Written by Ell
| 05 September 2008
I'd planned on getting this out earlier in the week, but I slacked. Short week threw me! At any rate, since we'll probably be making the trip back to Atlanta next year (and possibly before then - I mean the Chik-fil-A Bowl, so don't accuse me of jinxing us), I thought I'd include a quick report on where we spent our time. Mostly, we followed my suggestions. Yep, we eat our on dog food around here.
We led off the weekend at
Dantanna's on Friday night. We sat on the patio, where there were 8 or so TVs and took in the Friday night games while enjoying the steaks. The steaks were very good. The sides and appetizers were also quite excellent. The calamari had kalamata olives fried with it, and that rocked.
We did really enjoy the cigar room - they have an impressive ventilation system that made it bearable for even a non-smoker like me, and what seemed like a nice cigar selection. An impressive selection of scotches and bourbons made it a nice finish to a very tasty meal.
From there, we made our way across town to the
Atkins Park Tavern. It was noisy and generally fun. The jukebox was working overtime, and we experienced everything from NKOTB to Willie Nelson. Overall, a nice place in a cool neighborhood. We had a couple of pints, chatted a bit, then made our way back downtown to our hotel.
Across the street from the hotel was
Stats - so we made our way over there to meet some friends for a nightcap. It's a well appointed sports bar for sure. It's kind of stainless steel and a little sterile for my taste, but there were TVs everywhere. We sat at a Table Tap table, but it was no longer in operation at that hour - it was around late thirty when we arrived.
The next morning, we headed out for lunch. Making our way out of the hotel, we noticed a huge line to get in the door at Stats. Apparently, that was a line to get on a list to get a table...
We wandered down past ESPN Gameday to the
Taco Mac, where we were promptly told there was a two hour wait. We took our pager and headed to the CNN Center for some food. All the standard mall food court fare was there.
We made our way back to the Taco Mac and waited for the table. It turned out it was more like a three hour wait, but we were able to stand in the bar and watch the early football, so it wasn't a total loss.
Finally, a table opened up and we were able to catch the end of the Virginia Tech and Michigan upsets and enjoy some of the wings. They were predictably tasty. The service was spotty to say the least, but the place was jam-packed. The other upside was we were able to see when the team made their way to the Dome.
If you were paying attention to "
Tide Twitter" (check the lower left of the site) then you knew when the team headed that way. I'm planning on using that for updates on gameday - although the lousy battery life on my new iPhone made that tough late Saturday.
Dinner time found me at the Dome, and when the game ended, we shuffled our way into the hotel bar before turning in. Food was on the run Sunday as we made our way back towards Tuscaloosa.
So, do you care? Should we post these for all road trips, or is it self-indulgent crap you don't want to read... Let us know in the comments.
