Exciting things coming up...

I am very excited for this weekend to begin!! My brother is flying in from NYC tonight, and we have a full weekend of Atlanta activities planned:

THIS guy is coming to town.

Friday: Dinner with our parents at Miller Union. I have heard so many great things about this restaurant from different blogs and other websites. It is supposed to have killer cocktails, so you better believe we will indulge!

Saturday: Decatur Beer Festival!!! I am most excited about this activity. The bf has been talking about DBF ever since we started dating, since it is his favorite beerfest in Atlanta. I have not been to this one, though I've visited my fair share of other fests in the city. We were lucky enough to get our tickets on time, before they sold out (within 2 hours!). Lots of old friends and new friends are attending, so it should be a glorious day. Oh, and the weather is calling for 75 and sunny... hello, perfection.

Do you think real elephants will be there? :)

Sunday: Brunch with the family and bf at Mosaic in Buckhead. I've actually never heard of this place; it was all my mom's idea. However, when I checked out the menu online, it looks pretty delish! Plus, it has the "largest pet-friendly outdoor patio in Buckhead", which means we get to bring Cooper!

You get to come, too!

I will be giving a full report next week about the greatness of the weekend. Until then, I may be a little bit MIA... Have a great weekend everyone!

Quarter Century Fun (not crisis!)

As I mentioned in my previous post, I turned the big 2-5 last week! It was a great three day celebration (yes, three days! I'm so lucky!) that started out with some drinks and games with my parents at Ormsby's. Every year, they let us choose a restaurant to go to for our birthdays, and this year I thought something more low key and laid back would be the best bet. So, I went for the easy choice - Ormsby's! I've posted about it before, so I'll spare any redundancy.

On Friday, the bf surprised me to dinner at Kyma (pronounced Kee-Mah - who knew?). Kyma is a fantastic greek restaurant on Piedmont, that is part of the Buckhead Life Restaurants and is very delicious. We did the sampler special, where you get to choose a bunch of small plates to share between two people. We ordered absolutely delicious items, such as grilled octopus, short ribs, tuna tartare, tomato salad and a bunch of spreads and dips. Everything had a greek flair that was so amazing and filling. Of course, I failed to take any pictures, but I do have a picture of the shoes I wore for my shoe obsessed readers! I love them...

I also took a picture of my dessert, that the waiter and my bf forced on me despite the fact that I was busting out of my dress from too much awesome food!! The dessert was light and tasty though, the perfect bday dessert.

On Saturday, there was a German Bierfest going on in downtown Atlanta. Since I love beerfests, and this just happened to be the day after my birthday, we figured what better way to celebrate than gathering friends here? So most of my friends who were in town met us all down at Woodruff park and drank and partied all day in fantastic weather. {Well, except for the 5 minute monsoon which caused everyone to run for cover. Seriously, after 5 min the sun was shining again... }Here's a few pics of the great day!

We made pretzel necklaces to snack on all day!

One of my besties drove down from Greenville just for me!

Snack time! Pretzels and brats - perfect beerfest food

Felt like taking a picture of this beerfest chick and her crazy shoes

My wonderful bf planned the whole thing!

So many people!

We tried to frown since our pretzels were almost gone, but we were laughing instead!

Overall it was a great birthday! After beerfest, a few brave souls decided to continue the night at RiRa in midtown. I love that place!

ps I also was very excited to get a GPS for my birthday (yes, I now have entered the 21st century). As my friend Sallie put it, "I don't know how you've survived living in Atlanta without one!" Me either Sallie, me either.

Chow Down at Chow Baby!

On Wednesday, I got roped into helping my parents move some furniture in their townhouse in Midtown {because of my new bootcamp guns, of course}. In return, my dad said he would take us to Chow Baby for some dinner! I introduced my parents to this place a while back, and my dad just loves it now.

The way Chow Baby works is, you basically make your own lunch or dinner. You grab a bowl up at the giant buffet looking line, and pick your choice of carb. Brown or white rice, lo mein noodles, chicken noodles, and a few others are some tasty options. Then comes your veggies. There is pretty much every type of veg imaginable: baby corn, spinach, peppers, beans, cilantro, bok choy, mandarin oranges, and a million more.

After you get your rice and veggies, you get to the sauces line. There are also tons of sauces there, and you can even mix them up to make it fun! At the beginning of the line, all of the sauces and their associated nutrition facts are listed on the wall, which is useful to know which ones are decent to eat and which ones will make your pants not fit the next day. There are also a bunch of "recipes" of ways that you can mix up the sauces to make new flavors. It's like art class, but so much better.

Girl in green shirt spilled sauce all over my feet. Not pleased with her.

After sauces, comes protein - Sausage, beef, pork, chicken, salmon, scallops are some of the options you have. You get a separate bowl for this, so not to put all that raw food next to all your veggies, and then you are able to put some seasoning on the meat too.

Chow Baby chefs!

After you drop your food off at the chef area, you just go back to your table and hang out until the food is ready. They bring it over to you all cooked together in its deliciousness for you to chow down on!

I'm a skilled chopstix user, until I get too impatient.

Personally, I love the black bean garlic sauce on mine. 2-3 scoops of sauce is perfect, with tons of veggies, lo mein noodles, and some chicken and beef. I also went back for some seconds to try the thai bbq sauce, which was pretty tasty as well. Yes, that's right - seconds! You can go unlimited times, but to be honest, you'll be pretty full after the first bowl :)

After dinner, we went back to the townhouse so I could say bye to this little guy, Cooper! He's my parents' pooch, whom I often puppysit for :) Love him!

Happy Friday everyone!

Anyone have big plans over the weekend? I am going ziplining in North Ga tomorrow morning.. A post to come next week!

Village Pizza

On Saturday, the bf and I were trying to think of some possible lunch options. We didn't really have anything to do that day, and the weather was pretty icky, so we thought we would explore something new. So, what did we do? Searched through all the Scoutmobs we have, of course! If you don't know about Scoutmob, it is one of the best ways to try out new places. Every day there is a new deal (most of them are 50% off) at a different restaurant, store, spa, car cleaning service, etc... The only catch is that you have to text the deal to your phone that very day, or it is gone. Lucky for iPhone carriers, they can set up an app to automatically get all of the scoutmobs, without having to text it. Unlucky for losers like me, with Zack Morris phones, you have to manually send the text.

After searching through the Scoutmobs on the bf's phone (he is one of those fortunate iPhone carriers), we decided on Village Pizza in Cabbagetown. Though it's a bit of a drive, pizza sounded just about perfect for a lazy Saturday afternoon. Lucky for us, we had the 50% off, because pizza and beers can get a little pricey! The place was very cool inside though, and not too big.

Village Pizza in Cabbagetown

As you can see, we had our pick of tables

Squeezed in between some other restaurants and a tattoo parlor, it's a very quaint and delicious pizza joint. After agreeing on some toppings, we grabbed some beers and found a table. The place was definitely not crowded that day (aside from the group of dudes who all just got tattoos together), so we practically had the whole place to ourselves.

This was our table number - cracked me up!

Delicious!

We settled on pepperoni and cheese, with half mushrooms (for him) and half olives (for me). We ate until we were stuffed, and then spent the rest of the afternoon being lazy and watching You Don't Mess with the Zohan. This might have been one of the dumbest movies I've seen in a while, but somehow I still found myself laughing at Adam Sandler and crew's ridiculousness. I also loved that he had his buddies make their regular appearances: Chris Rock, Rob Schneider, and Kevin James to name a few. I probably wouldn't recommend spending more than Red Box prices for this movie (i.e. $1), but it's a nice break if you've got some downtime.

Armless pushups a la Zohan, of course.

Tacos and Burgers

Hey foodies out there! I've got two great restaurants to tell you guys about. One of the things I love most about Atlanta is all of the fantastic places we have to eat. I am constantly reading blogs and other articles about new restaurants opening around the area. This weekend I went to two delish places that you must try out!

1. Verde Taqueria - This little taco joint opened a few months back on Dresden Drive in Brookhaven. Everytime I drive by, no matter the time, it is completely packed. Don't let this stop you from trying it out! The wait actually moves quicker than you would think, and you can always just enjoy a beer or a margarita in the meantime.

Just a tidbit, a couple of doors down is a new Yoforia!! YUM!

The bf and I met his brother and wife here this past Friday, and it was delicious. Despite the huge crowds, we actually only ended up waiting about 15 min or so. We got a perfect table out on the patio, and luckily it wasn't terribly hot out.

Every table is always full!

We started out with some Texas margaritas and guacamole (my favorite!) and then each ordered our own tacos. The food is a la carte here, but extremely cheap! I ordered the buffalo chicken taco (I got it grilled) and the pulled pork taco. Both of these were FABULOUS. The buffalo chicken was pretty hot, but I'm also quite a sissy when it comes to hot foods. The celery in it gave it a nice little crunch, which I liked too. Next time you are craving some fresh mexican tacos, hit this place up! 

2. Farm Burger - Finally! I've been dying to try this place after reading about it on Urbanspoon and the girls at The Q+DD. Everyone says these are some of the best burgers in town, so the bf and I decided to try them out on Sunday afternoon whilst nursing our hangovers from the lake day on Saturday.

I think it was a little too hot for people to sit outside this day..

The place is quite small inside, so I was worried that by the time we ordered our food, there would be nowhere to sit. Surprisingly, the service is super quick, so the table turnover works out perfectly. I like the atmosphere of the restaurant, because it is completely unpretentious. They use paper place mats, the silverware sits in a mason jar (so cute!) and most of the tables are large enough to share with some other burger loving strangers.

So many delicious choices!

I ordered the feta cheese with pecan pesto burger (No. 4 on the menu), which was out of this world. Sounds a little odd, but it is magnificent. Bf built his own and ordered a burger with pimento cheese, which was equally delicious. Well...if I were forced to choose, I would say mine was slightly more delicious, but who's keeping track? So at FB, you can build your own burger, or you can choose from one of the few already built burgers. This place is a definite go-to the next time you find yourself over near Decatur. Plus, the new thing these days is farm to table eating, and these cows are 100% grass fed and never fed antibiotics or hormones, so you can eat guilt-free (sort of..). Yum!

Has anyone been to these restaurants? Will you be running back as soon as possible like me?