Flip Burger, Again

rBQ

This burger is topped with freshly ground black pepper, chives, slaw, and pulled brisket in rBQ sauce.  It all sits on top of a buttery bun with a dab of smoked mayo.  It all works.  But, it would work even better without the smoked mayo.

rBQ On Top, Butcher’s Cut On Bottom

Butcher’s Cut

Still one of our favorites…

Thinly sliced onions and dressed mixed greens top blue cheese, caramelized onion, and red wine jam.  The grating of fresh pepper makes the perfect finishing touch.  Creamy blue cheese needs that bite of pepper to wake it up and round it out.

Bell’s Amber Ale

What could make it all better?  A great beer to wash them both down.  Bell’s amber ale did the job beautifully.

Nutella & Burnt Marshmallow Milkshake

This followed an appropriate intermission, of course.

Rich, creamy, and chocolate-y with a pleasantlly mild touch of nutella nuttiness.  Bury all of that creamy delicious under a mound of charred marshmallows.  Yum.  But, then again, when isn’t the chocolate/marshmallow combination an instant win?

Flip Burger
1587 Howell Mill Road
Atlanta, GA 30318
404 352 3547

Double Zero Napoletana

Double Zero Napoletana
(ice sculpture)

00 Manhattan

Double Zero Cocktails

Birra Menabrea Amber

Affettati Pizza with Scissors for Slicing

Affettati Pizza
(Lots of Light, Airy Charred Bubbles)

Pizze

Caponata di Melanzane

With Mozzarella di Bufala, Fig/Onion Agrodolce, & Tomato Basil Jam

And Wood-Grilled Rustic Bread

Double Zero Chocolate Cake

Layers of chocolate cake are iced with hazelnut almond nougatine, dark chocolate ganache and espresso creme.

(On the way out, we noticed that the next Double Zero Chocolate Cake being sliced was iced with an even darker espresso creme.  We’ll be hoping for that darker espresso creme on our next visit.)

Double Zero Napoletana
5825 Roswell Road
Atlanta, GA 30328
404 991 3666

Tejava

Tejava

For a bottled tea, this was shockingly good.  Strong, rich and full flavored… this tea shines on the high quality of the tea itself rather than added flavors, honey or other sweeteners.  No sugar is needed.  And, it’s certainly not missed.  The pure flavor of the black tea is free to shine.   This tea is far removed from the standard cloyingly sweet mass-produced teas that clutter the shelves of every convenience store.  It’s vastly superior.

Love it.

We will certainly be buying this again… without a doubt.

Tejava

Trader Joe’s

Fox Bros BBQ

BBQ Chicken with Cornbread Stuffing & Collards

Over three years of bbq heaven and still going strong…

Fox Bros BBQ has hovered near the top of our favorite bbq spots list for all three of those years.  Another visit proves why.

The chicken was perfect, as usual.  Covered in spices and beautifully smoked, the delicate crunch of the skin accented the moist, tender meat on the inside.  This was our first time trying the cornbread stuffing.  Rich cornbread proves to make an even richer, butter-ier and more decadent stuffing.  It might be a little too rich for our blood.  But, it’s still very tasty.  Next time, we’ll go back to one of our all-time favorites… their original jalapeno cornbread.

BBQ Chicken, Fried Whole Okra, Mac’N’Cheese & White BBQ Sauce

Ditto, chicken perfection.  This time with crispy fried okra and super cheesy mac & cheese.  It might not be the prettiest mac & cheese in the world.  But, it sure is good.

Fox Bros BBQ
1238 Dekalb Avenue
Decatur, GA 30307
404 577 4030

Chef Liu

Chef Liu
5221 Buford Highway NE
Atlanta, GA 30340
770 936 0532

Shane’s Rib Shack

Shane’s BBQ Chicken Half (eaten?)

No, we did not start eating prior to this shot.

This is exactly what this bbq chicken half looked like when we opened our to-go box.  We can only assume they pawn off mutilated chicken pieces to unsuspecting to-go customers.  We’re supposed to eat this?  Really?

How do you eat a meal that looks like someone else already had a go at it?

Shane’s

Clay’s Sports Cafe

Hot & Jerk Wings

Clay’s Sports Cafe has the look.  You know the look?  It’s that “rode hard and put up wet” look.  This place is a hole in the wall dive.  There’s no denying it.  But, we can get beyond all of that.  Friendly staff and great wings make it easy.  If you’re in the area, this place is worth a visit.  If the looks don’t scare you away, that is.

Jerk Up Front (Hot Wings in Back)

The wings with jerk sauce were our favorites.  They’re not as spicy as we’d like.  Still, we loved their crispy exteriors and the rich blend of spices with an interesting touch of sweetness.  They were addictively good.  We polished off each and every wing.

The hot wings had a nice heat.  A heat that we would say classifies them as “hot”, but, not too hot.  Most of the wings remained crisp throughout the meal.  Next time, we’ll go for the XHot.

Spiced Potato Chips

Thickly cut & freshly fried potato chips with a generous dusting of spice were crunchy and crispy.  Some people (both of us included) could make a meal out of these.  Not every fry was perfectly crisp, there was a dud here and there.  But, those duds were in the extreme minority.

Clay’s Sports Cafe
6518 Roswell Road
Atlanta, GA 30328
404 843 1233

Tipsy Pig

BBQ Ribs
(FRI & SAT ONLY!)

BBQ Spare Ribs
(1/2 rack portion was HUGE)

Wayyyy off the beaten path, we happened upon Tipsy Pig (conveniently located inside of a gas station) on the drive to Ronald Regan Park.  Our jittery little dog loves the quiet dog park in the back.  It’s rare to see more than half a dozen dogs here.  And, they offer two enclosures (a big dog side and a small dog side).  We see finding Tipsy Pig as a reward for pampering our little devil dog.  We hadn’t packed a basket lunch and we were getting hungry.

The ribs were fabulous.  FAB-U-LOUS.  Utterly tender, rich pork flavor and mild smoke.  It seems every new BBQ place goes bigger and bolder with the rubs, sauces and smoke.  It was refreshingly old-fashioned to see the pork shine.  A bit less smoke than we’d normally prefer, yet, these worked… really worked.  For that same reason, the pork ruled supreme.

The pork was great.  But, it got an assist from one incredibly great sauce…

The Hot BBQ Sauce

Glorious sauce…  We love it!

Tipsy Pig’s hot bbq sauce is one of the best sauces we’ve ever tasted  in Georgia.  It’s a near perfect balance of tomato, spice, vinegar and a touch of sweetness.  Not too sweet, not too vinegary, not too thick and flavorful heat to awaken your senses.

Their regular sauce was a tamed down version of the hot bbq sauce.  But, why would you want to tame down this near perfect sauce?  It was a mystery to us.  We can only assume this was to please the burb-y masses.

BBQ Pork Sandwich

Big chunks of tender pork are very generously mounded on an ordinary hamburger bun.  But, there’s nothing ordinary about the meat.  We didn’t get any crispy bark on our sandwich.  It was missed, but, barely.  Those chunks of moist, tender and delicately smoked meat easily satisfied.  When topped with more of that hot bbq sauce, it was more lily gilding.

Brunswick Stew

Pork and corn play the dominant roles in this chunky stew.  No lima beans were to be found.  (That’s a serious positive in our book.)  This might not be the best brunswick stew we’ve ever had.  But, it is stand-out good.

Mac & Cheese

We’d describe this dish as buttery noodles with cheese.  Not bad… not great.  If we were pressed to describe this mac & cheese in a word, we’d probably call them “simple”.  When pairing two heavy dishes like ribs with mac & cheese, simplicity is a good thing.  We’d choose it again, too.

Tipsy Pig might be quite a drive into the burbs.  But, it’s a drive we’ll happily make.  Again.

…And, again.

Don’t forget, the ribs are available on Friday & Saturday ONLY!
(Hours:  Tues-Sat from 11:00am – 8:00pm)

Tipsy Pig BBQ
(Inside Shell Gas Station)
3020 Five Forks Trickum Road
Lilburn, GA 30047
770 885 5313

Schakolad — Dark Chocolate Sesame Brittle

Dark Chocolate Sesame Brittle

Do you see that rectangular hunk of dark chocolate sesame brittle in the upper right hand corner?

In a word… genius.  Love, love… LOVE IT!

The combination of dark chocolate, rich caramel and roasty, toasty sesame seeds might just turn out to be dangerously addictive for us.  It’s like a candy bar, but, for grown ups.

This was our Easter indulgence.  And, yes, the sesame brittle took up a small unassuming corner of the box.  But, it was hands down the best thing in the box.  The candied pear dipped in dark chocolate was a distant second.  And, a strawberry truffle was nice.  But, honestly, it’s a struggle to remember it.  If we’re already struggling to remember it, how good could it possibly have been?

Sugar Coated Mint Leaves on Dark Chocolate & More Brittle

We didn’t love the sugared mint leaves on dark chocolate, either.  In our opinion, fresh mint has a strong medicinal, menthol-y essence that really doesn’t work with chocolate.  It was simply too reminiscent of gritty toothpaste dabbed on a dark chocolate dot.

Schakolad Chocolate Factory
1100 Hammond Drive NE
Atlanta, GA 30328
770 730 9770

The Palace

Papadum

Chutneys & Sauces

Lamb Samosas

Inside The Lamb Samosa

Tandoori Chicken

Seekh Kebab

Tandoori Shrimp

Garlic Naan

The Palace
6131 Peachtree Parkway
Norcross, GA 30092
770 840 7770