I spent about 4 days in north Georgia. Specifically, I was in Athens, Lake Lanier, and Alpharetta. I love all of those places. Athens -- what's not to love. Lake Lanier - beautiful scenery. Alpharetta - great shopping. In Athens I found a restaurant that I love but had not visited in years -- The Grit. If you have not tried it, try it. If you have tried it, you will undoubtedly agree that it is one of the most unique places in Athens. It's a vegetarian restaurant. (My husband does not believe that the word "Vegetarian" and the word "Restaurant" should be used together in a sentence.) However, The Grit not only has unique, delicious vegetarian dishes, it has the most delicious, huge pieces of wonderful cakes and pies. For lunch friday, I ordered hand-made hummus with pita points and fresh veggies and a huge piece of caramel, brown sugar cake. Oh my goodness, I am happy just thinking about that delicious piece of cake. I think each piece costs about $7, but I don't care if they charge $70. The cake is worth the price. Of course, you don't have a unique, vegetarian restaurant in a university town without the waiters and waitresses being unique. Lots of tattoos, piercings, funky braids, fishnet hose, black-dyed hair, and trendy hats. I love the scenery.
When I got to Lake Lanier, the pace was much slower than Athens. The lake is so beautiful and the friends I spent the night with were gracious hosts. I love their house on the lake. Not only is the house especially beautiful, but the setting is a bit like paradise. Of course good friends and great hospitality make the scenery even more beautiful. Thanks to my Lake Lanier buddies for a wonderful weekend.
On the way home, I stopped to do some shopping in Alpharetta. If you have read all my blogs, you know that I have some shopping challenges. Not really challenges, I can shop for great items for my house, but it's the clothes shopping that makes me crazy. But, I found some great shops and had a very productive day of shopping. I will admit, shopping is just different in metro Atlanta than it is in south Georgia. No surprise there, but even the shops that are located in both metro Atlanta and south Georgia are not equivalent. Note to the buyers for the stores: Send more of those cute items to south Georgia. Metro Atlanta has plenty of stores to choose from. We need cute stuff too!
On the way home, I stopped in Alpharetta and had lunch at Figo Pasta. This particular Figo just opened and is off the beaten path close to North Point Mall. Couldn't get there again if I had a map. It was just one of those finds that happens when you get off the Interstate. I had the most delicious coconut, ginger soup. Sounds confusing, but the blend of flavors made me almost lick the bowl. I also had an Italian ham panini. The food was so delicious that I sent a text back home to let people know about the great meal I was having.
Now for the tea. I ordered a half sweet/half unsweet tea. I knew as soon as the nice young waitress put it on the table that we had a problem. I was completely certain that the amber colored concoction with the straw sticking out was not my usual black pekoe tea that most southerners drink (I am sipping on a nice glass of black pekoe tea as I blog). I wasn't even sure that it was tea. Therefore, my question to the nice waitress took this form: "Ma'am, what am I drinking?" You will never believe what they had done to the tea. She smiled and said "blackberry half and half tea." That's just crazy. Blackberries belong in cobbler, not in tea. The tea (I use the term lightly) was not all that bad, but geez give a girl a little warning if you are going to spike her tea with wild berries. I decided to go with the flow. When in Alpharetta, do as the Alpharettians do -- drink blackberry tea with coconut/ginger soup and Italian ham paninis.
I love to visit north Georgia, but coming home to sweet tea, ham biscuits, and home made pound cake is always nice. What is the most unusual meal that you have enjoyed while traveling in Georgia?
I enjoyed the Tour of North Georgia.
ReplyDeleteI am always so amazed that people don't know about good ole fashioned sweet tea the further up you go. When you go even farther up, they don't even sweeten the tea at all. "What's up with that?"
I would have been very shocked to have been given a fruit flavored tea when I had not specifically ordered it.
I enjoy my very rare visits North, but there is no place like home.