We’re so pleasantly surprised to see that the Colonnade, one of Atlanta’s oldest restaurants, not only continues to thrive, but continues to attract a young and vibrant customer base. While it’s not quite unique in this regard, it’s certainly in the minority. Most of the time, these “timelost” restaurants picked up most of their audience in the 1970s and slowly age with them. You sort of envisage some of these places finally closing the doors and turning the key when their last patron passes away. The Colonnade has the look and almost the feel of one of those creaky old-timers, but its admiring crowd is enormous. Young and old alike wait for an hour or more for a table on Saturday evenings, once they’ve found a parking place, anyway. Continue reading “The Colonnade, Atlanta GA (take two)”
Tag: diners drive-ins and dives
Silver Skillet, Atlanta GA (take two)
Every once in a while, I have treated myself to breakfast at the wonderful Silver Skillet, a sixty year-old diner on 14th Street in midtown Atlanta. In 2010, I wrote about the place, and, as we’ve been spending time and money at Atlanta’s older restaurants lately, I figured we should go back, and have lunch. That, I’ve never done before. Continue reading “Silver Skillet, Atlanta GA (take two)”
Pizza Palace, Knoxville TN (take two)
It appears that Knoxville is not on a lot of food lovers’ radars, but this city boasts Marie’s all-time favorite breakfast, at The French Market Creperie, and her all-time favorite pizza, and so, since we visit very infrequently, I kind of want to make sure she gets one or the other on a visit. That way, she’ll indulge my need to drive everywhere and document everything with a brighter smile than usual. Continue reading “Pizza Palace, Knoxville TN (take two)”
Center Point Pit Barbecue, Hendersonville TN
After lunching in Chattanooga, my daughter and I continued up I-24 listening to her Eighties Alternative station on Pandora, prompting her to note, after the station played “Blue Monday” and “How Soon is Now” back to back, that songs were really long in the 1980s. Our next stop was in Antioch, where we picked up our friends Brooke and Matt. Regular readers might recall that the last time we were in the Nashville area, it was to attend their wedding. They helped schedule an afternoon of shopping and finding a few vintage and thrift places for my girlchild to look at clothes. Appropriately, considering how she’s been enjoying New Order and The Smiths, she picked up a very, very 1980s sweater. Continue reading “Center Point Pit Barbecue, Hendersonville TN”
Cozy Corner Restaurant, Memphis TN
My plans for the day o’ barbecue in Memphis took a hit when the venerable, and extremely popular, Cozy Corner Restaurant was damaged by a fire in January and was forced to close. Happily, a few days before our trip, Southern Living writer Robert Moss tweeted out that they would reopen in temporary digs across the street. The owners of Encore Cafe had reached out to them, giving Cozy Corner a stopover home with an abbreviated menu while their restaurant was repaired. Continue reading “Cozy Corner Restaurant, Memphis TN”
Leonard’s Pit Bar-B-Que, Memphis TN (take two)
A couple of chapters back, I mentioned how quite a few restaurants in this part of the country go to town on the Elvis memorabilia, even if there may be some disagreement as to how much influence that The King had on their cash registers while he was living. Leonard’s does not play up the Elvis angle, but he really did seem to enjoy this place. There are stories aplenty about how he’d rent the previous location, at 1140 South Bellevue, for all-night parties in the early 1960s. Continue reading “Leonard’s Pit Bar-B-Que, Memphis TN (take two)”
South 21 Drive-In, Charlotte NC
With six stops plus a photo-only post in Charlotte and its surrounding suburbs on this trip, this city is just killing me with all the great restaurants and things to do. I am miles – miles! – from visiting all of the places here that I want to see, and hope that we’ll be back before long. But one thing was certain before anything else, I had to visit the South 21 Drive-In on Independence Boulevard. This location has been around since 1959 and seen off all kinds of competition over the years, including, reportedly, one of those What-a-Burger Drive-Ins as seen in yesterday’s post, which was apparently just down the street. Still family-owned (Maria Housiadas’s father and uncles, named Copsis, opened the place) and loyal to a small company of awesome carhops who’ve been with them for years, they’re said to make some pretty good burgers and the best onion rings money can buy. Continue reading “South 21 Drive-In, Charlotte NC”
Marie, Let's Eat! 