Nothing like historic restoration and the promise of tasty beverages to catch my eye!

Creative Loafing’s Besha Rodell has a great piece in this week’s alt-weekly about the resurrection of “The Wrecking Bar”, the Beaux Arts Classical Revival-style mansion that’s been sitting vacant along Moreland Avenue at the edge of Little 5 Points, slowly being devoured by neglect since “The Wrecking Bar” antique store vacated the premises in 2005.

According to Rodell, the building is seeing new life thanks to Bob Sandage, who’s restoring the space and turning it into a brewpub and events facility.  (Don’t miss the photo tour! The brewpub will be set up in the basement)

The City of Atlanta’s website has a good history of this 110 year-old building, which is actually called the “Victor Hugo Kriegshaber House” after its original owner by historical types.  Here’s a blurb…

…the Kriegshaber house is one of the finest surviving examples of the great Victorian houses that have become increasingly rare in Atlanta. Often located along major thoroughfares, at least until the development of Ansley Park, Druid Hills, and Peachtree Heights Park in the early 1900s, these magnificent residences were built by the men who profited from the rise of the “New South” in the 1880s and ’90s, and then hired prominent architects to display their wealth in buildings. They have rapidly disappeared in the face of commercial development, urban renewal, and freeway construction. The Victor H. Kriegshaber house is an outstanding example of that type, significant for its original owner and for its architect, Willis F. Denny.

Photo courtesy of The Wrecking Bar’s Facebook page.

As one of the talks in the Decatur Metro-sponsored “Homegrown Goodness” track at the Decatur Book Festival, I was interested in seeing how Caleen Madigan’s talk on a hands-on pursuit like “The Backyard Homestead” would take shape inside a church.  Surely they hadn’t built a couple raised beds between the aisles of Decatur First Presbyterian, had they?

Thankfully not.

Madigan actually spent very little time talking about the physical labor and intricacies of keeping bees or chickens, planting asparagus or harvesting wheat.  Instead she spent a good deal of time reflecting on “Who are these new homesteaders?”.  (BTW, The “old homesteaders” are the 1970s back-to-the-landers.)

According to Madigan, the new homesteader is different in three ways.  They want to live in the city, not the country.  They want to use farming as an opportunity to create a community working towards the same goal.  And they want the literal fruits of their labor to be a “gourmet event”.

She also promoted foraging in the city and referenced nearby ginkgo trees and their putrid fruit; a list by Slow Food International called “The Arc of Taste”, which includes endangered Southern delicacies like the Ossabaw Island hog, Tupelo honey, Carolina Gold Rice and Sea Island Chickpeas; and that perhaps hunting invasive species was the next wave of the locavore movement.

Plant a tomato, save the world.  Kill a squirrel and eat it…save both the world and the tomato!

On Twitter, TheseGiants alerts us that Ale Yeah! Craft Beer Market is coming to Decatur.  A quick check of Ale Yeah!’s Twitter feed confirms it.

Decatur… full circle we have indeed come. Lease signed at 906 W College Ave. How sweet, the sound. Deets to follow.

In case you’re wondering, that seems to be the address of the strip where Avellino’s and Isabella’s are located.

What is Ale Yeah! Craft Beer Market?  From their website…

Our mission is to provide to all residents of the Metro Atlanta area the wonders of the art of beer, the magic of a beverage not simply as a means to an end, rather a process of profound beauty that through innovation and creativity can be enjoyed with cuisines from all around the world or simply in a social setting with friends and loved ones.

We will showcase an abundance of American craft beer as well as varieties from around the world that exemplify liquid perfection. We will carry bombers and also give people the opportunity to “build-your-own” 6-pack. We will also offer fine cheeses, cured meats and chocolates that compliment the experience of a perfect pint.

Also of note from their Twitter and Facebook feeds, it sounded as if the original plan was to open in East Atlanta Village, but a “zoning snag” didn’t work out for one reason or another.  So instead they’re coming to Decatur.  An all too familiar story and one that benefits Decatur every time!

This is turning into the year of the sandwich for Decatur.

Demanda pointed out this Atlanta Business Chronicle article last week in Free-For-All Friday noting that Pita Pit was coming to Decatur, but we didn’t have a location.

Oakhurst Realty comes to the rescue again.  They just sent me this tweet…

The Pita Pit to open in former Quiznos space – will be first location in metro Atlanta

Currently, Pita Pit only has Georgia stores in Valdosta, Savannah and Athens.  It looks to be a nationwide chain.

Hold your horses.  Here’s the link to their menu.

So I guess the old Quizno’s Plaza is now “Pit Plaza”?

A concerned parent writes in about a new experimental program at Winnona Park Elementary aimed at eliminating student “snacking” during the school day.  The parent wonders “How does one determine just plain old hungry vs. really hungry anyway?”

From the August 5th Winnona Park newsletter…

Snacks- Winnona Park is experimenting with eliminating snacks during the school day. Students who eat a substantial breakfast will consume an adequate number of calories to sustain them until lunchtime. And students that eat a complete lunch should be OK until dismissal. We expect to see an increase in consumption of food at lunchtime, which will reduce the amount of food wasted daily. As needed, healthy snacks will be available, if a student is really hungry.

However, after speaking to a couple of teachers in each grade level kids don’t seem to miss the snacks. Other than a few kids asking, “Hey, when’s lunch?” the students don’t seem to miss snacks at all.

Last I checked, we don’t refer to our neighborhood gardens as “local gardens” or “animal rights gardens” or “foodie’s delight gardens” or “weight-loss gardens” or even “environmentally friendly gardens”.

When friends and neighbors come together for any number of reasons and start a communal garden – as the late Sally Wylde and her then husband did in Oakhurst back in 1994 – it is first and foremost referred to as a “community garden.”

While the central tenet of “community” may seem glaringly obvious when looked at it in this specific way, this component is one that is often ignored in many of the larger conversations about “local food”.  Big picture questions about what it means, who it should be helping, and who it ultimately reports to.

As the popularity of “local food” has evolved out of the “Back to the Land” movement of the 1970s and entered the mainstream, it has quickly been claimed by nearly every conceivable “cause” in the country.

To the ardent environmentalist, local food is a way to wean ourselves off cheap energies like oil.  To those with great concern for animals, it can be an alternative to becoming a strict vegetarian.  For those interested in worker’s rights, it’s a way to support a local farmer, who isn’t hiring for positions so grueling that only the most desperate among us will apply for them.  To the “foodie” (“gourmand” if you’re old-school) it’s all about taste.  To the nutritionist, it’s the commonsensical respite from a decade of powerful, mainstream diet fads.  And so on.

However, the vast promise in the simple act of “eating locally” has also, in some ways, become its own Achilles heel.

Read the rest of this entry »

Allison writes in a comment…

McGowan’s Pub is now open for business next to Palate. The space looks great. The staff was very friendly, twenty beers on tap. Full menu will be available in another week.

I heard the same thing when I was down in Oakhurst on Friday night.

I had been in touch with Jill, the owner, who told me they would be open in a week or so.  I guess she meant they would be”completely open” – with a full menu and whatnot – in a week’s time.

No website yet that I can tell.  I’ll be sure to let you all know when it’s up.

From TicketAlternative…

We’re very excited to announce that tickets for 2010′s Decatur Craft Beer Festival are going on sale September 20. The event is set to take place on October 16 in downtown Decatur, Ga., and will feature more than 100 of the best local, national and international beers, as well as live music and food from local restaurants. Decatur truly is one amazing beer town, and this festival has a history of selling out pretty fast, so be sure to get your tickets for this incredible beer-lovers paradise.

Tickets remain at $35 each, according to festival’s website.  Also of note, “The festival is limited to the first 4,000 ticket holders. All tickets are sold online. No tickets are available for purchase at the gate.”

No beer list yet.

Nancy sends along this press release from the Friends School of Atlanta…

On Thursday, September 23, The Friends School of Atlanta (FSA) will hold an event called Food
Fundamentals for Healthy Kids and Communities that takes an interdisciplinary look at the food we eat and at
the Farm to Table movement that is growing in momentum in Atlanta and around the country. To be held on
the campus at 862 Columbia Drive in Decatur, the event kicks off a year-long speaker series to commemorate
FSA’s 20th Anniversary. The event is free and open to the public.

Beginning at 6:00 pm, FSA will screen a film called What’s on Your Plate?, a witty and provocative
documentary about kids and food politics that follows two inquisitive 11-year-old girls in New York City as
they explore their place in the food chain. FSA is grateful to State Representative Stephanie Stuckey Benfield
(District 85) for sponsoring this highly popular film at the school. Rep. Benfield is also the sponsor of a bill in
the state legislature to provide for a Farm to School program to encourage and solicit county and independent
school districts to purchase Georgia-grown farm products.

Read the rest of this entry »

So, we haven’t done one of these in a while.

And while we now know that people have some pretty strong opinions about where to find the best sandwich or the best burger in Atlanta, I can’t imagine that a bit of meat between to pieces of bread can bring out the passionate faithful like today’s topic: breakfast food.

AJC food writer John Kessler wrote a few months back that he was a big fan of the Thumbs Up on Edgewood, while others ranked Ria’s Bluebird Cafe or Social House as the city’s best morning nosh pit.

But that’s just one set of Decatur taste-buds among many.

So residents of the city of homes, schools and places to eat, where’s the best breakfast food in Atlanta?  Because dang if just writing this post has made me hungry for just about anything dripping in maple syrup.

“Heap” Photo courtesy of Esquire