Southern Festivals

Last weekend Stacey and I had a booth at the Inman Park Festival and Tour of Homes. We have been doing this market for the last seven or eight years. It’s a lot of fun and we always see old friends who we don’t see much otherwise. We also see lot’s of friends we get together with often. We take an ice chest full of beer and food and have a little party. It’s a large festival, they tell me about 30,000 people attend through out weekend. It was a little rainy this year and I think the crowd was smaller than usual.

Inman Park is a neighborhood much like the garden district of other towns. It is instead referred to as a historical neighborhood. You say potato I say tomato. I sold a few paintings, but no furniture. We had a great time and made a few new friends. Except for the lady that thought I was gonna hit her tent with my truck. I was pulling in to the booth area to drop stuff at my booth, backing up my truck. All the sudden I hear someone screaming really loud. Hey, HEY, WHOA, WHOA. I hate being yelled at. So I thought I would tell her so. I got out of my truck and calmly walked up to her and yelled as loud as I could “Don’t yell at me, I see ya, I got two eyes and a big ol’ brain”. She left us alone the rest of the weekend, we did not invite her to the party.

This Sunday we are gonna go down to Serenbe for their May Day Festival. Click on that link and check it out, it’s a really cool place. I have done markets down there a lot over the past two years. I do a lot of sales and custom work for the residents. Last year I built about ten bed/swings for folks there. I have sold lots of art and furniture there as well. It’s a great place for me to pedal my wears, I know tons of people that live there and they refer me to each other often. I’m looking forward to being there as I have made lots of friends over the past two years and haven’t seen most of them for a few months now.

Heading South

There are a lot of big name restaurateurs heading to Atlanta, opening fine dining spots. Check out this list.

Tom Colicchio will bring Craft to Atlanta. Craft Restaurant and Colicchio are huge in NYC, not to mention the success of his television show.

Jeffrey Chodorow has teamed up with Maxim magazine to open what else, but a steak house. Look for Maxim Prime, offering soft porn and meat in downtown Atlanta soon.

Jean George Vongerichten, who has restaurants all over the world, will open Spice Market. He is also slated to open a Spice Market in Dubai, Istanbul, Miami and Barcelona. Good company if ya ask me.

Laurent Tourondel of BLT, that would be Bistro Laurent Tourondel, will open BLT steak at the W Hotel in downtown. This is the second W Hotel to open in Atlanta.

These are really big names and I like it. I have always said I want to be around to watch Atlanta grow into one of the coolest and largest cities in the world and when I can’t take it any longer, sell out and move to the sticks. Well I think Atlanta is well on it’s way, and so am I. You can hardly tell we are in a “recession” the way things are going here in Atlanta. Sure gas is up and home sales are slow and Deltas in limbo, but all in all we haven’t suffered as much as the rest of the country. I think all these big names heading this way is a sign of how well we are doing here and also how much “Southern Culture” is being embraced far and wide, not just here in the south.

The names above are just the folks that will be new to Atlanta, there is also a large list of local restaurant groups that are growing by leaps and bounds. It is amazing the growth that continues here. Everyday there is a new condo/loft development, restaurant or some other business opening here and if they offer a good product they usually succeed.

I said it before, we’re Southern not Stupid

This pie is a s good as it looks!

This is the usual end to a Saturday night at our house.

I took these flowers from my neighbors yard.

Is this considered Southern Hospitality?

Last night around 11 p.m. I had my last sip of moonshine, then the dog and I went off to bed. Stacey had gone to bed about a half hour early, so George and I settled in for a good nights sleep. We had the fan on for a little “white noise”. We had it on the “coma” setting so we didn’t hear the wreck on the highway and we didn’t hear nobody pray. We didn’t hear our neighbor call us the first time and when he did beat on the door it took us a minute. Then he called back and said that wern’t no wreck on the highway, somebody had just crashed into Stacey’s jeep and drove off. It wern’t pretty. Just look at this.

So we called the cops and they gave us a case #. The neighbor gave a description of a truck and of a lady that got out, looked around and then left. We just stood in disbelief. Damn, we said, this really sucks, and here’s why.

#1 Stacey just put a full tank of very expensive gas in her car.

#2 Last week we had new brakes put on the car. $335.00 DAMN

#3 And this is the biggest DAMN, We made the last payment on the car in January 2008. DAMN DAMN DAMN

But no big deal, it was all made better when we woke the next morning and found this note on the crashed car.

I AM VERY SORRY I HIT YOUR CAR, PLEASE CALL ME @ 770 %$# &*^% VERY SORRY signed CAR WRECKER

That makes it all better. She is VERY SORRY. I bet she was VERY DRUNK. I may have done the same thing if I was in her shoes. Wait til I was sober to deal with it. But I bet shes gonna get arrested for hit and run. DAMN

Southside Thai and the Pig Palace

East Point just got a new restaurant, The White Elephant. It is owned and operated by the guy behind Wasabi Sushi. Stacey and I have eaten there twice and enjoyed. It’s you basic Thai fare, rolls, lots of curry dishes, fried rice and a few specials. It’s a nice space as well. There is outdoor seating, a bar you can eat at and plenty of tables scattered around the room. They had not received their liquor license last time we were there, so call ahead and BYOB if that is still the case. They will get their license, there is no problem, just waiting for Fulton county to do their thing. As a matter of fact they say they are gonna have some unique cocktails and Asian beers.

Stacey met the Chef on our first visit. His name is Supalerk Pornpongboonvit, that is correct, you can call him Chef Porn. He is a young man and recently cooked at another Atl restaurant. Anyway get there when ya can, I’m sure you will enjoy. For hours and more info click here, WHITE ELEPHANT.

There is another new restaurant that just opened this week, I guess I should refer to it as a pub instead of a restaurant. If you go to their site, HOLMAN FINCH PUBLIC HOUSE, you will see they really want to be a pub. The site is basically their business card. If you click on the “what is it” part of the card it will tell you what it is. What it doesn’t tell you is that they serve all kinds of pig parts that, they themselves have cured in- house. I have seen the space and it is beautiful. Stainless steel, glass, a little wood and other metal textures are used. One of the owners is also a bartender and from what I have read a very good and popular bartender at that. Check out this article about him. That being said I haven’t eaten there yet, when I do I’ll share my thoughts. Oh yea, I hear they have some really cool art hanging.

We’re Southerners, we’re not stupid

Congratulations Krispy Kreme, you have just joined the ranks of the top bull shitters of America. Just like all the other top bull shitters, it’s all marketing and your trying to hoodwink us. I won’t be fooled, you fool.

EPG, estimated miles per gallon. Bull shit. Check it out, these people are allowed to really miss the mark when it comes to letting us know the true EPG of an automobile. Look at the mortgage industry, that was some neat stuff they pulled off. Televangelist, those guys are great. Send them money and you will get closer to god. I bet not one of these guys could buy their way into heaven or out of hell. Once I went to the eye doctor because my vision was getting really bad. They said I needed glasses. This was the kind of place that examines you and sells glasses. $500 and two pair of glasses later my vision was no better.
What the hell? I didn’t know any better, I had never had eye problems. Turns out I had cataracts. Did the guy wanting to sell me glasses tell me this? NO of course not he just sold me useless glasses.

Anyway so goes Krispy Kreme. A southern institution is hood winking us. I will still eat KK doughnuts. I’m a southern, I’m not stupid. Check out this article.

Krispy Kreme drops trans fats

By Elizabeth Lee | Monday, January 7, 2008, 12:31 PM

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Krispy Kreme announced Monday that it has dropped trans fats from its menu. That means its doughnuts and other foods and beverages contain less than a half-gram of trans fats.

But the original glazed doughnut is still a 200-calorie indulgence of white flour, sugar and fat, deep-fried in a blend of vegetable oil and palm oil that’s higher in saturated fats than the previous formula.

The bottom line: An original glazed doughnut still contains 200 calories and 12 grams of total fat. It now has 6 grams of bad fats (all saturated) rather than the 7 grams of saturated and trans fats that it had before.

The doughnut hounds in the newsroom didn’t notice any change in taste, although, of course, they complained that they were sampling cold doughnuts instead of hot ones. (It’s the first formula change for the original glazed since the ’80s.)

Does removing trans fats from Krispy Kreme doughnuts affect whether you’ll eat them? How about in other restaurant foods, like French fries?

BILBOA

I ask Frank Gehry to help us build a house on the lake. Well I never heard back from him or any one at his firm. How rude. But I hear he’s that way. If you look at his design style as of late, the last 20 years or so, your can see the madness. I could see the madness when we left San Sebastian and drove to Bilbao to visit the Guggenheim Museum. It had not been open very long and I had read and heard great things about it.

Bilbao is a kind of small industrial town, but thanks to the Guggenheim’s presents it is quickly becoming a very cosmopolitan city. It has been years since we have visited and I bet it has changed a lot.

I think we saw the first show they offered. The main display was a Richard Serra exhibit. He is the guy that takes huge plates of steel and twist and turn them into these nice, flowing organic shapes. We went to another show of his at the MOMA more recently and I decided I wanted to live in one of his art pieces. That’s how large they are.

But back to the Guggenheim. Click on this link and take a look. It’s been a while since I have looked at it myself. Seeing it makes me want to go again. And this is really where this blog started, Southerners in Spain. I have written about this trip that took us from Barcelona, where we arrived from Atlanta, then to Bordeaux, France. After a few days there we left for San Sebastian, Spain. San Sebastian is one of my favorite cities I have ever visited, can’t wait to get back. After San Sebastian we left for Barcelona, but first we stopped in Bilbao to visit the Guggenheim. I am glad we did because as you can see that building, designed by Frank Gehry, is a sight to behold. It is huge and very modern. It is clad in sheets of titanium. I have never seen anything like it, although I think he has a few buildings very similar to it here in the states.

Well, this trip ends where it began, Barcelona. Barcelona is another great city, the people there love to party. Eat, drink and dance all night long. I’ll tell you a little more about our visit there soon. Until then, chow baby.

When beds fly out of my Southern end

Seems like I’ve been building lots of bed’s lately. The first one is made from front porch post. Very old and from the Grant Park neighborhood of Atlanta. I used antique, tongue and groove bead board. More than likely the bead board is from a front porch ceiling, it was often used in this application. Also it has green and blue and yellow paints, common for porch ceilings.

This second one is made from new lumber. A couple I have worked for before commissioned this one. I hardly ever used new materials to build furniture. Antique pine is my main thing. I love to make it look like a one of a kind piece that some farmer made to fit a particular place in their house.

These guys came to me with web site that featured Shaker style furniture. Click on the link and see the bed I am using as a guide. I am doing the mortise and tennon for the rails just like the Shakers did. I used new wood because we are gonna paint and distress this bed black and I hate to paint the antique wood. I hand carved the four post using electric hand tools. I bought “furniture grade pine” for this project. The four post started as a 4″ square post. I used, in this order, my router, belt sander, hand held planner and a palm sander to sculpt them into the shape that matches the bed on the web site. This is all new to me and fun. I am very happy with the results and so are the clients. I will post a photo when finished.

This bed is for a beach house and they just ordered another for the same beach house. I am working on it today. I got to find something old and rusty to mount on headboard. More fun.

Popin’ off in the South

Things are popin down here in little ol East Point these days. Just check out this pink bush. It’s popin right in my front yard.

And look at this purple vine, it’s popin like purple popcorn. WOW this is colourful.

This is a small maple tree my Ma gave me a few years back. It pops like a firecracker. POP!

We got brats popin on the grill. Can’t ya just smell em? Can’t ya just hear em’ popin’?

We got those brats popin on a plate with a little tomatos and blu cheese and roasted corn and some fancy chili/ lime butter. It’s all popin real good together.

But ain’t nothing popin’ like these new shoes Stacey pick up for me the other day. Just look at Geo he knows these shoes are popin’. ( click on photo for full effect) They are white. White loafers. Steve Maddens baby. Thats right, thats how I roll. Stacey likes to buy me clothes. It’s ok with me, we can always take em back. Anyway she showed up with these a few days ago. She had also bought me a Seersucker blazer. The blazer didn’t work out, but I love the white loafers. I was a little worried about them being white and all. I told Stacey I was afraid I was gonna trash them right away. And with her infinite wisdom and foresight, she told me,

Oh no, you gotta scuff those up, those shoes are about traveling through life with ya.

Good Speech, you should take the time to read it

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PIG ENDS, SOSOSOUTHERN

The other day I had the pleasure to try pig ears and pig tails. They were prepared by Chef Linton Hopkins and I will eat anything this guy cooks.

Linton and his wife Gina own and operate Restaurant Eugene here in Atlanta. Friday they had a lunch as part of the High Museum’s annual fund raiser. I had the chance to attend and jumped at the chance. As of late Restaurant Eugene is becoming one of the top restaurants in the city. They have embraced their southern roots and it shows in many ways.

This was a fun day. At the lunch there was a panel of guys who shared a little information on their specialty in the food or wine world as we enjoyed pig parts, pimento cheese and a caramel popcorn that was some how made to have a smoky taste, among other dishes.

There were two wine makers, a southern food writer, Chef Hopkins and Alan Benton, who is the worlds greatest bacon maker.

The writer, John T Edge, was the MC if you will. He let us know why we were there, fund raiser for the High Museum, and took turns asking each of these guys to pontificate a bit on their product and it’s connection with the south. It was good stuff and the common theme of each was they way food and the dinner table brought us all together. Then it was question and answer time.

There were about five or six people who ask questions. Everyone of them were directed to Alan Benton. This guy is a cult hero and the cult loves his meats. Mr. Benton talked about how he was not really doing anything special, just doing what his father and grandfather and great grand ect… He talked about how it was just a way of life for him to smoke meat. It was for survival more than anything. He talked about what a humble background he came from. He talked about how hard it was to make a living smoking meat. That was up until about ten years ago. He told us about how a hot shot chef in Tennessee found his product, loved it and started to spread the word. He told us how today he could connect every chef that uses his product to this Tennessee chef. He let us also know how grateful he was to this chef and everyone who used his product. This was because for many years he could hardly make a living smoking meat. He talked about laying awake at night and wondering if he should stop and do something else. When the last question was answered he got a standing ovation.

Mr. Benton is around sixty years old and a very humble man. He is very soft spoken, but when he speaks people listen, they hang on every word. He also listens to what you have to say. I was introduced to him before the lunch, three hours later I went to him to say thanks and nice to meet ya. His reply was “Tracy it was nice to meet you as well”. I could not believe he remembered my name, he must have been introduce to sixty or so people at this lunch. When I told him this he said “Tracy I don’t have so many friends that I can afford not to remember someones name”.