Why I Love It

Moving to Kirkwood was one of the best decisions of my life. The community here is diverse and interactive. Neighbors know each other. People are always out and about, especially in our parks and in our community garden. We are invested in making the community the kind of place that welcomes and respects everyone. As one of Atlanta’s oldest neighborhoods, we are central to everything the city has to offer.

Where to Eat

Le Petit Marché (lepetitmarche.net) is Kirkwood’s answer to an amazing breakfast, brunch, or lunch. The loaded oatmeal will make you weep with joy (that or it is just your body’s way of saying thanks for the great the combination of oatmeal, fruit and praline sauce), and the grits stack, topped with shrimp, bacon, and cheese, is amazing. The staff is friendly and attentive, and this is also a family friendly restaurant. Dulce Vegan (dulcevegan.com) to vegans and other bakery fans. Even without the butter and eggs, these treats are wonderful. Urban Pie (urbanpieatl.com) is local pizza at its best. The signature pie, with roasted garlic, spinach, roasted red peppers, red onions, feta and mozzarella cheese is fantastic, and for you meat lovers you can always add some prosciutto. Ann’s Snack Bar is the best burger shop in America! Just check with the Wall Street Journal, CNN, and many other national and international news sources. Get there early if you don’t want to wait (owner Ann Price only serves 7 people at a time), but even if you have to wait, it will be worth it. There’s no website or phone to call, just show up at 1615 Memorial Drive.

Where to Shop

Kirkwood Bark and Lounge (barkandlounge.net) is your one stop shop for all your pets’ needs. They also offer grooming and boarding. Gitche Yah Yah (gitcheyahyah.com) is full of whimsical gifts for your home and is a full-service florist, with original and awe-inspiring designs. You can also pick up your “antique” Kirkwood sign here. The Mission Motif (missionmotif.com) carries gorgeous home furnishings – all from the Mission Arts style. If you want to outfit your home to the Mission period, this is the place to shop. Jazmin Spa (jazminspa.com) is an oasis in the city. They offer complete spa services with one of the friendliest staffs in the business. Augusta Designs (augustadesigns.com) and PB&J Gallery (pbjart.com) are next door to each other and offer custom designed jewelry and artwork.

What to Do

The Kirkwood Spring Fling (kirkwoodfling.com) happens mid-May each year. There is an artists’ market, local food trucks, and live music. The Kirkwood Wine Stroll is the best fun on two feet. In September you can visit the local businesses and sample many great wines on a terrific wine stroll – each location also features excellent hors d’oeuvres. Don’t miss the Kirkwood Car Wash, which transforms into the Kirkwood Lounge for this event.

By Osayi Endolyn

Not three years have passed since the Colorado-based New Belgium Brewing Company hit Georgia shelves with Fat Tire, its popular amber ale. Hard to believe that what has become a staple for many Atlantans was once a coveted, cult favorite hailing from the West. When the beer with the cute, vintage red bicycle label hit local stores, introductory cases had “Georgia on My Ride” scrolled across the top. Judging by its increasing availability, those red-framed wheels are here to stay.

It’s an everyday beer — easy, drinkable, and lovingly balanced. The hop highs and malty lows get along well with each other to make for an enjoyable experience alone or paired with food. It just feels so nice. But is it just the beer that gives me and so many others that warm, happy feeling? What’s up with that bike?

I admit, when I first saw the label in person, the image tugged on my heartstrings a bit. I have never owned a red bicycle, never grew up wanting one. And yet I felt connected to that imagery, way back in my subconscious. The bike might as well have been a Cabbage Patch Kid; the chord it struck was so right on. New Belgium likes to say that the company was “conceived on the seat of a bike,” which is how one got to be on the label for its most-consumed brew. As a young man, co-founder Jerry Lebesch did a bike tour through Europe in the 1980s and had some inspired beer and conversation along the way. He began homebrewing Fat Tire after his trip, named in honor of his long-distance cycling experience. A few years later, he took his homegrown operation commercial.

On their website, New Belgium says that they lucked into the marketing angle, and even doubted whether it was a good idea to name an ale after a Colorado slang term for mountain bikes. But they stuck with it and it worked. And so I wonder, after all this time, what it is we love more — the beer or the bicycle?

If you are like me, you noticed the grand unveiling of Fat Tire throughout the city with much fanfare. The stocky 22-ounce bottles made an impression, and in an effort to focus new customers’ attention, the brewery withheld other brews for several months. Later, Mothership Wit and 1554 Enlightened Black Ale shared shelf space with the flagship, along with the Ranger IPA and Trippel. But that nostalgic, illustrated bike reins supreme. New Belgium says they think people like the bicycle because it references the simplicity and fun of being outdoors. That’s probably true.

But I also think it goes deeper. Most of us tend to associate bike riding with childhood and most of us tend to think of childhood as an innocent time in our lives (at least on a good day, just work with me here). A time when we were free of major responsibilities, full of wonder and enjoyment. Easy to please. Good-natured. A roaming spirit — or least by my mom’s rules, I could roam to the end of the cul-de-sac.

Regardless of your upbringing, New Belgium’s red bicycle taps into a history we all want to have had. We all want to have had the quiet autonomy of wandering on that bike. If you take that undercurrent and add it to the gratifying experience of drinking a nonchalant ale — buying a six-pack that might be shared with friends, family or just sipped solo — you’ve got a pretty intensely packed center of pleasure.

Part of what made Fat Tire so big in Atlanta was its low supply — unavailability increases demand. Most of the beer’s PR had been done years before it got here. But something else in low supply got uncorked at Fat Tire’s 2009 unveiling. New Belgium took that rusty old door to memory lane and busted it wide open. We may not want to relive our childhoods as much as we want to acknowledge they were once there. And just in case you forget, Fat Tire’s got a bright red bike keeping that door ajar.

New Belgium’s Fat Tire can be found just about anywhere in Atlanta.

Why I Love Brookhaven

I have lived in Brookhaven for 15 years but many people were raised here or have returned to begin their careers and families. I was originally attracted to its beautiful neighborhoods, massive oak trees and its proximity to” all things convenient. What I would find through growing the Brookhaven Arts Alliance (BAA) is how beautiful the people are in Brookhaven. Over the last eight years, the BAA has hosted 16 events and we still have the same volunteers. It’s just amazing to me the amount of time people are willing to give of themselves in such a busy world. Besides supporting our locally owned businesses, Brookhaven has united on behalf of our schools, parks and are committed to growing our community in a smart way.  Our community is creative, smart, philanthropic and flat out friendly.

What to Do

Take a walk, run or stroll through historic Capitol City neighborhood and catch a movie at the new chef driven CinaBistro (cobbcinebistro.com) in Town Brookhaven. See a production by Georgia Shakespeare (gashakespeare.org) at the Conant Arts Center on the campus of Oglethorpe University. Georgia Shakespeare has created thoughtful, bold and passionate interpretations of a diverse body of work rooted in Shakespeare and branching out to embrace the best writers and ideas of all eras. While you’re on campus, also visit the Oglethorpe University Museum of Art (museum.oglethorpe.edu), which has an impressive permanent collection of fine art and curated exhibitions from artists from around the world.

Where to Eat

Terra Terrior (terragrille.com) has the best patio dining and big selection of wine. The Cup Gourmet Cup Cake (thecupgourmet.com) has Valenza- Butternut Gnocchi to die for! Kaleidoscope (k-pub.com) has global comfort food, a fabulous Sunday brunch with live music in the evenings.

Where to Shop

Davonshire Home and Garden (davonshire.com) has gifts, accessories and original art, while The Mercantile (blog.mercantileatlanta.com) has custom furniture, case pieces, seating, tables, lighting, beds, original art and decorative accents. Lila Boutique (facebook.com/Lila-Boutique) features cutting edge fashions with common sense prices. For your pets, check out City Dog Market (citydogmarket.com), which has is the best affordable source for all natural/organic pet provisions.

Coming Up

Atlanta Celebrates Photography (acpinfo.org) exhibit On Edge – Beyond Editorial at the Brookhaven Gallery Sept. 23 – Oct. 28 and, of course, the 8^th annual Brookhaven Arts Festival (brookhavenartsalliance.com) on Oct. 15-16.

By Julia Turner

Food and beverage connoisseurs brace yourselves: on Oct. 22 and 23, Taste of Atlanta is going big for its 10th anniversary. Taking place on 5th Street between Techwood Drive and West Peachtree Street again this year, the festival promises to be a weekend that cannot be missed with more than 80 restaurants offering bites.

In honor of the big 1-0, Taste of Atlanta kicks off with The Big Grill event on Friday, Oct. 21. The evening will include an array of grilled bites, beer, live music and cake. Atlanta chefs Kevin Rathbun, Scott Serpas, Ford Fry and others will be present as well as Food Network’s Aarón Sánchez. The block party will support Georgia Organics.

This year the festival has added live cooking competitions, which will range from timed, secret ingredient contests to challenges to recreate the best dish the chef has ever tasted. There will also be a Top Chef Kids Cooking competition that will pair up three chefs-in-training with professional Atlanta chefs.

Also new this year is the Global Flavors International Stage where Atlanta chefs will be able to showcase their signature dishes. “Atlanta has such a diverse culinary landscape,” says event director Dale DeSena, “and Taste of Atlanta chefs represent flavors from every corner of the world.”

Old favorites will return for the 10th anniversary celebration as well. Both the Barcraft Competition and the Inside the Food Studio experience will be back, and the festival’s Silent Auction will take place on 5th Street Bridge. The auction will benefit Share Our Strength’s Cooking Matters program.

Tickets are $25 in advance and $35 the day-of and are available at tasteofatlanta.com.

Following our new KEEP IT INtown campaign, we ask that you nominate local businesses, events and businesspeople rather than the usual national chains. Best of the Holidays is designed to showcase what our unique Intown neighborhoods have to offer.

Some of this year’s categories include Best Place for Last Minute Gifts, Best Global Cuisine, Best Place to Ring in the New Year, Best Salon or Spa, Best Pet Care and Boarding and many more.

To make your nomination, visit this link.

The Atlanta Food Rave presents food and cocktail lovers the opportunity to mix and mingle with an eclectic group of Atlanta-based chefs in an informal atmosphere. This year’s chef lineup includes: 2010 Rave Review Winner, Chef/Owner Alex Friedman of P’cheen; Executive Chef Monique Barrow of Buckhead Bottle Bar; Executive Chef Ryan Delesandro of Nava; Executive Chef Shane Devereux of Top Flr; and Executive Chef Willie Box of Straits.

Attendees are invited to sample each chef’s offerings in addition to catered fare that will be placed throughout four environments at the host venue. As with last year, attendees will be encouraged to vote for their favorite chef of the evening, helping him/her to win The 2011 Rave Review, an award reserved for the chef that is best in show. The evening will also feature premium bars with complimentary Blue Moon, Avion Tequila tastings and non-alcoholic specialty beverages, live entertainment and a number of surprises. The menu will be revealed upon arrival and vegetarian options will be present.

Leading up to this years event will be the Atlanta Food Rave Restaurant Week, September 7-15 from 7 to 9 p.m. Guests will be invited to meet the participating chefs at their restaurants on specified days, while enjoying complimentary appetizers and drinks as a preview to the main event. Sept. 7 – Nava, Sept. 8 – P’cheen, Sept. 13 – Top Flr, Sept. 14 – Straits, and Sept. 15 – Buckhead Bottle Bar.

By John Fleming

When Warren Bruno first opened Atkins Park bar and restaurant, the most popular attraction in the area was an S&M club up the street that held a weekly event called “50 Ways to Beat Your Lover.” The shoe store next door doubled as a speakeasy and the alley adjacent to his business filled nearly every morning with connoisseurs of the Mad Dog 20-20.

“The neighborhood, you might say, was a little rough around the edges,” he said recently while sitting at a window booth at the establishment he has co-owned since 1983.

But there was also something very special about that time as well, he explained, something about it that brought the neighborhood — the businesses and the residents — together.

“It was really very, very cool back then,” he said.

He described a time when his cooks, bartenders and dishwashers lived in the neighborhood and walked to work. Unlike today, when most of his employees live in East Atlanta or elsewhere and drive in each day.

There was also an unusual cooperation between businesses that took root, with a recognition that it was in everyone’s interest for everyone to do well.

“Businesses, well, we all respected each other,” he said. “It was like this, when Taco Mac opened up and put hot wings on their menu, well we decided we wouldn’t serve hot wings. It was the same with the Italian place down the block, we didn’t serve Italian food. We were all in it for the good of the neighborhood and we all looked out for each other.”

He takes a delicate and diplomatic approach to this subject today. No, it’s not like that so much anymore, that funky, communal way of things. But he’s at pains to stress that the Highlands is the best place in the city to live, play and work.

Still, he says with a shake of his head as he looks out at the sunshine of a fading afternoon, the neighborhood would do well to remember some of the older ways.

As 62-year-old Warren Bruno sees it, businesses and neighbors in the Highlands all have the same issues in common, crime, parking, streetscape, parks, all around quality of life issues.

So he says, “If there is anything I would like to accomplish in 2011, it is to recapture that spirit of 1983.”

Through his leadership of the South Virginia Highlands Merchants Group he hopes to achieve just that.

This is familiar territory for Bruno. He is a founding member of the Virginia Highlands Business Association and he has been involved in just about every civic effort in the neighborhood in the last 30 years.

Ask just about any business owner or long-time resident in the neighborhood and they’ll tell you he’s part of the social fabric of the place.

“Warren is Virginia Highland,” said Beth Marks, a long time resident of the neighborhood and a founder of Fight Back Against Crime. “Believe me, he is a very big part of this community. He is always doing everything for the neighborhood and the schools. He’s just amazing.”

That’s a pretty typical comeback when you toss his name out there.

Simply put, Warren Bruno is what you might call Va-Hi centric. You can’t have a conversation with the man without him offering up some issue that needs solving or some reference to bettering the community. Whether it is promoting the new community park across from his business at 794 North Highland or talking up some good cause at Morningside Elementary, Inman Middle or Grady High School (his children go to the latter two) Bruno is constantly pushing the neighborhood.

When he ventures out, people have always stopped and visited with him.

It’s still like that today, as he makes rounds through the bar or strolls up the sidewalk toward his home a few blocks away. These days, though, the familiar linger with him a bit longer, waiting for a moment to ask — in an aggressively kind sort of way — after his health.

He’s been down this road before too. In 2005 he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma. He took the harsh treatments and beat the cancer into remission. After several years, however, it came back.

He’ll tell you it hasn’t been any fun, but he has about the best attitude imaginable, thinking not so much about himself or the next chemo treatment he has ahead, but what he can do for his neighborhood and how he can find some more time to spend with his kids.

After a few minutes catching some regulars up on his latest doctor’s report, he’s in conference with his manager Kyle Taylor hammering out a plan for upcoming events.

It is something he hopes will help recapture that spirit of 1983.

Why I Love Decatur

Decatur is home to me.  I grew up here walking to school, the library and downtown for a movie at the Decatur Theatre or a banana split at Lane’s Drugstore.  Today it has the same feel even though the shops are different and there are more food options.  The streets are filled with folks walking everywhere.  The square is packed with festivals and events all year long.  Someone told me we are becoming known for our quality and variety of beer and pubs – a town for real beer connoisseurs.  I say we are known for our quality and variety of people – a true community where people are involved and belong.  I hear people say frequently “this feels like the town where I grew up” and they name cities in all areas of the country.  To me, the Decatur of today is progressive, creative and lots of fun.  I’m proud to call it my hometown.

What to Do

Visit the square in downtown Decatur and cool off in the misting fountain that is part of the “Celebration” statue on the MARTA Plaza.  Read about our first African American Mayor and community activist Elizabeth Wilson on the plaque dedicating the statue to her.

Take a stroll through the Old Decatur Cemetery – Free Second Sundays Strolls are held May through September beginning at the 1881 wellhouse at 2:30 p.m. with Cathy Vogel.  Or just enjoy the 58 acres with headstones dating back to 1825. decaturpreservationalliance.org

Spend some time at the Oakhurst Community Garden amidst the community plots, chickens, bees, garden pond, Cobb Adobe playhouse made from the earth, and peace pole.  The Garden is part of the Gardens for Peace network along with Agnes Scott College and Columbia Theological Seminary. oakhurstgarden.org

Where to Eat

Pastries A Go Go is my favorite go-to spot for Sunday brunch – homemade sticky buns, biscuits and sausage gravy, and cheese grits along with the traditional Southern fare.  Lunch is great there also – try the chicken salad or the BLT.  pastriesagogo.com.  Plus owner Bob Light made my daughter’s awesome wedding cake!

A week is not complete without at least one lunch at Taqueria del Sol.  Follow the line, order your food, sit down and enjoy delicious “from scratch” Southern, Mexican and Southwestern tacos, enchiladas, yummy guacamole and shrimp corn chowder – all at a great price. taqueriadelsol.com

No. 246 just opened in downtown Decatur and so far I have been twice in two weeks. Owned by Ford Fry with Chef Drew Belline this Italian inspired, locally driven restaurant is a little loud but the food is superb.  Try the Hairloom Tomato Salad and the Spaghetti with Georgia White Shrimp.  I’ll be back to try the pizza and see what the latest special is.  no246.com

Where to Shop

Little Shop of Stories is a must-visit bookstore for children (& adults).  In addition to books, they host special events, authors, and much more.  I took my grandson to the release of the newest Pete the Cat book – Rockin’ in My School Shoes with James Dean and Mr. Eric. We rocked the house! littleshopofstories.com

Right next door is Vivid Boutique (vividdecatur.com) with handcrafted artisan jewelry created on-site, affordable gifts, candles, vegan leather handbags, vintage-style tea towels and aprons – eclectic and very affordable!  Scoot right across the street to Wild Oats and Billy Goats (wildoatsandbillygoats.com), a whimsical, colorful folk art gallery filled with paintings, sculpture, pottery, jewelry and more – all from outsider artists.

Don’t leave Decatur without visiting Heliotrope – my all-time favorite shop to find everything I didn’t know I needed and more.  Everytime I walk in there, I find something I can’t live without and my friends love their birthday gifts – especially those by Decatur artist Erin Smith (erinsmithart.com). heliotropehome.com

Coming Up

The AJC Decatur Book Festival is my favorite event in Decatur – and there is a whole year-round calendar of special events. The Book Festival is the largest independent book festival in the country and it is right here in downtown Decatur on Labor Day weekend.  Books, music, authors, funnel cakes and lots of fun. decaturbookfestival.com

Eddie & Agnes concert series featuring The Civil Wars on Oct. 9 and 10 and The Blind Boys of Alabama on Oct. 22.  Legendary acoustic music venue Eddie’s Attic teamed up with my alma mater Agnes Scott College to host an ongoing concert series.  Tickets are available at ticketalternative.com or eddiesattic.com.

In September, Decatur hosts three free concert series – Blue Sky Concerts on the Square every Wednesday from noon to 1 p.m., Concerts on the Square every Saturday night (except during the Book Festival) from 7 to 9:30 p.m. and Jazz Nights at Scottish Rite every Thursday evening from 7 to 9 p.m. at The Solarium in Oakhurst. Visit decaturdba.com and oakhurstjazznights.com.