Countdown To Grand Prix Atlanta: 1 Day Out - Food!

Welcome back to the Grand Prix Atlanta countdown blog! Yesterday, I showed you your travel options and places to stay this weekend at Grand Prix Atlanta. Whether you’re flying into Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport or packing five deep into your friend’s Honda Civic, you’re one step closer to getting to the Georgia World Congress Center for all of the festivities at Grand Prix Atlanta!

When I’m at any Magic tournament, one of my favorite things to do is try out the local cuisine. Yes, in theory, you could eat convention center delicacies all day, but why do that when Atlanta has such an amazing food scene? So today, I’ll be going over a few awesome restaurant options while you’re in The A.

Ebrik Coffee Room

Yes, I might be starting off the Atlanta food blog with a post about a beverage I don’t drink, but I watched the movie Barista recently – which is fantastic, by the way – and I know plenty of people love their morning caffeine, so away we go:

As soon as I took the first sip, I had to pause, hold the drink out, stare at it a moment, shake my head, and say “Wow!” I don’t know what they did to my mocha frappe, but it was so much better than anything I had ever ordered at [you know where] I couldn’t even sip it… I slurped it all the way down in record time, and with each slurp, I swear I shook my head and said, “This is so good!” Will definitely be back when I am anywhere near the area!”

[Ebrik] has a great selection of caffeinated beverages and local goods from the Highland Bakery; some non-caffeinated beverages too if you opt out for coffee. They also have a small selection of books to read while you relax with your hot cup of joe. Plentiful seating with a lot of outlets and free WiFi makes this place the perfect spot for students and other patrons alike.

Ebrik Coffee Room is a few blocks away from the Georgia World Congress Center, so if you’ve got some time between rounds, give a place not named Starbucks a try. I’m sure you won’t be disappointed.

Ammazza

If it’s pizza you want, downtown Atlanta does it surprisingly well. There are plenty of options to choose from, but after a few conversations with some Atlanta locals, all of them recommended Ammazza rather highly:

When creating Ammazza, we wanted to combine two of our favorite things – pizza, beer – and put them in an open, neighborhood-friendly space that invites people to come and go as they please. With a vast selection of over 30 well-thought-out beers, we then set out with an ambitious goal – to create the best pizza money could buy.

We worked with the simple truth that people recognize quality, so we decided to create a pizza using the best ingredients. This means that instead of limiting ourselves to Neapolitan-style or NY-style pizzas, we felt that we had to combine the characteristics we liked from each style to create a truly unique pizza experience.

Beginning with the dough, which is cooked in a 900-degree wood fire oven, it includes Caputo 00 flour, fresh yeast, water, sea salt, and is carefully prepared as we let it rise for 3 days before serving it. Unlike true Neapolitan pizzas, we did not want to limit ourselves to ingredients that come from a single region in Italy. Though these can yield a great pizza, we found that in order to reach our goal, we had to admit that there were more fresh and more flavorful ingredients from other regions of the world, especially in our own back yard! As a result, we make our own fresh mozzarella daily, source vegetables from regional farms, and use meats cured and prepared by the Spotted Trotter in Kirkwood. All this allows us to offer a pizza that is robust in local flavors that is unique to our very own region.

If you’re like me, you’re gonna be up late each day at the GP. Fortunately, so will Ammazza, as they’re open until midnight on Friday and Saturday and only a thirteen-minute Uber away from the Georgia World Congress Center. So get out there and try the Inferno with sopressata and peppers or the Ammazzare with Italian sausage and Vidalia onions and thank me later.

View Ammazza’s beer menu here and food menu here.

The Vortex

Honored with “Best Burger” awards by both local and national publications, this family-owned restaurant has a great menu and a unique sense of humor:

Since their ultimate goal was to have fun at work, they declared The Vortex an “Official Idiot-Free Zone.” The siblings simply refused to tolerate bad behavior from rude or demanding customers. People who annoyed them were regularly tossed out of their bar, often physically. This garnered them a certain degree of notoriety for their unconventional approach to customer service. Their big personalities and offbeat sense of humor became hallmarks of the new bar. They had succeeded in creating a cool, secret hideout for themselves. They were having fun, and the business prospered.

We have never taken ourselves too seriously. We don’t think anyone should. We just want to hang-out with cool people. So on the day we encountered our first rude customer, we decided to take on the challenge of educating people about how to behave in public. More precisely, how to behave in our bar. We began by compiling a set of “House Rules.” Every time we ran across somebody who acted like a great big jerk, we’d add another rule to the list. We eventually titled this compilation of rules, “Stuff You Really Need To Know,” and printed it on the cover of our menu.

Good food and a sense of humor? I can’t sign up fast enough! All kidding aside, The Vortex is recommended by many, is only a few minutes away from the Grand Prix, has award winning food, and is open until 3:00am on Friday and Saturday. What’s not to love?

View The Vortex’s food menu here.

Delia’s Chicken Sausage Stand

This is a pork-free zone, my friends. And if you’re familiar with chicken sausage, that’s totally okay! But if you’re looking for a Krispy Kreme donut with your chicken sausage patty, you’re somehow in luck:

At Delia’s Chicken Sausage Stand, owner Delia Champion has perfected her sausage recipe over the last fifteen years. The organic, hormone-free, preservative-free chicken sausage provides a more flavorful, healthier alternative to fast food. All dishes are prepared with care…from scratch…and presented in a fun and memorable manner – 100% Goodness is guaranteed with each bite! Visit Delia’s Chicken Sausage Stand to enjoy a “Slinger,” a delicious handcrafted chicken sausage link on a hoagie. Or try a Slider… our signature Chicken Sausage patty on a soft bun. For the And for those who dare…try our famous “Double D Delight”, made with a grilled Krispy Kreme donut, cherry cream cheese and chicken sausage patty. It’s so cluckin’ good.

I’m not sure I can handle the Double D Delight, but if you can, Delia’s Chicken Sausage Stand is open 24 hours on weekends. Happen to be vegetarian? Not a problem! You can make any slinger or slider vegetarian-friendly. All you have to do is tell them to cluck off (their words, not mine)!

View the Delia’s Chicken Sausage Stand food menu here.

Sweet Georgia’s Juke Joint

During my numerous trips to Atlanta for the SCG Tour^®, there’s one place I always look forward to and this trip for GP Atlanta will be no different:

Juke Joint brings a much needed new dining option to Peachtree Street and Atlanta’s downtown corridor. The wide array of offerings begin with “Snacks to Start,” such as Crispy Crawfish Tails (masa crisped with corn nibblers and sun-kissed citron tomato jam), the Southern Starter (fried green tomatoes, crispy vidalia onions and fried okra, topped with herbed goat cheese and red pepper aioli), and our Freshwater Rock Shrimp + Lump Crab Cake (fresh lump crab meat and rock shrimp with coleslaw, sweet apple corn relish and jalapeño tartar sauce) are crowd-pleasing favorites. Alongside a variety of soups, salads, and signature sandwiches, the Juke Joint menu also features a mouth-watering “Plates” section. Indulge in selections such as Smoked Sliced Beef Brisket (served with seasoned steak fries), Peach Glazed Alaskan Grilled Salmon (grilled and glazed with caramelized peaches and served over garlic mashed potatoes), and a St. Louis Pork Rib Rack (hickory smoked, grilled and glazed with our signature barbecue sauce, served with seasoned steak fries) amongst others. Lunchtime diners can choose from an abbreviated list of midday plates to satiate their appetites.

What that anecdote unfortunately leaves out is the fantastic live music they have playing while you enjoy your meal. You haven’t lived until you’ve seen Patrick Sullivan starting dancing to a cover of Bruno Mars’s “Uptown Funk” – trust me. I cannot recommend Sweet Georgia’s Juke Joint highly enough, and if you head there during your time in Atlanta, you’ll very likely see me there.

View Sweet Georgia’s Juke Joint’s food and drink menu here.

CheeseCaked

Not to be confused with the terrible U/R Mirrodin Block Constructed deck CheeseQuake from 2004, CheeseCaked is your best option for a unique dessert option that’s very close to the GP:

CheeseCaked specializes in turning your favorite desserts into amazing cheesecake flavors. We specialize in flavors such as White Chocolate, Raspberry Swirl, Caramel Apple Pie, Peanut Butter, Red Velvet, Pink Lemonade and many more.

It all started with grandma’s sweet potato cheesecake and her secrets to successful baking. During those precious moments, Shawn Brown discovered her natural artistic ability to revitalize a simple cheesecake recipe. Thus forming CheeseCaked; a gourmet cheesecake boutique selling a variety of personal sized cheese cakes in an assortment of flavors.

CheeseCaked has added imagination and extra love from the generation recipes. Healthy eating is a big part of the CheeseCaked brand, which is why we are devoted to creating a variety of options for the weight conscious customer. We also provide sugar free and vegan products.

And in case you don’t believe me about CheeseQuake being a U/R Mirrodin Block Constructed deck from 2004, here’s further proof that I’ve played far too much Magic over the last fifteen years:

CheeseQuake

Cedric Phillips

Test deck on 04-01-2004

Casual

Creatures (12)

Lands (24)

Spells (24)

Sideboard

View CheeseCaked’s food menu here.

Now that you know more about how to make your belly happy, you’re all set for Grand Prix Atlanta! Tomorrow’s final entry into the Grand Prix Atlanta countdown blog will have a few miscellaneous news items and notes to help prepare you for one heck of a weekend. See ya then!

Countdown To Grand Prix Atlanta: 1 Day Out – Food!