Newspaper Page Text
Tasting
Intown
By Megan Volpert
Maybe it’s because everybody who lives there is getting up
early to go hiking and biking, but Asheville has an incredible
breakfast game. At the undisputed top of the heap is Tupelo
Honey Cafe, where lines at the no-reservations downtown
location usually stretch on to a two-hour wait on Saturdays,
whether you like pancakes at 8 a.m. or 10 a.m. or noon. As a
result, I have never eaten at THC because I’m impatient.
At long last, my wait is over, for Tupelo Honey Cafe has
come to Sandy Springs. THC has been spreading slowly across
many metro areas in the Southeast, with a total of 13 locations
running from Arlington to Charlotte to Myrtle Beach to
Knoxville. Here, you’ll find THC in the multi-use Gateway
complex behind Chastain Park.
Megan Volpert lives
in Decatur, teaches
in Roswell and writes
books about popular
culture.
If you like Flying
Biscuit or OK Cafe,
THC was made for
you. Order up the
fried green tomatoes
and you’ll immediately see why. Above all else, an establishment wishing to garner
respect for its Southern cuisine must possess
the ability to do a good fry, on the level of OK
Cafe. Doesn’t matter whether it’s fried chicken
or fried potatoes, fried avocados or fried green
tomatoes — there’s got to be a golden brown
color on a crispy outer shell that doesn’t break
apart just trying to get the food onto the fork.
I sampled all four of these menu items at
THC, and dang, they’re nailing it. The chicken
was plenty tender inside but firmly crispy
outside; what they call potato cracklins are a
crunchy, chunky delight way beyond regular
french fries; if you have never eaten a fried
avocado, you simply haven’t lived.
The fried green tomatoes showcase the
fryer skills of this place, but moreover, the
goat cheese grits underneath got my attention.
I think they can give those “creamy dreamy”
white cheddar grits at Flying Biscuit a real
run for their money, and as those are the
hometown favorite for most of us, it’s not a
point of comparison that I make lightly. You
can find goat cheese all over the menu, most
obviously in the pecan-crusted goat cheese — a spread for people who normally won’t
touch the cheese plate. Here
it’s so sweet and so soft, thanks
to finely chopped pecans and a
pear-onion marmalade, there’s no
problem piling it high on expertly
thin and super salty crostini for
a perfect balance of flavors and
textures.
They do a pretty good pulled
pork, too, which you can get on
top of the johnny cake appetizer
or as a meat-and-two entree plate.
AtlantalNtownPaper.com
They slow roast it for 14 hours for
a protein that melts in your mouth
but falls short on smoke. Though
the pork doesn’t pick up any wood
flavor, THC is banking on two solid
BBQ sauce options, a Western North
Caroline smoked jalapeno and a
South Carolina tangy mustard. Both
sauces bring the heat and the flavor.
If you’ve got kids in tow, note that
Thursdays after 7 p.m. you can get
four kinds of bottomless mac ’n’
cheese for 10 bucks. If you walk in a
little early, enjoy $3 craft brews and
$5 cocktails.
Know why Tupelo Honey Cafe
is truly great? Whiskey, y’all. Can’t
get whiskey at Flying Biscuit or OK
Cafe, plain and simple. THC has
just as much ability to fry up all your
Southern favorites and is equally
full of all-day breakfast options even
though they’re going by other names
after sunset. But a proper bar sets
it a cut above the rest. Have you
ever tried that sake bloody mary at
Flying Biscuit? It’s an abomination.
THC doesn’t just have a decent
bloody mary made with pepper
vodka and a house mix, it’s even got
a couple cocktails on tap, including
a Kentucky Mule, an Aviation and a
moonshine daiquiri.
If the liquor license doesn’t make you
leap with joy, the coffee will — it’s Counter
Culture. Based out of Durham, they get
that smooth, chocolately mountain flavor
that’s the only thing you want to wash
down your buttermilk cheesecake or
banana pudding. Welcome to town, THC!
Tupelo Honey Cafe is located at 4600
Roswell Road, #110. For more information,
visit tupelohoneycafe.com. DU
A. Biscuits and blueberry jam
B. Fried chicken, mac n cheese, brussels
sprouts
C. Fried green tomatoes on a bed of goat
cheese grits
D. Johnny cake with pulled pork
E. Coffee and dessert
F. House bloody mary
Mexican Restaurant
2895 North Decatur Rd
Decatur, GA 30033
z: •:
Hours: 11am to 10:30pm
s \
Buy any two
fajita dinners, get
$7 OFF
Buy any
two combination
dinners with two
drinks, get
1 Free
Dinner
Not valid with any other
combination offer.
Expires 2/28/17
February 2017 | | INtOWn 39