[Updated October 26, 2021] During our 2009 visit to Blue Ridge, Georgia, restaurants were not really among the small town’s major selling points. Sure, there were a few decent places to eat in Blue Ridge back then, but none were especially worthy of note. The only one I remember fondly– a New Orleans eatery on … Read more
[Updated November 6, 2021] Growing up in a lower middle class family in Atlanta, I vividly recall the visceral excitement I felt every time I’d get some spending money from mowing my neighbor’s lawn. My buddies and I would hop on our 10-speed bikes and ride down to the neighborhood Milk Jug convenience store. There … Read more
[Updated November 6, 2021] When I was a young man working to pay my own way through college, I spent 5 years as a cook, manager, and delivery driver at a family-owned Italian restaurant in Atlanta. Those influential years at At’sa Pizza (which was owned by a similarly warm maternal figure) came rushing back to … Read more
[Updated November 6, 2021] As a boy growing up near the North Georgia mountains, I tended to take the Appalachian food of my family’s roots for granted. Fortunately, traditional Southern food has come a long way over the last few decades, as has the culinary scene in little mountain towns like Blue Ridge, GA. When … Read more
[Updated November 9, 2021] Visiting Blue Ridge GA in the ’90s (and even as recently as 2009), there was little indication that this tiny town would soon become a tourism hotspot. Spanning just 2.6 square miles, with a population of less than 1300 people at the time, it felt like any number of other sleepy … Read more