Newspaper Page Text
SUMMER WRAP-UP
Hello, kids. Welcome back to town or wel
come to town for the very first time. Many of
you will be new and need guidance, especially
when it comes to venturing outside the din
ing halls, which are fine for what they are but
don't exactly specialize in Vietnamese food
or BBQ goat If you're interested in eating,
Grub Notes is your friend, and one of the big
gest things that changed this summer was its
addition of a blog at www.flagpole.com, which
updates severs 1 times a week and allows for
a little more audience participation, via the
comments (you can also email me at food@
flagpole.com). So, here's what else opened
and closed and so forth since the end of
spring semester...
Most exciting was the opening of The Royal
Peasant, in the space that once housed Mean
Bean, in Five Points, on Lumpkin. A tradi
tional English pub seemed like a weird idea
for a building that once housed burritos and
seemed the height of informality, but the inte
rior's been transformed into a cozy room, full
of dark wood, football scarves and calm. The
small but focused menu by Chef Luke Harvey
is a delight from top to bottom. Lovely little
sliders, comforting bangers and mash, a sat
isfying but not grungy
version of bubble and
squeak and more are
aii delicious far beyond
expectations.
...the dining halls are fine...
but don't exactly specialize in
Vietnamese food or BBQ goat.
into a family-friendly restaurant with burgers
and sandwiches, is currently BYOB, and offers
lunch and dinner. Out on Atlanta Highway, in
the Academy Sports shopping center near the
intersection with Timothy and Mitchell Bridge
Roads, is The European Deli, which offers no
sit-down dining, but does have a wonderful
array of sausages, cold-smoked fish and more
in its deli case, bakes bread daily, retails a
variety of Russian and Eastern European foods
and makes sandwiches to order. If you venture
over to Tallassee Road, you'll discover Los
Comales, a Mexican place that doesn't have
a hugely adventurous menu but has returned
some joy to the location that began life as
one of Bruno Rubio's restaurants, pumping
lively music into the atmosphere and frying
some really great cheese-stuffed jalapenos. On
Baxter, Yo Spicy, another mainstream Mexican
place, filled the building that was most
recently Tu Metapan, offering delivery within
5 miles (that certainly reaches the dorms) and
a bar. And over on the Eastside, on College
Station, La Fiesta, which experienced a dev
astating fire more than a year ago, has at long
last reopened. The last remaining Salvadoran
restaurant in Athens, Antojitos Salvadorenos,
on Chase Street, closed but reopened as Tlaloc
Mexican Restaurant,
named after an Aztec
fertility god.
WttiisSOTrorwKji,
notable for anything in particular, it was
that a surprising number of really nice places
opened, including not only the above-men
tioned marvelous surprise, but also Square
One Fish Co., A Tavola and The Georgian
Southeastern Chop House, all of which are
kind of aiming for the upscale market. Square
One, on Thomas Street downtown, offers a
wide range of seafood (including some beauti
ful boquerones that should make you change
your mind about anchovies), the kind of
service you can't expect to encounter often
in Athens, and a space that's nice inside and
out, with a large patio. The restaurant does
lunch, dinner and brunch and offers valet
parking, also a novelty. A Tavola, which you
should see a proper review oisoon, occupies
the location in the Bottleworks complex on
Prince that started out as Bischero, then
took a nose-dive in quality. Well, some of the
original people behind its first incarnation are
back, and they really know how to operate the
fancy pizza oven they put in. A Tavola only
does dinner, and its menu is largely given over
to traditional pizzas and homemade pastas,
with a few entries and apps around the edges.
The Georgian Southeastern Chop House is on
Washington Street downtown, in the Georgian,
as its name would suggest, and while it's still
working out some kinks in the menu, the din
ing room has been well renovated, and the
restaurant holds some promise as a fancier
option for both lunch and dinner.
On the less fancy side of things The Burger *
and Cheesesteak Factory opened in what
was once a Curves in the Bottleworks, grun-
ging things up and frying everything in
sight, including a whole burger impaled on a
skewer, bacon and candy bars. If you're feel
ing young and brave and invincible, you'll .
probably want to give it a shot, but don't
say I didn't warn you. Farther down Prince,
Fuel finished converting an old gas station
Uncle Otto's European
Eatery, home of the
k-bob, closed its down
town location on Broad and opened up under
a different name (Keba Spitfire Grill) next
to the Hollywood Video in the Georgetown
Shopping Center on Barnett Shoals. Across
the street and down a little ways, the own
ers of Plantation Buffet opened Plantation
Restaurant (the same sort of Southern meat-
and-three thing) in the former El Guanaco
space. Simply Meats on Baxter Street has
closed; Johnny's Pizza on the Eastside also
closed, but reopened with new owners; El
Sol changed its name to Sr. Sol; Rosario's
Trattoria (Italian) opened up in Watkinsville
on Hog Mountain Road, serving lunch and din
ner every day and boasting of large portions
and reasonable prices. And several places
that already have followings expanded: Your
Pie finished renovating what was Subway on
Lumpkin Street in Five Points; Fox's Pizza Den
opened its second location, on Epps Bridge
Road; Inoko opened an Inoko Sushi Express
in what was once Radio Shack next to the
Kroger on the Eastside; and Little Caesar's,
home to the $5 immediate gratification pizza,
opened another branch next to Wal-Mart on
Lexington Road. Angelo's, on Clayton Street
downtown, renovated its interior extensively,
changed its menu entirely and hired a new
chef; Just Pho... and More added banh mi,
the sub sandwiches that might be the high
light of Vietnamese food; an empanada cart
sprang up on late weekend nights downtown, •
and has recently added tostones and more;
and sue gai, the vegetable protein that has
been sorely missed since Thai of Athens
closed, reappeared at Thai Spoon on Lumpkin
Street downtown.
4
Whew. There's plenty more in the works to
open up over the next few months, but to find
out about those places, you'll have to keep
checking in. Cheers and happy eats.
Hillary Brown
voted best burrjto by Creative Loafing, Insite and Sunday Paper
MEXICANA ORILL
totoVw.wiNys.cow
1^6 Alps R
BeecUwoo<A Pro%*e*\t*Ae
Mon - l l<nvn - I0pvn
706-S4M120
we cater,
a crowd!
call 706-548-1920
f<5 pic\ce. <3r<Aev
JoiV\ US
£uv\
priz.es -
Every We<A
begiv\v\iv\g
?pw
buy one get one 1 /2 off
cxpir<nHov\ ?/5| ICft » Willy's Mexican* 6*i1l
One COU^CH per customer per visW per offer. Mot- V*Uid if sold,
transferred or duplicated. Mof vWld for Crvterinj orders.
C<nsU v«due l/|00 of If. Good only ABsens location.
& 2001 Willy's Kexic^n* Grill. Code: FP
AUGUST 19,2009 • FLAGPOLE.COM 13