“What’ll ya’ have?!” ~my new favorite folks at The Varsity
What a great weekend I had in Atlanta! Not only because the food was great, a few bucket list items were ticked off, but also because, after this being my second visit, I find Atlanta to be one of the friendliest and prettiest big cities I’ve visited. I love Atlanta!
It was always going to be a quick visit: leave Friday after work for a nice direct flight from SAT to ATL, and head back the same way on Monday morning. What would we do in between those flights to and fro? The small plan was to have some good food, good drink and an even better time walking the beautiful tree-lined streets of Midtown and downtown, while the bigger plan was to tick off two major things on the old Elda bucket list: eat at The Varsity and visit The World of Coca-Cola.
(The World of Coca-Cola will get its own blog post soon!)
This was my second visit to Atlanta. The first time a few years ago was all about celebrating my best friend’s birthday in any and all Gone With The Wind ways possible! While we ate and drank well during the visit in 2014, that trip mostly found us spending our time thinking about Rhett & Scarlett—and even Margaret Mitchell herself as I got to visit her former home on Peachtree Street. It was fun seeing Atlanta from that perspective but maybe not as much fun as I had posing at a typewriter in a room where Mitchell likely wrote a lot of her Pulitzer Prize winning masterpiece! But what I remember most about that first visit was that I ended up liking the city a lot more than I thought I would. The people were super great and the overall vibe of the city was just really friendly. I knew I’d want to go back.
Another reason, or reasons, to go back? Food. Of course. Well, let’s say food and drink. I knew I wanted to have another go at a burger at The Vortex, and I really wanted to have a chili dog at The Varsity, and visit The World of Coca-Cola. Fast forward to October 2018 and there we were: ready to eat & drink!
We arrived late on Friday so first stop late on Saturday morning/early Saturday afternoon was The Vortex in Midtown for an incredible bacon cheeseburger. And when I say “cheese” what I really mean is a scoop of whiskey pimento cheese. Whiskey. Pimento. Cheese. Yep. Pimento cheese is not just for your great-grandma anymore! Oh, this burger was good. And so were the onion rings. And so was the beer! I recommend their very own Laughing Skull Amber Ale. Oh, Vortex. Next time, I’m going for one of the challenges!
After walking off the burger and beers at the High Museum and up and down Peachtree Street, we settled in at Taco Mac to watch my better half’s Purdue Boilermakers beat up on Ohio State. The food and beer were also pretty good at Taco Mac. And the service was top-notch! I swear everyone in Atlanta is so friendly!
We slept the sleep of the happy (Purdue won, remember) and the well fed (duh!) on Saturday night but before I dozed off I made sure the alarm was set for Sunday morning so I’d be sure to get a good run in! Before breakfast, you know.
And boy, did my breakfast at the hotel not disappoint!
Now, I can’t remember how long I’ve known about The Varsity. I’d say at least 20 years or so, or however long I’ve watched The Food Network, so maybe longer. I know it was on one of those food shows or eating around the country themed shows, but who knows which one or when I saw it. All I know is that The Varsity has been on my to-eat list for quite a while. Thankfully, late Sunday morning found us walking the few blocks from our hotel to see if the hype was worth the dream. I’m happy to say that it most definitely was!
When we arrived at The Varsity around noon on Sunday, it wasn’t busy at all. We had time to learn the lingo before we ordered, and I also had time to be surprised and contemplate, and then eventually decide to go back up to get some of their fried pies! Fried pies! I didn’t even know. The sweet potato fried pie was amazing! But, back to the chili dogs. The bun, the hot dog itself were very good, and the chili sauce was perfect. It really was one of the best chili dogs I’ve ever had. And the French fries were some of the best I’ve ever had, too. Not sure they get enough publicity about those fries, but whoa are they good! (When we were leaving, we saw an employee hauling a giant delivery of boxes of potatoes to the kitchen. Bless those folks in Idaho growing those beauties.)
The entire place was a great experience, and trust me, the food is worth the hype and all the publicity they get. I’d be a regular for sure if I lived in Atlanta. I’d love to go back and try everything else on the menu. Alas, there are only so many calories in a day for this girl so I had to settle for my red tray of happiness that was my food pictured above. But let’s face it, there was no settling at The Varsity. No settling at all.
What else did we do in Atlanta? Is that all I ate? And drank? Well, not exactly, but I’m saving some of the rest for some future blog posts.
Short blog story is that we had a blast in Atlanta! We walked around in beautiful weather, we saw great art, stopped and shopped in cute little stores, had coffee and tea and a few sweets, met friendly people, discovered all there is to know about that dark syrupy love of mine (Coca-Cola) and even visited the College Football Hall of Fame for some fun college spirit fun. Hook ’em Horns!
The weather was great, the food and drink were perfect and it was just another great experience in a wonderful American city. I hope I’ll return. I certainly left a lot of good food and drink behind. Wait for me, Atlanta. I wanna see y’all again real soon.
~Elda Eats XO
Thanks to all the good folks providing great service at little shops everywhere, at The Georgian Terrace Hotel, at the fancy Starbucks on Peachtree Street, at The Vortex, at Sweet Hut, at Taco Mac, at The Varsity, at The High Museum, at The World of Coca-Cola, at The College Football Hall of Fame, all the friendly skies people at Southwest Airlines and everyone who works at the SAT and ATL airports. Almost everyone this weekend was on point! Y’all make traveling the world worthwhile. XO
P.S. We had one bad service experience, and I’ve already made that known. I worked in the hospitality business for many, many years. I won’t hold one bad moment against you, but I encourage you to be better. Life is too short to be unhappy at work.
P.P.S. And to the unhappy bitter Oklahoma girl working at Walgreen’s in Atlanta…life is what you make of it, sweetheart. Smile and be happy. You’ve got a lot to be thankful for. Hook ’em!
