don’t forget today is record store day! there will be lots of rare vinyl treats up for grabs, including items listed here. in atlanta, you can hit up criminal records and wax ‘n’ facts or wuxtry and decatur cd in decatur.

see you there!

– ryan

i just read that woody’s famous philadelphia cheesesteaks is now serving sweetwater 420 on tap! eating a cheesesteak or super sub with a 420 draft on woody’s huge wrap-around porch sounds like the perfect spring afternoon!

be sure to check out our previous post on woody’s.

– ryan

woody’s famous philadelphia cheesesteaks

981 monroe drive northeast
atlanta, ga 30308
404-876-1939

clementine likes playing with one of our old typewriters. i guess she prefers vintage items like her folks!

– ryan & gub

we just became members at the atlanta botanical gardens and totally love it! there’s lots to do and see, especially with this beautiful spring weather. it’s the perfect place to go on walks with clementine, including on the new canopy walk.

the orchid house is really amazing, you should check it out while everything is still in bloom! there are way more varieties than i expected, including lots of exotic colors and sizes. the misty, tropical atmosphere in the orchid house made you forget you were in middle of the city. i kept thinking of the movie adaptation while walking through the rare display of orchids.

last month was my first time ever to the gardens, i’m not sure why it took so many years to check it out. if you’ve never been, you should definitely make a trip before it gets too hot.

– ryan

atlanta botanical gardens

1345 piedmont avenue northeast
atlanta, ga 30309
404-876-5859

starbucks recently introduced their new line of light roasted coffees called blonde. this is something many smaller roasters have been offering for awhile, so i was intrigued to see how starbucks would compete.

basically, there are certain coffee beans that reach their ideal flavor at a shorter and/or cooler roasting time, hence the term light roasted. the result is a lighter bodied coffee that tastes crisp and clean with a bit milder flavor. it’s easier to over-roast coffee beans though, to ensure potential bad flavors are burnt out, so most companies roast everything really dark. it’s also not as cost-effective to separate the ripe beans for a lighter roast, so you don’t see many options outside of specialty coffee shops.

light roasted coffee often gets a bad wrap for not being very strong or being too mellow, however this is definitely not the case. most people don’t realize that a light roasted coffee actually has more caffeine than a dark roast. beans lose their caffeine the more they are roasted, so a light roast packs more punch then a dark one. it makes sense, but you always hear people requesting a dark cup of coffee when they need to stay awake.

light roasted coffees are also very flavorful, especially when brewed through a chemex or a french press. they are just more subtle when compared to a dark coffee like a french roast. you will still pick up fruity, nutty or even chocolaty notes in your coffee though.

so far starbucks has a willow blend and a veranda blend in the blonde line-up. i’ve tried both and really enjoyed them! i don’t think i’ll switch from my locally-roasted batdorf & bronson when buying nice coffee, but i’ll grab some more if it goes on sale again.

did you know you get a free cup of coffee at starbucks when you bring in your empty starbucks coffee bag? sounds like a pretty good recycling program to me! i noticed the offer on the bottom of the blonde coffee i purchased.

– ryan

we recently went to a birthday party at a gymboree in atlanta and clementine had lots of fun! she was too small for many of the games, but she did enjoy crawling around. our friend miguel took some great photos of her!

– ryan & gub

the third annual collard greens cook-off was a blast! it was $10 to participate and you were given a piece of cornbread and a spork and were off and tasting. after trying all of the various greens, there were 15 participants in all, you voted by throwing your spork in the bucket of your favorite booth. we had a beautiful cool spring day, so it was perfect for such a cook-off!

participants included farm burger, no246, bone lick bbq (the bbq guy from p’cheen), home grown, ray’s in the city, the pullman, whole foods, as well as various neighborhood participants, including momma margaret ‘the collard green lady.’

there were lots of tasty greens and some interesting styles we didn’t expect to like. home grown’s was a little sweet and had sun dried tomatoes in it. although i didn’t like it much, gub was a big fan of this one. another booth had cold greens with a basalmic base. it wasn’t our favorite, but it was quite interesting to try. momma margaret’s were hot and spicy and quite good as well.

when all was said and done, we put our spork in bone lick bbq’s bucket. their greens were tasty with a nice kick, mainly from the home-cured jalapeño bacon added. we also tried pulled pork sandwiches from them, which were awesome! these guys have been doing bbq at p’cheen on monday nights for a couple of years and are opening up a restaurant on the west side in june.

we also caught a tomato growing workshop at the market. gub found it quite informative.

one quick note, the east lake farmers market has moved from the concrete parking lot at 2nd and hosea williams to the nice shaded area right next door. the natural environment is much more fitting for the farmer’s market, and is also a heck of a lot cooler from the shade.

we can’t wait for peachapalooza this summer!

– ryan & gub

east lake farmers market

2nd avenue and hosea williams drive
atlanta, ga 30317

saturdays
9am – 1pm
april – october

today is the first day of the east lake farmers market, which runs on saturdays from 9am to 1pm. it’s open through october and can be found at the corner of 2nd avenue and hosea williams drive in the east lake/kirkwood area. the market features lots of local farmers selling fruit, vegetables, eggs, salsas and all sorts of other stuff.

to kick off the season, today is the third annual collard greens cook-off! you can sample great collards from both top local chefs and amateur neighborhood cooks.

see you there!

– ryan & gub

east lake farmers market

2nd avenue and hosea williams drive
atlanta, ga 30317

saturdays
9am – 1pm
april – october

our japanese magnolia had some amazing blooms this spring, although a late freeze shortened their visit.

– ryan & gub

clementine recently sampled her first grits and waffle from the waffle house! it wasn’t her first trip to the wahoo, but now that she’s eating everything in sight, we thought she’d like some southern diner food. clementine totally loved watching the wait staff call out the orders to the cooks as well!

– ryan & gub