Southern Comforts

Although it's now becoming a chain throughout GA, this is still one of the best and most authentic tasting Mexican restaurants in GA. At the Marietta Square location, they have a Mariachi band that goes around to every table on the weekend. I do not recommend that if you're going by yourself for a quiet dinner, but for some down and dirty Mexican food, this is the place to go...Locations in Woodstock and Athens as well...

The best reasons to go to the Grill are their milkshakes and their fries with feta dressing! The other reasons you might go there are if you just came from a game and need a big thick hamburger or you're a student at UGA and you are studying into the wee hours of the night...While I miss the shakes, it's not the reason to travel out to Athens...

The best Italian restaurant in Georgia. Everything tastes homemade and the garlic rolls are worthy of a meal in themselves. I don't think I've ever made it to dessert b/c the portions are so huge, but I'm not a big Italian food eater, and I love this place! That says a lot. I would definitely go with a date. The lighting is dim and romantic.

You'll hear about the Buckhead Diner and the Landmark Diner, but go into the suburbs for the Marietta Diner! All of the food [including the bread] is homemade. There is always a wait [with the exception of around 3pm on a Saturday afternoon or 2am any morning] but it is worth the wait.

If you have a refrigerator or a cooler, you're in luck because there are very few people who can completely get through any of the gargantuan meals you will be served there. They do have sandwiches, eggs, and the like for less than $10--I simply went with the main meals. They also have lobster and wine if you want! My favorite dishes are the open-faced turkey sandwich [with potato, salad, and bread] and the chicken souvlaki with a side of fries and extra tzatziki sauce. It depends on how you like your meatloaf on whether you'll like theirs [slightly dry with brown gravy], but on the whole very little will disappoint you there!

Don't let the name fool you. The Cheesecake Factory has much more than cheesecake. A novel size menu hosts everything from salads to pizza to seafood to omelettes. The dishes are so large that unless you plan ahead, you will not make it to dessert. The best idea is to eat part of your meal, box the rest, and then get dessert. Or, if you don't think you'll make it, either plan two trips or take one of the many flavors of cheesecake home. Two of my favorite dishes are the barbeque chicken salad and the spinach pizza. The problem with the salads are that they are mountainous, and are nearly impossible to finish [and unless you want soggy leftovers, it's not something you can take home]. Every flavor of cheesecake I've had has been incredible. This is a chain restaurant, so you can check and see if there's one near you: www.thecheesecakefactory.com/.

If you can't make it all the way to Athens for a milkshake, the next best thing is Steak and Shake. Pretty much a down and dirty diner, the milkshakes are pretty good. Other than that, the greasy food is the same greasy food you can get anywhere else. The fries are thin and mushy. If you like crispy fries, this is not the place to get them. It's also open 24 hours.

The restaurant does have a nice view of the Atlanta skyline. However, the food is not worth the trip. Overpriced, the food was taut and ordinary. In addition, the service was clumsy and awkward. There are less expensive places around town with better food and service.

I’d regret telling you one of my favorite places to eat in Atlanta, if it wasn’t for the fact that I don’t live there anymore.

Shipfeifer has simple Greek food, from wraps to platters. You can get gyro meat, chicken, or vegetarian. The atmosphere is casual and fun - kind of a Mediterranean-Mexican look to it. There’s seating both inside and out and really the time of day determines where the best seating is. During the day, unless you just like watching the traffic on Peachtree, there’s really no compelling reason to sit outside. At night however, that same traffic and business feeds on the energy of the city and makes the terrace more desirable.

My favorite meal is the barbeque chicken wrap, curly fries, and an extra side of feta dressing to put on the wrap and dip the fries in. The price is relatively steep for something that comes close to fast food, but it is ten times better than any wrap you can get at the mall.

It’s a casual atmosphere for a fun night out or a quiet afternoon studying. It’s better than its neighbor Huey’s, which I believe gets trafficked more. There’s parking in the back, which makes it convenient for a restaurant in the city.

Learn everything and more about Coke and soda bottling, and the history of Coke, and...OK, my favorite part was the taste testing. It's a nice place to go to get in from the heat. And it's right next to Underground Atlanta.

It's a toss up. The Alliance Theater is a high class community theater. Some of the shows are excellent first rate premiere quality events others are only of amateur value and make your stomach turn. More of the obscure works come out better than the more familiar works. Also, their African American productions are first rate!

Goooo Dawgs! Sic 'em! Woof! Woof! Woof! While the University of Georgia is best known for its football games, lesser-known sports that are played with excellence at the campus are gymnastics and women's basketball. Forget the Olympics, these are athletes completely in the sports for the pure joy of it and it's fun to watch. Games and meets are also a lot less expensive than men's events [ok, one time I rather they continue to underestimate us...]. Head out to Athens. [One and a half to two hour drive from Atlanta--there is also a shuttle from the Atlanta airport to Athens hotels.]

If you're a roller coaster person, this is the place for you. If you're not, there's very little you'll enjoy here. The mine train is the oldest and smallest of the roller coasters. It's on a wooden track, and I felt like I was going to fall out the whole time. The parachute drop gives you a good view of the park [although after opening my eyes for a second I had to close them again]. It's better to go late in the day or the season, when the park's not as crowded. They have a big bash for Halloween- never been but it looks like fun. If you're going at least two times, get a season pass, it's only $50 and as you see, two individual tickets would be $60.

Go back in time to the days of knights and kings. Watch lots of good shows, eat overpriced turkey legs, look through the different craft stalls, play games and ride rides. I haven't been there since Coca-Cola took it over, but I'm imagining what was somewhat expensive is now very expensive. It's still fun to dress up with a couple of friends and spend a day [dressing up is not required, it's just fun]. It's open from April-June weather permitting. Also, it is on the fairgrounds, so be prepared for dirt and plenty of it. Tickets: Adults $15, Children 6-12 $7 [look for discount coupons or order online for discounts].

There is no doubt when you walk into the Fabulous Fox Theatre that you have stepped back in time to the royalty and majesty of the "Old South". The Egyptian décor makes you feel like you have been invited to an exclusive show performed just for you. Before you even make it to your seats, the bathrooms will astound you with their beautiful sitting rooms. You get to your seat and, provided you’re not under the overhang of the balcony, you can look up into the starry sky that decorates the ceiling. Now that you’ve been bowled over by the majestic beauty of the building and you’re watching the show you’ve come to see, there’s a problem. You’ve paid between $60 and $80 for your nice orchestra seats and you were placed in the back under the balcony overhang. You can’t understand a single word and you now realize the dangers of converting an old movie house into a live theatre - the acoustics were not converted. The balcony is your best bet for seats.

If you’re going to see the Coca-Cola Film Festival, that’s what this theatre was made for, you’re a lot less limited. If you just want to see the beauty of the theatre, you can take a tour that is given during the day for $10. They are given on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays at 10:00am and on Saturdays at 10:00am and 11:00am.

The Coca-Cola Summer Film Festival tends to play recent and classic family-friendly movies. This is a popular local activity. The Fox Theatre does host its Broadway series both throughout the year and during the summer (where most of my acoustical antagonism comes from). You can either buy tickets at the box office or from Ticketmaster (Publix Supermarkets sometimes offer discounts on Wednesday shows). In addition, the Atlanta Ballet performs there, including their always-popular version of The Nutcracker [404-873-5811]. Other events that happen at the Fox Theatre include concerts and an International Series featuring performing artists from around the globe.

As for parking…there is parking right next to the theatre, which is a good and bad thing. If you’re all dressed up in high heels, you probably do not want to trek around Atlanta. In addition, if it’s a night performance and you’re by yourself, I would also not advise walking all over Atlanta. The down side is that its $12 which after paying for your $60 or $80 tickets (and the $10 for drinks at the concession stand), it might make you think twice. There are parking lots along the nearby streets where you park and then pay in the little boxes, usually running between $1 and $5. Of course, those parking lots are not guarded and again I stress if you’re by yourself, Atlanta is not the city to take risks in. If you decide to park in the lot next to the theatre, get there early because it fills up fast.

[Explanations for southern words in brackets] Iced tea is iced tea, correct? Wrong! Ya’awtoknow [you ought to know] that when yawanto [you want to] order an iced tea in the South, you need to specify. Do what [What are you saying?]? Yes. In the South, you don’t just order an iced tea. You order a sweet tea or an unsweetened tea [if you want hot tea, you order hot tea otherwise the assumption is iced]. Now you might say, "why don’t I just order an unsweetened tea and put sugar in it?" There’s actually a good scientific reason why sweet tea and tea with sugar are different.

Let me ‘splain [Ricky Ricardoism]. Sweet tea is the result of boiling water and making hot tea and then adding the sugar to the boiling solution. The result is that the sugar gets absorbed into the mixture and becomes a part of the solution. Then the ice is added after the water and the tea and the sugar have all moved in together. When you add sugar to tea that already has ice in it, the absorption rate in the solution is a lot lower so that most of the sugar will remain separate from the water for the duration of the trip [if you’ve ever had that lovely experience of getting to the bottom of the drink and having the remaining gook at the bottom, that’s the same thing]. Therefore you really can’t get the full effect of sweetening unless you start with boiling water.

The difference culturally is that up here in Massachusetts, if I go to a restaurant and order an iced tea, they bring me an unsweetened ice tea. And that is pretty standard in most of the Northeast. In Georgia, if I order and iced tea and don’t specify, I get a sweet tea. If I order a sweet tea, I get a sweet tea. And if I order an unsweetened tea, I get an unsweetened tea—except when they can’t hear me through the little box at the drive through and then I end up with a sweet tea anyway.

I hope this gives y’all [you all] a new understanding and respect for iced tea and helps you when you head out to restaurants in the South.