Athens Food Tours, Part Deux

After leaving Jittery Joe's, the next stop on our food tour was Whiplash Cafe, just a little farther down the street. Whiplash served us two different pizzas and one of their pasta salads, as well as providing a selection of beverages. One pizza was their Jersey Turnpike pizza which had salami, bacon, and jalapenos or banana peppers. The other was a Hawaiian pizza with ham and pineapple, I believe. The pasta salad was a chicken caesar pasta salad, which was very good, though they say that their house pasta salad is even better. We will definitely have to visit Whiplash Cafe again.

After Whiplash, we made our way up the hill and around the corner to Square One, the relatively new seafood restaurant on Thomas Street. At Square One, we were served a little jerk steak, which was spicy and flavorful, and oysters Bienville, which was rich and savory. This was my first experience with oysters, and it was a good one. This was also something that I would probably not have selected from a menu, but I decided to try them since previous ventures into the culinary unknown had been handsomely rewarded, in the form of escargot in Bermuda, sushi in Berkeley, molletes and street vendor hot dogs in Mexico (I can hear the collective gasp of germophobes everywhere), and samosas and chipatis in Kenya. The oysters was followed with a taste of an orange-based dessert, which was rather refreshing.

After finishing at Square One, we made our way to Yoguria, a locally-owned frozen yogurt shop at College Square, for the final stop on the tour. This was not TCBY. This yogurt, though frozen, retains the health benefits of the refrigerated yogurt you might buy from the grocery store, but is much flavorful. Yoguria had several flavors I had never previously tasted, including taro and bilberry. After sampling each of the flavors, I settled on bilberry with kiwi, bananas, and blackberries and was quite pleased with the result. I highly recommend Yoguria if you are looking for a cool treat that is still good for you.

Our Athens Food Tour was a great experience. Mary Charles is a phenomenal hostess and does a great job of stimulating conversation among the food tour participants, while keeping the interactions informal and relaxed. Her food selections were all delicious and allowed us to try new restaurants and new foods that we might otherwise have not known about or selected. If you are looking for a fun way to try a variety of local restaurants, try Athens Food Tours. Athens Food Tours offers a variety of tours, including several downtown itineraries, Normaltown, and Five Points. Check them out at http://www.athensfoodtours.com/

Athens Food Tours, part 1

And now, for something completely different...

This weekend Amy and I had the opportunity to take part in an Athens Food Tour, compliments of my brother, Mike.  For Christmas this year, Mike gave us, my parents, my other brother, and my sister-in-law a gift certificate for an Athens Food Tour.  Athens Food Tours (find them at http://www.athensfoodtours.com/)was begun last year by my brother's friend, Mary Charles, who is also co-owner of their joint pet-sitting business, Five Points Four Paws (http://www.fivepointsfourpaws.com/).

The seven of us and eight others met at the arch Saturday evening to begin the tour.  The first stop on the food tour was actually a vintage clothing store, Community.  Why, you might ask, would a food tour stop at a vintage clothing store?  Good question.  It turns out that this particular store sells hand-made chocolates in addition to the eclectic collection of clothing.  Flavors included dark chocolate caramel red sea salt, Grand Marnier truffle, and Jim Beam truffle.  Amy and I split the caramel sea salt and a Grand Marnier truffle and both were outstanding.  To wash down the treat, Mary Charles had picked up watermelon lemonade from Clocked, which was unique and quite delicious.  Our tour then continued down the street to the Jittery Joe's roasting house.

Jittery Joe's roasting house is quite possibly the best smelling place on earth.  Before you walk through the door, you are greeted by the wonderful aromatic scent of roasting coffee, which only increases in intensity as you enter and tour the building.  At this stop we were offered an opportunity to try various coffee-based beverages.  Mary Charles also provided several local beers to sample, including the Terrapin Sunray wheat beer, the special edition Georgia Theater brew, and an Abita strawberry beer.  Mary Charles acknowledged that Abita is not from Athens, or even from Georgia, but since Abita is a southeastern company, their strawberry beer is seasonal, and it happens to be one of her favorites, she decided to include it as a selection.  

To accompany the beverage selections provided at this location, Mary Charles had brought along perhaps my favorite food of the night, dates stuffed with goat cheese and celery from The National.  It is likely that I would never have ordered this from a menu, but it was one of the most delectable treats I have ever had.  I am craving one even now as I write this post.

Following our treats, we were taken on a tour of the facility by Charlie, the roaster for Jittery Joe's.  He showed us the raw coffee beans, talked us through the roasting process, and demonstrated the canning process by sealing my sister-in-law's phone in a coffee can, which she was happy about since it was her work phone.  Charlie explained some of the intricacies of the roasting process and then proceeded to demonstrate his skill as he smelled the roasting beans every few seconds waiting for a particular smell to disappear.  Before our next stop, Mary Charles informed us that the chaff from the coffee roasting process is a great substance for storing bulbs, in case anyone has a greener thumb than I.

More to come on the tour in my next post.