Sorry Manuel's Tavern!

In my recent Pub Report I completely forgot Manuel's Tavern in the Virginia-Highlands neighborhood.

Manuel's will always be a recommended tavern spot. A great big tavern with a few different rooms that be be rented out, this is a great place to have a low-key event. We had our after-wedding pub party here and it was just what we wanted. The menu consists of the usual pub fare with burgers and sandwiches, but they also do entrees and semi-famous hot dogs. They also serve breakfast on the weekends. The veggie burger was better than average, but overall the food is average, filling, pub-fare. The medium-size beer selection is heavy on the American beers with something for everyone from Bud to Terrapin Ale. The local lager (602 N. Highland) is decent, and the usual beer imports are on tap like Guinness, Newcastle, Bass.

Dating back to the 50's. Manuel's also has some cool history- loads of local and national politicians and other famous personalities have graced this tavern. One of the few places in this neighborhood where you can see by the pictures and the clientele that the neighborhood and the city in general used to be quite different.

Manuel's: we salute this Atlanta institution!

The Pub Report

We've been to all of these pubs at least twice. And the list does not include Brickstore...that gets a whole post all of its own.

The pub round-up of Atlanta in no order:

Avondale:
(Recommended) James Joyce- Good food (Joycean named entries warm the cockles of my heart), Smithwicks on tap, large patio, smoking in bar, touch games machine (crack!), decent service, nice venue. There was some live trad music in the past, but of course drama ensued as it often does with musicians so no more Irish music. High up on the list, especially for families, groups, or people who do not want a scene.

Buckhead:
Fado (RIP- to be reopened January 2008)- The only reason to go to Buckhead; the great food, best Guinness pour, and the Monday night session all make for great reasons to go. The parking, the idiots who think they can dance, and the surly hot staff is a reason to be annoyed - but I'll take it if it means I can drink a pint with a very very good grilled salmon sandwich while trying to keep up with the super fast tunes.

Cabbagetown:
97 Estoria- Mediocre food, but the atmosphere is fun and low-key most nights even if I do feel I don't meet the tattoo requirement. The beer selection is so-so, and the cool neighborhood has not gotten too big for its britches. They also have a DJ some nights with good non-invasive music, a smoking room, and I have been present at a PBR tattoo contest. Nice neighborhood pub, if it was my neighborhood I'd be there.

Decatur:
(Recommended) Thinking Man- The food is mediocre to good: the rounds and veggie burgers are good, whereas the guacamole is horrible. The specials can sometimes be hit or miss, and they do have plenty of vegetarian options. The beer selection is good for its size, the 'starving artist' rotating tap may be the only time you can get crap beer the rest of the taps are filled with the usual snooty beer suspects: Guinness, a hefeweizen, local beers, a cider, popular microbrews like Flying Dog or Dogfish Head, with seasonal selections. The bottled/canned beers are an even greater variety with Old Chub and Chimay next to Miller and Becks. The real reason we recommend this pub is the voerall 'vibe'. We would pull our seats up to the bar, and at Thinking Man we just felt welcome. The crowd is diverse as far as Decatur goes (not just hipsters or young families), the staff is pretty cool with just the right amount of cynicism at the odd person who orders a JagerBomb/Cosmotini/Irish car bomb. We like the odd drunken old guy who talks at the bar to us just as much as we like watching the moped mafia mess around with their bikes and hip haircuts.

Corner Pub- Moved from its previous location due to arson a few years ago, the new location in the spiffy East Decatur Station is clean and pretty. At first the beer selection was iffy on the bad side, but they have expanded after those first couple of visits. The food is good, better than many in the area with wings as standouts. The veggie fare is good, the veggie Cuban making me crave the real thing; and who can beat PB&J? I never felt terribly comfortable here: maybe between the trivia night, darts, one pool table, theater and lofts next door; Corner Pub tries to be too much. The vibe was just kinda odd, and while everything is really above average we just never felt home here.

The Angel- Overpriced, less than good food, and generally useless service are the reasons I always try to steer people away. Yes, it looks all cute on the inside, and it has a patio, and its in downtown Decatur. The beer selection is not very English for an English pub, the entrees look good on paper but do not follow through, and I have sat at the bar for a good 15 min before someone even deigned to notice me in an empty pub. The music is also very hit or miss

Trackside- Cute, dingy, open crazy late, tables, smoky...Trackside is the closest thing to a dive bar in three zip codes. Do not ever eat the food unless your stomach is made of steel. The beer is your usual low to midbrow range, you can get Stella AND Bud. Sometimes the music can be crazy loud, but Trackside has cheap pool tables, karaoke, attitude, and late night drunk hospitality people. I think its awesome and I don't go nearly enough.

East Atlanta
The Earl- The Earl successfully manages to be a great indie music venue and a pub that you can feasibly hang out in when its not jam packed. The food is pretty good for a place that has one scary bathroom. The beer selection is fine, but not too high-brow. The scene can be anywhere from aging hipsters at the bar to hot young things showing off the newest retro-tee waiting for whatever side project of whomever related to some other local band to start playing. This place could easily be pretentious, and certainly many people are, but as a pub I'd totally haunt the bar stools if I lived near enough.

Gravity Pub- Peeling carpet, great jukebox, snarling staff, and decent beer. Apparently just now under new ownership, so I'm only talking about the handful of times I went in the past. I don't even think there was food before, so we'll have to see. I like the feel of this place, less showy than the Earl and you could actually sit down and talk most nights. I'll have to report back on the changes...

L5P:
Euclid Avenue Yacht Club- Dingy and small, this pub is still an institution with street cred that has withstood the gentrification onslaught thus far. I hypothesize that with L5Ps' cleaner image, it only has so much room for the 'unique' that used to be the standard. EAYC still fits the bill; not bad food for meat-eaters, decent beer, not much attitude from the scene; if I lived in the neighborhood I could definitely see this as my kind of place.

Brewhouse Cafe- This pub has three great things going for it: location is front of center for people watching in L5P, huge outdoor patio, and satellite TV for various games you may not be able to see with cable like the World Cup or rugby matches. The food is mediocre, the beer selection is slightly above average, and the crowd can be hit or miss: it may be full of drunken Emory students, soccer fans, or just gentrified yuppies from around the expensive block.

Oakhurst:
Universal Joint- When I lived in Oakhurst, I was here more often and it is a cool place but it just never really clicked. Very good veggie burger and good food overall, the beer selection is only ok, the scene is diverse and pretty chill with a good amount of dogs and kids due to the large patio.

White Castle vs. Krystal Or At Least the South Doesn’t Rise Again

I am often amazed with the obsession so many have with the Civil War, or War of Northern Aggression. Over a century later the impact of this conflict is still felt on both sides of the Mason-Dixon Line (The MDL) cementing certain cultural differences. Several of these deep and fundamental divergences have been well documented, sweet vs. unsweet tea for instance, but one area that has been largely ignored is Fast Food. “Fast Food?” you say? Surely, McDonald’s and Taco Bell are ubiquitous on both sides of The MDL nor does the King (and I don’t mean Elvis) let his domain be dictated by such delineations. However, these corporate giants are rarely where most turn for food after a night of heavy drinking. Either their hours are not amenable, the number of menu items too high, or the food too precarious for a liquor lined stomach. What to do? If you are too drunk to make it to a diner, or your designated driver is unwilling to inflict you on the staff, there is a fast food choice that will suffice: Krystal or as it is called across the Northern side of The MDL, White Castle. But are they the same? Herein we will explore these two fast food champions of the drunken food world and maybe just maybe in doing so we will heal some of our nation’s wounds and close the cultural divide across The MDL.


A few weekends ago I went to Kentucky for an amazing wedding of two very awesome people; so a special thanks to J & B who made this review possible. A wedding reception packed with graduate students promised to be an alcohol heavy event so like all good drinkers I looked for the “drunk food” places adjacent to our hotel room. There it was… White Castle. Prior to moving to Atlanta I had lived all my life in North Florida and had never had the opportunity to eat at the Northern equivalent to Krystal, a drunk food favorite of mine. A Krystal is small square burger with a thin slice of steamed ‘meat’, topped with onions (disturbingly referred to as “Flavor crystals” by some), dropped onto a flavorless bun, and served with mustard (which proves a subtle and vital “tang”) and pickle. Cheese is an additional option but is really not negotiable so for the rest of this article when I refer to the burgers I mean topped with cheese. In my opinion the Krystal should just come with cheese and you should have to ask to have it removed. Sober, these little burgers are greasy, salty, and frankly horrifying. Drunk, each burger has just the right amount of grease: A LOT. Remember that drunk food needs to hit you on the head with its flavor since your taste buds might be fine but you have become a goddamn idiot. Less than 4 burgers will probably not be enough while more than 6 will probably push a tumultuous tummy over the edge.

So how does White Castle stack up? With several hours to go before the rehersal dinner we sauntered over to the White Castle to give it the sober taste test. My first thought was the White Castle was a little less greasy, a little more salty, and the onions a little more flavorful. As sober food this was certainly a little better than Krystal and the addition of mustard from an available packet made this a tasty little snack. However, left to my own devices I would rarely (read as never) hunt out either of these joints for a sober meal so who really cares? How does White Castle stack up drunk?

After a great wedding reception and a bus ride back to the hotel I staggered over the White Castle and order six “slyders” (the Krystal equivalent) with cheese (They too don’t realize the necessity of the cheese on their burgers) then headed back up to my hotel room with a few packets of mustard. I tore through the first two, forgetting the mustard obviously, happy as a clam because I had my drunk food. However, when I started tearing into my third burger it hit me. The grease level was too low. These burgers were leaving me unsatisfied both emotionally and physically. This was not drunk food but barely passable fast food in disguise. Such deceit is not surprising from White Castle, a company which early in its inception paid young men to dress in doctor’s coats to trick the public into thinking their food was healthy since medical professionals dined there. In the morning I awoke to find I had only eaten four of the burgers and terrible heartburn, a phenomenon that does not occur from a feast of Krystals. That morning I also learned the origin of the nickname ‘Slyders’ for these burgers…. I will say no more on that subject.

In conclusion, White Castle invented these little burgers but Krystal perfected them for drunken consumption. The lack of grease makes White Castle burgers unsatisfying when drunk. The chain has also forgotten that drunk people are not going to take the time to add the mustard which their burger sorely needs. If White Castle really wants to step into the drunken food market they should start serving all their burgers with mustard after midnight.

Drunk Food

The bars/club/pubs have closed. You are starving or else your long-suffering designated driver is insisting that you eat something now. Your next move is very important but do not fear, we are here to help chose the manner of the culinary attempt on your life.

The main factor in choosing your late night stumble home snack is largely beyond your control unless you happen to live in a big city: you eat what’s open. In most towns where only fast food and pizza places are open late, you will learn to love the greasy pizza or the McDrunk Food. Regional variations abound; fried chicken shacks, Waffle House, and Krystal are much more common in the South. Out West, late night taco stands are popular (not always of the Taco Bell variety) and the trend is moving east. Yankees tell me about orgasmic meals at White Castle or some greasy mystery meat cart in the cities. Many people wax lyrical about diners like Denny’s or Perkin’s, which are especially popular with drunken groups intent on annoying the waitstaff. Here in Atlanta we have the Majestic which is more of a ‘be seen’ place than good food, its like an after party but you aren’t in danger of breaking anyone’s furniture while showing off your dancing skillz.

In Fort Myers during my younger years, I vaguely recall nights at Denny’s and a smaller chain called Jerry’s (which seems to be defunct). After about 9 pm different subcultures rested in an uneasy truce once the Moons Over my Hammy were served, but much like an 80’s teen movie where there were random Goths at the popular kids’ party: it just looked weird and unnatural. Jerry's had some mean mac and cheese.

In London, the drunk food I most often found the greasy remains of the next morning was from Dionysos across from the Tottenham Court tube stop. I find myself dreaming of those fatty chips smothered in a thick curry sauce rolled up in a newspaper to this very day. A general rule of thumb if you do happen to be drunk in London or pretty much anywhere in Europe so I hear; any late night shop that has the words ‘kebab’, ‘doner’, or ‘falafel’ will be full of drunk people. There are whole websites and blogs devoted to doner worship. Extra points if there is wordplay involved , Abra kebabra comes to mind with its ubiquitous Irish presence, or if an aristocratic title is somehow added to the name of the shop ‘Doner King’ or ‘Prince of Kebab’ for instance.

On occasion the quartet of the greasy, the fried, the savory, and the fatty can be pre-empted by another of my favorite drunk foods. Be it ever so hippie but Annie’s White Cheddar Shells with broccoli and yogurt really hits the spot without angering the gnomes that dwell within my intestines.