Maybe it was all a “surrealistic pillow…” maybe it was just a dream…maybe I got on the MARTA train and it got sucked up in the Vortex winding me in and out and up and down and sideways, floating through a Spaghetti Junction again and again and up into the heavens of Polaris while suddenly crashing into a pool of Piedmark Park until I end up half dazed and mostly confused in the haze of a Little Five Points watering hole.
I loved Atlanta and had a lot of fun during the 13 years while I was there. She opened her doors to me with welcoming arms, adventures and street smart savvy lessons which I keep in my purse to this very day. I was lucky enough to live in the city and I know it like the back of my hand. Buckhead seems to be the main attraction but the traffic just keeps getting worse and worse…When I lived in the ‘head there was still a Coyote Ugly and they would let you dance on top of the bar, if you wanted…(don’t ask me how I know that…) When I graced the stage, the Buckhead Theater was called the Roxy, and you could go and eat yourself a meal of free appetizers at Hal’s on Wednesdays after work and the The Rose Bar was called Beluga. Those were the good ole days of carefree and Scott’s Antique Market and daytrips down Antique Row and Greek food from Nick’s and the best barbeque from Fox Brothers and the Dekalb Farmers Market and Kudzu and downtown Decatur and Paris on Ponce and Habersham Gardens and Blakes and Berkhart’s and the Flying Biscuit, Return to Eden and The Rocky Horror Picture Show EVERY Friday night.
Atlanta is a very nice city despite the urban sprawl, traffic, and poorly constructed infrastructure. Some of the BEST restaurants and Chefs in the South are located in this bustling mecca of a town. My favorite Chefs without a doubt are Linton Hopkins, and Anne Quatrano, of Restaurant Eugene and Bacchanalia, respectively. The food scene, like so many other venues is farm to table and farm to table with a twist and local, local, local. The most amazing market I have ever been to in my life (aside from some markets in Europe) is the Dekalb Farmers Market. Not only is it huge, but the quality of goods sold there is impressive. The seafood market offers about a dozen varieties of oysters. If you want a whole fish, then it’s there. If you want lamb, beef, pork, sausage, veal, bison, you name it, it’s there. My Mom told me a while back that the grocery stores at home only carry mustard in plastic containers. At this wonderful market the shelves are lined with GLASS jars of mustard. Maille, sometimes Fallot, Stonewall Kitchens and other artisan gourmet varieties. And they are priced to sell! Oh to have a market like that in Wilson, NC…A country girl’s high falootin’ gourmet fetish dream come true!
I have enough photographs to do volumes of stories about my life in Atlanta. Honestly, it was fun while I was there. It’s great to be back home, taking care of Mom, driving down long winding roads of cotton and tobacco, and experiencing all the adventures that are unfolding in front of me. Go and visit Atlanta…truly worth making the trip.
***Note all images are copyrighted by Pamela C Armstrong
Pamela Armstrong 