December 2015
Features
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Behind the scenes of the Governor’s Mansion
Not long after Governor Nathan Deal and his wife, Sandra, moved into the fully furnished, three-story residence in 2011, Mrs. Deal began to seek out the building’s backstory. Where did the antique furniture come from? What was the significance of the artwork? Who picked out the drapes?
Piano Man: At 87, jazz legend Johnny Knapp is still jamming
Johnny Knapp is 87, and he feels it. He moves with a walker, his withered legs powered by wiry forearms and large hands that have flown over piano keyboards for 70 years. It’s Tuesday, and his ride is waiting.
The Complete Guide to Ponce City Market
Seemingly just like that, Ponce City Market has established itself as a community hub that’s fast-tracking the intown renaissance by packing in top chefs, specialty retail, industrial-chic apartments, and hip workspaces. But its sheer size can be overwhelming. How do you get inside the darn thing, for starters—and what’s worth your time?
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The Connector
Dominion Entertainment gives southwest Atlanta a cultural boost
Robert John Connor has shared microphones with Gladys Knight and Michael Bublé, and appeared on The Cosby Show, A Different World, and Glory. But when the Morehouse graduate founded Dominion Entertainment Group, which showcases the work of black actors and playwrights, he opted to base the company in his hometown.
A drone’s eye view of the Harvest Balloon Festival
The clear autumn sky above the Sterling on the Lake subdivision in Hall County provides a perfect backdrop for the community’s annual Harvest Balloon Festival. During the weekend-long event, attendees can spend a few minutes in a balloon tethered about 40 feet above the neighborhood green, or soar as high as 3,000 feet in a ride designed to showcase North Georgia’s fall colors.
10 must-see Atlanta holiday traditions
This year marks the 20th anniversary of Atlanta Ballet’s Nutcracker—and it’s also the final season for the show’s choreographer, retiring artistic director John McFall. Here’s where the Tchaikovsky classic fits in with the city’s other long-standing holiday traditions.
Does Georgia need to tighten the leash on exotic animals?
“You can’t have them as a pet, and you can’t keep them in your home. But like any laws or regulations, people bend them, and an exotic animal can become a pet when we’re not looking,” said Lieutenant Wayne Hubbard, head of the DNR division responsible for deciding who can own exotic animals.
At Hartsfield-Jackson airport, it’s not always the travelers who pose the safety risk
“That kind of trafficking—whether it’s money or guns—within the airport, it creates an additional layer of harm to the community,” says John Horn, U.S. attorney in Atlanta. “The airport is such a huge institution to [Atlanta]; we have the obligation to make sure that it’s safe.”
Christmas one of the busiest days for Waffle House
Ah, Christmas Day. Wake up and open presents. Spend time with family. Head to your favorite Waffle House?
Stacking up the Celebration Bowl and the Peach Bowl
Christmas comes twice for Atlanta college football fans when the Georgia Dome hosts two bowl games: the annual New Year’s Eve Peach Bowl and first-ever Celebration Bowl, a matchup between the respective champions of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference and the Southwestern Athletic Conference. Here’s how the two games go head-to-head.
The Bite
Technique: Cakes & Ale’s Billy Allin on open-top braising
For an easy dinner at home, Billy Allin suggests open-top braising, a slow-cooking method that yields super-tender meat with minimal kitchen effort. For poultry, Allin prefers the “crocodile” method, in which he places chicken (or duck) pieces in a pan and partially covers them with liquid, leaving the tops exposed “like the backs of crocodiles floating in the water.”
Review: Revival worships at the altar of butter
Revival is Kevin Gillespie’s re-creation of the food he grew up eating at the table of his grandmother, whom he calls the best cook he’ll ever know, and who specialized in flavor-packed abundance.
Fresh on the Scene: Staplehouse, La Mei Zi, Com Mai, Venkman’s
A first look at four newcomers to Atlanta’s restaurant scene: Staplehouse, La Mei Zi, Com Mai, and Venkman’s
We Suki Suki’s Q Trinh proves you don’t need celebrity chefs or buckets of cash to think big
Two George Foreman grills, a run-of-the-mill coffeemaker, and just $99 in the bank—that’s all Quynh Trinh had when she opened We Suki Suki in East Atlanta Village in 2012.
The Christiane Chronicles: Keep your restaurant hours consistent; Atlanta’s best Latin cuisine
Few things drive me crazier than restaurants with sporadic hours of operation. Plus, highlighting a host of establishments in Atlanta serving notable Latin American cuisines.
The Goods
The Love List: The Gift of Style
Holiday gifting provides a prime opportunity to hint to your parent, sibling, or significant other that their wardrobe could use an upgrade.
Room Envy: A sophisticated gray study in Ansley Park
“The dark color really envelops you and feels cozy,” says interior designer Nina Nash. When she and her Mathews Furniture partner Don Easterling created this sultry and sophisticated study in Ansley Park, they installed classic built-ins, then furnished the room in rich tones from both ends of the color spectrum
Destination: High Country, North Carolina
Craving an Alpine fix? The peaks in North Carolina’s High Country may be less prodigious than those in Aspen, Stowe, or Park City, but the southernmost winter wonderland is just a five-hour drive away.
Purses with purpose: Whitby helps fund education for underprivileged girls
You’d be hard-pressed to describe most luxury handbags as having a “social mission,” unless you count impressing the wearer’s friends at a cocktail party. Not so for Atlanta-based Whitby Handbags’ line of Saffiano leather arm candy, which helps fund education for underprivileged girls around the globe.
8 shiny accessories perfect for New Year’s Eve
No matter where you’re going this New Year’s Eve, these glittery accessories will have you sparkling.
Miscellaneous
December 2015: Dude, where’s my car?
If you were living here just a dozen years ago, then the changes you’re seeing now in pockets of intown Atlanta are nothing short of staggering.
I was a teenage performer in a racist Wild West show, and I loved it—then
Once upon a time, my job description was “attack the train, terrorize the passengers, chase the pretty showgirls, fight the armed conductors, get killed.” As an Indian in a Wild West show with the Stone Mountain Scenic Railroad, I carried out these duties faithfully, with occasional embellishment, for two consecutive summers in the late 1970s.
One Square Mile: Falconry near Mason Mill Park
“Bird up!” yells Greg Ames across the wooded hill, silent but for the faint wash of distant traffic, as a red-tailed hawk springs from his leather-gloved wrist. The brass bells strapped to the animal’s legs jingle with each wing flap until she finds a perch on a barren limb some 50 feet up.