atlanta

The FabGrandpa and I crawled out of the woods last weekend and went down to the big city to spend the night with Becky. This is the view from her balcony:

She lives in a high-rise condo (with no guest room, as noted earlier) right on Peacthree Street in downtown Atlanta. She took us out to dinner at The Vortex, an ecclectic place with posters of biker chicks on the wall and loud rock music blaring from a juke-box.

It says right on the menu that The Vortex is an “Idiot Free Zone” and that they are not politically correct. They had great cheeseburgers (I had mine sans bun). It was a fabulous place to start the evening. Here are Jim and Becky at The Vortex:

After that, we drive over to Blind Willie’s. It is billed as Atlanta’s finest blues bar, and I agree. I love the slogan on their website “It Ain’t Easy Bein’ Sleazy”, but I did not find the place to be sleazy. When we got there, the place was packed, so we had to share a table with some young guys. They were quite friendly, even bought a round of drinks for the whole table. We stayed there through one set, then sashayed down the block to 10 High.

Now, Becky had been telling us about this great karaoke bar she has been going to, and we have been thinking to ourselves that we could not believe she would like karaoke. Jim and Becky pictured here post Jaeger Bombs at 10 High:But let me tell you, this was not your father’s karaoke bar! At 10 High, there is a live heavy metal band, Metal-some. Our niece Emily, Becky, and me at 10 High:The people who sing karaoke are on stage with the band, with back-up singers, and it is dang good! I have never seen anything quite like it. Well, I have seen movies with night club scenes where you had to work your way through a sea of people to get to the bar, but I have never been in a place like that until Saturday night.

So, yeah, after a night of bar hopping, we were up bright and early on Sunday afternoon, going down to Dekalb Farmer’s Market to eat lunch and do some shopping. I stocked up on herbs and spices: I love that place, it is like no other place I have ever been. Part farmer’s market, part grocery store, part cafeteria.

They sell no paper goods, cleaning products, or sodas. But you can get gluten free flours, all kinds of vegetables, and herbs and spices in huge containers cheap. There is a fish market, a butcher shop, a deli, a bakery, and a dairy section. I always spend too much money, but how can you resist the swiss chard, the kohlrabi, the gulf shrimp, the fresh mozzarella cheese, the basil, the—well, the everything! I got out of there for under a hundred bucks, but I got so much stuff.

Now we are back in the woods, but eating such elegant foods you wouldn’t know it unless you looked out the window. Last night we had bruschetta, with fresh mozzarella and basil. Tonight it will be sauteed shrimp and swiss chard with gluten free quinoa spaghetti. I can hardly wait.