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Good news for we fans of Café Agora, a Buckhead gyro and Mediterranean spot where I’ve popped more foodie cherries at than I can count.  In July, the Atlanta Business Chronicle broke the news that Café Agora was adding a satellite location in Midtown.  At the time, ABC reported that Agora hoped to be open at 92 Peachtree Place by late September.  As is common place with these sorts of things, that didn’t actually happen.

Fast forward a few months to present day, and it SEEMS like change is just around the corner.  Word around the campfire is that owner Mr. Ozelci (but you don’t need to call him that) hopes to have Al’s Café Agora Midtown open in the early parts of February.  I can wait nary another day as I have yet to find a Greek/Mediterranean/Turkish restaurant in the area that can hold a candle to CA.  Their gyros burst in the mouth with flavor as pronounced as pop rocks.  Beyond that, who doesn’t love to watch the jovial Al feed his customers as spoons goodies from a meze plate into the mouths of customer after customer?  Seriously – the dude likes to feed people as if he’s teaching a baby how to eat!  Don’t be scared … just go with it.

Also, Agora is finally starting to expand its mother ship, which TNT told us about last year.  The build out shouldn’t take long, but I have no time frame for when its actually going to be completed.  All I know is that Café Agora is expanding, and Atlanta will be better for it.

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While it’s far from the most expensive thing in town and there are certainly more elevated restaurants  in the city, Buckhead’s Café Agora always finds its way onto my list of favorite/best/suggested eats in Atlanta.  Not much has changed with the food since I used Agora as an early guinea pig in my writing career.  Though I did have a worse than usual experience during one of my many recent visits, it was only a negligible drop-off and a temporary one at that.

But all that’s neither here nor there.  The meze platters still kick ass, the mixed grill (below) almost always finds itself to my table, and the beautifully presented gyro wraps show that the “law of diminishing returns” does have its exceptions.  But despite all of my fervor for Agora and familiarity with it, there was one thing I did not know was possible there until last week.

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It’s 3 o’clock in the afternoon and beads of sweat drip down my forehead.  I find myself standing in the parking lot of the Druid Hills Whole Foods and my eyes are locked in across the street.  Anyone with good sense would know that the personal shower was due to the hellish-like temperatures of an Atlanta summer.  In most any other case, they’d be right.  However, there is an exception to every rule and this was just one of those situations.

In this instance, I was feeling the pressure.  Smack dab across the street from that WF is the long standing Pita Palace.  Though anything but palatial, the Palace has withstood nearly 7-years of economic turmoil and remained one of the more popular places for ATLiens to grab them some shwarma (aka gyros).

Being the good foodie that I am, I knew I was obligated to cross the street for another one of my “not so” first impressions.  Questionable personal safety combined with Whole Foods sushi in the belly made me apprehensive.  Not only did I need to make it across Lavista alive, I need to find someway to cram more food into my stomach.  With Fünke at my side, the two of us darted across the Lavista on our way to take on Israel’s take on street food!

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Just a short time ago, The Sweet Auburn Curb Market (SACM) in Downtown Atlanta was an afterthought in the cityscape.  Then, late in 2009, Grindhouse Killer Burgers got things rolling.  Since then, SACM hasn’t looked back.  In the midst of this buzz, The Greek Gyros and Pizza has hopped on the wagon and opened its countertop restaurant.  As dumb luck would have it, they opened just a few hours before the dude who feasts and I showed up.  I’d like to say that our visit was entirely impromptu, but alas, it was not!  We had planned this excursion late last night.  We both think it fun to see where things stand from the get go.  So far, the Greek is looking pretty good.

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As I hobble through life with a Droid as my sole camera, it’s time for another one of my first impressions that really isn’t a first impression.  Falafel King sits on the Emory campus just off the junction of Oxford and N. Decatur.  Though it’s purveyors are of Korean lineage, this shack sized, spit using restaurant actually sells the oddly married cuisines of Japan (in this case sushi) and the Mediterranean.  This odd mish mash of grub, combined with a distinct facade (displayed at right by babythekitten) and pocket book friendly prices, helps to draw customers from areas well beyond Emory.

In many circles, the King is treated as royalty.  The reality is closer to something more understated; however, for a place that freshly pats down their chickpea mixture, they do just fine.

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Some meals are so transcendent, so illuminating, and so invigorating that you are left speechless.  Some meals are just that good, incapable of being captured in text or image, and ethereally delicious.  This my friends, was not one of those meals.  No, the recent torture session of a meal that took place that fateful night left me feeling a bit like Tyson (post Buster).  No, actually … take that back, this meal made me feel like Ernie looks after an ass whooping at the hands of Peter (Ernie’s died several times over).

Café Antalya failed so epically on so many fronts that I fear nothing short of a tactical strike could save it.  Blow this blight of an establishment straight to heck and back.  Start over … get rid of the chef, get rid of the *cough* designer, and shoot whomever is in charge of sourcing.  Then, they might have a chance … maybe.  If I lived in the Dunwoody area, I’d be calling the fire department just to make sure they had enough water in the tanks.  I want my tax dollars back… who hands out the business licenses?

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Part hookah bar/part Turkish food center/part good-time emporium, Café Istanbul has remained a centerpiece of Atlanta’s Mediterranean culinary community for some time.  With my close proximity to Imperial Fez/Ibiza and Divan, and my own stash of shisha, I’ve never had much of a reason to head on up Hwy 78.  Motivation factors aside, a visit was in order this past week as a group of friends were hitting the town.

Located at the outskirts of Decatur on the part of 78 identified as Lawrenceville Hwy, Café Istanbul sits somewhat unassumingly near the intersection with DeKalb Industrial.  Its main competition in the vibe department is the aforementioned Imperial Fez, a Moroccan joint in Peachtree Hills.  On the other hand, their food is most similar to the personal love buddy that is Café Agora.  It bares mentioning that the Turkish selections at Istanbul are more diverse than they are at CA as the latter incorporates several supplemental Mediterranean fares.

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