Earlier this year, I was approached by a publishing company, Globe Pequot Press, and asked if I was interested in writing a Food Guide book for Atlanta. I practically jumped out of my skin, I was so excited that they picked me. My publisher just sent me the cover of the book (pictured above) and I wanted to share it with you.

I’ve had so much fun over the last several months visiting restaurants around Atlanta and talking to staff and chefs. It has been a wonderful experience writing the book and I definitely have a new appreciation and respect for both authors and editors.

As you are reading this, I’m down in Florida for a short break and celebrating finishing the book!

Cheers!

Shuttles stops will be set up in the downtown Acworth area to take visitors to Cauble Park.

Smoke on the Lake will feature a large backyard (amateur) BBQ competition with cash prizes, trophies and bragging rights, a Boy Scout Dutch Oven Desert Competition, Live Music all day, BBQ Ally Food Court with plenty of great barbeque. Visitors may purchase BBQ from local Cobb BBQ restaurants and purchase samples of contestants BBQ to vote for the People’s Choice Award. In addition to lots of great BBQ, we will have a Beer Garden sponsored by Sweetwater Brewery and Johnny’s Pizza. The Beer Garden will serve brats, burgers, pizza and beer.

For more information or directions click here.

Downtown Acworth has been going through a renovation over the last couple years. Several notable restaurants are located there, including Henry’s, The Old Mill, Fusco’s Via Rome, and my most recent discovery the Waterstone Grill.

Full disclosure: Waterstone Grill invited me to review their restaurant. I had the pleasure of chatting with owner, Joanne Tubo and learning about the history behind the historic building. Turns out, Joanne and her husband own the buildings on either side of the Waterstone Grill. In fact, Waterstone Grill was once home to Henry’s before they moved a couple doors down a bigger space.

Joanne told me they spent 2 years completely renovating the space. And it shows from floor to ceiling. Beyond the dark woods prevalent throughout the intimate restaurant, you’ll see stamped ceiling tiles, brick walls, and against the back wall, a beautifully tiled drink station. Architecture lesson: the space was once an alleyway and converted into a building using the walls of the exterior buildings on each side, the term being an infill building. When you visit, note the different styles of brick on each side of the restaurant.

Shortly after being seated, Jackie, our server for the evening, suggested we do a tasting of Waterstone’s house wines. I obliged thinking, “how good is house wine?”, especially at only $5 a glass, but I was pleasantly surprised. Of the whites, the Sauvignon Blanc was the best, and of the reds, the Merlot was a clear winner. The brand, called Foxbrook, is one I’ve not heard of and Joanne told me they aren’t available for retail, one of the reasons she chose the brand.

Waterstone Zucchini Rolls

Our complimentary rolls included not only regular rolls but a zucchini muffin type of roll as well. These were slightly sweet and very moist. I like that they offer something a little different than average rolls. I’m not the only one who likes them this much – they’ve become so popular with regulars, that the AJC has published the recipe in a recent issue.

Soup of the day was Crab Bisque and Jackie didn’t have to twist my arm much to give it a try. It was creamy, a tad spicy, a chock full of crabmeat. Hands down, some of the best crab bisque I’ve ever had. Now Glen went for the French Onion soup. His mom has a special recipe she prepares every Christmas that I just love and this tasted just like it. FOS can be tricky as it is pretty easy to over salt it, but this was the perfect balance of sweet onions, gooey cheese, and flavorful broth.

Waterstone Grill French Onion Soup

Although my soup was small, it was very filling, and I could have quite easily jumped into the main course, but I absolutely had to try a couple appetizers: calamari and bacon wrapped shrimp with spicy bbq glaze. Be warned: the glaze is pretty hot, so if you don’t like too much heat, I’d avoid this app.

Waterstone Calamari

As for the calamari, when I saw that there was a lot of friend peppers within it, I thought the peppers were there as an extender, but once I started eating I found the calamari was complimented by the peppers. It came with a marinara and a soy ginger dipping sauce. I really didn’t care of the ginger sauce – it seemed to have too much soy and not enough sweet to it.

Waterstone Calamari

At this point, we had had quite a bit of seafood, and perhaps it would have been a good idea to try a steak or chicken dish, but we just couldn’t resist the scallops with potatoes au gratin or sesame trout. When I saw our dishes come out, I knew we’d made the right choice. My scallops, 6 of them altogether were cooked just right and the orange scented cream sauce paired well with the scallops, which I later found out is one of both Joanne and Jackie’s favorite dishes.

Waterstone Sesame Trout

The trout was a huge portion; the 2 large pieces could easily feed two. And it is coated in both white and black sesame seeds. I found it to be tasty as Glen did, cleaning his plate. Our sides (yellow rice and potatoes au gratin) were winners too, not just there to take up space on the plate.

For dessert, we sampled the crème brulee and the blueberry and lemon pound cake. You can’t go wrong with either one of these desserts, although I’m slightly partial to the pound cake. The combination of tart blueberries with the sweet lemony cake is delicious.

Waterstone lemon-blueberry cake

I kept a rolling total of our bill in my mind – $75 for everything. That included wine, 2 of the each: soup, appetizers, entrees and desserts. Beautiful atmosphere, great service, tasty, moderately priced food and free parking! Good luck finding all of that ITP.

Waterstone Grill is open for lunch and dinner everyday but Sunday. I can’t wait to visit again and try the Pear, Walnut, and Goat cheese salad along with their Smoked Gouda Risotto – a bargain at under $4 a piece. And they have a martini menu that has nearly 10 specials including a Snickerdoodle martini.

Extras: On Saturdays get a bottle of house wine for $10.

4849 North Main Street
Acworth, GA 30101
770 974 4899
Website

Big Pie in the Sky Pizzeria

Slices as big as your Head! That’s their tagline at Big Pie in Sky Pizzeria. And they aren’t joking around. Matter of fact I think the slices are BIGGER than the average person’s head. The diameter of their XL pie is a whopping 30 inches.

Needless to say, a slice at Big Pie in the Sky Pizzeria will more than fill you up. But if you are into competition they do have a contest and the rules are simple. If you and a friend can devour their meat pizza – comes piled high with 5 different meats – in under 1 hour you win $250. Until April 16th, no one had ever won this competition, but that all changed when two customers ate the whole pizza pie and won the house cash.

Upon my recent visit, I also learned the rules have a changed a bit. This contest is so popular it must be scheduled in advance – AND there are 2 time slots per day, 3:30 PM and 8:30 PM. There are no contests on Friday or Saturday. The buy in is 50 big ones, so you better be serious about chowing down.

Visit #2: April 2009

As I had many readers tell me they found it almost impossible to get in to Big Pie in the Sky after it’s tremendous surge in popularity due to its being featured on Man vs. Food, I thought I should try a return visit. I wondered if the the quality of the pizza would be as good or if the service would still be on par with my prior visit.

Big Pie in the Sky on Man vs. Food

So, when one of my coworkers was leaving our organization, he said he wanted to go to Big Pie in the Sky for his farewell lunch. I called Big Pie and asked if they took reservations as I know how crowded they can get. They said no, we’d just have to go there and take our chances, even with a group of 7. Fearing a long wait, we held off until the main lunch rush was over and were able to snag a table, although it was pretty full.

As I said, there were 7 of us in the group and there is no table service. Individuals must place their order at the counter and wait at a table for it to be delivered. A couple in the group ordered salads and all the rest ordered pizza. I think the salad eaters were less than thrilled with their salads (Caesar and Chef).

Big Pie in the Sky Chef Salad

The rest of us liked our pizza pretty good but I don’t really think anyone was blown away by it. They use quality toppings and are very generous with them. I had a slice with bacon, mushrooms, artichokes, and smoked provolone and there was tons of bacon on my slice (see pic below). I really didn’t taste any difference between mozzarella and the smoked provolone that I paid extra for, so I think I could have easily saved myself $0.85 there. All in all, the toppings are high quality but the sauce wasn’t as flavorful as I remember it being on my last visit. Still a good slice but I wouldn’t put it in my top 5.

Big Pie in the Sky Pizza with Bacon, Artichokes and Mushrooms

I didn’t like the gap in time from when orders came out to each of us. The first person in our group was completely finished with his not one but TWO slices of pizza by the time the last person to order got his one slice. I recommend going with a small group (4 or less) or if you are in a large group just order one pizza so everyone can eat at the same time.

It seems like the excitement of Big Pie in the Sky has finally calmed down a little since it was featured on Man vs. Food. Sometimes when an establishment gets popular too fast they just can’t handle the instant deluge of customers. But Big Sky seems to be more organized and more capable of managing the demands that the popularity of the show has brought them.

Visit #1: November 2008

The kids that were running the place the Saturday afternoon we visited were very friendly. I say kids meaning that they were under the age of 20. They were really helpful in helping us pick out what to get.

On my visit, I got the sausage and mushroom toppings on my slice. Nice, thin crust. How thin you ask? Thin enough that I can actually eat it with my hands, no knife and fork required. Well after I cut it half lengthwise. And I love that they actually cook their vegetable toppings onto the pizza instead of throwing them on raw – a pet peeve of mine.

Extras:

• No matter when you visit, winter or summer, bring a sweater! It is FREEZING in there. I don’t know why the keep it so cold. It needs to be about 10 degrees warmer in there.

• They have a lunch special of 1 slice with 2 toppings and a drink for $5. Your better value is to get a slice of one of their specialty pizzas which has about 4 toppings on it for the same price.

2090 Baker Road
Kennesaw, GA 30144
770-420-8883
Website