I've been down to ATL a few time, and my favorite restaurant in ATL is, without question, is Taqueria del Sol. They have a few locations throughout Atlanta, and one up in Athens (which I also visited this same week), but the best on in Decatur. This place is simply genius- my restaurant, Good Stuff Eatery, tries to emulate this same business model but we don't pull it off nearly as well. You wait online to place your order and pay. The menu is limited- a few platters (chicken, steak, etc), tacos, burritos, enchiladas, and appetizer dippin's like queso and guac. The queso is to die for, it's a little spicy but if you can take the heat, the stuff is melty and thick and perfect for the homemade tortilla chips. And they make a rita on the rocks that is the perfect compliment to the meal. My boyfriend orders the same thing every time- and I should learn to follow suit. He gets the best fried chicken tacos- 2 of them- I've ever had. So I get one; it's two little fried chicken strips, tomato, and a kicked up mayo. We both add the queso, but these tacos are good on their own. This time, I also tried the fried fish taco, which came with jalepenos and creative tartar sauce. Up in Athens, I got the Carnita- a local favorite, red meat with some homemade salsa- and the Veggie taco which was very very spicy. Two delish taqueria meals, I can't wait to get back there.
We also hit up the Vortex, because you simply can't visit ATL and not go to the Vortex. It's the craziest little bar/restaurant jam packed with people all the time for their famous burgers. You have to be 18 to enter, you can smoke inside, and you can't see a piece of wall anywhere even if you moved some stuff around. They have tons of old concert posters, ATL street signs, old advertisements, and notoriously a motorcycle hanging from the ceiling, in addition to a billion other doodads hanging off the walls and ceiling. When we finally got our table (we went at 7 o'clock on Friday, expect a wait), I ordered the guacamole burger. They have so so so many creative burgers, like the Elvis burger with peanut butter and bananas or the heart attack, a burger sandwiched between two grilled cheeses, with tots. Their epically delicious tots. So my gauc burger was so nom nomy- you may be thinking 'guacamole on a burger??' but remember, I worked at burger joint- I got creative with my burgers. It this one came with especially good guacamole, a particularly well flavored burger on a bun that could hold all the juices in. And the mound of tater tots they provide could not be ignored, so it was devoured. The tots might have been better than the burger, but I'm a sucker for anything fried.
We also went to this bar called Twains in Decatur. It was a little expensive, but they had a live band playing and we could play pool (for ten dollars!). We got a pitcher of one of Twain's home brews, a light ale called Mad Happy- it was delicious, like a Magic Hat 9, but a little hoppier. And this guy that was playing, his name was John Gradsen or something like that, but he gave up his post for a while and started doing an open mic thing, which I thought was great. They have live music fairly frequently there and it's definitely a great Decatur hang out.
You might be thinking, 'that's all the music you got? some open mic night?' but no, don't think I would ever stand for that. At the end of my trip, we stayed a night in Athens, which is a fabulous little town absolutely dominated but college and grad students. A pretty great scene, if I do say so myself. We went to this place called Tasty World to see a friend's band, Mama's Love. The bar was not huge, probably 150 max, but they brought in a lot of kids and the audience was really into it. The band that went on first, called The Moderate, was just as the name would imply which is only one reason why that's a bad band name. They were decent though, a lot of heart and soul, very 90's pop rock influenced, and with a sax, which you can't go wrong with. These kids were from DC, so they drove a long way like me to perform for kind of a weak audience. But toward the end of their 45 minute set, a lot more people had showed up and they got a lot of cheers and screams. Mama's Love came next, with about an hour and a half set. They set up lights and a fog machine and opened their set with a bang. The whole thing was funky and creative, pushing boundaries, a perfect combination of Phish jams, String Cheese-y playfulness, and Widespread Panic-like lyrics and vocals. Two of the members of Panic were supposedly going to be at this show, but I'm not sure if they did. In any case, Mama's Love brought the house down, there was an undeniable energy in the crowd that reflected the compositions, and after the show, the band said it was the best they'd played yet.
That's about all I got for you, definitely check out Mama's Love- they're the next big thing. I still haven't touched on my Phish of the week, but I can start that next time. xoxo gossip girl?
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