Atlanta etc.: Marilyn Wolf's Food Blog and Restaurant Blog

Marlow's Tavern is in one of the new apartment towers near the Midtown MARTA station.  That may not seem like Georgia Tech territory, but you can hear the steam whistle from there (on the street, if not inside) and you can easily get there on the Tech Trolley.  The theme is upscale bar food.  I was tempted to order the burger, which seems to be their canonical dish, but I went for the salmon instead.  They did a very nice job, including an excellent crust on the top.  It came with a very good potato pancake, slightly different in form than what you would see in a deli but still an outstanding complement.

Bottoms Up Cafe is a brand new establishment on Tech Parkway.  The style is diner but with a modern update.  Their most interesting breakfast item is their buckwheat waffle.  Buckwheat is hard to find but very tasty.  They charge separately for their maple syrup; I think it's worth the money.  Today, I had challah french toast with strawberries.  The bread was thick and rich.  This is strawberry season somewhere in the world so the fruit was fresh, firm, and tasty.  You can almost get the Georgia Tech WiFi network from inside the restaurant; perhaps it works better from a window seat.

5th Street Ribs n Blues is one of the restaurants on Tech Square.  It serves a fairly classic barbeque menu---pork and chicken in the form of whole animals and chopped meat.  Today, purely for research purposes, I had a half rack of pork ribs.  One of the key controversies in barbeque is doneness---al dente or fall-off-the-bone.  5th Street goes for the al dente style---it takes just a little effort to tease off the meat.  Their sauce is not overly sweet and easy to take.  I have learned the hard way that BBQ is not the cleanest takeout meal.  All that sauce has to go somewhere.  When the meat is wrapped in paper, somewhere becomes everywhere.  But barbeque is not a meal for the fastidious. Ambience is blues and sports.  They have good blues playing over the speaker plus plenty of monitors tuned into sports events. One sign of authenticity---they're closed on Sunday.  Everyone knows you can't get decent BBQ on Sunday.