FoodieBuddha.com

If a person was to ask you to explain the definitive dish at the institution of Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles, your response might read something like this:

Chicken and waffles: noun – 1) a deleterious combination of crunchy waffles and crisped chicken skin, met in the middle by juicy, intensely seasoned chicken meat under an onslaught of airy, melted butter and slathered in a bath of hot sauce, gravy, and maple syrup. 2) death on a plate.

One of the oldest symbols of inbred fusion cooking, an order of chicken and waffles is, for better or worse, a staple of Southern food and an expose of its soulful influences.  While it is most oft-identified with the Deep South, where places like Gladys Knight’s rule the roost, the Los Angeles based Roscoe’s House of Chicken ‘n Waffles, might be the most famous purveyor anywhere.

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This is a story of one steakhouse (Morton’s), one man (Peter Shankman), and Twitter (you know what that is).

So Peter Shankman (@petershankman) is a fan of steak and a fan of Morton’s Steakhouse.  He’s also a bad ass, or perhaps just one lucky dude, or perhaps both.  A few months back, Shankman was getting on a plane headed for Newark Internat’l Airport, known to the common man as the world’s worst airport in the armpit of all armpits.

So what’s this have to do with a food blog?  Well, a lot actually.  Apparently, Shankman in what surely was just an attempt to be humorous, tweeted this:

Hey @Mortons – can you meet me at newark airport with a porterhouse when I land in two hours? K, thanks.

Morton’s didn’t say anything back and this nice little funny tweet destined to go down in the backlogs of twitters immense databanks, never to be read from again.  Well, not so fast.

Turns out, when Shankman got off the plane, a tuxedo sporting Morton’s server was there to great him .. WITH steak, shrimp, a side of potatoes, bread, two napkins, and silverware.  That is just awesome.  While not every brand needs to go to such extremes to use twitter effectively, Morton’s just demonstrated how to use twitter like a boss.

Thanks Morton’s, you’re doing it right.

The Setting: My Home
The Meal: DaVinci’s, a Midtown pizzeria that delivers.
Important Note: These pictures are of well-done pizza as we requested that time.

Unless you’re a person in your late teens or early 20s, delivery probably isn’t a staple of your life.  For those of us not knee deep in Maruchan ramen or “couch coin” funded burritos, delivery can still offer a utility.  But whether you’re just trying to shut your kids up, take a night off from the world, or fool your dinner date into thinking you can actually cook, finding palatable deliverables is often difficult.

There are exceptions to every rule and front in center in that department is DaVinci’s Pizzeria, a two outfit chain with locations in Smyrna and Midtown Atlanta.  The location in Midtown has been open some four months, and in that time, I have taken down at least a couple of their pizzas, their sides, and their sandwiches.  So while I won’t hold them to the standards of some of the more high brow pizza spots in Atlanta, I will say that to date, I’ve been relatively pleased.

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The burger’s answer to the Rice Krispie just landed in Atlanta.  While Snap, Crackle, and Pop serve as tripped out figments of my imagination, Buckhead’s Smashburger insists that we are all witness to smash, sizzle, and savor their flat-topped burger offerings.

Already at two metro locations with a third one on the way (though still short of the announced five), Smashburger is an upper echelon fast casual joint with an eye on your waistline.  A stylistically predictable brand job (and a logo design eerily similar to that of next-door gamer haven GameStop) is a quintessential example of chi-chi.  But there’s more to a restaurant than MEATS the eye!

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So according to that hidden signage pictured above, the now refurbed building at 349 14th Street is getting some new life.  Long the home of the nationally known alliterati Kool Korners, a Cuban sandwich shop and grocery, Moe’s Original Barbecue is set to open in the not too distant future.  It seems that the owners of the property have tried to bogart some of the Kool Korners’ fame by naming the intersection of State & 14th after the departed, so don’t think the Ramirez’s are returning from their Birmingham sabbatical.  Moe’s is actually a chain and one that I’ve visited several times during my time in Vail.  According to ToneToATL (who had this story some time ago), it seems that the owners were hoping for a January 20th opening … needless to say that didn’t happen.

HELLS TO THE YEAH!!!!

Thank you Pizza Hut for making all of our lives a little better.  Now if you could only make better pizza!  Make sure you watch until the end so that you can learn how to do the dance!  No word on whether or not this technique will spread to America and our beloved delivery drivers.

[Thanks to El Guapo for the email]

Despite the tragic end to the World Cup just a handful of weeks back, it looks like I have another reason to break out my beloved Oranje jersey before 2014.  It turns out that Whataburger, another one of those boutique burger chains, is handing out free burgers.  On August 3rd 2010, if you walk in to any Whataburger in the fast food nation, you get a free burger.  Ah … but there’s a catch.  You see, you have to show up between 5-8pm and you have to wear a piece of Dutch soccer paraphernalia.

Okay, I fibbed a little, you don’t actually have to wear something Dutch … just something orange.  The event is a celebration of the franchise’s 60th year in biz.  Those of us in the ATL can get in on the action if our heart and our gas tank so desires.  With locations in Thomasville and near Savannah (x2), it looks like South Georgia is your best bet if you’re hell bent on staying inside state lines.  If you don’t mind handing your tax dollars to another state, Birmingham is actually your best bet to snag one of these (mappage).

[photo via whataburger website]

Even I don’t have the heart to dress this up.  Denver based Smashburger is expanding into Atlanta.  Thankfully, we might get as many as FIVE of these burger joints!  According to Scott Crane, el jefe de la empresa (the boss), they have put out five letters of intent in strip centers around East Cobb, Perimeter Mall, Dunwoody, Alpharetta, and Buckhead/Midtown.  Thank god, cuz what we need is more fast casual restaurants serving up burgers.

The massive restaurant space at the corner of Ponce De Leon and Penn Ave is now dormant.  Yes, it appears that the Old Spaghetti Factory has closed up shop and moved on to greener pastures.   While the restaurant chain is still alive and kicking outside the state of GA, they finally threw in the towel on January 24th.  While I always considered it one of the worst restaurants in the city, the place seemed to get a pretty good crowd.  So in that respect, I must say that this was a bit of a surprise.  Cheerios y’all!

According to a report published in Reuters, Atlanta is home to the most expensive entrées in the country (at least amongst chains). The article states:

Other findings show that among chains surveyed, Atlanta boasts the most
expensive dinner entrees, averaging $14.75, outpacing the New York, Chicago, and
Los Angeles metro areas.

That’s pretty damn shocking.  Even though it seems you can prove just about anything with a study, to see us outpace true culinary Meccas isn’t a good thing.  While this bit of news is a few months old, I’m really surprised that this didn’t seem to get a mention anywhere around town.

[via Reuters]