For Creative Loafing Atlanta. September 2018.  “Get yourself a Persian friend. Just show interest in their culture, and the next thing you know, they will invite you over to their house,” says Samira Shakib Bregeth, an Iranian-American English teacher at Roswell High School and advisor for news and opinion website VOX. She and others I […]

For Creative Loafing Atlanta. October 2018. Check out some of critics picks in the Oral Pleasure section of the annual Best of Atlanta competitive countdown. Full story in print.

For Creative Loafing Atlanta. April 2018. Chef Lotfi Chabaane spends each day at a retirement community called Parc at Duluth. At 60, he’s the place’s de facto spring chicken, telling stories, dancing, and cooking for the seniors who live there. What he’s cooking are Tunisian, Indian, French, Malaysian, and German dishes, but his patrons often […]

For Creative Loafing Atlanta. December 2017.  Seewai Sayavong welcomes me into a 12,000-square-foot Victorian mansion overlooking 15th street. “Tennessee Williams has lived here!” she says. Upon further research, I find that no one is quite sure whether this factoid is true or not, but the building, often referred to as “the castle,” was indeed a […]

For Creative Loafing Atlanta. October 2017. “Refugee cookies!” a 10-year old Syrian boy screamed from the front porch of an Oakhurst home. The shortbread style cookies, known in the Middle East as mamool and flavored with orange blossom, dates and pistachios, were an instant hit. In less than three hours, the entire batch sold: 45 […]

For Creative Loafing Atlanta. April 2017. Into Atlanta’s ever-widening ring of regional and modern Indian restaurants steps Jai Ho Indian Kitchen and Bar. Located in the former Madre + Mason spot in Morningside, the restaurant’s name means “let there be victory” in Hindi, perhaps in hopes that it will fare better than its locational predecessors. […]

For Creative Loafing Atlanta. March 2017.  From the outside, Royal Myanmar Cuisine looks like nothing more than a drive-through converted into a hole-in-the-wall restaurant, standing by itself in a quiet commercial plaza with a strip club, a liquor store and a few questionable-looking eateries. The interior of the former Crazy Wings is also very plain, […]

For Creative Loafing Atlanta. March 2017.  Sadia Sosa Walker moved to Atlanta from Santiago, the second largest city in the Dominican Republic, in the year 2000. It was her first time in the United States and she felt instantly nostalgic for the aroma of slow roasting pork, the chit-chat of aunts and uncles gathered for […]

For Creative Loafing Atlanta. February 2017.  Sandwiching the northwestern corner of I-285 are the city of Smyrna and the unincorporated town of Vinings, fondly known together by some locals as Smynings. Until the 1990s, one of the only iconic structures here was the historic Vinings Jubilee, a town center with brick buildings, a clock tower, […]

For Creative Loafing Atlanta, January 2017. One evening in the central Italian region of Tuscany, Meredith Hall, a young English teacher from Atlanta, walked into a traditional tango gathering known as a milonga. There, she met a charming local chef named Luigi D’Arienzo. Over passionate slow dances, fine wine, and Tuscan food, the two fell in […]

For Creative Loafing Atlanta, December 2016.  Amara is easy to spot, thanks to its electric blue and white sign. A Persian rug welcomes diners into the spacious, modern-industrial interior with pendant lights dangling from a high vaulted ceiling. A glass-backed bar with yellow chairs is central to the space, where one can watch people stopping […]

For Creative Loafing Atlanta. October 2016. Take a stroll through a narrow brick corridor decorated with glowing patio lights, aromatic herbs, and a mural of the Mediterranean. Listen to the cheerful clinking of glasses coming from a wrought iron Juliet balcony above the fountain as you make your way up a flight of steps. The […]

For Creative Loafing Atlanta, October 2016.  For South Asians living in metro Atlanta, fall is a nostalgic time of the year. It is when Hindus from India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and many Caribbean islands celebrate the festival of Diwali. This auspicious event not only holds a religious significance; it’s a cultural practice. Known as the […]

For Creative Loafing Atlanta, October 2016.  Le Gomier is not a traditional restaurant. Nestled in an unassuming strip mall in Lawrenceville, it boasts no distinct landmarks nor nearby neighbors. And although the restaurant and event hall has been open for three years, it has managed to slide quite discretely under the radar of Atlanta’s culinary scene. […]

For Creative Loafing. May 2016. A trip inside Botiwalla in Ponce City Market transports me to a canteen circa 1955, in the city of Ahmednagar, India. The British had just left India, granting its independence, leaving behind Victorian-style buildings and a bustling Parsi café scene. The fifth concept restaurant by James Beard Award nominee Meherwan […]

For Creative Loafing Atlanta. March 2016. With deep brown backdrops, country safari furnishings, and a vibrant bar menu, Biltong Bar feels like an old world cigar room with a contemporary twist. Open since early February, Biltong is one of the newest additions to Ponce City Market’s Central Food Hall. Restaurateur Justin Anthony (owner of Cape […]