Pier 1- Moving!

The Pier 1 at Lenox (across Lenox Road from Macy's) is moving down the street to Piedmont/Peachtree area. Their relocation has sparked a Moving Sale! Everything is now 20-40% off- so if bold furniture and tacky housewares are your thang (I kid...) then hit this sale up. Of course you could always wait about 4 weeks until everything is 50-70% off and really get some deals...

Old Brick Pit BBQ

It has been a very long time since we've posted about any restaurants on here.  Believe me, it's not because were not eating, in case you were worried.  Sadly, we've been a bit less adventurous and have really been sticking to what we know (ie. Panahar and El Senor Taco have been frequented many times in the last couple months).  Either way, a goal for 2012 will be to bring to light more restaurants in the Brookhaven area (new & established) that you may or may not have eaten at already.  Not that we are experts on the matter, just because we like talking about what we eat and taking pretty pictures.

I don't know if you've ever driven down Peachtree Street heading up to Chamblee (chances are you might have) and noticed this restaurant that looks like an old barn named, Old Brick Pit Barbeque (actually, the sign just says "Bar-B-Q").  Well I've passed it for years, always curious about the quality of barbecue it produces.  It flies relatively under the radar as far as barbecue in Atlanta goes, but still I felt that we should talk about it since it's been in Brookhaven since 1976.  They close around 7pm and I don't work in Brookhaven to grab lunch there, so it hasn't ever been a destination for us to try.  But being home this week, I happened to be passing by and decided to give it an impromptu visit (hence the crappy phone pictures).

Overall, the menu was pretty simple as far as barbecue goes and frankly, I feel that's the way it should be.  As far as meat goes, they offered regular chopped pork and pork ribs (and chicken apparently - I missed that).  I opted for a half slab of ribs (above) which were excellent.  Very tender and spiced just right - the meat pretty much melted off the bone.  The sauce is a vinegar-based sauce which, if you classify your barbecue by state, would make it North Carolina style, which isn't my favorite.  But I will say that it wasn't too runny which is usually what I dislike most about vinegar-based sauces.  Below is the BBQ plate that a friend let me snap a picture of.  Apparently the Brunswick stew was excellent - enjoyed by everyone at the table except me so I was upset I missed out on that.  

I can't say it was the best barbecue I've ever had but it definitely will cure a craving now and again - especially being so close.  I'm glad I finally got a chance to try it as I've been passing it for years, always wondering how it's still there and no one ever seems to be there (I apparently never passed it during lunch, it was extremely busy!).  People are always particular about what kind of barbecue they like or how they think it should be prepared so every place is worth a visit in my opinion.  

DeKalb Christmas Tree Recycling

Merry Christmas! Hope you are all having a great holiday. As the kiddies start to calm down and the trash starts to pile up, its time to think about what to do with that darn Christmas tree. Keep DeKalb Beautiful has brought back their "Bring One for the Chipper" event Monday, Jan. 2 - Saturday, Jan. 7. again this year. DeKalb residents receiving sanitation services can place their tree at the curb for pick-up on regular yard debris collection day.  

Trees should not exceed four feet in length for curbside pick-up. The recycled trees will be chipped into mulch or used as wildlife habitat. Mulch is used for public beautification projects and is free to DeKalb residents (stay tuned for a review on this service for our spring landscaping project!). 

If you do not receive curbside sanitation services, Christmas tree recycling drop-off locations are listed below:

Drop-Off Locations

• Seminole Road Landfill: 4203 Clevemont Road Ellenwood, GA 30294 (Monday - Friday, 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. and Saturday, 8 a.m. - 4 p.m.)
• Home Depot: 2295 Lawrenceville Highway Decatur, GA 30033
• Home Depot: 4343 Tilly Mill Road Atlanta, GA 30360
• Home Depot: 4325 New Snapfinger Woods Drive Decatur, GA 30035

Sunday Alcohol Sales... Continued...

Thanks for the update, Kroger. And thanks for the photo, Stacy!

As we previously posted or as you may have seen at the polls back in November, Dekalb County chose not to play with a Sunday alcohol sales vote- it wasn't even on the ballot for those in unincorporated DeKalb. However, these DeKalb County (and neighboring) cities all voted AND passed Sunday alcohol sales:

• Atlanta (Fulton)- Sales start Jan. 1
• Avondale Estates*
• Chamblee- Sales Start Dec. 25
• Clarkston*
• Decatur*
• Doraville*
• Dunwoody*
• Lithonia
• Pine Lake
• Sandy Springs (Fulton)*
• Stone Mountain*

Some of these cities have started sales already on Sundays (earliest they can sell is 12:30pm)- those cities/counties that have already started are marked with an '*'. Others are still trying to figure it out, or have it scheduled.

Here is a FULL list of everywhere you can buy, and when:

• Acworth: Dec. 4
• Alpharetta: started Nov. 20
• Atlanta: Jan. 1
• Auburn: started Nov. 20
• Avondale Estates: started Nov. 20
• Ball Ground: Feb. or March 2012
• Barrow County: Nov. 27
• Berkeley Lake: No licensed businesses in city limits
• Braselton: started Nov. 20
• Canton: Dec. 11
• Cartersville: Dec. 4
• Chamblee: Dec 25
• Cherokee County: Public hearing on 12/6 to amend ordinance
• Clarkston: Dec. 11
• College Park: started Nov. 20
• Covington: Dec. 11
• Dacula: City council takes up on 12/1
• Dalton: Dec. 4
• Dawsonville: started Nov. 20
• Decatur: Nov. 27
• Doraville: Dec. 4
• Duluth: started Nov. 20
• Dunwoody: Dec. 4
• East Point: started Nov. 20
• Fayetteville: Dec. 4
• Flowery Branch: started Nov. 20
• Forest Park:
• Gainesville: Dec. 11
• Grayson: started Nov. 20
• Griffin: started Nov. 20
• Hampton:
• Hapeville: Jan. 1
• Hiram: Council did not take up at November meeting
• Holly Springs: Jan. 1
• Hoschton: Dec. 18
• Johns Creek: Jan. 1
• Jonesboro: started Nov. 20
• Kennesaw: Jan. 1
• Lake City: Jan. 1
• Lawrenceville: started Nov. 20
• Lilburn: Jan 2012
• Lithonia: Council meeting to address on 12/5
• Locust Grove: Council to address in December
• Loganville: Nov. 27
• McDonough: started Nov. 20
• Milton: started Nov. 20
• Newnan: started Nov. 20
• Norcross: Jan. 1
• Peachtree City: Dec. 4
• Pine Lake: Dec. 2011 or Jan. 2012
• Riverdale: Jan 1
• Rockmart: Jan. 2012
• Roswell: started Nov. 20
• Sandy Springs: started Nov. 20
• Senoia: started Nov. 20
• Smyrna: Jan. 1
• Snellville: started Nov. 20
• Stockbridge: Jan. 1
• Stone Mountain: Dec. 11
• Sugar Hill: started Nov. 20
• Suwanee: started Nov. 20
• Tyrone:
• Union City: started Nov. 20
• Villa Rica: started Nov. 20
• Winder: started Nov. 13
• Woodstock: started Nov. 20

Panahar- Holiday Feast!

If you are like us, just about the time you've had enough ham or turkey or whatever you eat around the holidays, you start to crave ethnic foods.  And when I crave ethnic foods, there's only one place that comes to mind.  You guessed it - probably the #1 featured restaurant on this blog... Panahar Bangladeshi.  Our friends Stacy and Chris shed some light on an interesting holiday feast Panhar was offering so we teamed up this weekend to try out Panahar's Holiday menu extravaganza. This was our first time trying one of their set menus- they usually have these over the Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years Holidays and Mother's day. Below are all the details:

Friday, 12/16 - Sunday 12/18 & Tuesday 12/20 -  Sunday 12/25 (They are closed on Mondays... :))

First Course

• MOORGEER TIK-KA SHINGAARA: Chicken Ti-ka sautéed with grilled onions and spices, in triangular whole wheat puffed pastry. 

Entrees

• KALOJEERA LAMB: Lamb marinated in ‘black cumin vinegar’; and sautéed with fresh ginger, garlic cloves, fresh chopped onion, whole black pepper, whole cardamom, cinnamon, whole red chili, cloves, etc. 
• KODOO CHINGRI: ‘Chingri Maach’ (shrimp) & ‘Kodoo’ (Opo Squash) cooked with turmeric, ginger, onions, & garlic. 
• MISHTEE KOOMRA MOOGAYR TOK-JHAAL: Cubed ‘Mishtee Koomra’ (calabasa) cooked with ‘Moog Daal’ (yellow lentils); with different herbs --- slightly spicy. Chef’s special recipe creates a spicy, sweet & sour combination taste. 

Rice

• SHOBJIR BIRIYANI: Aromatic ‘Baash-motee’ rice sautéed in ‘ghee’ (fortified butter), with green peas, carrots, cauliflower, potatoes, cut green beans, zucchini, sweet corn etc. 

Bread

• ROSHOONI NAAN :Soft unleavened hand rolled white flour flat bread topped with roasted freshly minced ‘Roshoon’ (garlic) --- baked in the ‘Tondoori Clay Oven’. 

Dessert

• GAAJORAYR HAALOOWA: Bangladeshi carrot cake, with shredded coconut, ’Mawa’ (milk whey), raisins, pistachio, and cream. 
• MISHTEE DOI: Homemade baked Bangladeshi ‘Doi’ (yogurt), made from milk sweetened with honey.

Drinks

• Unlimited Champagne
• Unlimited King Fisher Indian Beer

All of this for $24 a person! Stacy did a great job showcasing all of the dishes from that night (thanks for the photos!)- we did get extra Pakoras and a great Broccoli dish (our favorite of the night, specially made for Stacy since she's a vegetarian). Overall we enjoyed it, but I much prefer ordering off the regular menu (need that Korma fix!). We did have to wait awhile to get our food, which is typical with Panahar, but it was even worse this time. The restaurant was packed- not an open seat anywhere, plus we had a late reservation (8pm), so I think the combination of all of that probably made for the hour wait for our food.  But all the free beer and champagne made up for it. 

If you do go during this holiday time you can still order off the regular menu, so don't worry. Plus it's still BYOB! Enjoy.

Pour- Soft Opening This Weekend!

Pour Wine Bar, located in the Village Place Shopping Center (Verde, Library Coffee, Kaleidoscope), has been closed for the past few weeks and has now reopened under new ownership! Tonight (Friday) and tomorrow (Saturday), they are having a soft opening with wine, craft beers, and free tapas.

Pour is no longer a wine/beer store + wine only bar, it is now a tapas and wine and craft beer bar (and per owner, eventually a full bar). This is probably a great move on their part- our first and only experience with original Pour wasn't super fab with no food and staff that knew next to nothing about wine. Hopefully new Pour will have some great tapas and maybe throw in a wine tasting event every now and again to rival Library Coffee Wine Tastings.

Brookhaven Arts Sale

This Saturday, December 10th from 11am - 4pm join the Brookhaven Arts Alliance for their annual Brookhaven Arts Sale.  Shoppers can peruse fine art, photography, pottery, folk art, jewelry, and more at prices 50-75% off the retail value.

Atlanta’s newest food truck, Ibiza Bites, will also be on hand, offering a new style of cuisine it calls “SoLa” ̶ a little bit South American, a little bit Latin American, a little deep South and a whole lot of delicious. Ibiza Bites was recently filmed for the Cooking Channel’s “Eat Street”. The Brookhaven Art Sale will be held at Brookhaven Self Storage, 2740 Apple Valley Road, Atlanta, GA 30319. See invitation below!

Dresden Walk + Brookhaven Overlay Ordinance

Months ago we blogged about Dresden Walk- a development going in across from Village Place (Kaleidoscope, Verde, etc.). Looks like our post was pretty close to the mark! This week the Atlanta Business Chronicle posted about the new multi-family apartment complex that Hines is planning on launching. This will not be a a condo complex as we previously had heard (Brookhaven Two), but will be a more appropriate (for the area) apartment building. The building will be a 215-unit complex. Not sure if any mixed-use areas will be incorporated, but with the crazy overlay and zoning ordinances they will most likely have to.

The Brookhaven Overlay Ordinance is a design/development guideline for new buildings (or major renovations) in our area- mainly focused along Peachtree (see map to right). Released in 2007, it calls for developments to comply with certain rules such as:

• Pedestrian-Friendly 
• Street-Fronted Buildings
• Minimum of Two Stories
• Landscape & Hardscape Requirements (see image below)
• Parking Requirements
• And many others- to read the full overlay ordinance, you can download a PDF of the document- enjoy. 

If you are curious as to why certain developments (like the MARTA parking lot redevelopment) have taken so long, or why Savi Market still looks a hell of a lot like Mom n' Pops, the Overlay is probably the answer. Not always development friendly, they are still a great way for local neighborhoods and communities can have some control over how their area looks, feels, and what it attracts, just can take a lot longer to get a property redeveloped. There are definitely pros and cons, but if analyzed, planned, and executed properly overlays can have a tremendous positive impact on the surrounding community.