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Another modest proposal

5 May


While on the Ponce kick from yesterday, we found this clever little article by one “Slab Towner” in the July 1984 issue of The Great Speckled Bird proposing an Atlanta Fast Food Historic District:

The creation of an “Atlanta Fast Food Historic District” in the area of Ponce de Leon, Boulevard and North Avenues, to maintain the historic value of the area, could serve to protect the fast food and convenience stores from unfair competition from other potential retailers who might employ vicious tactics, like offering quality and lower prices, to drive them out of business. A certain percentage of the land would have to be devoted fast foods and convenience, just like it is now, forever.
…
This modest proposal could also serve as a model for other areas seeking such designations, like the Memorial Drive Strip Center Archeological District, to preserve the remnants of the earliest days of “white flight” in the southern portions of Fulton and DeKalb, or even the selection of Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium and Parking Lots as a National Historic Site to show precisely how sensitive and responsible a white local government can be in balancing community needs for frivolous stuff like housing and the desires of big business for a Big League City with Big League profit opportunities, and fast.

27 years ago, folks! Get the full article here.

And y’all gotta go to the DeKalb History Center‘s exhibit “The Great Speckled Bird: The Turbulent Sixties in Atlanta, 1968-1976” that opens May 17 (I know – only two of those years were the actual sixties). We’ve heard it’s so good, and hope to see lots of photos and former residents of the infamous Pershing Point Apartments!

In the meantime: Boyd Lewis’ “Hippies in Atlanta! However did they get in?” on Like the Dew and Tales of Old Atlanta.

Previously: This week in history: Edgewood Avenue increasing in importance and popularity

Mrs. Georgia 1968

10 Feb

The Mrs. Georgia pageant of 1968 was just like the Miss Georgia pageant of 1968, only with way more concealed arms and way more chafing dishes. SO MANY chafing dishes.

Lester Maddox gathered ’round Mrs. Augusta, Mrs. Atlanta, Mrs. Macon, Mrs. Savannah, Mrs. Golden Isles, Mrs. Rome, and Mrs. Athens to let the ladies show off how quickly and elegantly they could whip up an embellished cake and a chafing dish-based entree, design a unique place setting, and other wifely tasks – the winner taking home the title of Mrs. Georgia 1968.

Not to sound Episcopalian, but was anyone else a little disappointed by Mrs. Atlanta being such a show-off, cooking three things when everyone else just made two? I regret not getting the chance to see her tablescape, as only two or three place settings make the cut in the above clip. (more…)

Autumn refreshment; or, Pecanne Log tends the bar

21 Oct

This was something I made for a test drive at the Pride parade, really intending to officially debut it prior to the Little 5 Points Halloween Parade last weekend and then we just never got around to it. I guess it would also be semi-appropriate for the Candler Park Fall Festival this weekend, so here you go:

Copper John-o’-Lantern

Ingredients:

- Pumpkin vodka*

- Apple juice or cider

- Ginger beer or brew

Mix the first two ingredients in the proportions you see fit, over ice. Top with ginger beer. Garnish with copper wire sunbursts.

If you don’t have any copper wire, you can just use pennies like I did.

(Here is a heartfelt poem about Copper John if you don’t know! Or you can read about him in this weird Wall Street Journal article from last year.)

* Put pumpkin slices and all kinds of whole spices you like and maybe a vanilla bean (only if you really like vanilla) in vodka for however long it takes to make taste good – a couple of weeks?

Previously: The great Atlanta limeade shortage

The bounty of Southern solstice

25 Jul

After suffering through an entire weekend with precious few moments spent not sweating, I can say definitely that it is really hard to tell the difference between low blood sugar and the early stages of heatstroke. Certain foods were perfected in the South that could be consumed even in late August but that also still included signature regional ingredients, like mayonnaise and white bread. Oh, and Coca-Cola. Lots of Coca-Cola.

Children at Howdy Doody Ice Cream stand (1953)

Trust Company of Georgia barbeque (1953)

(more…)

Where shopping is a pleasure

20 Jul

I feel like all my alterna-best of Atlanta posts have just had to do with shopping, or getting clothes tailored or dry cleaned that I bought while shopping. This makes my life sound way more luxury-oriented than it really is. The thing about living anywhere is that you have to deal with so many transactions every week – trying to mail a package, finding a last-minute birthday card, swiping your MARTA card, managing your absent-minded spouse’s life, etc. – so all my favorite things about Atlanta are where these interactions and necessary purchases are more enjoyable, or at least more entertaining in that I can call a friend afterward and be like, “You will not believe how many people with scar tissue instead of lips were on the #2 bus today.”

Sevananda Natural Foods Market is the REAL DEAL in grocery shopping. I love, love, love this store. I am in there constantly. It is the best food shopping experience. I can never go in another grocery store again without feeling horrified by the just getting inside and the singles meat market and the out-of-control shopping carts and the indifferent staff. And what is the point of Trader Joe’s campy and chipper cashiers when their parking lot is VICIOUS and there is some creeper in the coffee aisle giving you bedroom eyes? And the last time I was in the Edgewood Kroger – making a frosting run for you-know-who – I walked in to see the refrigerated deli case by the door full of plastic to-go boxes with a single prepared rack of ribs in them, accompanied by a row of energy drink varieties. That is revolting! How can I be in any mood to buy food when I’ve just realized that the store strategically arranges the ribs and energy drinks together by the entrance because that’s a thing people need quick and easy access to?

Sevanada is the complete opposite. There is wheat grass in the fridge case by the entrance. Many the products have a real person’s face on them or uplifting aphorisms like, “Help Ever – Hurt Never.”

Look at these inspiring flavors of granola!

(more…)

Cake walk through Atlanta

15 Jul

And now the moment you’ve all been waiting for: the Pecanne Log centerfold of Thomas Wheatley-designed cookie cakes. I alluded to these last month for the BurnAway fundraiser/Lot & Parcel and I know a lot of people didn’t take us seriously. I didn’t take us seriously, but then after making 13 batches of cookie cake batter (=2 sticks of butter each) I came around and realized this was really happening.

And then after the bake sale, I wanted to wait a little while to celebrate that we pulled this off in case anyone who took one of these cakes home died (the BeltLine one was pretty undercooked in the middle) (metaphor!). I am happy to say we sold all but three, one of which was secretly devoured by the bar volunteers (they deserved it) and the other two of which we kind of phoned in when we decorated (we deserved it).

First, a few words about the creative process. Not to brag, but I can decorate a high-quality cookie cake (birthday party caliber) in five minutes flat. Thomas is still struggling with expressing himself in an efficient manner via decorative gel. It was really hard for me to hold back when I wanted to mentor him artistically yet not smother his creativity. Often he wanted to use hot pink buttercream frosting to recreate architecture that would look better in a more natural color and with a more delicate line, but I had to sit back and let the Olympic Spirit carry him. Sometimes I would lose my patience and covertly churn out a design (anything you see below that uses cursive script, obviously).

These are all issues we’ll have to work out when we quit our day jobs to bake and decorate Atlanta-themed cookie cakes full time.

Westview Cemetery

(Click any to enlarge.) (more…)

BREAKING NEWS: Jobs for everyone

25 Mar

EAT IT, RICHARD FLORIDA! Atlanta will have more Sandwich Artists per capita than any other city, ever! Aggregate that in your next little “creative class” index!

Feast your eyes

23 Mar

Y’all, FOOD CARTS, am I right? In case you’re not keeping tabs:

This Friday heralds the ASFC’s urban picnic at the Sweet Auburn Curb Market on Edgewood, from 11 AM to 2 PM. To celebrate, I dug up some photos of the Municipal Market/Curb Market in the ’70s from the Atlanta History Center’s archive. The Curb Market site has a nice brief history (with PICTURES!). If you have never been to the Curb Market and then finally go there Friday you will see that obviously it is a building and not a curb – this goes back to the days when the market was segregated and white people sold and shopped inside (the Municipal Market) while black customers and sellers operated outside on the curb. FYI.

From the looks of these photos, the Municipal Market was like the Manuel’s Tavern of farmers markets in the 1970s. (Did that analogy make any sense to you?) The market itself is not the only thing from these decades-old photos that is still around today – check out Jake’s Ice Cream and Andy Young’s haircut.

(more…)

Please forward to Kwanza Hall

26 Feb

Thinking about Chef Luna’s comment on the earlier post about Lunacy Black Market led to my big, really obvious idea for sustainable small business development in Downtown, Sweet Auburn, or Old Fourth Ward: Fly By Night Row.*

Renovate a series of storefronts within a couple of blocks of each other. Suit them up very basic retail fixings. Rent them out by the day, week, month, whatever for pop-up shops. An individual or business comes in, sets up shop, and peddles their wares for a set period of time, and then vacates for the next short-term retailer. These could also be temporary satellite locations for existing businesses that operate in another neighborhood or city or country.

a) This gets people downtown on a regular basis to see what’s new in those stores.

b) Would-be entrepreneurs or small businesses are more likely to try out running shop for a few days to see how it goes before taking the full, risky plunge into a venture.

c) Longer-term businesses would want to open up around this area.

d) Pop-up businesses eventually become long-term businesses.

e) No pre-paid mobile phone businesses allowed.

There’s already an existing stream of potential customers with GSU students – they’ll be around no many how many office buildings foreclose.

Bam. YOU’RE WELCOME.

More on pop-up shops: Forbes, Business Week, LA Times, Time, Times

*I am not a marketer. Someone else come up with a better name. Ephemeretail?

(Photo, of course, from Atlanta Time Machine)

Lunching and looking

26 Feb

First, a few updates: Miss Darrow was interviewed over on Creative Loafing‘s Culture Surfing blog, where she says terrible things about blogs! Don’t forget who made you who you are, “Susannah”!!! Also, the Georgia Soul blog has an actual single – Vicki Collins’ “I’m Ready” – released by Soulville Records, the record label storefront behind Robert Kennedy in this 1968 photo of Martin Luther King’s funeral procession we posted a few weeks ago.

Now, I don’t really do restaurant reviews around here because I’m not a food writer, and most of the time I order the same thing at the same restaurants. I went to Lunacy Black Market today primarily because I was intrigued by the location – Mitchell Street! Downtown. Not Peachtree Center Downtown, or even GSU Downtown, but Downtown. The part I love the most because of how perfectly preserved it still is since no one cares about it. (Oh, and also since it is on the National Register.) The restaurant is on Hotel Row, named such because it used to have a bunch of hotels there right by where Terminal Station was. This is the most visible vestige of that time, the former Concordia Hall:

(more…)

The Dirty South in the kitchen

13 Jan

It is a new year, and two of our resolutions were joining in on the hottest trends in America – having a food blog and eating local. We’re only two weeks into 2010 and that is so hard already, though. So we naturally looked to the internet to see how our fellow foodie blogger sisters manage to do it. With barely any difficulty, we found some dishes that originate in our region with ingredients you can find around your house or yard! We hand-selected our four favorite receipts from The Dixie cook-book, published in 1885 in Atlanta.

Don’t make fun of us for not knowing how to “scrape off hair” and “prepare some calf’s foot jelly”!! We are still new at this.

Pumpkins and beer!

8 Oct

1149891_f322c6fa-a338-4736-a206-b184bf987799-kevin-gillespie

The Atlanta Botanical Gardens is going to be combining my two favorite pasttimes on October 29th: beer and beards. Well, one beard in particular. The gardens will be hosting a pumpkin carving competition by some of Atlanta’s top chef’s during the annual Fest of Ale. Assuming no one gets drunk with the pumpkin carving tools this might even be an event Mamalikey and the wee one could come to!

The line-up of carvers includes Kevin Gillespie, Woodfire Grill and this season’s Top Chef (OMG!11! Love him and his big fluffy beard); Joey Bridgers, Babette’s Café;  Victor Dagatan, The Ritz-Carlton, Buckhead; Andrew Miller, Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts Atlanta; and Alison Lueker, Sun in my Belly. They are totally going to get all Quick Fire Challenge on those pumpkins! Everyone will have 25 minutes to carve their masterpieces out of giant pumpkins. I hope Kevin carves the face of that guido, Mike Isabella, and then stabs it in the eye.

Admission for the event is $15 adults, $12 seniors and children 3-17, free to children under three and Garden members. Really though, this is a great bang for you buck. Not only do you get to potentially have Kevin let you touch his beard (no promises), but there is a beer school led by Hop City, beer tasting (most important), and scarecrows everywhere.

The Fest of Ale is from 5-10 pm, and the Pumpkin carving is 7-8 pm.

Someone, bring me beef!

7 Oct

bigstockphoto_Rare_Steak_1471404

I have to admit, I have spent the last forty five minutes thinking about what lengths I would go to to score some beef. My desperation is growing, and now the specific demands for either a steak or potroast have waned and I am looking for anything with cow.  If there is one thing that is not helping my cause it is the number of food blogs and websites in this city that are advertising the meat I cannot have. But, as I am tied to my chair for another hour and 13 minutes, meat pornography is the best I can get.

bruger

Grindhouse Burgers, why must you torment me so?! An unnamed source in my gchat queue even agrees: “I wasn’t even craving beef and I read that and was like BRING ME A HAMBURGER, SQUIRE!”

Kevin Rathbun is a goner if he comes anywhere within five hundred feet of my chompers. I can only imagine that the smell of steak and truffle butter eminates from him as he walks along Krog Street.

ent5

Med Grill (at 10th and Monroe) has a delicious dinner platter with steak and tasty sauce that I would rip into so fast right now. I am sharpening my teeth in preparation.

At this point, I will even settle for picking up some meat on the way home. I can’t promise it will make it as far as my front door and being cooked, though.

Beef, come find me! I need you!

If anyone knows of a good place to get meat before 5 o’clock and below Ponce, comment now.

The wedding of your dreams

16 May

There is no place in this city like Le Maison Rouge at Paris on Ponce that will work with you so closely to customize your special event in ways you never dreamed possible. Their primary form of artistic expression in event design is through buffet decor. For example, you want to have a hockey themed shrimp cocktail table?
3497158570_a6d041b8d5
DONE.

You want a skeleton playing an enchanted organ for your first dance? (more…)

Teenage pizza party all over again!

19 Mar

partyflyerMy favorite pizza place in Atlanta, Cameli’s, is turning 13 and hosting a big birthday blow-out on Saturday. For $8, you get “free” pizza, Atlas Sound, Abby Go Go, and Facehugger. I don’t know how beer factors into that cover, except that it will be there.

The party is downstairs from Cameli’s, meaning Underground Murder Kroger will definintely be more hopping than Underground Atlanta.

Free Arby’s!

27 Feb

arbysbeef2

According to the illustrious Atlanta Business Chronicle Arby’s is giving out free sammies on March 8th. Apparently, they are trying out a new sandwich called the Roastburger, and if you go in on the 8th and tell the register employee, “I’m here to change my burger” then you get the option of a free All-American Roastburger, Bacon and Bleu Cheese Roastburger, or Bacon and Cheddar Roastburger.

The only Arby’s I can think of is the one at Philip’s Arena, and if you go to that one you can also run next door and get the GIANT beer from Gorin’s before heading back to work or class after lunch hour is over.

Welcome, Top Chef!

17 Feb

colicchioTop Chef is finally coming to Atlanta! I would like to thank Kevin Rathbun for beating Bobby Flay on Iron Chef so that they believe us when we tell them that Atlanta really does have good food. I’m sure Richard has been gabbing on the phone with Tom Colicchio every night about how he has to come too, especially after the two were so chummy last season.

The casting call will be at Craft (Tom’s restaurant) February 22nd from 10-2 p.m.

Let’s all make sure to think positive thoughts for sweet, expressive eyebrowed Carla tomorrow night as she heads for victory!

AJC’s biased coverage of Atlanta’s Indian restaurants

17 Feb
Anil Kapoor stands up for Panahar.

Anil Kapoor stands up for Panahar.

I have previously written about my love for Buford’s Highway’s Indian darling, Panahar, so my outrage at the AJC‘s article this morning about Atlanta’s Indian cuisine may come as little surprise. In their on-going attempts to be the cutest paper in Atlanta, the AJC has formulated a list of the best Indian restaurants in Atlanta according to what Oscar category they should win. Sure “Best Short Film” award to Udipi Cafe is acceptable, but not when Panahar has been left off the list. I now understand how Bruce Springsteen and Clint Eastwood must have felt when their much deserved and expected nominations didn’t  arrive. I can just see Mirza, owner of Panahar, in the back of the restaurant crying into his delicious Tikka Masala. They at least deserve a Best Director awards for his customer service.

Clint Eastwood unsure about the AJC's picks for Indian in Atlanta.

Clint Eastwood unsure about the AJC's picks for Indian in Atlanta.

I hate to think that they have encouraged anyone who has seen Slumdog Millionaire to go to one of their suggestions without knowing that better exists. There is no way that Danny Boyle would have let Aja do the catering for his set over Panahar. No way. The AJC needs to do some soul searching and a little research before putting out lists like that. They should be ashamed of themselves.

My suggestions for Indian in Atlanta, in order of superiority-without doling out Oscar-related awards-would have been as follows: Panahar, Vatica, Upidi Cafe, Rose of India, and Bhojanic.

Stone Soup is famous

16 Feb


Delicious and cheap Stone Soup in Cabbagetown was profiled on NPR as part of David Green’s “100 Days on the Road in Troubled Times” series – you can listen to the radio segments from Green’s time in Atlanta and read the articles in two parts here:

(photo from npr100days on Flickr)

A V.D. you won’t soon forget

11 Feb

Do you ever see a 20-year high school reunion falling out of the Fur Bus and wonder how exactly the Fur Bus intends to clean all the alcohol-charged secretions and spills out of the fur and other porous surfaces? Mile High Atlanta has all your hygiene bases covered because you actually get to keep your sheet as a souvenir. Yes, Mile High Atlanta is exactly what you think it is. (via Nice Slacks)

If your special someone is acrophobic but you’re totally into planes, there’s still the 57th Fighter Group Restaurant overlooking the Peachtree-DeKalb Executive Airport. The patio will be perfect if it’s not raining and there’s a little cat that hangs out there and around the landing field. Plus Saturday night is “open dancing” in the bar so if you’re lucky you’ll also get to line dance with your honey to “Dancing Queen”!

UPDATE: The 57th Fighter Group Restaurant has been closed for two years now. Thanks to Eric for updating me. My ignorance betrays the last time I made it to eat there (2-1/2 years ago?).
Follow Chris G‘s advice and go to Downwind.

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