Candler Park’s Midsummer Music Festival will offer an artist’s market with 40 local artists, live music, and festival food. Purchase of a wrist band is required for those 21 and over to purchase alcoholic beverages at the event. No coolers will be allowed in the event area. Leashed pets will be allowed.
790 The Zone 5K begins at 10:00 am
The festival & music perfomances will begin at noon.
Cost: Free entry — But, wristbands to purchase alcoholic beverages will be sold for $5.00 before 5:00pm and $10.00 after 5:00pm
Proceeds benefit Candler Park Neighborhood Organization
Midsummer Music Festival
Candler Park
1400 McLendon Avenue NE
Atlanta, GA 30307
The Setting: Formerly the home of a Mellow Mushroom Pizza, Mike Benny Miller spruced up the space with inviting colors and a small stage for visiting musicians.
The Staff: Friendly
The Food: We’ve visited a number of times with one thing on our minds… an authentic New Orleans po’boy. And, they’ve delivered beautifully.
Leidenheimer Baking Company bakes and ships the New Orleans French bread used in the making of the two po’boy sandwiches on the menu. Leidenheimer loaves are quite different from a standard loaf of French bread. Leidenheimer’s loaves are light, fluffy, dense with bubbles and incredibly delicate. They also display an attractive and addictively delicious tender-yet- flaky crust. The delicate nature of this crust crumbles easily under the lightest pressure. This unique bread is essential in the making of an authentic po’boy and the teeny tiny network of flakes that make up the crust are easy to identify.
The second ingredient in the perfect po’boy — deep-fried shrimp or oysters. The cornmeal crusted shrimp or oysters should be fried to a deep golden brown. This deep golden brown shell will hold the tender shrimp or moist and creamy oysters. Benny’s delivers again. The oysters and shrimp are fried to a perfect dark golden. And, yet, they are still tender and juicy.
Finally, the bread is brushed with a spicy tobasco-tinted mayo. And, the oysteres are topped a bit of tomato and just enough lettuce to add crunch. This is one near-perfect sandwich.
Live Music: Every Thursday night
Star of the Day: Authentic shrimp and oyster po’boys without the long drive to New Orleans! And, chocolate covered key lime pie sticks for dessert that are perfect for sharing.
Benny’s Bar & Grill
3902 Highway 78
Snellville, GA 30039
678 209 0209
The Setting: A small restaurant situated in a quiet strip mall with a handful of wooden boothes. Orders are placed at a glass counter that is filled with slices of individually wrapped cake wedges.
The Staff: Very friendly
The Food: Incredibly rich, tender and delicious stews.
We sampled one order of the ox tail stew and one order of the chicken stew on our first visit. The names are the only simple thing about these incredibly rich and flavorful stews. Both sauces are full of deep dark tomato sauce redolent with spices. The chicken stew has slightly different spice blend and the added sweetness of tamarind making this my personal favorite. Each order was dished up with generous portions of rice and peas ( white rice and pigeon peas cooked in coconut milk… one of my favorite treats YUM! ) and braised cabbage with butter. This is one hearty meal.
Those individually wrapped cake wedges that I mentioned earlier looked quite tasty! Coconut cake, strawberry cake, and Jamaican fruit cake top my list of things to try next time. We were too stuffed to even consider dessert. We couldn’t even come close to finishing the generous portions of stew. So, dessert was out of the question… next time.
On our visit, they were completely sold out of everything else on the menu. But, this will only make us return all that much sooner. Next time, we’ll try to get there early enough to try the meat patties.
Stars of the Day: Tastee’s home-style Jamaican stews
Tastee’s Jamaican
2671 Centerville Highway
Snellville, GA 30078
678 344 7004
Chocolate! 2009
Tonight — June 18, 2009
6:00pm – 10:00pm
What a great way to help support The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation! Sample martinis, chocolate beer, a dinner buffet, chocolate espresso, & participate in a silent auction!
For a list of auction items and to purchase tickets:
ChocolateForCF.Org
This weekend:
June 19-21, 2009
Open the 3rd weekend of each month, this antique market offers 45,000 square feet of event space and 2 auction area. Lakewood offers an assortment of antiques, vintage goods, handmade items, garden structures, and garden art.
Cost:
$3 per person
Lakewood 400 Antiques Market
1321 Atlanta Highway
Cumming, GA 30040
The Contenders:
Fox Bros. BBQ — (pictured above) Their version is close to perfection in my book. Dense, crumbly, just a hint of crispiness on the top and at the edge. And, most importantly, full of corn flavor. This is everything good cornbread strives to be. Specks of jalapeno add surprising little bursts of flavor. A dab of sweet butter accents the spice perfectly. And, to gild the lily with their perfection, every wedge has been served perfectly warm and fresh from the oven.
Daddy D’s — Their unique version has a cake-y flavor and delicate crumb. The sweetness is quite apparent and a hint of vanilla adds delightfully to the comfort food appeal. Always dished up in generous quantities, I could happily eat this alone for breakfast or lunch with a tiny drizzle of honey every day of my life.
Wyatt’s BBQ — The definition of traditional cornbread is represented here. Even if it is baked in a sheet pan, you’d never know it by flavor. The crust is perfectly brown, crisp and buttery. The interior is dense, crumbly and not at all sweet… as some say cornbread should be. This cornbread is all about simplicity. The finer things in life need no embellishments.
Have I missed any?
The Setting: A free standing pale brick building that is significantly more attractive than your standard fast food restaurant.
The Staff: Friendly and efficient
The Food: The BBQ is suprisingly good for a fast food style restaurant. Slightly smoky and tender, we found the ribs, brisket and chicken to be the most reliable. The chopped pork was a bit dry. The ribs, brisket and chicken were consistently good on three visits. The barbecue sauce is a simple tomato-based sauce with a bit of vinegar tang. It won’t be topping any of my “favorites” lists.
The sides remind you that this is a chain. The word predictable springs to mind. But, the baked potato casserole (mashed potatoes dotted with bits of bacon dished up ice cream scoop fashion and topped with orange cheddar) had a pleasant comfort food feel to them. (Ok, high school cafeteria comfort food…but still)
There is a definite similarity to Shane’s. And, I’d definitely give the nod to Shane’s in a contest. But, if you’re hungry in the burbs, Dickey’s beats the hell out of the other fast food restaurants in the area.
Free self-serve vanilla ice cream on waffle cones adds a bit of charm and fun for the kids. Especially now, full summer heat is dominating our days.
The location (15 minutes outside of 285 on 78) is a bit limiting, useful to those in the 78/Scenic Highway area only. But, this new chain plans to open a number of restaurants in the burbs surrounding Atlanta.
Star of the Day: Self-serve vanilla ice cream on a waffle cone, I guess I’m just a kid at heart.
Dickey’s Barbecue Pit
2624 Cindy Lane
Snellville, GA 30078
770 982 1977
Every Little Step @ Midtown Art Cinema
Midtown Art Cinema
931 Monroe Drive
Atlanta, GA 30308
The Setting: One of the glass-fronted shops that surround Marietta’s square, this charming cafe has a handful of tables and a glass fronted pastry counter. Blackboards on the wall list the array of meat pies and lunch specials. And, bookshelves bordering the side walls house a small assortment of imported Australian specialties.
On our Saturday morning visit, we were lucky enough to catch some live music. A musician on an acoustic guitar was doing her thing. And, the lovely music was a great way to start our day.
The Staff: Friendly and efficient (They handled the long line easily on our visit.)
The Food: So far, we’ve only sampled the Lamingtons and coffee. Both were fresh, tasty and quickly consumed. We wish we had room to try the other sweet treats lining the pastry case. There were many from Anzac biscuits, cherry slices, hedgehog slices, jam tarts and caramel slices that look like the merger of a candy bar and cookie. The fruit mince tarts looked delightfully traditional with docked shortbread cookies encasing a dense fruit mince.
And, our bellies weren’t ready to tackle the hearty-sounding meat pies with their rich pastry shells and dense fillings or the sausages rolled in dough. But, we’ll be sure to try them on our next visit. The assortment of meat pies and sausage rolls cover both traditional Australian and their British counterparts.
Star of the Day: Lamingtons for breakfast with coffee! Yum!
Australian Bakery Cafe
48 South Park Square
Marietta, GA 30060
678 797 6222
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