While in Atlanta we tried a variety of southern cuisine and some not so Southern.

Our first experiment was Six Feet Under, a restaurant across the street from the Oakland Cemetery. Mostly for the Southern Gothic novelty of it but the food turned out to be pretty good too. And they brewed a type of hoppy beer with a peppery finish so you can’t beat that.

We’d been drinking in the hotel bar, a Trader Vic’s, on what would be considered a fairly consistent basis. One night when we were too tired to venture out we decided to eat at the restaurant. While the bar had always been lively the dining room was practically deserted and the food just didn’t know it was kitsch yet. I mean it’s a Polynesian themed restaurant so I would have expected to see something other than over priced coconut shrimp and egg rolls but whatever. We have enough Samoan FogCutters at dinner to make it work.

Our last dinner in Atlanta was at Mary Mac’s Tea Room a southern restaurant started by a sweet little old lady in 1945 to make ends meet, I like to picture her as post-war steel magnolia. Anyway the food was good – fried chicken, grits and ribs but the service was what lived up to the mythology it was the epitome of southern hospitality. We were attended by a waiter that could only be describe as a lovely young gentleman. And while eating we noticed that the hostess was talking to some people eating and assumed she knew them. But as she made her rounds we realized she didn’t, she just wanted to get to know everyone. I’ve never felt more like a Yankee in my life. My only regret was not saving room for peach cobbler.

Strangely enough though if I had to judge on just the cuisine I think the best food I had was at a pan-Asian fusion place around the corner from the hotel. We had dinner and drinks and then lunch one day and it was probably my favorites of all the restaurants. The way of globalization I guess.