Going Forward, Kicking and Screaming

I grew up in beautiful downtown Mobile, Alabama. I’m in love with the place. I haven’t always been in love with the folks that live there or some of their attitudes, but I have always loved the city. I think I have felt sorry for Mobile, it has been stuck in neutral for a long, long time.

When I was 12 years old we moved to the Garden District, downtown. When I was 16 I went to work at a clothing store on Royal Street that had been operating in the Port City for a long time. I watched it happen, I know what I’m talking about. This would have been 1978ish and downtown Mobile was fast becoming a waste land. Other than lawyers, banks and businesses that catered to the state docks, not much else was happening there. Mobile was a town of “old money” and the old money liked things just the way they were.

Now days with the help of new blood and some forward thinking people like David Bronner , (just click on his name and see read about some of the great things he has done for Mobile and the whole state of Alabama) Mobile has started to get itself together and started making some progress moving into the future. It didn’t hurt that hurricane Katrina wiped out so much of the Mississippi Gulf Coast and New Orleans. Many people and businesses have relocated to Mobile. That, along with some really large companies setting up plants in the area, Mobile is getting a very needed financial boost. And from what I read in the news paper this morning it seems attitudes are moving into the future as well.

Last night at the beautiful Saenger Theater, in beautiful downtown Mobile the documentary “The Order of the Myths” was screened. A film about the Mystic Societies and history of Mobiles Mardi Gras. Finally, all got a chance to see it. It has been on the film festival circuit for about a year now and is finally hitting some theaters. Much has been written about this film and the word controversial is always brought up. The folks back home have been worried that it was all about race and the unfortunate segregation of the Mardi Gras organizations.

Well I must tell you how happy I was to wake up this morning and read in the Mobile news paper that, The Order of Myths received a standing ovation after the reels stopped rolling last night. 1762 people attended and there was a Q and A session afterwards. From what I can get from the news paper folks were generally happy with it and I’m not surprised. Like I have said before, we’re southern not stupid. We get it, we know like every place on earth Mobile has problems and they need fixing. I’m just happy to see we are moving ahead, forward, into the future even if there is some kicking and screaming.

After all the negative I had heard from folks, even though they had not seen the film, I was moved to tears when I read this line. It was a comment about the Q and A session, it read “Some audience members used the question period to state their appreciation for the film - and their love of Mobile Mardi Gras.” These are the people that are gonna make Mobile a better place, people that can love it and know it’s got some growing to do.

Funeral Crasher’s

I am starting a new “dinner club” if you will. It’s gonna be called the “Dead peoples Food Dinner Club”. I’m sure you know where I’m going with this, asking yourself why haven’t I thought of this before. Well it takes a special way of thinking to come up with ideas like this and I guess I’m just a special kind of thinker.

THE COOLEST GUY I KNOW - A PERSONAL HERO IF YOU WILL

It started about a year ago. Stacey and I went to Mississippi for a funeral on her dads side of the family. After the service we hightailed it back to the airport to catch a flight home. There were later flights that we could have gotten that day, but for some stupid reason I thought we needed to hurry home. As it turned out the flights were delayed and one thing led to another, we didn’t get home early at all. After all this I got to thinking about what if we would have stayed for the dinner that was at the local church, what had I missed by trying to hurry home. I talked to my father in law and questioned him about the food they had at the church. His report made me cry. Then it made me mad. How stupid of me, I should know better, the food is always gonna be good at a country church funeral party. So that’s when I got to thinkin I need to stick around next time, hell spend the night if I have to, cause the food I missed was probably some of the best southern cooking you can get you hands on. Nothing makes an old lady do her best cooking like a dead person. God bless em.

So lately I have been calling my mom and dad, my in-laws, aunts and uncles, just about anyone I can think of to see if anyone had died and if so where is the funeral. I’ve had a little luck, a distant cousin I really didn’t know died and the funeral was in Tennessee, in a rural area. I knew this would be good for a true southern meal, and I was right. I didn’t care that I didn’t know a soul there and I don’t think anyone gave me a second thought. Just dress nice, show up and know the dead persons name and your in like flint.

Problem is people I know just don’t die often enough and it’s against the law to really help them along, if ya know what I mean. So here’s what I’m proposing, start searching the small town newspapers. The obits are always easy to find in these small town papers and there is always enough information on the deceased to get you in the door and a spot at the buffet line. I bet we won’t even have to get on airplanes, I bet there are probably funerals almost everyday, in some remote area that is in driving distance.

This could be big. We could make 4 and 5 day vacations out of this idea. Hit the road, the two lane road, maybe even the dirt road, grab the local paper and find yourself a dead person. Put on a nice shirt, comb you hair, go to the wake, find some angle to work on how you knew the dead person and enjoy a great, southern country meal.

So are ya with me. Who’s in? Let me know cause I’m ready to roll.

Pig in the ground

I say that, but that’s not the way it is. There is a pig and there is the ground. We cook the pig, but not in the ground. Lot’s of folks do cook pigs in a hole, in the ground. Very Latin American. I dig it, LOL, really it makes sense. I have come up with an above ground method that mimics the hole in the ground method. I have practiced it three time and always ended up with good pig. So when a the Chef and another friend started talking bout cooking a pig we made a date and divided up the chores.

First thing you do is get a Chef, get ya a pretty one like this guy if you can!

So I go to Home Depot and buy about 40 cement blocks. I use a couple $9 sheets of corrugated metal and I need two, six foot pieces of re-barb. I need a rack as well. I either buy some fence material or go by a junk store and buy the racks out of an old refrigerator. Tom Waits would use an old wire box-spring from some old bed outta some old boardinghouse. In East Saint Louis. Under a bridge. You get it, you know what I mean, right? I need a roll of wire as well and wire cutters. I need tin snips for the sheet metal.

So I lay the blocks out to fit the pig, about a foot larger then the pig, going both ways. I line the floor of this box with sheet metal, cut to fit. I line one, maybe two walls of the box also. The pig is either wrapped in the fence and wired to the re-barb which is longer then the box so the re-barb sits on the top row of blocks and allows you to flip the pig. If you use racks instead of wire fence you want to splay the pig between two racks. Then you wire the racks together and then wire the re-bard to the racks. You should remove a block from each side, from the bottom row. This will allow air to move through and stoke your colas. Use a small piece of sheet metal to block each hole to control the heat.

So now you just start your fire, one pile of coals on each end of box. Once coals are ready place pig on the fire, cover with a piece of sheet metal or tin foil and cook to internal temp of about 160 degrees.

Don’t forget to invite lot’s of people to help consume the pig.

Pig Art and Pig Parts

When I was working with the nice lady on the High Museum Wine Auction a few months back, we had a seminar at Restaurant Eugene. This soiree started next door at Holeman Finch Public House. That’s the name of the new place Linton and Gina Hopkins, of Restaurant Eugene have opened along with a few of Atlanta’s best barchef’s. The bartenders are owners and operators. It’s a really cool joint, very causal, very good food and drink. They specialize in the pig. They also specialize in the Cocktail. At the seminar that day they ordered a painting for the restaurant. I sat down with one of the bartenders and we came up with an idea for their painting. I did it, they loved it and it hangs proudly in the modern glass, steel and wood dining room.

The day we were there for the seminar on pork, they had hung candied bacon from the small tree’s in the restaurant. I was talking to this guy and we decided to try some. Tasted like candied bacon. Tasted GOOOOOOD. They were not yet open, but as soon as they did Stacey and I went to pig out. They cure their own meat and mix speciality cocktails. The meat hangs in the glass walls that have been designed just for that and for storing wine. It’s a neat visual and a great use of space.

We went early the night of the Tom Waits concert here in Atlanta. We sat at the bar and let Greg do his thing with drinks. Our only input was vodka and not to sweet for me and bourbon and ginger for the Little Lady. Holeman Finch practice mixing drinks with the same philosophy as the best chefs these days. They use fresh ingredients, they use local when they can and they are seasonal. The drinks were great, he made each of us two different cocktails.

Like I said they are a pig joint if you will, and you should. They did have oysters from Alabama. We started with a salad of mixed greens, topped with fried oysters. I think it had blue cheese on it, very little blue cheese, it was a really good salad. The oysters we fried up just right. We also had a bone marrow dish. It was a split bone with the marrow and crispy bread crumb’s and butter toasted on top of the bone. It was good also, but as with most marrow dishes, there’s never enough. We had scallops, George Banks scallops. Canadian scallops, good. We also had pork belly. Berkshire hogs raised on a farm less then one hour out of Atlanta. The belly was served on top of grits, roasted cipolini, and B & B pickles. The pickles are made next door at Restaurant Eugene. It’s the best stuff, in season, done up real simple. You can’t beat it.

Go eat at Holeman Finch, have some food. They claim the grilled cheese is one of the best eats on the menu. Have a cocktail, the Brown Derby was an awesome concoction. Tony Seichrist is one of the chefs and he’s good. I think he just spent time in Italy learning about curing meat. So there ya go!

Throwdown

So July 4th, after the parade we went to our neighbors house for an afternoon dinner and then fireworks up the street. We arrive at these guys house about 3 p.m. They were in full swing. They were preparing all of these dishes. Chvechie, with scallops and shrimp. I watched as they pressed limes, roasted poblanos pepper, and chopped cilantro. They made this beautiful chevechie and then added a little olive oil. They were also preparing a black bean salsa and a green salad. The black bean salsa was awesome, I’m getting that recipe. They fried fish for tacos and they cooked chorizo sausage, fresh from the butchers counter at the local Mexican grocery store. On top of all that a man known for his meat, bar b que meat that is, joined us and had a couple racks of ribs he had cooked that day. They did not suck at all and went well with all the other food. Did I mention there was fresh guacamole.

There was probably a lot more I have forgotten, maybe because of all the beer I was drinking. We were having a beer tasting as they cooked. Doing a flight. Seems like this guy brews his own beer, lot’s of it and lots of different kinds. I bet we tasted 6 or 7 different beers. Lighter to darker. Fresh brewed. Right up the street. This was great. We always have a good time when ever we do see these folks and I had no idea they loved to cook and eat good food and were such serious brewers. I’m scared to have them over, they have set the bar very high.

4TH of JULY

Last year Stacey and I helped build a float and we participated in a parade celebrating the 4th.
It took place down at the Serenbe Community. We called ourselves the Watermelon Brigade. There were about 12 or 15 of us in our group. We bought us some red, white and blue tee shirts and something funny is added to them. The guys shirts read “I’m with the queen”. The ladies were the Queens, of course. Here is a photo of the float we put together and our queens.

It was fun and I like building floats, I really don’t get the opportunity all that often so we did it again. This year Stacey’s shirt read WHAM, mine read BAM. We were the Serenbe Fire Crackers. It was a good time and I was hoping some of the other folks down at Serenbe would step up and build, sorry, I mean have a float built to start a little fun competition. No one did. We still had a great time just the same. Check out this photo.

After the parade we were invited to join some folks at a neighbors farm for a true southern 4th of July experience. We could not, but next year we plan on going to this “gathering”, my friend Sam told us of table after table of homemade food and people singing 4th of July songs.

This year we had made plans to eat with some friends who live up the street, and then go see the local firework which are always a good show. East Point Georgia may be broke, but we can blow some shit up on the 4th.

So the the folks we had made dinner plans are neighbors and we see them at parties and stuff around the hood. It seems we haven’t been able to get together otherwise, finally we did and holy shit, these people cook with the passion of madmen and brew their own beer. Stay tuned more on this soiree.

We love you as well

I came across this article in the New York Sun, some southerners may find it offensive, not me. I really didn’t read anything that’s not true. The pizza? Sure we got good, great pizza just not on every corner. Yes, it’s a slower lifestyle here, we speak slower and our public transportation sucks. But I love NYC and if I were a rich man I would have homes in both Atlanta and NYC.

Read on

Atlanta sounded pretty good to Scott Merritt while he was squeezed into his parents’ home on Long Island with his wife and two children.He took a new job in the Georgia capital and moved his family to a $275,000 house in the suburbs with four bedrooms, a two-car garage, and a yard with a swimming pool. It came at a cost to his New York sensibilities.”I haven’t found a single slice of pizza I have been remotely satisfied with,” Mr. Merritt, 34, said. “I am not going to the corner pharmacy and being welcomed by name any longer. It was a culture shock.”The Merritts are among throngs of New Yorkers relocating to Georgia for affordable housing, a lower cost of living, a thriving job market, and warmer winters. Displaced Northerners must adjust to Southern accents, a slower lifestyle, restaurants that close early, a ban on Sunday liquor sales, and a reverence for “Gone With the Wind.”They’re hunkering down by sticking together. New Yorkers in Atlanta have their own group on MySpace.com, and crowd athletic venues when the Mets, Islanders, or Jets visit. One exile has a Web log called Voted Off the Island.”We have this pocket of all relocated New Yorkers who hang out together,” Mr. Merritt said. “All damn Yankees.”About 40,000 New Yorkers resettled in Atlanta between 2000 and 2005, double the number from any other state, according to the Atlanta Regional Commission. An additional 14,000 came from New Jersey. Atlanta gained 1 million people in the past seven years, the most of any American metropolitan area. It added 177,549 jobs from 2003 to 2006.”There is a huge migration from high-cost areas to lower-cost areas, and Atlanta is a big beneficiary,” a senior economist with Wachovia Corp. in Charlotte, N.C., Mark Vitner, said.Housing is the biggest catalyst, a real-estate agent and former New Yorker in Marietta, Ga., who helps others relocate, Barry Wolfert, 42, said. The Atlanta area’s median sales price for an existing single-family home was $172,000 last year, compared with $469,700 for the New York-Northern New Jersey region, according to the National Association of Realtors.”For the money, you get double or triple the home,” Mr. Wolfert said.

A career move spurred George Fleck, 32, to give up a $1,800 rent-controlled, studio apartment in Chelsea last year. For $1,300, he got a one-bedroom apartment with a balcony overlooking downtown Atlanta’s Piedmont Park.

Mr. Fleck said he walks to his job at a midtown hotel and gets stares when he tells local residents that he doesn’t have a car. Atlanta’s Marta subway system has just two lines and fewer than 50 stops.

Differences like that make some transplants disdainful of their new address 900 miles south.

“Atlanta is a second-tier city,” Jessica Harlan, 36, who relocated two years ago, said. “New York is cooler and more exciting in every respect.”

New Yorkers may even take exception to the way Georgians speak. Their drawl, and expressions like “y’all” and “bless her heart,” grate on some newcomers.

“If my kids have a Southern accent, I will kill myself,” Brooklyn native Jodi Fleisig, an Atlanta resident since 1998, said. Ms. Fleisig said she tends to socialize with ex-New Yorkers, and finds inviting Southerners to lunch can be troublesome.

“Being Southern means you wait for someone to finish a sentence,” she said. “We talk really fast. They can’t get a word in edgewise.”

City and business leaders have welcomed the new arrivals as good for the economy.

“There are not many of us natives left,” Atlanta’s mayor from 1970 to 1974 and now head of the Buckhead Coalition, a political and business group dedicated to improving that area, Sam Massell, said. “There is a Southern hospitality here. The newcomers have adapted to that style very comfortably.”

Skeptics say Atlanta, home of the 1996 Summer Olympics, risks becoming too cosmopolitan.

“We are not going to get that sophisticated, damn it,” native Mary Dobbs, 62, said. “We are not that involved in sports. We have other things to do.”

Atlantans bear no personal hostility toward New Yorkers, another native, who is director of the Gone With the Wind Museum, Connie Sutherland, said.

“Since 9/11, everybody in the country has bonded with New York,” she said.

Some New York transfers embrace the Southern lifestyle.

Steve Segall, 23, who moved to Atlanta after graduating from Cornell University, said friends up north are envious that when they have a foot of snow on the ground, Atlanta’s climate allows him to play golf after work.

Even so, the New Yorkers-in-Atlanta group on Myspace.com draws suggestions of places for partying together and alerts on low airfares home.

“I miss the lawn on Central Park,” Simone Joye, 42, who organized the site after moving to suburban Stone Mountain three years ago, said. “I miss pizza — real pizza — and bagels and lox. I miss bridges and the water, which creates a sense of serenity. Atlanta has no beaches.”

The pull of Atlanta’s affordability versus New York’s excitement sometimes results in boomerangs. Amy Josephson, 46, moved to Atlanta a first time in 1992, returned to New York in 2005, then came back to Atlanta in September.

“I am a New Yorker through and through,” she said, yet she missed her friends in Atlanta and its lower cost of living. “I may feel different tomorrow.”