Brookhaven Farmers Market- Starts this Saturday!

The Brookhaven Farmers Market is opening this Saturday, May 5th! We attended this many weekends last year and enjoyed the likes of High Road Creamery, West Wind Farms, and other local vendors.

This year, opening day vendors include: Double B Farms (new!), Phoenix Gardens, Dillwood Farms, Harvest Moon, and Noring Farms. There will also be Watsonia Farms (organic fruit),  along with other newbies Dunwoody Honey, Mo' Mint & Thyme, Darby Farms, Happy Hogs, and One Screw Loose (love all these names!). Other activities include Chef Matt Swickerath (of the award winning Valenza Restaurant) will be demonstrating how to make fresh mozzarella cheese at 11am. 

The market also welcomes back Sweet Tea Factory, West Wind Farms, Mad Mama's Gourmet, High Road Craft Ice Cream, King of Pops, 2 Fun-Guys Mushroom Logs, The Cheese Course and Monica's Handmade Bath and Body.

For a full description of the Market, please visit read the market newsletter.

Revitalization of Briarwood Park- We need your help!

A group of community leaders in the surrounding Brookhaven neighborhoods have gotten together to create a "Briarwood Park Revitalization Project." Their goal is to renew interest in revitalizing the entire park. As we have previously blogged, the park is in need of some updating and refreshing. 

There is a very important meeting community meeting this Saturday (5/5 at 3pm) at the Briarwood Rec Center to discuss the options for this park. Our Dekalb County CEO, Burrell Ellis, will be in attendance, and the purpose of the meeting is to discuss the immediate and future plans for the Briarwood Park, which includes the pool, the two tennis courts, the rec center and playground.

With a meaningful commitment and support from the community, they fully expect the results will include a renovation of the pool, concession stands and bathrooms in addition to adding a gated entrance, privacy fencing and landscape buffer. Many of you may not know that there is already a new sprayground (children's water featured playground) opening this summer in place of the kiddie pool. The park has a lot of potential, and our community needs to come together so that the county sees how serious we are about utilizing it.

If you are available, please try to be at the Briarwood Recreation Center at 3pm this Saturday, May 5th. Everyone's attendance at the meeting will really help to support the effort to clean the park up and make it a safe, enjoyable place for residents to spend time. Come hear what the plan is for Dekalb County, and what the county has in terms of clear vision with allocated funding and specific improvements planned and available for review.

This outreach effort is being sponsored by the following community leaders:

• Rob Turner (Drew Valley)
• Ron Heller (Drew Valley)
• Jared Levitt (Brookhaven Fields)
• Jeff Beck (Ashford Park)

Hope to see you at the event!

Brookhaven Bolt- May 19th!

The 5th annual Brookhaven Bolt 5k Race is to be held on Saturday, May 19 this year at Village Place Brookhaven. There are opportunities available now to sign up for the race, donate or volunteer. Registration for the race is currently $25 (until May 13)- course map is below. This would be a great training race for those planning on running the Peachtree in July.

All proceeds are donated directly to Ashford Park Elementary School. The group is in need of up to 60 volunteers on race day to help manage the pre-race setup, the actual race, water stations, t-shirt pickup, and clean up.

If you are interested in being a part of this incredible event send an email to thebrookhavenbolt@gmail.com or fill out your contact information on their website at www.brookhavenbolt.com.

Brookhaven Beer Fest... Round 2

Hey! Do you remember last year's Brookhaven Beer Fest?  (Don't answer "no, cause I was so wasted" - we all know that joke, buddy.  Save it for your high school friends.)  Well guess what - the geniuses at Sprial Entertainment decided to do another one.  How 'bout that?  So if you're tired of travelling all the way to Dunwoody or Buckhead to drink beer at their lame festivals, get excited because Brookhaven is back, baby!  So far, all we know is that it's going to be on June 9th... so save the date.  Definitely more info to come on tickets and volunteer information.  Until then, cancel vacations, move some weddings around, quit your job, whatever you gotta do.  I don't care.

Brookhaven Public Library Circle Group

Photo courtesy of voices.com

If you are looking for some educational, free and fun entertainment for you and your child during the week don't forget that your local public library has a few programs for children during the week. The Brookhaven Branch of the Dekalb County Public Library hosts two circle groups for kids 3 years and younger during the week:

• Building Blocks (0 - 24 months): Read books, sing songs, and play during this 45 minute program. It's also a good opportunity for mommies to socialize during the week. Held every Tuesday from 10:00 am - 10:45 am.
• Toddler Time (2 - 3 years): Stories, fingerplays, rhymes, songs, and more specifically targeted to the developmental needs of toddlers. Held every Wednesday from 10:00 am - 10:45 am. Park behind the library and enter the building from the back as the library is closed during these times and that is the only door open.

It's a great way to meet other parents and babies in your community and start working on your child's literacy skills!

-Post by local Guest Blogger, Anne. Follow her personal parenting blog Licensed Professional Mom

2012 Brookhaven Arts Festival Call for Artists

The Brookhaven Arts Alliance is putting out a Call for Artists for this year's 9th Annual Brookhaven Arts Festival! The festival is being held on October 20-21st on Apply Valley Road behind the Brookhaven MARTA Station.

If you are interested in having a booth, please fill out the application and have it postmarked by June 10, 2012. Booth fee's are $125.00 and will go to marketing the arts festival.

A jury will be formed to ensure the 2012 Brookhaven Arts Festival retains the quality of its fine arts and fine crafts cultural event. If you have any questions please visit the website at www. brookhavenartsalliance.org or contact Gretchen Roberts at 404-210-4107. Sponsorship opportunities are also available Click here for more information.

Library 2012 Wine Tasting Dates

Cory and I have enjoyed attending a few of the monthly Library Wine Tasting events last year. While we were hanging out at Library Coffee Co last week, we noticed the 2012 wine dates and themes posted and thought I would share so you can get them on your calendars!

• Wednesday, February 8th: Old World Classics, Feauturing wines of Tuscany, Rioja, Champagne, Mosel, and other benchmark winegrowing regions of the world
• Wednesday, March 14: Pinot Night: Noir, Blanc, Gris, & Bubbles (who knew there were so many?)
• Wednesday, April 11: North Coast California, Napa, Sonoma, and Mendocino Classics
• Wednesday, May 9: Iberian Peninsula, Featuring Spain and Portugal

Brookhaven Preschools + Guest Blogger

Yes, loyal(ish) readers, you read that correctly- we're posting about Brookhaven preschools! No I am not pregnant (mom), but we do have an exciting new contributor to the blog! Meet Anne and her son Carson (isn't he adorable!)- Anne is a Brookhaven neighbor and friend of ours that recently moved to Atlanta from Virginia. She has her own blog Licensed Professional Mom, but shes also been doing a lot of research on things going on in the Brookhaven for children and families since she's new in town. Because Cory and I know next to nothin' about babies, we will let Anne handle this arena.

Hopefully we can get some regular posts to the blog about these topics that we haven't discussed in the past. So get super excited! Below is Anne's first contribution regarding preschools in our area. Who knew that you had to worry about stuff like this before your babies first birthday! Carson is only 7 months old and already enrolling in school... craziness. Hope you enjoy reading!

Alerting Brookhaven Mommies!
If you are considering putting your child in pre-school or a mothers morning out program this fall registration deadlines are fast approaching. Here is some brief information about a few programs in the area:

Oglethorpe Presbyterian Church Preschool:
Location: 3016 Lanier Drive
Director: Beverly Moon
Tours: Available - contact school to make an appointment
Website: http://www.opcbrookhaven.org/preschool.php

St. James Methodist Preschool:
Location: 4400 Peachtree Dunwoody
Director: Sue Hardrath
Tours: Available - stop by anytime between 9 am and 11 am M-F
Website: http://www.stjamesatlanta.org/programs/our-preschool-loving-place-learn

Wieuca Baptist Day School:
Location: 3626 Peachtree Road NE
Tours: Given Wednesday mornings at 11
Website: http://www.wieuca.org/dayschool/article115199.htm?body=1

Peachtree Road United Methodist Preschool:
Location: 3180 Peachtree Road NW
Website: http://www.prumc.org/

Brookhaven United Methodist Preschool:
Location: 1366 North Druid Hills Road NE
Director: Mira Black
Website: http://www.brookhavenumc.org/message2.php?topicID=1072&

Publix Curbside... No Longer!

We received this email (below) in regards to the Publix Curbside service... Not-so-long story short, ALL Publix's offering curbside will be canceling that service on January 28th, 2012. It's a sad, sad day for those busy professionals and parents with 18 kids. Instead of spending 30 minutes online shopping, you'll have to spend 30 minutes inside a Publix store... terrible!  In my opinion, curbside was a pretty neat service, but just tough to execute well. We tried it out when they first started last summer, and it's pretty cool to just pull up and have someone load all your groceries into you car, but just doesn't really warrant spending extra time online and extra money ($8). Plus I really enjoy going up and down the aisles looking at all the food and buying way more than I actually need.

See below for the notice to customers.

Dear Curbside Customer,

We appreciate your household being a customer of our Curbside service. We regret to inform you that as of January 28th, we will no longer be offering our Curbside service in our 3 Curbside test locations. January 27th will be the last day to place an order for pickup on Saturday, January 28th.

Before we approve a new product or service at Publix, we establish an expectation of financial, as well as customer service, results. While our Curbside associates have created many loyal Curbside customers, the number of consistent customers who chose to use this service was considerably less than required to meet our predetermined expectations. The majority of our customers love their Publix and still prefer to have the interaction with our associates. It's part of the customer service expectation we have created and the family environment we have fostered in our more than 80 years of service.

While we understand that you may initially be disappointed, we also know that your local Publix and Curbside associates look forward to serving your needs and making shopping a pleasure for you inside the store.

If you should have additional questions, please do not hesitate to contact your Store Manager.

Sincerely,
The Publix Curbside Team

January 2012 DeKalb Trash Schedule

We're getting a lot of hits for this, so here’s the Dekalb Sanitation schedule for the first week of Jan 2012

• No pick up of any kind on Monday Jan 2.
• Yard waste will be moved from Monday to Tuesday Jan 3.
• Regular trash will be moved from Tuesday to Wednesday Jan 4.
• No recycling pick-up for the entire week.

As we previously posted, Christmas trees can be put on the street for pick-up on yard waste days (Tue Jan 4 this week or Mon Jan 9 next week) if all decorations are removed and tree is cut into sections that are a maximum of 4 feet long.

Total 2012 Sanitation Dept holiday schedule is not yet available from the County.

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.  

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.

City of Brookhaven- Update!

Brookhaven Study Area Finalized

The proposal to create a new City of Brookhaven in North DeKalb is advancing, with the Citizens for N. DeKalb, an organization tasked with fundraising for a feasibility study examining potential costs and revenues for the new city, selecting final boundaries for that study. The entire study is due to be released shortly and we will release it as soon as it's published!

We know there have been some concerns with a few of the areas, including the neighborhood of our very own Stacy from StacyEats! State Representative Mike Jacobs has released a statement regarding the issues with some of the areas of the study map. In short, they have decided to exclude Century Center, so we will have to see how that effects the outcome of our cityhood... 

You can visit the Citizens for N. DeKalb Website to see the study area map (left) and read the related press releases and also see a great FAQ. 

PS- We totally apologize for the lack of posting... there's no great excuse for it other than being crazy busy. There has been a lot of great new things happening in Brookhaven lately with new shops and restaurants, festivals, and reviews. We will be trying to get back on the wagon (or is it off the wagon...?) and posting more frequently. It's been a great but busy past few months, but we haven't forgotten about you guys. Thanks for staying tuned!

We're Still Here!

Hello readers, we really must apologize in the lapse of posting, Cory and I have just been really busy traveling, working, and footballin'. Just because we weren't writing, doesn't mean there isn't still a lot of stuff going on in the Brookhaven area. We have a few posts lined up in the next few weeks, so stay tuned! Just to mention:

• Mom n' Pops is gone (save your tears) and a new Savi Market to replace! Updates when we get 'em
• Lots of new great stuff coming online in Town Brookhaven including CineBistro, AT&T Store (yay...), and the cool looking Brookhaven Gallery (affiliated with Brookhaven Arts Alliance)
• Brookhaven Arts Festival is coming soon! Oct 15th and 16th. We had a blast last year!
• Library Coffee Co is now doing trivia- stop by every Monday night at 7pm and enjoy some (pretty freaking difficult) trivia! We had fun at their first ever night last week (photo below- thanks Stacy!)
• Plus we have a ton of restaurants that we've tried that we will be posting reviews on. Malaysian/Thai infusion sound delicious?? Stay tuned!

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 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!