Atlanta.

[chrizow]

brief atlanta thoughts:

i thought atlanta was pretty interesting.  it's a "new south" city through and through - almost no one is originally from there, lots of new money, tons of new development, but the core of the city is pretty old and has a lot of grit and soul.  we didn't experience much of the no doubt soul-crushing suburbs extending 100 miles around the city, but i have to say that the urban core itself is pretty impressive in a lot of ways. 

we took the MARTA quite a bit.  i thought MARTA was a nice way to get around town - it basically just goes along a north/south line from the airport on the far south side of the city to the inner north burbs, and there is an east west line as well.  it seems that most, or all, of the main attractions, business centers, medical facilities, universities, etc. are well-served by the MARTA.  so big points for that.  i actually kind of enjoyed the low-slung, concrete/brutalist quality of the stations i used as well. 

areas of town i saw:

downtown - downtown atlanta probably functions about as well as any central business district could.  it is well-served by bus and rail transit, there are lots of nice office towers (both old and brand new), tons of hotels (mostly new or new-ish including a 50-story Westin and a W), plenty of bars and restaurants that are open late every day, seems pretty clean and efficient, some decent retail around, etc.  that said, i really don't find any downtown in the US that interesting (hotels, banks, office towers, and bar and grills only get a guy so far), so i did what i could to explore outside of downtown.  we stayed at the ellis hotel (http://www.ellishotel.com/) and i recommend it.  the restaurant inside the hotel, Terrace, was very good as well - I'd guess it would be a top 5 or 10 restaurant in KC - and it seems that no one in ATL really knows or cares about it judging by the fact we were the only people eating in there (though it was 9pm on a Thursday). 

midtown - just north of downtown is midtown.  more office towers, hotels, and the like, but also the high museum of art, the woodruff performing arts center, etc.  piedmont park, atlanta's "central park," is in midtown as well, and it is predictably flanked by lots of condos and beautiful mansions not unlike our own plaza/sunset hill area only scaled up about 5x.  the park itself seems great and well-used - large open spaces, ball fields, a nice lake with ducks, walking paths, etc.  there was a small farmer's market in the park when i was there which was nice.  midtown has a lot of restaurants, bars, gay dudes, etc.  seems like a very usable, walkable, if somewhat generic, urban area - reminiscent of gold coast, lincoln park, lakeview in chicago, only with a huge park instead of a huge lake. 

little five points - the "eclectic" part of town.  the MARTA stop is at Inman Park, which is a pretty good-sized park, maybe slightly smaller than Loose Park, and L5P itself is about a 1/2-mile walk from the station.  the residential around the park and L5P area seemed pretty upscale - i saw a 3bed-1.5bath 1,200 sq. foot bungalow (think west plaza) listed for $350,000.  the homes were all very attractive and eclectic - it basically looked a lot like midtown KC - some volker or south hyde park-type houses mixed with some larger, central hyde park-type houses, only with more prevalent (southern) porches and, usually, smaller lots.  little five points itself was an interesting though somewhat predictable mix of vintage stores, record shops, beer bars, coffeeshops, junk shops, homeless people, crust punks, etc.  one thing immediately apparent is that atlanta is at least as pedestrian-hostile as KCMO - not that the architecture/design of the buildings is bad, but the main roads are fast, wide, and are almost impossible to cross as a pedestrian.  you pretty much are playing "frogger" any time you want to cross a semi-busy street - much worse than crossing main or broadway in midtown KC.  most of the stuff in L5P is urban, street-facing stuff with several outdoor patios, so it's a lively scene, though as a car-driven place like KC there was some rundown strip-mall urbanism going on as well, but with only 1-2 lanes of parking out front it wasn't too obnoxious.  all in all a good 'hood. 

virginia highlands - about 1.5 miles north of L5P is virginia highlands, which is centered around the corner of, yes, virginia and highland aves.  this was touted as "ultra hip" by some atlanta guide i saw online, but i didn't really see it that way.  there was an urban outfitters (in an Old Westport style strip mall surrounded by some cool apartment buildings), and while the main retail/restaurant drag was pretty quaint and urban enough (in sort of a westport road west of SW Trafficway sense, or maybe W. 39th), it seemed more like a brookside demographic - paper source, some burger joints and "irish" pubs, a fancy burger place, expensive baby clothes, etc.  it was walkable, though, and seemed to have a lot of neighborhood amenities like grocery stores, wine shops, drugstores, dry cleaners, etc. so all in all it seemed like a nice place.  residential was a nice mix of brick 1920s apartments, bungalows, and larger homes on private streets.  seemingly larger lots around here, more like brookside. 

inman park/poncey highlands/candler park/old fourth ward - outside the areas clearly delineated as L5P and virginia highlands were these (and probably more) neighborhoods.  mostly residential, all very well maintained and attractive, with some small commercial districts scattered throughout.  the inman park area had a lot of new, loft/condo developments with street-facing retail and restaurants.  generically beige architecture, but decently-scaled and added density to the neighborhoods, and you can never argue with more retail and restaurants and services in an area.  we went to a restaurant called Wisteria in inman park that was pretty decent - one thing i will say about atlanta, and this is just my impression, is that there isn't really too much in the way of quirk or independent spirit to its restaurants.  you don't get the impression that there is a chef with a vision scraping by just to serve hisor her food - everything seems very well-capitalized, with an eye towards future locations.  i get the impression lots of places are controlled by restaurant "groups."  not always a bad thing, and obviously some of these places have great food, but that was just my impression - though i obviously didn't get to see every part of town.

westside arts district - west of midtown, near georgia tech, is a rapidly-gentrifying area loosely termed the westside arts district.  the atlanta contemporary art museum is here, as well as some smaller galleries, creative upstarts, and the like, not unlike our crossroads in a way.  it's kind of an old, charming area with light industrial, some old brick warehouses, shabby bungalows, tire shops, etc. it sort of felt like Southwest Boulevard or even Truman Road in terms of architecture.  but, unlike our crossroads, it is very obvious that the westside arts district has become very upscale at an incredible rate - like within a couple of years it went from nothing to a dozen expensive foodie restaurants, a trendy burger place (which was very good, much better than Blanc), Room & Board and other high-design furniture places, and range rover-driving urban tourists driving around.  i guess they do an art-crawl around here on the second Saturday or something, which sounds fun, though we were told that it is much smaller than KC's first friday.  as a new, high-flying city i dont think this area really served as a cheap incubator for artists very long (if at all) before become super trendy and upscale, but all in all it was a nice area and a worthwhile addition to the atlanta urban scene.

buckhead - i dont think we really saw too much of buckhead.  i would imagine buckhead is the "uptown" foil to midtown and downtown - it is on the same north-south spur, but farther north in the city.  basically seemed like mission hills, with really upscale malls and strip malls, and some 30+ story office towers and hotels sprinkled around.  i'm told there are lots of exclusive clubs and bars and whatnot around here, but we didn't really see them.  we went to a restaurant, loosely in buckhead (i guess) called woodfire grill that was outstanding.  kevin gillespie, the should've-been winner of top chef a season or two ago, is the owner and exec chef and it was truly excellent, by far our best meal in ATL and the best meal we've had since our honeymoon in california (french laundry, etc), i'd say.  it's kind of weird how a lot of ATL is really quite suburban - busy, upscale suburban, but very suburban on the arterial roads, but behind all the strip malls and LA-style drive-up fine dining are 1920s residential neighborhoods on the scale of that era.  i made a trip to the lenox square mall (upscale mall served by MARTA) to buy new shoes because the shoes i brought were actually making my feet bleed from all my walking.  it was probably the nicest mall i've ever seen, and i was told it isn't even the nicest mall in atlanta.  a mall is a mall, so it was kind of lame, but it was part of a large marriott and office complex and there were plenty of condos and stuff around, so it was upscale suburbia done about as well as you could.

[LenexatoKCMO]

we went to a restaurant, loosely in buckhead (i guess) called woodfire grill that was outstanding.  kevin gillespie, the should've-been winner of top chef a season or two ago, is the owner and exec chef and it was truly excellent, by far our best meal in ATL

So we can expect the full meal review when? 

and the best meal we've had since our honeymoon in california (french laundry, etc), i'd say. 

I assume it is just an oversight on my part that I have overlooked your course-by-course, food porn write up on said visit to Mr. Keller's Mecca?

[chrizow]

So we can expect the full meal review when?  

ha.  well, woodfire grill seemed to be in a converted ponderosa or something on a strip club and porn-shop laden suburban arterial near buckhead, but it was renovated heavily to become an urbane, laidback place with a pretty good atmosphere - sort of bluestemy lounge area with a more airy/rustic dining room.  as we pulled up in our minivan taxi, some gelled up dude and his gf were getting out of a ferrari with NJ tags out front - very atlanta.  

we were early for our reservation (we had no idea how long it would take to get there), so we asked the bartender for recommendations on cocktails, and ended up just having a couple of bourbons, neat.  the bartender made perfect recommendations based on our rather inarticulate statements regarding what we like in a bourbon. i believe they were both pappy van winkle - mine was a 107-proof 15 year reserve or something liek that - very spicy and hot on the palate, which i like - and my wife's was a 10 year pappy that was more smooth and equally delicious.  

the menu is small and changes frequently.  you can also do a 5 or 7-course chef's tasting menu that is completely blind, and does not overlap at all with the menu.  the 5-course is $65, which i thought was reasonable, but we opted to go a la carte anyhow.  

appetizers - we had a african squash soup with crispy pork skin, mollasses, chili oil, and some other stuff, that was extremely good.  the sweetness of the molasses was nice with the earthy squash and slight heat from the oil.  i could have eaten a bowl the size of the table.  we also ordered razor clams, which were prepared simply with oil, herbs, and, interestingly, jalapeno.  my razor clam was delicious.  the jalapeno was kind of overpowering, but i love jalepeno so i didn't mind.  my wife's clam, however, was somewhat gamey/off, so that was disappointing.  we paired these with rose - mine was sparkling, hers was not.  mine especially worked great with the spicy food.

entrees - as the name of the place would suggest, they cook a lot of their dishes in a wood-fired oven or rotisserie, which is awesome.  i had quail, which was prepared with wood-fired brussel sprouts, sourdough stuffing, and a cranberry sauce.  i was concerned it would be too thanksgivingy, but it was just awesome.  the quail was perfectly cooked and as plump/meaty as quail could possibly be.  the brussel sprouts were broken apart and served as a sort of bed of lettuce under the quail, and were very flavorful and smoky.  the stuffing was made-to-order (somehow) and was just awesome - there were only little bits of it here and there on the plate, but one little square was the equivalent of a heaping forkload of Grandma's Stuffing in terms of flavor.  there was only a squirt of cranberry sauce on the plate, which just added a bit of sweetness to the smoky quail, earthy sprouts, and salty stuffing, so all in all it was really balanced and well-executed.  i paired this with a zinfandel blend that worked nicely, but if i ordered it again i would go more old-world.

my wife got the duck, which was even better.  it was sliced very thinly, and was perfectly medium-rare.  it had some braised mustard greens and small dots of potato on the plate - i cant remember what the sauce consisted of.  but again, the flavors were just perfectly balanced - smoky, flavorful duck, with some nice sharp greens and salty, buttery potatoes.  she paired this with a huge duckhorn merlot that was great.  

dessert - we shared a caramel cake/flan thing, with a prailine brittle stuck in it.  it was delicious, kind of reminiscent of something you'd get at lidia's.  just a well-made dessert by a pastry chef.  we then went to the bar and shared a great rye whiskey while waiting for our taxi.  kevin, the top chef guy, was working the grill, but when we left he was in the bar.  he seemed super nice, but we didn't bug him.  the place was very down to earth and operating at a very high level.  aside from the weird razor clam, i'd say the food was executed as good or better than anything i've had in KC, including Krause Dining, and it cost about as much as a slightly indulgent night at room 39 or le fou frog.  recommended.

I assume it is just an oversight on my part that I have overlooked your course-by-course, food porn write up on said visit to Mr. Keller's Mecca?

we honeymooned in napa, san francisco, and big sur, and had several outstanding meals.  french laundry, of course, towered above everything.  i could probably re-create most of the menu by memory, but we have the menu at home, so i'll post about it at some point.  it was absolutely perfect in every way, exceeding my stratospheric expectations.  i just wish we were on an expense account!

[LenexatoKCMO]

Sounds delicious.  I have no great love for Atlanta but there are several restaurants, including Woodfire, that have made be think a visit would be worthwhile. 

  i just wish we were on an expense account!

Indeed.  My brother once managed to drop $300+ on a single lunch there but came away with no regrets. 

[chrizow]

i'll also throw out there for the beer nerds that we checked out a great beer bar in little five points called the porter.  very rustic, convivial atmosphere, with long handhewn wooden tables and chairs as though out of Olde Englande.  probably 25 beers on tap, seemed to be a creative and balanced list, with probably 100 by the bottle representing lots of interesting styles.  http://www.theporterbeerbar.com/  (one of you should help them make a better website).  i had a southern tier imperial stout that was outstanding, and a steal at $4.75.  

[mean]

Having spend quite a bit of time there over the years, Atlanta is probably just about the only US city south of here I could live in, as long as I didn't have to drive anywhere.

[rxlexi]

  thanks for the detailed recap, it was fun to read.  I'd love to visit Atlanta at some point, specifically to compare it to Dallas, which to me sounds like it feels very similar to your description of Atlanta, less the more inspiring, wooded surroundings.  It sounds like some of the inner-ring suburban, bungalow neighborhoods might be right up my alley.  Fantastic you explored via Marta, I would have expected a rental to be required. 

  It seems that if you can avoid the truly soul-crushing sprawl surrounding these places (i.e. 70% of the area) there indeed can be a pretty vibrant, real "city" buried in the center of the metroplex, to my surprise and I'm sure the consternation of the many Sun-Belt bashers here and elsewhere.  Certainly these places will never have a truly historic or deeply "urban" built environment, but they do have pockets of real vibrance and a strong sense of dynamism that is often lacking in slow-growth cities.

[chingon]

Having spend quite a bit of time there over the years, Atlanta is probably just about the only US city south of here I could live in, as long as I didn't have to drive anywhere.

Really? Why? I have never been to ATL, really, so I'm curious. I have a pretty strong anti-southern bias, in general, expecially "new southern" and I always got the impression Atlanta was sort of the queen of the new south.

I'm pretty much a militant midwesterner, but I think the list of places I'd hypothetically consider living in the south would be limitted to New Orleans, Asheville, Savannah, and Richmond, in that order. I'd love to how Atlanta stacks up to those cities/towns, particularly from your perspective.

[mean]

Really? Why? I have never been to ATL, really, so I'm curious. I have a pretty strong anti-southern bias, in general, expecially "new southern" and I always got the impression Atlanta was sort of the queen of the new south.

I'm pretty much a militant midwesterner, but I think the list of places I'd hypothetically consider living in the south would be limitted to New Orleans, Asheville, Savannah, and Richmond, in that order. I'd love to how Atlanta stacks up to those cities/towns, particularly from your perspective.

In fairness, I love New Orleans and would totally live there but for my fear of its eventual destruction at the hands of another hurricane.

Asheville and Savannah are both pretty cool to visit. I particularly liked Asheville, but they're both just too small. I don't think I'd want to live in either place unless I was making a career change. And especially with Asheville, it's a lot like Portland: too full of burned out crusty hippies who live there because, for whatever reason, that's where burned out crusty hippies congregate.

Richmond seems cool, though I've never been there and in any case my comment wasn't considering east-central VA to be "south of here" although I suppose that technically it is.

To my mind, Atlanta is basically what you'd get if you took KCMO circa ~1955, and plunked it down in the sun belt and allowed it to experience 50 years of that style of awful sprawl. Basically, it's KCMO, except at the center of a 5.5 mil metro with no state line, plus they're the state capital with all the pork that affords, plus they average less than 2 snowy days per year and have a reasonably respectable heavy rail system which traverses most of the parts of the city worth visiting.

It certainly isn't perfect, but it's a far cry above TX or AZ, etc. Go check it out sometime. Just stick to the core and don't drive anywhere. It's pretty alright.

[mlind]

I enjoyed reading the info on Atlanta.  Thanks for the post.

I do need to remind everyone that San Francisco does still have a functioning downtown with the exception of Market Street beyond Sixth St. I always send visitors there to see what downtowns used to be like - lots of people & stores, etc.

RIP downtown KCK and KCMO.  My whole childhood has disappeared. 

[redperro]

I enjoyed reading the info on Atlanta.  Thanks for the post.

I do need to remind everyone that San Francisco does still have a functioning downtown with the exception of Market Street beyond Sixth St. I always send visitors there to see what downtowns used to be like - lots of people & stores, etc.

RIP downtown KCK and KCMO.  My whole childhood has disappeared. 

u should check out a book named wyandotte county in the 50's

theres a scene of minnesota ave in all its bustling glory on a late summer afternoon.....

my grandma who grew up on the west side remembers her shopping ventures into minnesota ave, gotta love her...

[warwickland]

Thanks for the trip repore, Chriz. During my great SE transect last summer, I totally avoided ATL, although I went back and forth as to should I should give it a try. I knew there were redeeming qualities, but I was trying to limit my exposure to metropolitan megasprawl in lou of forests, funky downtowns, and old coastal cities. In retrospect, I probably should have thrown ATL if only for variety. In retrospect, I probably should have stayed in the Black Mountains around Asheville, because the lowland Southeast is not for me in the summer...

[GRID]

I took this over the weekend while in Atlanta, I'm still editing the rest and might post them at a later date.

[Roanoker]

Beautiful, as usual.