Tara Humata, Alpharetta GA

There was one little period last month where, across three days, we published three stories about Mexican-style food. We wrote about the opening of the Kennesaw Tin Lizzy’s, and then Marie wrote about her trip to a new burrito joint in Athens, and then I shared my trip to the mostly traditional Mama’s in Atlanta. The result, of course, that about the time I clicked “publish” on that third story, I was craving chips and salsa, and didn’t care where I got it. This happens about four times a year. Fortunately, I had some comp time at work and was leaving early to go visit that new Whole Foods in Avalon, and an old favorite was just a couple of miles away. Continue reading “Tara Humata, Alpharetta GA”

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Chuy’s, Kennesaw GA

Chuy’s, a successful Tex-Mex chain based in Austin, has opened its latest (56th) store just down the road from us in Kennesaw, and invited me to stop by for a tour and some appetizers. This restaurant, the second in this market following the store in Dunwoody, is located along the stretch of Barrett Parkway populated by quite a few chains that get huge weekend business; in fact, it’s just two doors down from an On the Border, which struck me as curious, but Chuy’s marketing manager, Hilary Delling, assured me that the two restaurants are very different in taste, and diners will have very different experiences. Based on what I saw, I would agree. Continue reading “Chuy’s, Kennesaw GA”

Rosepepper Cantina, Nashville TN

This is Marie, contributing an article about a meal we had at the Rosepepper Cantina in Nashville. We were up visiting some old (but nevertheless very youthful!) friends, Brooke and Tory, and this place seemed to be the right kind of place for us all to meet and hang out for a bit. Rosepepper Cantina has been winning prizes in Nashville for their food and margaritas for over a decade since setting up shop in 2001 and leading the development of this very trendy neighborhood.. They call their food Sonoran-style Mexican, and it’s not as hot as some Mexican places. I prefer flavorful meals to sweaty-forehead sinus-clearing food, so it was perfect for me. While we didn’t have any of the drinks, we can definitely vouch for the food being excellent. Continue reading “Rosepepper Cantina, Nashville TN”

Monterrey, Doraville GA

Longtime readers may recall that once every three or four months, I’m overcome by an insatiable craving for basic Americanized El-This-Los-That Tex-Mex. I’ve mostly given up trying to find someplace new to get this grub, because even though I like the idea of finding some ostensibly new content for the blog, it’s just about impossible to find anything new to say about it. There are, of course, only so many ways to describe the same food from the same supply company doled out to allegedly different restaurants. So the last couple of times I got the craving, I just quietly went someplace by myself and left the camera at home. Continue reading “Monterrey, Doraville GA”

San Antonio Taco Company, Nashville TN

On one of those whirlwind tours around Nashville that I experienced from the back seat of one of my friends’ cars in the early 2000s, we whizzed past San Antonio Taco Company and I said that I must try them one day. It took me a few years, and while I was never a regular, I ate there three or four times before we began blogging. It is a fun and very busy place that goes a small way toward remedying the inescapable reality of being a Vanderbilt undergrad. Nashville isn’t a college town. There’s no culture here, like you see in Oxford or Athens, of small, quirky, inexpensive places for college students to go off campus and eat dirt cheap. Well, there’s a stretch a little down the road in the Belcourt neighborhood, where Pancake Pantry is, that almost feels right, but on the north end of campus, there’s Rotier’s and Hog Heaven and the Ellison Place Soda Shop going one direction, and this place and Noshville on another, but it’s all spread out across very busy roads and punctuated by lots of national chains. Continue reading “San Antonio Taco Company, Nashville TN”

Cazadores, Marietta GA

Several years ago, an online buddy of mine named Michael came from California to meet in person the sixty-eleven friends that he’d made in Atlanta. The trip worked out really well for him; one of those circles of friends had another friend visiting from Jacksonville. They met at a party and hit it off so well that she moved out to California to be with him; they’ve been happily married for about six years now. Continue reading “Cazadores, Marietta GA”

Pancho’s, Atlanta GA

A few weeks ago, I went out on one of my early days, and arrived at a restaurant far too early. I don’t object to waiting around for fifteen minutes for a place to open – that’s when I can get some good reading done – but I’d neglected to confirm when the restaurant actually opened, and while fifteen minutes is no problem, an hour and fifteen’s a bit much. Continue reading “Pancho’s, Atlanta GA”