November 2015
Features
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Could you wait tables for 45 years?
No kid dreams of waiting tables when he grows up. At least, that’s what we learned from five of Atlanta’s veteran servers, who’ve each spent 20 to 45 years taking orders, filling glasses, and brushing crumbs from tables. So what makes someone stick with this job for their entire life?
In a new memoir, Hamilton Jordan recalls how a visit from Martin Luther King Jr. changed his views
At the age of 17, during the following winter, I saw King’s first march in Albany. Despite pleas in the Albany Herald for its white readers to refrain from glorifying these “trouble-makers and outside agitators,” my father surprised me by inviting me to go downtown with him one Saturday morning to witness King’s first march.
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The Connector
Georgia lawmakers say casinos could save the HOPE scholarship. Is the fix already in?
Using HOPE’s instability as justification, casino advocates last year resurrected efforts to change gambling laws. MGM Resorts International hired an army of 16 lobbyists to drum up support, emphasizing that Georgians already spend an estimated $346 million each year rolling the dice in nearby states.
High Museum’s new director seeks to bridge the gap between old Atlanta money and new Atlanta art
In July, the museum announced it had hired Rand Suffolk—the 47-year-old president of the Philbrook Museum of Art, a Tulsa institution housed inside a stunning 1920s villa and surrounded by 23 acres of gardens.
Tune in to these 3 great Atlanta-based podcasts
Perk up your commute with three Atlanta-based podcasts: Switchyards, 1 Beer 1 Song, and Comcastro.
Smashing fun at Rock Ranch on National Pumpkin Destruction Day
In 2007, Adam Pugh, director of operations at the 1,500-acre Rock Ranch, created Pumpkin Destruction Day as a fun way to recycle extra pumpkins on the farm.
Muppets Take Midtown: 8 favorite attractions at Center for Puppetry Arts’ new museum
On November 14, Kermit returns as part of the center’s 7,500-square-foot Worlds of Puppetry Museum, which includes two permanent galleries: one devoted to 3,000-plus international puppets and another featuring some of the 500 Muppets and props donated by Henson’s family in 2007.
Clayton County vs. DeKalb County: A scandal scorecard
Not long ago, Clayton County was metro Atlanta’s cautionary example of municipal dysfunction. Then came DeKalb. We rank each venality out of 10.
Meet Jack Brantley, Atlanta’s longest-practicing accordion repairman
What do you hear when you drop an accordion from a 10-story building? “Applause,” quips Jack Brantley, one of the few artisans in the Southeast qualified to patch the long-suffering instrument back together and restore it to tunefulness.
The Bite
Technique: Little Tart Bakeshop’s Sarah O’Brien on making perfect pie crusts
Sarah O’Brien uses a standard recipe for making her irresistibly flaky crusts. So how come hers taste so much better than ours? “It’s all about the little things,” she says.
Fresh on the Scene: Tavernpointe, Madras Mantra, Gus’s World Famous Fried Chicken, Mason Tavern
A first look at four newcomers to Atlanta’s restaurant scene: Tavernpointe, Madras Mantra, Gus’s World Famous Fried Chicken, and Mason Tavern
Review: Little Bacch returns to the classics we didn’t know we missed
Here, oysters Rockefeller, cheese soufflé, and New York strip with bordelaise are made with such close attention to sourcing and with such careful, uncluttered technique that you start to pine for the days when food like this was served nightly by old-line clubs.
The (Pint) Glass Ceiling: Sarah Green is Georgia’s only female full-time professional brewer—for now
Of the estimated 100 full-time brewers at Georgia’s 47 craft breweries, Sarah Green, of SweetWater Brewing Company, is the only woman.
The Christiane Chronicles: Restaurant restroom nightmares; Perfect post-meal digestifs
In an ideal world, all public restrooms would have automatic faucets, fresh linens, mouthwash, and those fancy, high-tech toilets from Japan. But that’s not the world we live in. And at the end of a heavy meal, nothing clears the palate and jump-starts digestion quite like a digestif: brandy, Armagnac, eau de vie, grappa.
Must-have dessert: A Cup a Cake’s coconut rum cake
Until five years ago, Marlene Baker had never put beaters to batter. Luckily, Baker—the self-taught creator of A Cup a Cake’s golden, delicate coconut rum cakes—is a quick study.
The Goods
Iris van Herpen’s fantastical haute couture comes to the High Museum
For the High Museum of Art’s first-ever fashion exhibition, curator Sarah Schleuning wanted to highlight innovation, not trends. So she chose the experimental van Herpen, whose mind-bending creations turn the adage “form follows function” on its head.
Room Envy: This Brookhaven sitting room ditches dark decor for a more modern look
With formal living rooms about as popular as VHS recorders these days, homeowners and interior designers are taking a looser approach to front sitting rooms.
Six reasons to love Home Park
Bordered on the north by Atlantic Station and the south by Georgia Tech, Home Park is in the heart of west Midtown. And yet the compact neighborhood remains somewhat hidden in plain sight—well, as hidden as a neighborhood can be when it abuts a premier university and a sprawling outdoor mall and entertainment complex.
My Style: Designer Gavin Bernard
This fall, Brit-born Bernard and industrial designer Suzuko Hisata launch Wake Up Dear, a modern design lighting brand. Their marquee product line, ODO, consists of striking, one-of-a-kind chandeliers made from birch plywood and hand-wrapped with woven thread in geometric patterns.
The Love List: Fancy Thanksgiving feast
A few years ago, my sister and I took it upon ourselves to host a family Thanksgiving. The occasion presented a variety of challenges, not least of which was her aversion to gluten.
Miscellaneous
November 2015: Mural Maker
For the past four years, Peter Ferrari has made his living as a full-time artist, which is no mean feat when you consider that his canvas is often the side of a building—not exactly a transportable medium.
Vanity Fair turned me into a Southern stereotype—and I let them
I was one of nine Southern female authors assembled by Vanity Fair magazine for a photo shoot to accompany an article about us. And there, on the Swan House lawn, was that quirk again, this time in the form of hats.
One Square Mile: Newton County Superior Court
Judge Horace J. Johnson Jr. sits behind a desk covered with case files, in the shadow of a 12-foot wall lined with law books thick as bricks. A mountain of words. He prepared yesterday for the civil docket he’ll preside over today: divorces, separations, child custody issues.
