Here’s my ~quarterly “I’m being a blogging slacker” excuse: this time, it’s paper-writing, thesis-formulating, and the beginnings of wedding planning. But I managed to take a break from all the busy work to hit up Taste of Atlanta last weekend. I actually was thinking of skipping the Taste this year, but then I won 4 VIP tickets from the lovely folks at Scoutmob, so I really had no excuse! So Mario, 2 friends and I met up on a beautiful Saturday afternoon to eat ourselves silly.

A lot of the vendors at this year’s taste were the same as last year (and were even serving the same menu options), so we were able to try a number of new things while still getting tastes of a few old standbys. One of my favorite plates from this year’s taste were the spare ribs with coleslaw from Jim ‘n Nicks Bar-B-Q, if for nothing else than the huge portion (that’s a clean bone in the back + the untouched one in the front):

Jim 'n Nicks Bar-B-Q

Jim 'n Nicks Ribs

Mmmm…tender, smoky, mouthwatering ribs. I want more SOON! A few more pictures after the jump:


Pommes frites with Bearnaise sauce from JCT Kitchen (delicious, though slightly oversalted):

Pommes Frites

Grilled artichoke with remoulade (delicious) and Shrimp New Orleans (didn’t get to taste, but got excellent reviews) from Bricktops:

Grilled Artichoke

Shrimp New Orleans

Pork cheek taco from The Iberian Pig (rather bland):

Pork Cheek Taco

Desserts from SunO (FANTASTIC!):

Desserts from Sun-O

We also got to see Kevin Gillespie from Top Chef do a cooking demo!

Chef Kevin

After our fun day at the Taste, I almost couldn’t believe I had considered skipping and wished I had tickets for Sunday too. I think in the future I’ll probably devote more time to the cool demos and less to standing in long lines…or just get there earlier.