Happy First Birthday, BHReview!

We made it! A whole year and 116 posts! Incredible how the time flies... We really weren't sure where this was all going to take us last August 26th, but we're had a great time and learned a lot. We first off want to thank you, our readers, for making this so successful (in our eyes). We just hit 20,000 views yesterday (not sure if that's a little or a lot in blogger terms, but in my terms it's awesome!), and we can't wait to see what another year brings.


Below are some of our favorite posts, comments, and highlights of the past year:

• Our most viewed post: Town Brookhaven Updates
• Our best traffic search term: 'Brookhaven Beer Festival 2011'
• Our most commented (controversial?) post: Atlanta Underground Market Review
• Our biggest traffic driver (besides organic google search): Twitter Click to follow us!
• Our weirdest/creepiest search term: "slutwalk dresden" I assume they landed on Dresden Walk, but I can only guess what they were really looking for...
• Our favorite post: Well of course we love them all (almost), but I think our most favorite are the ones about food, and our Holeman & Finch Burger post might take the cake (or burger) because first off, the burger was pretty incredible and secondly, the owner's actually read and commented on it! Which I think is pretty cool.

Hope you all have enjoyed our year of blogging, and please keep visiting to hear more about our great neighborhood! Thanks again,

Malory & Cory

Publix Curbside Service

Sometimes I really enjoy going to the grocery store, but other times it's just a pain in the butt! For some reason in the summer, when it's really hot out, I especially find it to be a chore. It's always hot and humid outside and freezing inside, and I always end up walking in with that "what the hell did I come in here for anyway" thought on my mind. 

So this weekend I decided to check out the somewhat new Publix Curbside service- offered at only three locations (two in Atlanta and one in Florida), one of which is at our fabulous new Publix at Town Brookhaven. Sunday morning I sat down at my computer, signed on to http://www.publix.com/curbside/ and went through my grocery list on the online store (see screen shot below).

After about 5-10 minutes of online shopping, I placed my order, and scheduled my pickup. While this service is pretty convenient, you do have to give them a 4 hour notice, so this isn't something you can just order at 5pm and pick up in 30 minutes. The latest time to place a curbside order (for same-day pickup) is 4:30pm and the latest you can pick up is 9pm. You may be able to call and place an order later, but it all depends on how busy they are. When I ordered at 10am, they ended up having my stuff all ready to go at noon.  And they did call to let me know an item was out-of-stock, and let me choose a replacement.

The BEST part about curbside service is not wasting time in the grocery store and buying extra stuff I don't really need (because I always go to the store hungry). I pulled up to one of the many available "curbside only" spaces (it was Sunday at noon and the parking lot was crazy), walked in the double doors (they can also deliver straight to your car if you have kids/pets), paid, and then they loaded up my car. The entire process took less than 5 minutes! The second best part of the service, is the current $17.99 discount they have at the moment. For the month of August, they are waiving the $7.99 curbside fee for all new service users PLUS you get an additional $10.00 off your grocery order when you tell them you were referred.

If you're considering using the service, I would definitely try it soon before the discounts are all gone!

LA Fitness: Special BH Review Discount!

It's open, finally!! And because we are so special, and because we think you guys are also pretty special, we have worked out a discount for our BH Review readers with the new LA Fitness at Town Brookhaven.

Here are our special discount rates:

• $0 initiation fee with a $39.99 monthly rate
• $99 initiation fee with a $29.99 monthly rate

Pretty nice! Of course there is always fine print- so here it is: When you sign up for a membership, you must pay your initiation fee (if any) along with a first and last month' payment up front. But besides that there is no contract! Now, to get this deal, here's what you need to do. Print this post out (or utilize your smart phone) and show/bring it to this location of LA Fitness and speak with Assistant General Manager Ameer Aziz. He is the only one that can give you this discount.

I got a really nice tour of the facility last night including their classroom space, cycling club, lap pool, weight area, cardio floor, racquet ball courts, volleyball/basketball court, 200 unit locker room (bring your own lock), etc.  There's a lot of working out to do there! If you're not quite ready to commit to membership yet, just pop on by and receive a free 3-day guest pass to use the facility. 

Beach season might be just about over, but football season is just about to begin so you better shape up!

La Fitness Open! (Well, maybe...)

I heard through Twitter this morning that La Fitness at Town Brookhaven was opening today (We had previously heard Monday...), so I jumped in the car and raced over there to find that it wasn't quite open... yet. The LA Fitness is located across from the Costco, and as I was walking up, all I could see were subcontractors walking in and out, and obvious last-minute construction going-on. I stopped by the sales office (located across from the Publix and next to Moes) and they told me that they are waiting on their "permits". I assume they mean their Certificate of Occupancy, but anyways, they said they are expecting it later today, or tomorrow (Saturday, August 6) at the latest.

Stop by today and enjoy the gorgeous (and gi-normous) new facility! Hopefully by the time you get over there they will be open officially to the public. Stay tuned for more information and photos!

Creatively Yours Offer & Contest

Are you an artist? That's fine, neither am I. But have enough cocktails here though, and you'll paint yourself a Picasso (he had to be drunk, have you seen his stuff?).  Either way, your husband will end up telling you it looks great and put it in the guest room closet. That's fine- the artwork is not the important part, it's the memories made with friends. Just look how happy we are (left).  Any way, if you haven't been to one of these drink while you paint establisments, now's the time- Creatively Yours (Cocktails & Canvas Owners) are offering a special discount of 25% off any of their painting classes or jewelry making classes for the month of August for the Brookhaven/Dresden location. Click this link, and print off a copy of the email to receive your discount.

They are also hosting a painting contest where they will pick one winner each month to have their painting featured as a class! The winner will receive 2 free spots to the class the night their painting is being taught. If you're interested in submitting a painting, please email taryn@creativelyyoursinc.com with a photo of your piece by September 1st. The winner will be announced by September 15th. Good luck to all our artistic readers out there!

Brookhaven Farmer's Market Vs. Brookhaven Farmer's Market

And the winner is... The Brookhaven Farmer's Market.

This has been a confusing time for us all, so let's shed some light on what happened and what is going forward.  As we discussed a few weeks ago, the new Saturday Brookhaven Farmer's Market (aka Chamblee Farmer's Market relocated- see photo left) has been very successful. Each week new vendors and customers are taking part in supporting local produce, food, arts, and crafts. Cory and I enjoyed our first trip to the market for their inaugural event a few weeks ago in July. Now, we had previously blogged about the "other" Sunday Brookhaven Farmer's Market (same name, different market), sponsored by a local doctor's office, that didn't fare quite as well in our book. Not as great location, timing, frequency, or selection, we weren't too impressed with this market. 

Now, some news: I received an email last week from the sponsors of that event thanking everyone for their support, and conceding defeat to the "new" Brookhaven Farmers Market (surprised?). Instead, they are hoping to start something this Fall called Sunday Lunch: "This would be an early afternoon event and will allow vendors to offer their goods as well as a family get together. It’s a trend that is popping up all over the country."

We will keep you posted about this Sunday Lunch idea (sounds like an afternoon market to me...). It is intriguing and I'm glad to see instead of competing, the other market is going in a different direction to provide ultimate benefit to residents. In the meantime, be sure to check out the Brookhaven Farmers Market every Saturday from 9am-1pm behind Haven/Valenza. I recommend you walk over there if you can, with your reusable bags, because parking is limited and walking is encouraged.