Decatur a Top 10 Finalist For Southern Living’s “Tastiest Town”
Decatur Metro | December 19, 2011Boys and girls, stretch those voting fingers. Linda Harris found this baby in her spam folder 5 minutes before tonight’s commission meeting.
Decatur’s been nominated by Southern Living’s editors and “seasoned experts” for its “Tastiest Town Award” and the competition is FIERCE (see below).
Large metropolises like Houston and Baltimore made the list, along with already famous food meccas like Charleston and New Orleans. For a city of just 20,000, this is truly a case where it really is an honor just to be nominated.
But that doesn’t mean we’re going to take this online vote lying down, right? Sheer population or regional reputation doesn’t account for everything when it comes to an online vote. It’s all about passion (and online linkage). So get ready, because we’re gonna give New Orleans and Charleston a run for their money. Right Mr. Kessler?
Stay tuned for your first reminder about this vote on December 23rd.
Not to be a downer or anything, but Decatur can’t hope to even lay a finger on New Orleans. No contest. Very cool to be included though…
Maybe the Southern Living editors will place some kind of premium on being able to eat without fighting the overwhelming stench of piss, vomit and horse crap, in which case New Orleans couldn’t hope to lay a scat soiled finger on us
So gross, wrong, and funny all at the same time.
Thus, you sum up JT
So true…
Wow, having traveled and eaten in almost every one of those other cities on the list, I’m at a loss on how Decatur even got on here. Decatur has some decent restaurants, but they don’t compete with restaurants in those other cities. Still, like the other commenter noted, cool to be included.
For all the naysayers/skeptics, I think Decatur is looking pretty good considering the relative concentration of excellent restaurants in proportion to the size of each city.
I volunteer to take the judges for an idiosyncratic tour throughout Decatur. In return I ask only that I can visit those other cities with them.
The interesting/perplexing aspect to this list is that Atlanta did not make it but Decatur did. I love Decatur, but I can’t make a case for that. And Birmingham but not Atlanta? Sorry, no way.
Isn’t Southern Living’s publishing company based in Birmingham ?
I am a Decatur homie as much as anyone… but this nomination seems a little odd. OK, very odd. We are just not in the same league. A burg of 20,000 competing with large cities?
The next question is: Which of the Southern Living editors live in Decatur?
Awesome! Decatur definitely deserves to be considered.
Feast, Wahoo, Cakes and Ale, Iberian Pig, Sapoli di Napoli, No. 246, Leon’s, Brick Store… love it!
Don’t forget Dairy Queen
I won’t ever forget Dairy Queen. A Decatur establishment for as long as I can remember.
If its done as a per capita thing then Decatur could fit in with these other towns I think.
I’m going with Bob and guessing we have a major foodie living here or dating someone who lives here .. love all the mention of our favorite restaurants though, and if enthusiasm wins contests, then we got that in spades!
One of the things that Decatur has over many of the others is freshness of the scene. 246, Cakes & Ale, Iberian Pig, Leon’s–all great and innovative foodie destinations that hold up to any place all those huge cities, and all opened in the last three years. That would be an amazing outburst of culinary innovation for a big city, but for a town with 20,000 people, it’s astounding.
I predict the Courtyard by Marriott is going to be a host to something of a similar caliber. They are aggressively searching for an occupant for the long-unused restaurant space, and I’ve heard of one or two quite interesting and famous chefs that have come to look at it.
By the way, does anyone know what’s happening at the old Cakes and Ale space? I thought I saw some work going on there.
I’m pretty sure Heliotrope is just using it as storage for the holidays, but I haven’t asked Tommy.
I was thinking that this was Heliotrope’s seasonal storage space as well.
A Southern Living writer was in Decatur four to six weeks ago, apparently doing restaurant research. He was alone at the time and absolutely from out of town — I believe New Orleans — and he certainly didn’t know his way around Decatur.
I agree that Decatur doesn’t rate with many of these big cities, but few places have so many excellent restaurants in such close proximity.
Interesting about the Southern Living writer. I was sort of curious why the Decatur description was the only one that listed multiple specific restaurants and the DeKalb Farmer’s Market.
Tommy just confirmed that he’s using the old C&A space for overstock for the remainder of the year.
Drat to Heliotrope using the space. Of course, I hope it means business is good for them, but I was excited about that historied spot starting up again.
And since YDFM is outside the city limits, he was obviously from out of town….
Speaking of the YDFM not being in the Decatur city limits, on Sunday I overheard a customer arguing with an employee about whether “Decatur allows beer and wine sales on Sunday.” Given the employees limited English skills, I just had to tell him, “Sir we are NOT in Decatur!”
That is so funny!
Let’s examine how Decatur differs from the typical city, shall we?
The typical city model is for the local Chamber of Commerce and other boostering folks to come up with why they’re a great destination, then try to convince the outside world — often to puzzled looks and scratched heads.
In Decatur, the outside world tells US why we’re a great destination, and WE react with puzzled looks and scratched heads.
Nice problem to have.
I actually think that this is part of the key to Decatur’s success. When city leaders leave this town and take the show on the road, they’re universally applauded and treated like sages of urbanism. This is great and well-deserved. But I’m sure many of them would agree that this adoration could also prove dangerous if left unchecked. The beauty of Decatur is that it checks itself in so many ways. When you’re far and away the state’s example of successful pragmatism you have no one left to challenge you but yourself to get better.
Luckily the city’s residents, staff and elected officials are up to the task.
What Decatur does not have is extremely low taxes, which has been touted as the key to progress. Discuss among yourselves.
Trickle up economics?
Excellent point. But can you be a little bit more detailed in your comment? I don’t want to address the wrong thing. Right now I’m thinking that you believe that the higher taxes aren’t a good thing. Is that right?
I got the opposite sense. That Knitter is poking fun at the low-taxes-fixes-everything crowd.
Either way, show me an urbanized place committed to the organizing principle of “extremely low taxes” and I’ll show you a place that’s either got lower quality of life, lower economic prospects or is carrying deferred infrastructure maintenance liabilities to inevitably come due in dramatic fashion.
Of course, I could be wrong…
Your sense is good, Scott, also Another Rick.
Speaking of “extremely low taxes” and deferred infrastructure coming due in dramatic fashion…
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9RL5TDG0.htm
If lowering taxes for corporations is a key to growth, the State of Georgia should be booming, But the opposite has happened.
” The beauty of Decatur is that it checks itself in so many ways.”
Excuse me? After living here for 30 years, the thing that annoys me most about Decatur is how self-absorbed and self-congratulatory it has become. Perhaps the humility and “who, us?” attitude you described existed years ago (before there was much to crow about), but it’s long gone. This town is WAY full of itself, and I worry that, as the Good Book says, “Pride goeth before the fall.”
Still, I haven’t found anyplace I’d rather live, so here I am.
Here’s how the Top 10 were selected according to the Biz Chronicles folks…
“The magazine’s editors chose the top 10 based on the following criteria: Food as a cultural identity, growth of a culinary minded community, diverse cuisine at a variety of price points, local and sustainable food practices, hot chefs on the rise, and an abundance of buzz-worthy food events”
Southern Living has always included Maryland in its… whatever you call what SL does. I think they include Oklahoma, too — another state that probably doesn’t think of itself as the South. Anyway, SL is so square that I wonder if they’re including Decatur to up their hipness quotient a little.
I think SL’s squareness is that variety that (1) doesn’t acknowledge “squareness” and (2) wouldn’t give a hoot if it did.
Maryland is in the south?
JB, I believe you’ll find that the famed Mason-Dixon line forms the border between Pennsylvania and Maryland.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mason%E2%80%93Dixon_Line
I’ve always been confused on this too. I think the explanation is that, while Maryland IS south of the Mason-Dixon line so slavery was legal there before the Civil War, it did NOT secede from the Union. Or do I still have it wrong?
So whether Maryland is “southern” or not depends on how you define the term. I know that Baltimore is always described as being Southern in flavor. But much of suburban Maryland is northern in feel. The Delmarva area feels like the Jersey shore minus Atlantic City. Before air conditioning, I think Baltimore and D.C. were as hot and humid in the summer as Atlanta and hence considered southern.
Speaking as a former Marylander, we may be south of the Mason-Dixon, but we sure don’t consider ourselves ‘in the south’. Just like in the war, we are just kinda there, not in the south and not in the north.
I know is puerile of me, but I giggle a little whenever I see the name of Birmingham’s Frank Stitt.
Borrowing from Wayne & Garth: “We’re worthy! We’re worthy!”
It’s great to get nominated, yes– but where’s our competitive spirit?? We should be saying, “Oh, it’s on, mickey-fickeys, IT’S ON!!! Get out the vote!!!”
(And yes, SL’s headquarters are in Birmingham, to the poster who inquired about it…)
Indeed! I bet we’re #1 in lack of apathy about such a vote.