Tag: Southern

A native of Muscle Shoals, Alabama, Evans moved to Atlanta to helm the kitchen at Buckhead’s now-defunct Craftbar. His focus at the Optimist is seafood, but he still craves the earthier Southern comfort foods of home: his mom’s biscuits and gravy, his grandmother’s chicken and dumplings, and most of all, North Alabama chicken stew.

In September 1988, more than a month before Election Day, Alan Abramowitz accurately predicted George H.W. Bush would win 53 percent of the popular vote.

So you’ve got out-of-town guests who came south looking for moonlight and magnolias. Where do you take them for a dose of local color in a metropolitan place like Atlanta?

Who is this mythical Southern Gentleman we’ve heard so much about?

With Emory professor Natasha Trethewey named poet laureate of the United States, discussions of Southern identity get a higher profile.

In the South, entertaining is a blend of politeness and protocol. Both formal and casual gatherings reflect our upbringing, our sense of pride in our homes, and the value we place on family and friendships.

When I was a kid, I would drive a spike through my eye before eating a bowl of collard greens.

Biscuits have been keystones of the Southern table for more than a century. Before air-conditioning, they were beloved for their short baking time, which didn’t overheat the kitchen. In Culinary Ephemera, William Woys Weaver notes that biscuits became a calling card of the Bible Belt in part because they were leavened using baking powder rather than yeast, which is associated with alcohol. Still one of the emblems of the South, they’re now fashionable in hipster cities like Seattle and Portland, Oregon.