Posted by foodiebuddha
on May 01, 2010
While executive chef Eddie Hernandez may not be a household name, his restaurant chain sure is. Ask someone to get tacos in this town, and there is a good chance that they’ll suggest one of the three Taqueria Del Sol locations as their destination du jour. Started a few years back with a single location over on the Westside, the restaurant now stretches across Atlanta’s waistline like Orion’s Belt. With locations on Cheshire Bridge and in Decatur, this taco bar empire has even showed up in Athens.
At the epicenter of this tortilla fest is founding chef Eddie Hernandez. Along with Mike Klank, the duo opened the Westside location way back in 2000 [Holy Crap! That’s 10 years ago]. You may have caught wind of that; this past month TDS celebrated their anniversary with a handful of events. They also made an appearance at the Souper Jenny Food Truck Extravaganza. If anyone is capable of handling all the running around, it’s Hernandez. The politically inclined gent once served as the mayor of Rosebud, TX. How’s that for a career change?
In any event, Hernandez has turned in his pen and paper and taken up a knife and tortilla maker. Thankfully, he found some time to join us for a little Q&A on this week’s edition of Inside The Chef’s Kitchen. Taqueria Del Sol is as popular as ever, and Hernandez is the reason. So get your Mint Julep (it’s Derby Day after all), kick back … and welcome to ITCK!
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Posted by foodiebuddha
on April 23, 2010
On the last season of Bravo TV’s Top Chef, Atlanta made some real headway. We were fortunate enough to have three local chefs make it on to the hit reality TV show. Since then, the city hasn’t stopped buzzing. Many moons ago, Kevin Gillespie, pork tats and all, was kind enough to make an appearance on our weekly series, Inside The Chef’s Kitchen. Now, thanks to Hector Santiago of Pura Vida, we welcome the second of those three chefs.
Stupidly exiled from Top Chef after a French themed challenge (in which the one French chef on the show represented suck-tastic), Hector is back in our city and doing his thing. Puerto Rican through and through, you can find him slinging pans most any night at his tapas restaurant in Virginia Highlands. Appropriately located just off Ponce De Leon Ave (Ponce de León himself played an important role in Puerto Rico’s history … he brought them rum amongst other things), Pura Vida is one of the long standing Latin restaurants in the city.
What better way to end this beautiful week with a mojito and some light reading. And with that, welcome to ITCK!
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Posted by foodiebuddha
on April 02, 2010
Todd Richards is fairly well known around these parts. Richards’ restaurant group (Lush Life Group) is the driving force behind Rolling Bones BBQ and One Flew South, that high-end restaurant located in Hartsfield-Jackson’s E-Concourse. However, his notoriety isn’t limited to the Capital of The South.
Mixed in with his stay in Atlanta, Richards spent time in Chicago, in Nashville, and in Palm Beach as the chef de cuisine at the Ritz-Carlton. In fact, all that work even earned him a spot on an episode of Iron Chef America. Nowadays, you’ll find him sticking close to home as he works on a bounty of different projects. One of the most accessible is his blogs, which is one of the better chef scribed blogs to come out of Atlanta.
But of course, Richards still makes time for we poor plebeians of the pen with a stopover for Inside The Chef’s Kitchen. So on this Friday of beautiful weather and happenings, take a peek at what Chef Richards has to say. If you take a liking to Richards’ humor, be sure to check him out on twitter @Rollingbonesbbq. And with that, welcome to ITCK!
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Posted by foodiebuddha
on April 01, 2010
Some very sad and totally off-topic news to report. Robert Hiestand of Robert’s Roses has died. Nearly everyone who drove by the corner of West Paces Ferry and Northside Drive during the past 20 or so years likely spotted Robert standing on the little island dishing out a smile and some love. He died this past Tuesday of a reported stroke; he was 55.
The West Paces Ferry flower guy was a fixture of my childhood, and I, like many others, bought many a flower from him over the years. The Robert’s Roses website has promised to add more information, so check there to get the latest.
As a street corner florist, he was tops in this town. Regardless of the weather, Hiestand mad it a point to get to that corner! In honor of Robert, I am not going to post my review scheduled for today. Instead, check back tomorrow when we get back on the saddle.
[via JBP on facebook]
UPDATE: There is currently a facebook group entitled 10,000 to build a monument at W Paces Ferry honoring Robert the Flower Man. It’s already over 600 fans. Meanwhile, R.I.P. Rose man has roughly 2,000 fans. It’s nice to see the community come together on this. Meanwhile, there are already 2700 fans of Robert’s other facebook page.
Posted by foodiebuddha
on March 26, 2010
Steven Hartman is still a relative unknown around these parts, but that doesn’t mean we’re the least bit upset to have him here on Inside The Chef’s Kitchen. As it turns out, the young chef of Le Vigne restaurant at Montaluce Winery has already made quite the impression on many Atlanta bloggers and foodies. Like many others, I first stumbled across Hartman during that trip. Since then I have been dying to get back for a meal all my own.
Though Hartman is a transplant from the highly regarded Hermitage Hotel in Nashville, TN, he already seems right at home at the Dahlonega-based winery. If you don’t have a chance to skedaddle up to Le Vigne, you can follow all the action from Steven’s blog, humorously named Hogballs & Mountain Dew. He also drops in over on twitter via @hogballs.
Fear not ladies and gents, Steven won’t actually serve you any hog balls (unless maybe you ask him). In any event, we’re glad he took time out of his day to drop in here. So grab your morning coffee, sit back and relax, and welcome to ITCK!
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Posted by foodiebuddha
on March 24, 2010
Hey ya’ll. Getting ready to throw down a review for everyone … in the meantime, I just wanted to mention something. My hosting company is totally freaking incompetent having some difficulties right now (even though they don’t want to admit it). So please bare with me as I try and get things straightened out. In the meantime, page load times might be a bit longer than ideal and/or you may find the site down for moments at a time. I do apologize, such is the price for low cost hosting! Thanks everyone.
Posted by foodiebuddha
on March 08, 2010
Been busy, camera MIA, and focused on a few other things … be back soon … lots of eating to discuss!
Posted by foodiebuddha
on February 16, 2010
Those that read this know I’m just a techie moonlighting as a foodie. Knowing how to download music for free, especially MP3’s, is a hot topic in the technology world these days. So while I like to keep things here focused on food, I can’t help but venture outside my plate a little. After mentioning this tip via twitter, my inbox just blew up … so I’m going to save myself the trouble and show everyone how to do this … COUGH COUGH … completely legal and legitimate activity. I’m not in any way telling you what is or is not legal, only what is possible.
For those of you on Firefox or Chrome, you just need to create a bookmarklet (explained on wiki). If you’re still using Internet Explorer, ditch it and ditch it now (okay, I lied, this will still work, but get away from IE anyway). All you need to do is click on the link that follows and drag it to the bookmark bar: Music Download
As I know my site isn’t geared toward the techies out there, if dragging this to your bookmark bar is confusing, do not be deterred. If you use chrome, here’s a video for you. If you use Firefox, here’s another one. Note about those videos, all you need to do is the first part of it where you see the link being dragged.
Last but not least, I did not write this – I don’t remember where I saw it … hit me up if you know where I did.
Posted by foodiebuddha
on February 12, 2010
Ron Eyester is a longtime fixture of the Atlanta restaurant scene. The one time chef of Food 101 in Morningside/Virginia Highlands now serves as the owner of the restaurant. Renamed and rebranded as Rosebud, Eyester continues to pump the city full of love from his headquarters of worldwide domination.
A huge deadhead in his own right, the musically inclined chef loves to take his polished neighborhood restaurant and open it up to fun times. Case in point, Eyester is turning Rosebud into a sea of white on March 3rd. That night, he’s hosting “The White Dinner,” a tribute the the cult classic Beatles album of a similar name (aka The White Album). Full details are are up on the Rosebud website, so go have a look-see. Meanwhile, I’ve included a copy of the menu after the jump.
So back on point, Eyester is a social dude, so you should definitely check him out on twitter via @TheAngryChef. Meanwhile, keep reading to see what he things of my take on Proust. And with that, welcome to ITCK!
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Posted by foodiebuddha
on February 05, 2010
Chef Todd Annis has definitely earned his knives. As the current head of Bold American Catering, Annis is in charge of the catering arm of Fifth Group Restaurants. Prior to that, he spent time slinging pans at places like Carbo’s Café, Araxi, and the much discussed but now defunct Rainwater. If you’ve ever snacked on some grub while at the King Plow Art Center or Studio 887, chances are … you tasted some of Annis’ food.
You can see some of the blurb on Annis over at Creative Loafing. It’s a piece from ‘01 when he was at Rainwater. Meanwhile, you can also show your appreciation by giving his Facebook fan page some love. But before you move on, kick back on this rainy Atlanta day and enjoy some musings. And with that, welcome to ITCK!
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While executive chef Eddie Hernandez may not be a household name, his restaurant chain sure is. Ask someone to get tacos in this town, and there is a good chance that they’ll suggest one of the three Taqueria Del Sol locations as their destination du jour. Started a few years back with a single location over on the Westside, the restaurant now stretches across Atlanta’s waistline like Orion’s Belt. With locations on Cheshire Bridge and in Decatur, this taco bar empire has even showed up in Athens.
