Chow Down Atlanta

Okay, so I’m around Ponce De Leon Avenue a lot lately.  In Atlanta’s famous City Hall East to be exact.  I’ve been doing the rounds of eating within walking distance and so far, here’s where I’ve been (mind you, the key words here are walking distance PLUS the fact that I go to lunch with a bunch of techie guy friends):

• Cameli’s Pizza (great calzones)
• Eats (bland veggies, great jerk chicken)
• Matsuri
• Qdoba
• Doc Green’s
• J. Christopher’s
• Popeye’s
• Chin-chin
• Zesto
• The Varsity  (yes, we drove)

Up next:

• Java Jive
• Chipotle
• El Azteca
• Fellini’s
• The Local
• Marco’s Pita
• La Fonda
• Olive Bistro

Hopefully, it won’t be long before I bid this area goodbye.

Technorati Tags: Ponce De Leon Ave

A friend has been having cravings for Varsity burgers since last week so I agreed to go provided he drove. He did. Today. We went. The place was packed. There were tons of kids on a field trip. And yes, the little old lady is still there yelling at the top of her lungs: “Whaddayougonnahave, whaddayougonnahave?”

I forgot to charge my camera battery so I had to use my phone…

I had the Combo #2: Glorified Bacon Cheeseburger with onion rings and a drink. While I’ve never been wowed by their burgers despite their ‘always-fresh-never-frozen’ claim to fame, going to Varsity, an Atlanta institution since 1928, is an experience nobody should miss. It’s something about the deafening and chaotic atmosphere that just draws people in. So my burger was okay. Nothing fantastic, just a greasy burger with bacon, cheese, lettuce, and tomato, hence the term glorified.

But let me tell you about the onion rings. Gigantic home-grown Vidalia onion rings so greasy your cholesterol shoots up a hundred points just looking at it. But the taste — there is no oniony taste in these onions, just sweet, sweet onions. For those who aren’t familiar, Vidalia onions put Georgia on the map, so to speak. Grown in Vidalia, Georgia, (including a specific Georgia southeast region) these onions are sweet and void of the spicy taste that makes onions, well, onions. I kid you not, you can actually eat a Vidalia onion like you eat an apple.

Back to my onion rings. Would you believe they were fried in no-cholesterol Canola oil? And they now use Kraft Lite Mayo in their chicken and egg salad? Really, you have to try The Varsity at least once.

Insider Tip:
Better be ready with your order when you walk up to the counter or they’ll yell at ya!
You must, must try the onion rings and the frosted orange. Must!

The scoop:
Nothing beats the original Varsity on North Avenue
The Varsity
61 North Avenue,
Atlanta, GA 30308
Sunday-Thursday 10:00am-11:30pm
Friday-Saturday 10:00am-12:30am
404-881-1706
Six other locations. Check their website for addresses.

Technorati Tags: The Varsity, Vidalia onions, onion rings, frosted orange, glorified burgers

I had a quick lunch with a bunch of friends over at Cameli’s Pizza on Ponce. Cameli’s is a family-owned pizza joint next door to Atlanta’s City Hall East inside the non-descript Kroger plaza. While there’s not much to say about the decor (excuse the mess as they’re in the process of expanding), the pizza surely makes up for it. Well, at least my friends’… not mine.

I ordered the Pax Americana pizza with chicken, spinach, and mushrooms. I was sorely disappointed with the crust — it was thick, hard and crunchy which is what you got from your grocer’s frozen section way before they invented good frozen pizza. It was like eating days-old toast. The pizza overall was so dry and tasteless I had to have a heavy hand on the pepper flakes just to give it some flavor. Anyway, it was so bad, it doesn’t even deserve a picture. But like I said, I ordered wrong.

My friends’ pizzas were all oozing with bubbly cheese and their crusts were thick and doughy or thin and crispy. The pepperoni pizza was very good as well as the vegetarian pizza which had spinach and mushrooms. The calzone was huge with tasty filling.

I definitely have to go back and try other pizzas. I’m not crossing them out of my list completely yet.

Insider tip:

Personal piizzas are a good 10 inches. Daily specials available.

The scoop:

Cameli’s Gourmet Pizza
699 Ponce De Leon Ave NE,
Atlanta, GA 30308
404-249-9020
M-TH 11:30-10:00
FR 11:30-11:00
SA 12 noon-11:00
SU 5:00-10:00

Technorati Tags: pizza, Cameli’s Gourmet Pizza, Ponce De Leon Ave, Downtown Atlanta