A List Of Things Thrown Five Minutes Ago

I MARCHED THROUGH IT LIKE GENERAL SHERMAN, WITHOUT THE TORCHES: When I noted I’d be going to Atlanta for a long weekend, there was some interest in some bullets as to my culinary and cultural adventures in the Deep South’s biggest metro area (Atlanta itself is surprisingly small population-wise, but there are tons of “pocket cities” and suburbs). Since you asked, I deliver:

• The World of Coca-Cola—Neither as cheesy nor as fun as you might have hoped. Particularly disappointing is the “Coke In Pop Culture” gallery, which makes space for some Coke-driven Pop Art, the “Coke Couch” from Idol Season 5, and only a single small case on the New Coke debacle. The origins gallery and the tiny bottling plant were cool, as was the chance to sample not just international Coca-Cola products, but also the new “Freestyle” machine, which dispenses several new specialty products (Orange Coke? Raspberry Coke?). Touristy, but worthwhile, especially with kids, I’d expect.
• Georgia Aquarium—A very well done aquarium, notable for three things—its size, the size of several of the animals kept there (it’s one of the very few aquaria large enough to house whale sharks, which, amusingly, are neither whales nor sharks), and the large number of touch pools offered for kids. Pricey, but if you’re into marine life, worth it.
• The Varsity—An Atlanta institution, this “world’s biggest drive-in” isn’t worth it for the food (greasy burgers and chili dogs, mediocre fries, though a nice fried peach pie), but the atmosphere is interesting (someone made the mistake of ordering a Pepsi while I was there, and the cashiers have a prescripted, very loud, rant for that). Not haute cuisine, but you get why it’s an institution (being crazy cheap and located basically on the Georgia Tech campus also helps).
• Flip Burger—Commenter Amy joined me for lunch at Richard Blais’ burger joint. Unsurprisingly, few of the burgers are straight up. I was a bit underwhelmed with the burger—I opted for one that was a burger patty topped with chopped/shredded BBQ brisket and house BBQ sauce. The sauce was a bit thin and overly spicy, tasting more like a house spice sauce like Tabasco than a BBQ sauce, and the combination was too dense for its own good—a veritable meat tornado--some cheese to break it up would have been a good idea. The sides, on the other hand, shined—the fries and onion rings were solid, but most impressive was a roasted cauliflower, which was spiced to perfection and got eaten far more quickly than you might expect. Of course, this being a Blais joint, the large tub of liquid nitrogen in the back has to get used, and it’s used primarily for milkshakes—I opted for one based on Nutella with torched/toasted marshmallows on top, which was excellent. As one might expect with Blais, not every experiment works, but when they do, they really do.
• Center for Puppetry Arts—Amy and I then headed to this Atlanta institution—we passed on the puppet shows, but did the Jim Henson tour, which tours the collection of Henson puppets and related things donated to the museum, including original Kermit, Ernie, Big Bird, Rowlf, Dr Teeth, and Pigs in Space puppets, as well as a bunch of stuff from other Henson projects—Fraggle Rock, Labyrinth, the La Choy Dragon. Included in the tour is the “tunnel of arms” from Labyrinth, which was staffed not with puppeteers, but with extras. One would hope they are now very proud of having had the opportunity to grab the young Jennifer Connelly’s ass and get paid for it. The other part of the collection is less impressive, and the “random puppet heads” room is seriously creepy. The Henson stuff is very well done, and I hope they find the space to show more of it.
• Watershed—This restaurant (out in Decatur) is a well-regarded temple to traditional southern cooking co-owned by Emily Sailers. As you’d expect from a Sailers-owned restaurant, the vibe is light and airy, rather than a crowded mess.While they apparently brought in a new chef about a year and a half ago to replace the highly regarded former chef, who left to pursue other interests, the food was quite solid—a massive pork chop was thick, meaty, but still tender (though a touch salty, which is often unavoidable when working with pork), the mac and cheese excellent, the collard greens good (I am not a fan, but these were nicely buttery), and the Very Good Chocolate Cake lived up to its name.

Not all of the trip was high points (the nearly 9 hours from checkin at the Atlanta airport till return to my home due to a weather mess in NYC last night was less than fun, and it was chilly all weekend), but still, a worthwhile trip.