Omnivore Atlanta

As you probably know, Agnes and Muriel’s, the once very popular retro diner on Monroe Drive, moved not long ago to a building on Piedmont, across from Bones. It’s already for sale:

Agnes & Murial’s has just opened their brand new location in February 2009 at 3133 Piedmont Road, (Buckhead), Atlanta, Georgia 30305. Unbelievable hi traffic, hi density, very hi income location with super roadside visibility. Across the street from BONES and steps away from the intersection of Peachtree and Piedmont and near Lenox Mall…. Motherhood and personal reasons force sale of brand restaurant. Priced at $95,000.00 with Owner Financing. Name is not included in purchase but could be licensed or bought separately.

Check out the Shumacher Group’s website for pictures of the place. They ain’t purty.

I also notice that Harry Bissett’s, where I had one of the worst meals ever, has closed. Its location is for rent.

I’m sorry to see that Chocolate Pink, the pastry cafe next to Cuerno and Beleza in Midtown, is also on the market. It comes with its own apartment.

Please, I beg you: Buy me my own Popeyes.

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BETWEEN A ROCKERFELLER AND A HARD PLACE: The nostalgic oysters at Harry Bissett

When a friend saw me perusing the website for Harry Bissett’s (360 Pharr Road, 404-425-5995), he got excited. A Georgia Bulldogs fan, he’s eaten several times at the Athens restaurant, which has been serving New Orleans-style cooking since 1986. He was happy to learn that a clone of the restaurant opened here a few months ago. “You’ll enjoy it,” he promised.

I’ve never eaten in the Athens restaurant, but if the restaurant there is anything like the one here, my friend has either lapsed into a culinary coma or was playing a practical joke on me. I’ve seriously not had such an unpleasant experience in a restaurant in memory.

I don’t feel good about writing that this restaurant is a landmark in poor service and food, but the missteps were so bold and so obvious, we felt like we were watching very bad theater. The lead actor, the server, did such a miserable job that, halfway through the performance, I couldn’t look at him without flushing with embarrassment, much less point out to him his most recent error.

There was no crowd to explain the incomprehensibly bad service. On a Monday evening, the restaurant had only a few tables of diners and maybe eight people at the bar. This is generic space in a generic mixed-use building in generic Buckhead. Mardi Gras beads and a few other visual clichés make you suspect les bon temps are not going to roulez too good.

Not long after we were seated, our server appeared at the table and asked for our drink orders. I ordered my usual tonic water. I thought it might be an oversight that I received a lukewarm glass of tonic that was about half-full, with no ice. But the server twice replaced the glass during the meal in identical fashion. (more…)

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