Hotlanta

So Emily has a legal writing conference, and I'm honing my "gentleman of leisure" act, and together those two pursuits lead us to Atlanta in summertime. Emily's been conferring up a storm, and I've been catching up on some leisure pursuits. More on that later (and more on our South Dakota adventure), but I wanted to share this evening's dinner with you.

When in the South, for pete's sake, get some Southern food. Emily and I hopped a cab to Gladys and Ron's Chicken and Waffles. By the way, the Gladys is Gladys Knight, and I don't know who Ron is; maybe he's a Pip. Their establishment isn't in the best neighborhood (the abandoned building next to it had potential, but it was still abandoned, as were several others within eyeshot), but the menu looked good.

I know what you're thinking: who on earth puts chicken and waffles together? The answer? Who cares!? The food at this joint was fantastic. I loaded up on catfish fingers (juicy, with delightful breading), cornbread muffins (the tenderest, flakiest, most delicious corn muffins I've ever eaten) and homemade macaroni and cheese that takes a close second to the M&C my very own mother makes. I know, everyone says their mom's *insert mother's signature dish here* is great, but my mom's mac and cheese is truly terrific. And Gladys wasn't far off the mark.

Emily had an apple-cinnamon waffle, and a buckwheat waffle. I helped her down them, and they were worth the eatin'. We finished up with sweet potato cheesecake. I pride myself on knowing a decent cheesecake. This was awesome. Terrific graham cracker crust, drizzled with caramel and pecan, with whipped cream on the side. And not the crap out of a can--they actually took cream and, well, whipped it. Holy cow.

The best part was the bill. The two of us ate to bloatedness for twenty six bucks, total. It was worth double that, because I won't have to eat for another week. If you're in Atlanta, or any of the other cities with a franchise, it's definitely worth trying.