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Drumroll please…. and the winner of the Worst ‘Best of Atlanta’ issue is? Gwinnett Magazine! … Please Wrap Up.

Seriously. Best of issues are great. They let editors and experts on a town give you insight in the the restaurants, schools, architecture, and local folks who deserve praise. However, lots of best of issues have turned gutless. They have multiple winners or they make sure that the popular vote an the critical vote recognize two different winners.

Gwinnett Magazine however, takes the cake. In their category for ‘Best Place for a Business Meeting or Retreat’, they list Evergreen Conference Center (in Stone Mountain Park) and Chateau Elan… Neither of which are actually IN Gwinnett! Not only did they fail in deciding on a winner, but they chose facilities that should be ineligible for their decision! At the top of the issue they ask “Have you really looked at Gwinnett lately?” Apparently not as they can’t even find the county boarders!

Right now, the best ‘Best of Atlanta‘ issue is the one published by ‘Creative Loafing’. The categories are pretty consistent and hit the essentials. They divide readers and critics, who do seem to make an effort to distinguish between ‘most popular’ and actual ‘best’.

Other publications try but are not as good. However, there is one category that seems to scare Atlantans. No one ranks schools in this town. No one puts all the elementary, secondary, and high schools together and declares one of each the best. Heck, they won’t even do it by department! What gives? If you’re willing to declare a given person the best politician, or a given restaurant the best food, why not give people something really useful? Best math department! If Businessweek can rank the top business schools in the world, surely the AJC can rank the best schools.

(Note: A year ago, Atlanta Magazine name this Bloglanta best Blog. We appreciate that very much.)

On a recent trip to Dallas, it seemed worth making a trek to one of the two remaining Eatzi’s in the country. Eatzi’s make a big splash when it opened and a big one when it closed. Employees arrived to work to find only a sign on the door saying that the company was closing here. Not only did they close here, but they closed all across the nation. The original owner bought back every store and closed them all, except two. The original and one in Chicago.

You may remember that when Eatzi’s arrived in the late nineties, Atlanta was abuzz! Gourmet quick take out! Then competitors began to arrive: Fresh Market, Market One, but especially Whole Foods. According to staffers in Dallas, the Buckhead store was among the most profitable outlets in the entire chain and then Whole Foods built the Buckhead market. In two years, revenues fell at the Buckhead Eatzi’s more than thirty five percent. In the grocery business, two percent is a big margin; thirty Five percent is an earthquake. This pattern was repeated around the country forcing the corporate owners of Eatzi’s to consider changes that the original owner didn’t like. So he bought it back and closed all locations except Dallas and Chicago. Now Eatzi’s will build out the Dallas market where home town loyalty insulates them from some of the burdens of the competition.

One interesting note is that staffers at Eatzi’s say the arrival of Trader Joe’s had little or no effect on their decisions. “Trader Joe’s has a different niche” said one staffer. Apparently, one of the keys to success of Trader Joe’s is paying as little rent as possible. They carefully find a posh area with a dead shopping space and go there.

In the meantime, Whole Foods booms in Atlanta and the southeast. They’re even developing a new space as they add more and more metro markets.

Will Fresh Market survive? Be There and Find Out!

Yes, the Louvre exhibit is at the High Museum of Art right now, and if your tastes run to the rococo, that’s great.

More interesting however, is Gallery 304 in the Meier Building, which at the moment, is featuring American Works on paper from the High’s Permanent collection. From Rivera to Hopper, to Wyeth, roughly 30 pieces are represented. They illustrate both the evolution of the artistic aesthetic in America, but also our environmental (and just plain mental) history.

The primary benefit of the greatly expanded High Museum is not the traveling shows. They just drive up the cost and are expensive. No, the benefit is to see all the great work in the permanent collection that they previously had no room to show!  That’s exactly what’s going on in Gallery 304.

Macon, a veritable Justin Timberlake of a city, is bringing First Night Back.

For those of you unfamiliar with First Night, it’s a roughly 15 year old tradition in which, rather than getting snookered out of your skull and freezing to pieces, you go to a wide variety of artistic events and then see fireworks at midnight.  Fun for grownups, great for the kids.

Atlanta should have one of these events. They did in the days when John Briggs was in town. We have the artistic companies, we have the venues (though the lack of close proximity is what makes this a difficult process) and we have a population looking for interesting and affordable things to do.  Even if the folks downtown or in midtown did not want to pick it up, a city such as Decatur or East Point would get such an infusion of people and popularity from an event like this.  That they don’t amazes.

Gainesville picked up the mantle for Georgia, but after a couple of good years, their effort began to substantially slide.  They have decided not to do a First Night this year.

Now Macon is giving it a shot.  Their publicity has not been great.  There have been no artist profiles, no area map; just a website mention which clicks through to a word document of events.  Still, it’s better than nothing and, if you live in town or just south, it’s easy to make it down and back!  Plus, one of the venues is St. Joseph’s Cathedral, a century old building which has been completely restored.  Beautiful.

Sadly Seegers’s is gone.  Absolutely gone.  Hope you got one last shot at that deliciousness.  The property is reportedly being taken by Tom Catherall of ‘Here To Serve’ restaurants.   The food will not likely be as high up on the chain, but then again, neither will the prices.  Catherall, however, pledges that he will recognize the importance of making this space his shining star.

While Buckhead has now received a serious blow, East Point just received a welcome caffeinated infusion as The Silk Cafe has opened!  While Coffee houses have become almost hackneyed, they have become so because ultimately they are important.  They’re a community mixing point, a place for young people to hang out, and a place for business people to get a vital service before work!

The southside has been missing a serious coffee house since the 5th Runway moved to the 14th street.  The Silk Cafe, which is on the square and run by the most cordial Terrance, has both smoothies and a good selection of teas and coffee.  More important, Terrance has made a commitment to have his hours go past rush hour!  On the weekends, it’s even a nightspot!

Here’s hoping the Ft. Mac, East Point, College Park communities will step up and support this place.  East Point and College Park have lost some of their leading restaurants and that has put a damper on the momentum they had going just a few years ago.  Just one successful new late night joint can help create an atmosphere.  With Corner Tavern and the The Break Pad, this creates a ‘Nightlife Environment’  which will attract young folks and a fun creative atmosphere to a community where housing is still affordable.

As places such as Decatur become too expensive for most folks, alternatives such as East Point need to remain strong to keep the whole metro area vibrant.

Sigh.  It seems everyday the music dies a little more.  Today’s death, however, was big.  J. Michael Cawthon died.  You might have known him better as Fuzzy.  Since 1983, he’s operated a public house on North Druid Hills road with some of the best Creole cooking you could imagine.  He also made sure that some of the best musicians played his club in front of tiny houses.  Want to see Francine Reed up close?  You can do it at Fuzzy’s.  You just can’t do it with Fuzzy anymore.

A bar owner sets the tone.  In the same way Brian Maloof made Manuel’s better when he took over, and how Tamra Erisman makes Cotton’s one of the friendliest places to get great food, Fuzzy wanted to make sure you relaxed.  His bar is everything a Jimmy Buffett song ever aspired to be.  The staff is sassy but caring, the food is great tasting but a little bad for you, and they have a fully stocked basic bar.  Fuzzy just wanted you to kick back and have some fun.

He meant it too.  Once, one of the best guitar players in town was on stage and had played a whole set, but hadn’t sung anything.  Fuzzy walked straight up to him and offered him $100 on the spot to sing one song!  The guitar player declined and Fuzzy just shook his head.  “C’mon man!  Sing one song!  The people will love you!  I will love you and give you a hundred dollars!  How much more complicated is life than that?”

If you want to celebrate, make a donation to the Georgia Alzheimers Foundation and then come Nov. 01 to Fuzzy’s Place (on North Druid Hills between 85 and Buford Highway) and celebrate the life of one cool guy.

Who likes Free Tickets? We all do! Atlanta’s performing arts community has done a smart thing. It’s participating in the National Free Night of Theater. So, Sunday, October first, you can get free tickets to over 40 Theaters! Really! 40 theaters including the Ballet, The Shakespeare Tavern, and the Academy Theater!

Here’s how you get your tickets. They are only be distributed through Atlantix booths! Starting at noon, you can go to either booth and pick up tickets to an event.

Your tickets will be for a show sometime between October 19 and 29th. So! Get the best seats for free!

But wait! There’s more! If you act quickly, you can go to the Smithsonian and download a pass for September 30’s Free Museum Day! All you have to do is download the pass, fill it out and show up! You can get a list of museums here!

Have a Cultural Life!

Arthur Blank said recently that he wants a new Falcons stadium.  He’s been trying to get the Georgia Dome renovated for years and apparently has reached the point where he’s willing to spend some of his own money to get there.  Blank claims that he receives the smallest portion of stadium revenues of any NFL team owner and that in order for the  Falcons to remain competitive, he needs a new deal and a new stadium.  He also points out that the Georgia Dome is now one of the oldest stadiums in the league.

Certainly, if Blank wants to pay for Stadium upgrades, let him!  Any pro sports team owner willing to pay for improvements to a public facility should be encouraged to do so.  The most noticeable change will be a reduction in seating.  New luxury boxes will lower the total number of seats and encouraged more sellouts and improve TV visibility.

To some degree, you can’t blame Blank.  Despite solid years under his leadership, Forbes Magazine consistently ranks the Falcons among the least valued teams in the league, and though his annual profit is about 1% of the value of the team ($6.6 million), he’d like to see his investment grow in value.

In some ways, the Georgia Dome never lived up to it’s promise.  It does not get the number of uses originally expected.  It’s empty over 300 days a year.  It was supposed to be used more than 80 days per year.  The concerts have not materialized.  The political conventions have not come.  The Silverbacks (who don’t get the press coverage they deserve) cannot play there.   The Stadium is in its second set of leases.  Perhaps Blank is right, but he may not realize everything a new stadium should entail… especially if he wants public money.

If he wants public financing as part of the package (and he does) then, the stadium should be designed to more easily incorporate different events.  It should include a plan to help land an MLS franchise.  It should the ability to attract more concerts.  It should have a retractable roof.  They may even want to build a theater into the complex.  This would let the concessions folks work more and let smaller events use the facility.  It would also make press heavy events easier to produce.  They may also want to move the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame to a new Dome.  That would add another cultural attraction downtown and continue to bring revenue into the state.  On the other hand, if he wants to pay for the whole thing himself and pay the full property taxes on the facility, let him do what he wants.  The one thing Blank should not do is move the stadium to a non MARTA location.

Blank has said his vision is 10 years out.  By that time the Dome will be about 25 years old.  That also provides the opportunity to create an architectural competition for the design of a new stadium that would bring attention to Atlanta and add to the city.  Then, a new Dome will be built, Blank will have added value, and hopefully, even more cultural value will have been built into the city.

So Two distinct events are going on downtown…

First is DragonCon!   The world’s largest science fiction and fantasy convention is back!  If you’ve not been downtown, you need to visit the peachtree center hotels!

The second is the Montreaux Atlanta Jazz Festival, featuring some of Atlanta’s best Jazz & Blues talent.  Michel N’dege Ocello played last night and while a bigger crowd would have been nice, there were several hundred people.

The two festivals being so close to each other creates brilliant opportunities.  First, the Jazz musicians are all staying at the Westin.  So are many of the DragonCon participants.  The result is that the Jazzers can bring some much needed funk to the DragonCon scene.  There would also be the opportunity to create scenes that you’d never see anywhere else!  Imagine!  Klingons swing dancing! 

Also, from an Atlanta perspective, there are 50,000 DragonCon participants.   If they’ll just walk the 10 minutes to Underground, the Jazz festival will get real support!

Still, it’s just the idea of the Kilted Storm Trooper Brigade boogying to Be-bop that just cracks me up.

Atlanta’s best restaurant is closing. Seegers just could not make it. This is a real tragedy. Yes. It was expensive. Yes, the Mobile Guide gave it a 5 star rating, but that’s not the point. It was really really good and really clever. It was smart food cooked well. Now, Atlantans have fewer top of the line choices. Bacchanalia is still there and the Dining Room at the Ritz goes on, but losing Seegers is losing a lot. It’s losing creative cooking!

One wonders how this came to be. First, we live in a post 9-11 world, where fewer and fewer people can afford a meal that is $250 + per couple. Second, Buckhead changed and is no longer the tourist destination it once was. Third is the silver lining.

We live in a town where casual elegance is king among restaurants. There are lots of places serving really great food in a variety of price ranges. Watershed, Eno, Nan, and Sage are all providing great food with a less fussy environment. Then there are the local chains. Bold American, Metrotainment, the 101 Group, and the grand daddy of them all, Buckhead Life, provide solidly reliable food in a wide variety of prices and ranges.

Still, while this is all to the good, there was nothing comparable to Mr. Seeger’s Food. Best Wishes Guenter Seeger where ever you land. Thank you, sir.