Today we thought we would go visit the stadium and get the lay of the land so to speak. We do this so we know where we are going on game day and don't have to fight the traffic to explore around the stadium. Note to future self, always check if the stadium is being used for a college game on the day you go to explore, oh and also check to make sure there is not another college football game being held at another stadium a few blocks away, oh and make sure there is not some convention going on in the convention center adjacent to the stadium you are looking to explore. So after a couple of hours of fighting traffic, I can tell you virtually nothing about the stadium. Guess that will have to come tomorrow when all I have to deal with is just one NFL game and traffic will be much lighter.
On the way to visit the stadium we stopped at an Atlanta institution, THE Varsity. (Yes apparently you must say it with capitals on the The and with authority.) The Varsity is the worlds largest Drive Inn. It currently covers about 5 acres and can accommodate about 600 cars. It has been around since 1928, which is a very good thing because there is no way a place serving food this awful would be able to make a start today. They specialize in chili cheese dogs and greasy fries. The dogs are worse than oscar mayer, the chili is dry and tasteless and the fries are so greasy that they cannot be held by one end and have them stand up. They fall over to the side limp with grease running off them. The onion rings are so greasy that they serve them in a cardboard bowl inside the box they put them in. This keeps the grease from soaking though the service box. By the way if you ignore my advise and actually go there please order Coke. I was tricked into ordering a pepsi product and was given a lecture by my 80 year old car hop on how Atlanta is a COKE town (this included pointing to the Coke name on a local building) and they don't allow pepsi (yes you must say it with all small letters) products. Oh, and just for the record, the chili burger is far worse than the chili dog which is just bad.
After these two wonderful events we decided to regroup and head out later for a dinner at a Southern/Korean fusion restaurant. It was every bit as good as THE Varsity was horrible. The restaurant was named (well is still named) Sobban and it was a wonderful experience. It is located in the building that was the former first Arby's and trust me as an Arby's the building never experienced food this good. We were assisted in our ordering by the Beverage Manager, Daniel. While he is a Falcon's fan and that counts against him, he was wonderfully helpful in suggesting great dishes and wonderful drinks. He is very well versed in the Sake's they sell and made a great suggestion. (Gonna need to get me some more of that Sake when I get home.) The rest of the servers there were friendly and helpful as well and I can't speak highly enough about them. I would highly recommend this place to anyone looking for a good meal and something a little unusual. The coach was particularly impressed with the shrimp and rice grits. I loved the three chili chicken and the rest of the party enjoyed their meals as well. The appetizers that were best loved was the spicy squid with rice cakes and the spreadable salami with kimshi relish. Definitely need to get me some more of that Sake.
So now we are all set for tomorrow to watch the Bears take on the Falcons. The consensus of opinion of both the Bears' fans as well as the Falcons' fans is that this is going to be an offense heavy game. This opinion may be influenced by the general belief that between the two teams they can't field one defense.
Tomorrow will tell - GO BEARS
Saaaaaaake!!!!
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