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

Allison writes in…

Hi, DM! I’m a frequent reader and sporadic poster on the blog, and I have a question.

The nonprofit for which I work here in Decatur is curious about what free or low-cost meeting space might be out there in the Decatur area. Occasionally, we have meetings with more people than our tine conference room can hold, and we don’t have the ability to pay a premium for a big meeting space.

Might some of your readers have some suggestions?

The Solarium at Scottish Rite is one option if your event is free and open to the public, has a minimal impact on the Solarium grounds, your event doesn’t conflict with any prescheduled events or booked rentals.  Where else?

A great get for the Decatur Book Festival and Agnes Scott College!

According to Daren Wang’s Verb.org, the two Decatur orgs, along with Coca-Cola, will be hosting a free event on Wednesday, August 25th at 8pm with Muhammad Yunus, winner of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for his work with Microfinance, at Agnes Scott’s Presser Hall.

Yunus will be discussing his new book Building Social Business, which details his new initiative which the New York Times summarized back in May thusly…

In “Building Social Business: The New Kind of Capitalism That Serves Humanity’s Most Pressing Needs”, [Yunus] calls for creation of an alternative economy of businesses devoted to helping the underprivileged.

The way he envisions it, these companies would be run as efficiently as the for-profit variety. Unlike charities, they would make enough money to be self-sustaining. However, they would invest leftover money in expanding their humanitarian efforts rather than paying dividends to shareholders.

People “will be delighted to create businesses for selfless purposes,” Dr. Yunus predicts. “The only thing we’ll have to do is to free them from the mind-set that puts profit-making at the heart of every business, an idea that we imposed on them through our flawed economic theory.”

Intriguing.

Ashley writes in…

You may or may not know that Dekalb Animal Control is bursting at the seams right now with over 400 dogs and cats in the shelter. Many of them (over 60%) will be euthanized because there are just not enough people adopting pets. There is a serious issue in Dekalb County with the number of strays and neglected animals (of all shapes and sizes) who are not spayed or neutered – and so many end up dying.

A group has been started by individuals called Friends of Dekalb Animals. This group goes in and tries to save as many dogs and cats as it can and send them on transport up north to be adopted (the northern states don’t have this serious overpopulation problem the southern states are dealing with – but that is another issue. )

Regardless, we are trying to raise money to get 37 dogs out of Dekalb by early September and need some funding help to do so. If you could pass around to your friends and families, I’d be grateful.. even a couple of bucks will help save a dog from Dekalb. The website is http://www.friendsofdekalbanimals.org/ and you can donate there.

Maybe I’m just being dense, but why is the problem so much worse in the South?

Not to be confused with yesterday’s post about the City Schools Strategic Plan Kick-Off on August 31st, the City of Decatur’s 2010 Strategic Planning process – which 700 of us participated in during the first round – will move into “Phase II” on Tuesday, August 24th from 6:30p-8:30p at Decatur High Auditorium.

What’s “Phase II”?

Well, it seems that when you ask 700 people open-ended questions about where they live, they don’t tend to hold back.  So in “Phase II”, the city consultants will present a report on the findings from the round tables, introduce the new planning team and outline how folks can stay involved in the next phase.

Decatur: Where “being involved” means more than just yelling at annoying things out your car window.