Well, it's officially cold in New England. We had a crazy Nor'easter hit the South Shore this weekend and actually got a little snow on Sunday. It's November. Too early. Unacceptable.
I remember growing up and having Thanksgivings in the South while wearing shorts. So, here we go with my 3rd official Winter season in New England. Yay.
Today's post is about our SURPRISE trip to Atlanta two weeks ago. I grew up about 75 miles south of Atlanta and then lived in Buckhead after college so it's very much "home" to me. One of my best friends who still lives in Atlanta, Adam, who is actually Ricky's cousin and how we met in the first place. So now that we're married, Adam and I went from best friends to cousins. Funny how things work, right?
Back in the Summer, Adam's partner, Zach, emailed the family about proposing to Adam and having us all there for a surprise celebration afterwards. I honestly thought there was no way it would be pulled off, but somehow, it was done successfully! Ricky and I flew into Atlanta on Friday and the rest of our family would be coming in on Saturday, the day of the party. On Friday, Ricky and I landed around 8:45AM and immediately grabbed Chick-Fil-A chicken biscuits, which is our standard tradition any time we go back home. We were staying near the guys place, at the Sheraton on Courtland, so we went there to freshen up and hit a few of my favorite spots in Buckhead. We went straight to my fave boutique, Luna, where I actually didn't do much damage and then we went over to Onward Reserve for Ricky. After that we were starving and headed over to Lenox to eat at True Food Kitchen. True Food is a restaurant based off of whole, organic foods. They offer fresh juices and craft cocktails that don't use your typical syrupy sweet mixers. I had eaten here once before and LOVED it, but this time, it was a bit lackluster. Everything was just okay but I should have taken Ricky to one of my old favorites (Genki was my close second). I got the Red Chili Shrimp and the Root and Remedy juice. Ricky got the bison burger and sweet potato fries and the Hangover Cure juice.
After lunch, we went down to Virginia Highlands to catch up with my cousin Rebecca at Fontaine's Oyster Bar (but didn't eat, obvi) and then walked around doing some shopping before we walked over to my Uncle Pete's home on Virginia Ave. We sat on his porch and I introduced Ricky to "porch wine." When I first moved to Atlanta and was still looking for an apartment and roommate, I moved in at Casa Pete for about two months. Pete has an AMAZING home with an even better wine cellar. I would come home from work and Pete would have a bottle of red open. His porch is set back from the street with fans and is so cozy, so we would sit on the porch and drink wine and talk about our day. It was heavenly and is how I became the red wine drinker that I am today (never pour me a glass of white. I'd rather sweat and drink red in the summer than ever drink white.)
Well porch wine delayed us a bit for our 6:30 reservation at one of my FAVORITE Atlanta restaurants, Rathbun's. I found out about Rathbun's as did most of Atlanta, when Chef/Owner Kevin Rathbun and his brother (an equally phenomenal chef in Texas) beat Bobby Flay on Iron Chef. Pete naturally went to a Silent Auction for Atlanta Food Bank and won an evening having Kevin prepare the menu he won Top Chef with, at his home. Luckily, I got to be in attendance that night and y'all....Words can't express the food. I distinctly remember the elk meatballs and lobster shooters. It was such a cool experience and after that I became a Rathbun's groupie. So, the restaurant group actually has several spots in Atlanta, but we chose the original Rathbun's. We called the hostess and mentioned that we were running late, but they happily accommodated once we arrived. We started with the shrimp hushpuppies in a spicy remoulade and DESTROYED them (as we did the bread basket)
Ricky chose the Elk Chop and I ordered a Filet. We decided to share the charred corn and mashed potatoes (HELLO CARBS) and we were in HEAVEN. Both cuts of meat were prepared to perfection and that corn?!? It's creamed and then charred and comes with gouda on top. And I know it's just corn, but y'all it is OUT OF THIS WORLD good.
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| A Perfect Filet |
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| Elk Chop |
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| Dreamy charred creamed corn with gouda |
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| I should weigh 300lbs after this meal. |
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| My Favorite, the banana peanut butter pie |
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| Peanut butter blondie |
After dinner, we drove down to Buckhead, because one of my BFF's (and bridesmaid!) Amber was celebrating her birthday with some friends at The Painted Pin in Miami Circle. The Painted Pin is basically an adult game room with a lounge vibe. They had live music too and it seems like it would be a great spot for a large group wanting to do something different than the usual bar scene. The girls were wrapping up the night around the time we arrived and we didn't drink there, so more or less we stopped in to give her a hug and meet some of her super sweet girlfriends. After that, Ricky and I were exhausted from a 4:00AM wake up call so we headed back downtown and crashed.
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| Happy Birthday Amber!! |
The next day was the BIG surprise!! R's mom and sister flew in around 11:00 so we headed out to the airport (after a chick-fil-a stop, obviously) and picked them up. We headed back to the hotel to meet up with the rest of the family and then went to our "assigned" waiting spot, Augustine's, on the same block as Adam and Zach's house. We ordered a few drinks and a couple of dishes to have a quick bite. I saw boiled peanuts on the menu and ordered, and they were TERRIBLE. From now on, I 'll stick to the ones you buy in a brown paper sack out of the back of someone's truck in South GA (With a cold Coca Cola, no less)
The plan was for Adam and Zach to take a walk before their housewarming party at 6:00 (they knew friends were coming over later that evening, but not the family from out of state). As soon as we saw them walking across the street, we ran like excited little children over to their house and started setting up! We had TONS of champagne, snacks, and my most amazing friend, Joshua (check him out here) who created my AMAZING wedding cake, dropped off a cake for us to enjoy. We were all gathered in the guys private courtyard as they came home to start making calls about their engagement and as they opened the door we let out a big SURPRISE!! The look on Adam's face was one I will never forget. He is the ultimate party planner, in fact we call him the Cruise Director, and the fact that we pulled this over on his was such a triumph for us! It was a perfect day to celebrate love between two most deserving people. Congratulations Adam and Zach!!!
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| My sis-in-law and cousin-in-law (Adam's sister!) |
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| Best Friends turned Cousins!! |
The next morning, we all had time for brunch, so we walked from the guy's place to Republic. Once we arrived, we were told that they had a mess up with their food order that week and basically didn't have any food. Bizzare. So, we walked over to Tin Lizzy's next door. Now, I have always LOVED Tin Lizzy's. The TL in Buckhead was my number one spot. Then they opened in midtown and I really like that option too. But then they expanded a lot and in my opinion the atmosphere and food has suffered. The food was just okay. I used to LOVE their Three Amigos sampler dip and their tacos, but it just didn't hit the spot that day. It could be because we all wanted brunch food and had to settle for tacos? Either way, I loved when TL was a little more quaint and hadn't grown so much. After lunch, we took a group to the airport, then we headed out around 6:00 that night. A perfect Atlanta weekend catching up with friends and family was just what the doctor ordered :)
So that's it y'all!! I'm working on making the Restaurant page a more comprehensive review of my favorite (and not-so-favorite) spots. We travel an insane amount, especially lately, so I have the content, but the time is difficult to come by these days! So hang tight, and I promise I'll make this blog a great resource for food that I intend it to be!!!
xoxo,
Linds
