This weekend, I ran out with friends to celebrate my thirtieth birthday at a couple of places where I’d like to spend more time. For whatever reason, my regular rut doesn’t include these venues, but it should. Or, more to the point, it would if I was smart.

>> Click to read about The Glenwood and the Highland Cigar Company

okay, if you read my personal blog you will know that i am a huge fan of football (alright, soccer for those of you who must) and manchester united in particular.

just wanted to remind you, know that the english premier league season is in full swing, and the draw has been completed for the uefa champions league, that atlanta has one of the best places in the world to take in a football match.

the brewhouse cafe in little 5 on moreland ave was nominated by the us soccer federation as one of the 5 best soccer bars in the country.

it’s everything you could want - multiple tv’s, great breakfast (don’t forget those english matches start early), great staff, and a great crowd.

seriously, come out and join us. the atmosphere for a big match can’t be beat and you’ll find intelligent, knowledgeable fans ready to teach you all you need to know about the game.

i’ll be there saturday at noon for manchester united vs sunderland.

details:

brewhouse cafe
401 moreland ave in little 5 points
list of matches shown available here

ps - they have wifi too, good for ‘telecommuting’ while watching wednesday afternoon champions league matches

i almost went to the free deerhunter concert at lenny’s friday night, but was so worn out after an insane experience at the midtown ru-san’s that we just couldn’t bring ourselves to go back out.

apparently it wasn’t the safest place to be.

according to a post on the deerhunter blog by frontman bradford cox:

We got a friendly homecoming suprise last night in Atlanta when Lockett and I got robbed at gunpoint after our show at Lenny’s last night. We literally had just walked off the stage and I was pretty wasted. Lockett was trying to take care of me and get me home. He grabbed my guitar and my stuff and we walked to his car which was parked about a block away from Lenny’s because it was so crowded. I heard a commotion behind us but like I said I was pretty out of it. I just opened the door to the car and collapsed in the passenger seat. Then I heard all this yelling and I hear this loud metallic banging on the window and look up and there is a gun in my face and a guy yelling “get the fuck out the car man” I stumbled out and see the other guy has Lockett with his arms spread on the roof of his car and is patting him down. Lockett was begging them to leave me alone. The guy put his gun up to my temple and said “give me EVERYTHING motherfucker I aint fucking with you” I just mumbled something and he put his hands in my pants and took everything I had. My cellphone, my wallet

yikes.

well maybe andy can tell us where the mayor was while one of atlanta’s favorite indie bands was getting robbed at gunpoint after a gig that HAD to have attracted some police attention.

h/t to jamsmooth for the heads up.

this monday my gf took me somewhere to eat i never would have found on my own. deep in the heart of southwest atlanta, just about equidistant to i-20, i-285 and the langford freeway is a little unassuming restaurant that sits on the south side of cascade road called very simply - the beautiful restaurant.

the place serves ’soul food’ if that’s what you want to call it; chopped steak, ribs, fried fish, chicken, cornbread, turnip greens, mac and cheese; and the like. and it is some of the best of that style of food i have ever had.

the food is served from a cafeteria-style line and there is no relationship to what is on the menu and what is in the warming pans; you just wait your turn and then tell the man behind the line what you want. for my dinner i got chopped steak, mac and cheese and turnip greens.
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East Atlanta Village has a new vegetarian restaurant, Cenci, and it’s really good! Yeah, when locals heard they were putting in another one, we were skeptical, (The first one was okay, but their decor was lacking, and it just wasn’t great enough to make you forego an Earl burger), but not half as skeptical as I was when I heard that they had vegetarian barbecue spareribs that actually taste a) good and b)like real ribs. Suuuure they do. . . .
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Things are finally happening in Glenwood Park. Things other than bocce ball. Slice is open. Vickery’s is open. Both seem to have their liquor licenses now, too. And, judging from the activity at both places this weekend, you all seem to be aware of all that.
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Our James wrote about Honey’s Kitchen a while back, but I had such an enjoyable breakfast there this morning, I thought I would do a follow-up. Since he wrote about it last August, the walls have been dressed up a bit; They are no longer plain white.

My service was great - friendly and accommodating. The food was nothing fancy, but just a solid diner two-eggs, grits, and a biscuit; exactly what I was looking for. With coffee, my bill was right at six dollars. The fact that there was no wait (like at, say, Thumbs Up, Ria’s, or God forbid you attempt to eat on weekends at the venerable Flying Biscuit?) is no indication of lack of service or good food.

Added plus: I walked right in, sat down at the counter, and they handed me a fat, unread Saturday AJC. I’m not a huge fan of the AJC, but for free? Hand it over. If you haven’t, you should check it out for breakfast or lunch on a Saturday.

Note: This is not a Bloody Mary brunch-type place. If you are looking for that, well, maybe I need to do a little research and do a Bloody Mary brunch post. For journalistic purposes only, of course.

On the flight back into Atlanta tonight, I was looking at Google News. They have an interesting new addition called News Archive Search. So, I decided to type in Atlanta. Of course, you’ll see the typical recent stuff but, you can select date ranges in the search as well.

If you visit the page, type in Atlanta, and select “before 1910″, some rather interesting articles come up. They all appear to be mostly pay-per-view but, this search does include more newspapers than our friendly AJC. The AJC has Stacks which is pay-per-view for older articles.

I was also reading about Georgia spending a few cool million to get ready for Civil War Tourism which they believe will pick up as the 150th anniversary in 2011 gets closer. In Georgia keying on Civil War anniversary to boost tourism, AP tells the full story. The Battle of Resaca is reenacted on the battlefield in North Georgia, May 18-20. | Official Site |

Useful Tuesday link: hotspotr

Nothing like free (and pay) wifi locations mashed up with Google Maps. Yum!

[Via Lifehacker]

photo courtesy of David Hunter

the people at the sopo bike co-operative in east atlanta have hit on a pretty cool fundraising idea. basically for a $25 donation from a local business plus material costs they will install a bolted-down bike rack. so tell me how this isn’t a bad idea? the business becomes more biker-friendly, the city becomes more biker friendly and the sopo bike co-operative gets a nice donation.

racks have now been installed at the gear revival, eat’s, manuel’s tavern and the videodrome, with more on the way.

you can see a flier here, and also a scorecard of local businesses that are participating here.

got a suggestion, send it along.

(found via bikehugger.com)