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Category: atlanta
Atlanta – The Romances in Repertory
02/05/2014 – 02/09/2014 Miles MPG Average Speed 1291 45.7 48 Driving listening:
02/05/2014 – 02/09/2014
Priceline Retail $ Savings % Savings Evergreen Marriott Conference Resort (4-stars) $66.06
($54 bid)$ 178.08 ($159 pretax)
$112.02 63% Crazy Ron’s BBQ Old Hickory House BBQ Taming of the Shrew Romeo & Juliet Much Ado About Nothing Waterside Restaurant Wednesday
I arrived in Atlanta Wednesday and had just enough time before the Zoo closed to snap a picture of the pandas and send it to the girl-child in order to
torment her
UrbanSpoon, which still thinks I live in Atlanta, sent me to Crazy Ron’s for dinner. This is a typical, roadside BBQ stand, and I thought it would be good when I saw that the smoker was almost as big as the shack.
There I got a to-go box of chopped beef, with baked beans and
macaroni and cheese. The mac-and-cheese didn’t travel well in the cold (40-some degrees), but was still okay. The rest fared better, and I found the beef to be tasty and well-trimmed, with a good portion of bark. It was covered in a good sauce; what first appeared to be too much sauce, but there was enough beef under it to make a good mix. The beans were okay – I’m guessing they started life in a can, but were doctored enough to taste good.
Thursday
Thursday morning I had to start the day by finding a tire shop. The change in temperature from 80-degree Orlando to 40-degree Atlanta set off my tire sensors and I had to have nitrogen added. After that, I set off to find breakfast and Urbanspoon sent me to Rise –n- Dine. I’ve eaten there before, but, well … Urbanspoon said.
No sooner had I parked at Rise –n- Dine, I saw that I had a text from a friend in Atlanta that she was free for lunch. Since it was close enough to lunchtime to skip breakfast, I responded and left the restaurant, expecting to hear where to meet soon – but I heard nothing further, so I figured something had come up. By now I was getting hungry, so I decided on lunch at Dave Poe’s BBQ and headed in that direction.
No sooner had I parked at Dave Poe’s (a truly disturbing trend being established here), my friend texted again and I was off in a different direction. So, a bit cranky-hungry, I finally got some food at a Chinese place – no review, because lunch with me is odd enough without me taking notes and pictures of my food. I spared her that bit.
After lunch, I went back to the hotel where they had the firepits around the pool lit, and I spent the afternoon reading while curled up in the cold next to a warm fire.
The reason for the trip was that Shakespeare Tavern was doing three Romances in repertory. Thursday night was Taming of the Shrew.
Shrew was a solid production with a consistently good cast. Laura Cole, as Kate, shone like the sun … or moon, one.
Friday
Friday morning, I lazed about reading for a bit and had a banana in my room (this will be important later). Around 10:00, I decided to walk to the main Stone Mountain park for a thoroughly unhealthy lunch at the snack stands, so I set out for the Cherokee Trail and enjoyed a hike along the lake.
Now, from the resort to the Stone Mountain park is a 3.5 mile hike. It’s a pleasant hike, mostly level and easy-going. And, arriving around 11:30 after starting my day with a banana, I was quite looking forward to some greasy, high-calorie amusement food.
Oh …
A Friday in February is, apparently, not prime season for Stone Mountain … who knew?
And … I walked here. I am now 3+ miles, an hour and a half, and almost 500 more burned calories away from the nearest food. The banana is a distant memory, burned to cinders by my metabolism well before I ever crossed the lake that’s two miles away now. I hung around for a bit, thinking they might open at noon, but no joy. There was someone in the popcorn stand. I could hear them talking. I could hear the popcorn popping. I could smell the popcorn. But no sign of opening, so nothing for it but to schlep back down the trail.
All the way back to the hotel, I consoled myself with thoughts of a room-service hamburger. No, a cheeseburger. No, a bacon cheeseburger, with french fries. I am, after all, a thousand calories to the good with just this hike and they’ll deliver charbroiled goodness right to my room while I rest my weary feet.
Back in the room, I eagerly dialed room service and ask to place an order … only to be told that there is no lunchtime room service. Damn you, off-season resort staffing! Damn you!
Now please keep in mind that it is almost 2:00. I have been up for seven hours, I have walked six miles, burned almost 1000 calories, and I have eaten … a banana. If hunger is the best sauce, then I am about to eat the best food I’ve ever tasted.
This was the worst buffet I have ever been too.
After perusing a measly assortment of dishes, I settled on some anemic chicken-in-sauce and a salad, this being all that was remotely appealing. The peach cobbler was adequate, presuming you don’t mind canned peaches. The small cakes, however, were stale – to the point that they could not be cut with a knife.
Nasty, bad, and $20.
Friday’s performance at the Tavern was Romeo and Juliet – and I was finally able to get food, a Cornish pasty with homemade ketchup, and a rose-water panna cotta with raspberry sauce.
Romeo and Juliet is one of my favorite plays, probably because it was the first Shakespeare I ever saw. The Zeffirelli version, which firmly established my love for Shakespeare – as well as a crush on Olivia Hussey in specific and brunettes in the literal.
As with most good productions of this play, Mercutio stole the show … at least until he died. I did take some issue with Nick Arapoglou’s performance as Romeo. My preference, and it is a preference, is for Shakespeare to be performed without emphasis on the rhyme and meter. Yes, it’s poetry, but it is, first and foremost, a play – it is characters speaking. So when an actor puts too much emphasis on a rhymed word in the middle of a sentence, as this Romeo did, it throws me out of hearing what’s being said and into focusing on how it’s said.
For me, the lines should be spoken by the punctuation and let the poetry flow more organically.
Annie Hester, as Juliet, played the role well, capturing the petulance of a rather spoiled 13-year old in the first act and the grief of a young woman in the second.
Saturday
The beans were very good – thick and heavy with molasses. And the stew is now top of the list for best Brunswick stew I’ve tried on these trips – rich and spicy, with crisp corn and tasty shreds of meat. I finished all of that stew and would have gladly eaten more.
Unfortunately, the meat on the plate didn’t measure up to the sides. It was cold, with some nasty bits still in it, and no bark at all. I’d hesitate to suggest anyone might do such a thing, but it seemed almost as if it had just been boiled and never saw the inside of a smoker. If I could have have taken the beef from Crazy Ron’s and had it with the Old Hickory House sauce and sides, it would make a near perfect meal, but this wasn’t. I did not finish all of the beef.
After lunch, I headed back to the zoo for a bit.
And then on to Shakespeare Tavern again for Much Ado About Nothing, the last of the three and the best.
This was the second time I’ve seen Ado at the Tavern and it is a joy. Andrew Houchins and Erin Consadine, as Benedict and Beatrice, both give wonderful performances and have perfect onstage chemistry for the roles. Drew Reeves gives a performance as Dogberry that rivals Michael Keaton’s in the Branagh production.
All in all, and despite starving a couple mornings, a great weekend. I do wish the Tavern would do more plays in rep, as three is far more fun than one. But I’ll be going back for one at a time – the Scottish Play in April, Comedy of Errors in May, and Antony and Cleopatra in June.
Atlanta – Othello and Stone Mountain
10/4/2013 – 10/6/2013 Miles MPG Average Speed 950 44 59 Driving listening:
10/4/2013 – 10/6/2013
Priceline Retail $ Savings % Savings Hilton Downtown (4-stars) $62.41
($50 bid)$ 178.08 ($159 pretax)
$115.67 65% This hotel had some mixed reviews. Reviewers called the decor “dated”, complained that they smelled marijuana in the hallway and in their room, and one review claimed they were given a room without a bed.
I was quite happy with it. The decor was a bit older and some of the fixtures were clearly older, but it was clean, well-appointed, comfortable, and, at $50 / night, the view of the $69.99 Motel 6 next door was entertaining.
The hotel does charge $25 / day for parking, which is ridiculous, so I parked at the Emory Hospital lot. It’s only 1/2-mile away and costs $6 / day, or $0 if you leave early before they have the booth manned.
That lot is also right across the street from Shakespeare Tavern where we were going to see Othello.
I do not recommend the route above, which Google Maps came up with. Instead, get to Peachtree St NE immediately and stay off of Pine St NE. Pine St, especially in the early evening, has a certain uncomfortable element to it.
Dining
Ray’s has several locations around Atlanta. The one downtown is nicely appointed and we arrived for dinner well before it became crowded. I started with Ray’s “New Orleans” BBQ Shrimp ($12) and I was a bit disappointed with it. Like many attempts at the New Orleans style of BBQ shrimp, this had more heat than flavor.
The portion size, for the price, seemed quite small, as well.
For an entree, I had the Parmesan Crusted Scallops ($32) which came with “Lobster risotto, basil, balsamic reduction”.
With this, also, I was underwhelmed. $32 for four scallops is a bit high and even with the Parmesan crusting, they seemed flavorless. The risotto was extremely salty, with not even a hint of lobster flavor.
The praline bowl I got for desert was better, with a crunchy bowl, praline sauce, ice cream, and berries. But it wasn’t enough to make up for the previous courses and I left disappointed.
Entertainment
We went to Stone Mountain during the day and rode the tram to the top. The day was hazy and bright, so pictures were a bit washed out.
After some time at the top, we took the mile-long path down the mountain and then around it to the parking lot.
Next trip I want to hike around the mountain and then up and down.
Atlanta–Hamlet, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Christopher Titus
6/6/2013 – 6/9/2013 Miles MPG Average Speed 1100 46 54 Driving listening:
6/6/2013 – 6/9/2013
Priceline Retail $ Savings % Savings Marriott Atlanta Airport (4-star) $58.61
($48 bid)$94.08
($84 pretax)$35.47 38% The bidding for this trip put me in the Marriott across the street from the Westin I’d stayed at last time. They’re both nice hotels at the right price, but I haven’t been thrilled with the area – it’s pretty empty of anything but a few hotels and warehouses. So next trip I’ll likely spend a bit more for downtown or the areas north of Atlanta.
The point of staying so far out is to avoid the parking charges, but both of these hotels have the same parking rates as downtown hotels. Downtown, if I’m willing to walk a couple blocks, I can put my car at the Emory hospital parking lot across from Shakespeare Tavern for a third of the hotels’ parking rate.
This trip was a little different, because I was in town mostly to see three shows, so I did little during the days – other than one visit to the High Museum, I just relaxed at the hotel, reading and using the gym.
Dining
On the way to Atlanta (and again on the way home), I stopped for lunch at Smok’n Pig BBQ in Valdosta, GA. I’ve seen their billboards on previous trips, but never stopped before – now it’ll probably become my lunch on every trip in or out of Florida on I-75. I was a little worried when I first stopped, because the décor is reminiscent of the Sonny’s BBQ chain, with a large, shiny dining room in a huge building with a salad bar. They do have two locations, Valdosta and Macon, but there’s nothing “chain” about the food.
On both stops I got the sliced pork sandwich combo ($8). The pork was tender and lean, generously piled on a soft bun. I tried three different sauces: sweet, sweet & spicy, and original. Of the three, I thought the original was best, with even the sweet & spicy being a bit too sweet for me.
For sides, I got baked beans, Brunswick stew, and, on the return trip, sweet potato casserole. The beans were pretty basic, but the sweet potato casserole was very good and the stew was excellent. The Brunsick stew itself is enough to get a return visit from me.
On Friday and Saturday, I ate at a pair of restaurants because I’d read somewhere that the owners had originally been partners in one place, then each opened their own. BBQ being a competitive sport, I decided to try both and compare them.
Both places are storefronts in stripmalls – about the same size, with reviews, plaques, and porcine-topped trophies proudly displayed. It’s clear that both owners take their BBQ seriously
At Dave Poe’s, I got brisket ($9), with baked beans, mac & cheese, and Texas toast. At Sam’s, I got brisket, with baked beans, sweet tater tots, and Texas toast, but I also added a corn muffin. Dave Poe’s brisket was perfectly cooked. It was sliced unevenly, some thicker than others, but that was almost irrelevant, as the slices were fork-tender and shredded easily. The sauce was thin, sweet and spicy, with a strong black-pepper flavor. Sam’s served two distinct briskets on my plate. On the right was a lean flat – the left was more marbled. Unfortunately, both were served barely warm, so the marbled slices were quite chewy. The sauce was Advantage: Dave Poe’s The Texas toast lacked any butter, so it was pretty dry and only lightly browned. Sam’s Texas toast was well-buttered and nicely browned. Advantage: Sam’s Poe’s baked beans were thick and sweet, with a slight kick of heat at the finish. Sam’s beans were very thick and sweet, redolent with molasses. Good, but by the end of the meal I was putting only two or three beans on my fork, because it was just too much sweet and molasses. Advantage: Dave Poe’s The mac & cheese. Oh, Our Dear Lord of Dairy, the Dave Poe’s mac & cheese … Not elbow noodles, but huge tubes of pasta that oozed sauce. A sauce that had both a creamy texture that clung to the pasta, and a bit of stringy, chewy cheese that had incredible flavor. The pieces of dark brown mac & cheese crust were perfect.
Sam’s sweet tater tots were interesting, different, and tasty. Made out of sweet potatoes with a sprinkling of cinnamon and sugar. It was some time into the meal, though, before I could appreciate their full flavor, because they were the hottest thing on the plate when it arrived. Clearly they’d plated the brisket, then the beans, and last the fried tots, which is the opposite of what they should have done to ensure everything arrived hot.
Advantage: Dave Poe’s So, on points, it’s Dave Poe’s, but the real test is what’s left on the plate at the end of the meal.
At Sam’s, I left most of the fattier slices of brisket and about half the beans and tater tots – not because I was full (there’s always room for BBQ), but because I just didn’t want any more of the items. I liked Sam’s, I’d return there, but it wasn’t enough to make me keep taking just one more bite.
At Dave Poe’s, I left a corner of the dry Texas toast and a plate wiped clean. If there’d been a scrap more brisket, a drop of sauce, a single bean, or the slightest schmear of mac & cheese sauce … I’d have happily sopped it up with that dry toast.
Entertainment
Thursday and Friday nights I was at Shakespeare Tavern for performances of Hamlet and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.
For those unfamiliar with R&G, it follows Rosencrantz and Guildenstern through their roles in Hamlet, but since they’re rather minor characters they spend much of their time “off-stage” (though they don’t know it’s a play) wondering about what it all means and why they seem to be always waiting for something to happen.
Described as an absurdist, existentialist tragicomedy … it’s just weird.
But seeing the two in repertory, with the same cast playing the same characters in both Hamlet and R&G was fun. The actors had the opportunity to perform their characters seriously in Hamlet and then with some comedy in R&G – seeing these on consecutive nights really heightened that effect.
The entire cast was wonderful, as always, but there were some standouts:
Nicholas Faircloth and Paul Hester as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (whichever is which) were great in both productions, but especially in R&GaD. These are marathon-roles, since the play, at almost three hours, follows their two characters almost exclusively.
Jonathan Horne as Hamlet. A great performance, subtly different in both productions. I can’t wait to see him next month in Fortinbras, when he gets to play Hamlet as a ghost.
Kelly Criss as Ophelia. Her part in R&G is small, but worth mentioning because it’s not every day an actress gets to walk up stairs and across the stage in a diving mask, snorkel, and swim fins (at Ophelia’s drowning). In Hamlet, she shined, drawing the audience in when Ophelia is crazy.
Next month they’re doing Fortinbras, the “sequel” to Hamlet, when all the dead characters get to come back as ghosts and pester the Norwegian Prince who came to rule Denmark by showing up.
Saturday was Christopher Titus at the Punchline. The show was hilarious and all new material. If you’re not familiar with his shows, check YouTube for excerpts – he’s a brilliant comedian.
Once I went to bed in Orlando and I woke up in Atlanta. I have no idea how that happened.–A. J. McLean
Miles MPG Average Speed 1138 44 55 
Driving listening:
3/14/2013 – 3/17/2013 Priceline Retail $ Savings % Savings The Westin Atlanta Airport (4-star) $50.96
$40 bid + $10 bonus cash$88.48 ($79) $37.52 43% I spent a lot of time and effort trying to go to Tampa this weekend – a couple Lightning games, a Friday of kayaking, and days at the Tampa Ren Faire. Two weeks I tried every day, but Priceline didn’t cooperate. Successful bids on 3-star hotels were still running $79 / night on Wednesday (3/13), so I tried some other cities.
Atlanta proved amenable, as I won with my first bid of $50 ($40 + $10 bonus cash) for a 4-star near the airport. It’s a side-effect of success with Priceline and BiddingForTravel that my first reaction was: “Damn it! I bet I could have gotten that for $36!”
Even if I did overpay a few dollars for the hotel, though, my total travel costs (hotel and gas) wound up being less to drive the 400+ miles to Atlanta than the 90 to Tampa would have been with this weekend’s hotel rates. So flexibility is good.
Thursday
I left home around 8:00am for the roughly 7-hour drive to Atlanta. A bit less than that for me, because I was staying near the airport on the south-side of the city. Less, at least, to get to the hotel, but my plans for Thursday and Friday nights would take me an hour further north to the suburb of Duluth in Gwinnett County.
The Westin is just off I85 near the airport and has some nice touches like leaf-shaped soaps.
See, this is the sort of little, special touch that makes me feel really, really glad that I didn’t pay full price for the room …
This, on the other hand, might make full-price worth it:
That is the Westin Heavenly™ Shower Head. I now want one of my very own.
I had just enough time to unpack before getting back on the road to head for Gwinnett County for a hockey game between the Gwinnett Gladiators and the Orlando Solar Bears. Once I got to the area I used Google Maps to search for BBQ restaurants.
I headed for the closest and wound up at Jim ‘n Nick’s BBQ. Unfortunately a bit of a chain.
The sweet tea was a bit weak, but this was Georgia and I prefer the teeth-aching brew of South Carolina. The brisket was pretty good – tender and tasty without being too salty. They offered the option of sourdough for the brisket sandwich, was a nice change from simple buns.
Jim ‘n Nick’s offers only two sauces. The regular sauce is pretty good, with a nice balance of sweet and spicy. The other is a spicier ancho sauce.
The best part of the meal was the little corn muffins, which were really good and made me wish I’d gotten more than two.
After dinner I was off to the Gwinnett Arena for the game where I was pleasantly surprised by the lack of a parking fee. Driving there made clear that Gwinnett County is a fairly affluent suburb of Atlanta and the arena touches showed that, with carpeted walkways and premium food options.
Thursday’s game was all offense, ending with the Solar Bears losing 4-5 and the winning goal being scored only three minutes before the end of the game. Although I normally sit high in my team’s attack-twice endzone, for away games I like to move around a bit and chose to sit on the glass for this one.
Friday
On Friday morning I went to Ria’s Bluebird for breakfast. The Urbanspoon app has a cool “random” feature, and this is what it picked nearby for breakfast/brunch.
The place had high ratings on Urbanspoon and their chef is apparently competing on Chopped right now, which gave me high hopes that were only raised by the busy parking lot and waitlist at 10:30am on a Friday morning.
I sat at the counter and ordered the Nutella cream cheese French Toast with an orange juice and sides of bacon and “sweet potato cake” – something that sounded interesting.
The Nutella cream cheese mixture was pretty good – the cream cheese added some tang that cut the sweetness of the Nutella. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to taste much rum in the “Myer rum dipped brioche”. In fact, I got little flavor from the French Toast itself other than burnt – at first I’d thought it was the batter that made it so dark, but, no, it was simply over-cooked. As was the otherwise bland sweet potato cake. Char does add flavor to some foods, not, alas, to French Toast or sweet potato.
I did finish the bacon and orange juice, though. They were good.
After breakfast I headed for Zoo Atlanta where I watched pandas do what pandas do best.
Eat.
Sleep.
And be unabashedly merchandised.
Also at the zoo, in addition to sleeping pandas, were sleeping warthogs.
Sleeping lions.
And sleeping honey bears.
Say what you will about animals in the zoo, but I’ve become more and more convinced that the vast majority of Americans would, should the Aliens ever take over and set up their own amusement parks, be perfectly happy as zoo animals. Think about it.
By late afternoon it was time to head north to the next hockey game, so I once again used Google Maps to search for a BBQ place near the arena. The Honey Pig showed up, so I headed there.
As I parked, I decided that Gwinnett County has no decent BBQ restaurants, since it’s not possible to have good, real BBQ in a building that looks less than a year old. A real BBQ place should have … let’s call it character.
Good, real BBQ should also not be a Korean place where you cook at the table … which is what The Honey Pig is. Damn you, Google Maps!
I’d left time for BBQ, which is all precooked, not for raw food to be delivered to my table and cooked by me, so I had to forego The Honey Pig and head for the arena. So dinner wound up being an arena hamburger … which was actually pretty good.
The Solar Bears lost again, 1-3, so another road trip following the team and seeing no wins.
Saturday
I planned to spend the entire day downtown, so left my car at the College Park MARTA station and rode the train into Atlanta to the Civic Center station. I really like trains and subways … I’m not sure why. I don’t like buses at all, but if I’m in a city with a train, subway, streetcar, whatever, I’ll happily use that for as much of my transportation as I can. At $10 for the day, it’s a bargain compared to driving and parking in a downtown area.
When I got off the train, I found that I was in the middle of the staging area for the Saint Patrick’s Day parade – including the traditional(?) Llamas of Saint Patrick.
And got to watch the warmup of a traditional Saint Patrick’s Day musical group.
Okay, so drum corps isn’t so Irish, but damn they’re fun to watch. The wind was heavy and messed up the sound, but they were pretty good. Right in front of the drum corps was a traditional marching band and I felt sorry them with their tubas, trombones, and pansy-ass flutes. That can’t compete with some good bass drums and competent snares.
I’d skipped breakfast, because I knew where lunch was going to be.
The Varsity’s an institution and proves that burgers and such can be fast, good, and reasonably priced.
For the cost of a typical “value meal” ($6), I got a good quality burger, handmade onion rings, a drink, and peach pie (fried, as god intended). This was the best meal of the trip and the cheapest.
I spent the afternoon at the High Museum. They have a wide-variety of exhibits, ranging from 17th century European to American folk art to African. All of which is good and interesting, except for the top floor … that’s where they keep … <shudder> … the “modern”.
It’s hard to go from compelling sculpture and intricate furniture pieces. (I would so furnish my house with baroque … )
To … well … whatever the hell this is …
Seriously? A whole damn room for this? Ew … just, ew.
I had to go look at the Rodin’s again just to get the stench of that floor out of my eyes.
So after the museum it was time for the evening’s event, which was Much Ado About Nothing at Shakespeare Tavern.
The production was wonderful, which is nothing but what I’d expect of this company. If you’re in Atlanta and have any interest in live theatre, you should make every effort to attend one of their performances.
After the show it was back on the train for the ride to College Park station and the short drive back to the hotel.
Good trip, all in all, but I really need some good BBQ.
