NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 30 Aug 1999 03:26:30 EDT Xref: pale-rider.INS.CWRU.Edu rec.food.restaurants:47134 Someone wrote: > > I am interested in knowing your favorite off beat (not Chops or Bones,etc. > or corporate) type restaurants in the Atlanta metro area. Absolutely, positively nothing trendy or yuppy in this list. Just places I liked when I lived there. Absolutely the best BBQ in the metro area - Williamson Bro's BBQ - Roswell Road in Marietta near the Big Chicken. Distant second best - Rib Ranch, HWY 5 off I-75 in Cobb County. Get off exit 114a, go toward Canton, on the left. Absolutely the best Italian - Monticalvo's - Hwy 41/Cobb Parkway across from the Walker School in Marietta. Get off the North Loop exit of I-75, go north on Cobb Parkway. On your left. Hole-in-the-wall. In the old restaurant building of a fairly run-down-looking motel. Best I've ever had anywhere. Close second - Scalini's - Cobb Parkway near I-285 and I-75. A little more corporate but Ah, the garlic rolls! Same family owns the chain Provino's but Provino's isn't worth the effort. Absolutely the best pizza - Monticalvo's. Second Best - Mellow Mushroom. Near Ga Tech campus. Used to be a bunch better than they are now. Was started by a bunch of hippies in the late 60s in an old school bus. Opened several branches in the 90s and finally sold out to the corporate types. Still pretty good if you like the dough-y crust. The Varsity. Well, everyone has to do this one once, twice if you have a cast iron stomach. Greasy hamburgers, greasy hotdogs, greasy french fries, greasy onion rings... well, you get the idea. All lovingly prepared in the spirit of an army mess hall feeding a whole division. The ambiance is authentic pure 50s cuz they were there pretty much unchanged in the 50s. Right off the I-75/85 connector at the Ga Tech exit. On the edge of a pretty rough part of town so lock your doors and be prepared for the panhandlers and windshield washers. Most of the small joints on Cheshire Bridge Road off I-85 near the Lenox area. This is sorta a red-light district right on the edge of Lenox/Buckhead (read: obnoxious yuppies) so though the joints are not very fancy, the food is generally good. Lenox Mall - Center of the Yuppy and alternative universe. My wife likes Calif Pizza Kitchen. There is a highly regarded white table cloth restaurant in the mall with prices to match. But the real draw is the freak show, er, crowds. Sitting in CPK or Mick's and just watching is as good as a night at the movies! parking hint: Park in the lower level next to the Lenox Towers. that is the best lit part and there seems to be more guards there. The mall's dirty little secret is that their parking lot is extremely high crime, with several cars stolen every day. I used to work in the Lenox Towers so I was very aware of this. Little to no violent crime, just opportunistic thugs stealing property. If you like oriental/asian, the place to go is Chamblee/Buford Highway. Chamblee, called Chambodia by the locals, is where the asian immigrants have settled in and formed Atlanta's Little Asia. IF you get a few blocks off Buford Highway, you'll find the little joints that don't cater to the tourists and office workers. Places where English isn't used and you just sorta point at the pictures on the menu. I have a chinese friend who takes us there occasionally and interprets for us. Very little/no street life as in San Fran's Little China; just a whole bunch of people going about their business. Very much an experience, if you like that kind of cuisine. That should be enough to keep you busy. John
Barbecue