants in the region. There is something of a shortage of proof in this claim. Some say that the whole Elvis connection was concocted in the wake of his death. A comment at the Tiny Travels in Mississippi blog – linked below – calls hooey on the whole thing. After all, the Presleys did move to Memphis when Elvis was only thirteen. Continue reading “Johnnie’s Drive-In, Tupelo MS”
Maki Fresh, Atlanta GA
Every once in a while, you get so much conflicting information in one go that you seem certain to short-circuit. That’s what happened when our old friend David said that I needed to meet him for lunch at this quasi-Japanese fast casual place run by the team behind the Zoës Kitchen chain that makes a startlingly good hamburger. David usually knows what he’s talking about, even if the information sometimes defies common sense, so a couple of Fridays ago, I drove over to the Peachtree Battle Shopping Center to see about this burger. Continue reading “Maki Fresh, Atlanta GA”
The Porter Beer Bar, Atlanta GA
One Friday last month, Marie and I had a date night and went to visit The Porter Beer Bar, a deceptively cavernous restaurant in Little Five Points. Even reading beforehand that the narrow space is incredibly long and opens up in the back, we were still pleasantly amused by just how far back this space goes! There is room inside for almost a hundred guests at a time, even if some of them might have to go up some stairs and down some more to make it to their table. Continue reading “The Porter Beer Bar, Atlanta GA”
Marie, Let's Eat! 