Creative Loafing Atlanta

Operation Best of Atlanta

Pawnshops not just for the poor

When the economy's bad, their business is good

• by Rochelle Renford

And now, your host ...

• by Thomas Chung

Who didn't 'get' bin Laden?

Hint: It wasn't Bill Clinton's fault the terrorists struck America

• by John F. Sugg

First words

Careful what you ask for

• by Hollis Gillespie

Atlanta's worst-kept secret

• by Kevin Griffis

Dirty Looks

A quick look at Atlanta's fashion sense

• by Matt Monroe

How much for the Italian balls?

Featuring the best of the rest

• by Andisheh Nouraee

Guilty plea rocks Galardis

• by Scott Henry

Overdue

Barrett, CL sued by sergeant

• by Michael Wall

Lunchtime luxury

A midday meal at Bacchanalia is a rapturous experience

• by Bill Addison
• Tags: Restaurant Review, Bacchanalia

Putting the carne in Carneval

Sal y Braza roasts up a parade of meats

• by Cynthia Wong

The Wine List

• by the wine list

Sal Y Braza

Carpetbaggers, windbreakers, cowboys and milkmen

A quartet of locally tied revisitations

Corporate rock still sucks

Quasi brings rebellion back to independent music

• by Chad Radford

Light Pupil Dilate sizes up its D-I-Y cred

• by KEVIN FOREST MOREAU

Ferrelle rocks his roots

• by Lee Valentine Smith

Skateaway

• by Curt Holman

My big fat ink wedding

• by Tray Butler

Short Subjectives

Capsule reviews of films by CL critics

Force of nature

Angela West continues her love affair with all things hometown

• by Felicia Feaster

Dinner for one

Flavorful Boeuf overseasoned with slapstick

• by Curt Holman

The art of advertising

• by Felicia Feaster

A shot in the dark

• by John Moore

Best Overall Restaurant

Best Place to get Pampered for a Pretty Penny

CLOSE UP: Confessions of a bin-digger

THIS JUST IN: Old People get naked

NEWS FLASH: Mosquitoes ravage city

Exposé : Local dishes cause eyes to bug out

• by Bill Addison

NEWS FLASH: Mishap at Chamber

Best Overall Restaurant

Best Place for Perpetual Happenings

Best New Fashion Designer You've Never Heard Of

Best Alternative Festival

Best Reason to Live in Atlanta

Best New Restaurant

Best Place for a First Date

Best Place to Buy a Dress from the Past

Best Theater Company

Best Piece of History Lost

Best Vestige of the Old South and Best Tourist Spot Where Even Locals Go

Best In-Town Restaurant to Take Visitors

Best Place to Witness Human Mating Rituals

Best Fashion for Broke-But-Stylish Boys

Best Change-of-Pace Performance

Best Underused Acting Resources

Best Local Celebrity

Best OTP Restaurant to Take Visitors

Best Place for a Ceremonious Dumping

Best Place for Ladies' Designer Duds without Designer Prices

Best Guest Actor

Best Up-and-Coming Democrat

Best Restaurant to Bring You to Culinary Orgasm

Best Place To Recharge for More Drankin'

Best Mountain of Old Clothes

Best Second Banana

Best Up-and-Coming Republican

Best Restaurant Where You Wouldn't Expect One to Be

Best Place to Find a Prospective Date for Friday Night

Best New Shopping Concept

Best Theatrical Mad Scientists

Best Politician Going out to Pasture

Best Restaurant to Escape the Rat Race

Best Place for "Boy Meets Boy" Without the Pesky Straights

Best Consignment Store for Babies

Best Store For a Man to Feel Like a Woman

Best Long Damn Play

Best Athlete

Best Restaurant for a First Date

Best Place To Pick Up A Dyke

Best Late-Night Dining

Best Place to Continue Where You Left Off Saturday Night

Best Place for Girls to Buy Their Skivvies

Best Shaky Grasp on Reality

Best Missed Atlantan

Best Place for a Chocolate Fix

Best Place to Pontificate While You Defecate

Best Place to Indulge Your Shoe Fetish

Best Use of Atlanta as a Film Location

Best Overuse of a Primary Color

Best Party of the Year

Best Place to Blow Your Diet

Best Place To Get Stoned Without Hiding Behind One

Best Place to Find Vice Magazine

Best Place to See a Movie

Best Filmmaking Project

Best New Use of an Old Space

Best Patio Dining

Best Best Place to Get Free Live Music as Dessert

Best Place to O.D. on Eye Shadow

Best Local Filmmakers

Best New Design

Best Food Court

Best Concert Venue

Best Place to Buy a Get-Out-of-the-Doghouse Gift

Best Graffiti

Best Terminally Ill Sign of Atlanta's Seamier Side

Best New Cheap Eats

Best Place to Indulge Your Childhood Love For '80s Hair Metal

Best Florist for Special Occasions

Best Art Hype

Best Architecture Activists

Best Greasy Spoon

Best Place to Hear Local Music

Best Place to Register for Your Wedding

Best Place to Procure a Meat Cleaver

Best Test of Endurance by an Artist

Best Neighborhood Group Fighting the Man

Best Overall Cheap Eats

Best Outdoor Music Venue If You Like Country and Don't Mind the Hike

Best Buffet

Best Place to Hear Music for Free

Best Home Decor if You Want Your Home to Resemble a Medieval Church

Best Up-and-Coming Photographer

Best Suburb Inside the Perimeter

Best Breakfast

Best Rock Club Dressing Room

Best Traditional, Mod and/or Eclectic Furniture

Best Unexpected Place to See Art

Best Dog Park

Best Intown Park

Best Waitstaff

Best Meat Market That Also Masquerades as a Music Venue

Best Mall that Improves with Age

Best Artist Collective

Best Holding Steady Artist

Best OTP Park

Best Sunday Brunch

Best Place to Dance OTP

Best Shopping Spree for the Financially Challenged

Best Venue for Local Artists

Best Place to Mountain Bike

Best Appetizers

Best Place to Hear Gen-u-ine Old-Time Blues from Legit, Historic-Type Out-of-Town Acts (and Locals Too)

Best Party Food

Best Local Art Trend

Best Place To Boulder

Best Bakery

Best Place For a Musician to Get a Concussion

Best Place to Get the Right Cut

Best Artist Fresh Out of the Gate

Best Library for Explaining Painful Times

Best Bar Food

Best Place to See Strippers "Off the Clock"

Best OTP Salon with an Attitude

Best Place Not to Cringe Through a Bikini Wax

Best Multimedia Venue

Best Local Bureaucrat

Best Desserts

Best Attempt at Updating the Perennial Best Acoustic Club

Best Cajun

Best Place to Gnaw on a Rib Bone and Dig on Some Blues

Best Place to Get a Rub

Best Alternative Art Space

Best Local Website

Best Caribbean

Best Country Music Club

Best Place to get Pampered for a Pretty Penny

Best Art Dish

Best Reason to Ride MARTA

Best Security Detail

Best Chinese

Best Dance Club

Best Place for Mastering the Lotus Position

Best Finger on the Pulse of the Local Arts Scene

Best Museum

Best Place to Multi-Task For Jesus

Best Cuban

Best Shut-Up-n-Listen Jazz Venue

Best Libations Superstore

Best Art Installation

Best Straight Guy in Need of the Queer Eye

Best Dim Sum

Best Place to Have Your Beer Spilled By a Karaoke Singer

Best Disneyland for Wine Snobs

Best Show By Visiting Artists

Best Hate Joke on Morning Radio

Best French

Best Underrated Chill Spot

Best Guilt-Free Groceries

Best Thematic Show

Best Place to Hear a Song You Haven't Already Heard in the Last 24 Hours

Best Italian

Best Spot to Hear Neo-Soul Live

Best Place for Live Eels

Best Antiques Store to Withstand Smoke, Flood and Flame

Best Experimental Dance Epic

Best Show to Hear the Songs Album 88 Used to Play

Best Place All Ages Can Get In / Fit In

Best Indian

Best Comedy Club

Best Japanese

Best Flea Market Minus the Fleas

Best Modern Movement

Best All-Crunk-All- the-Time Radio

Best Naked Museum

Best Korean

Best Books for the Broke

Best Bloody Ballet

Best Country Music Station

Best Place to Regress

Best Naked Gymnast Technically Ineligible for the Olympics

Best Meat-and-Three

Best Bookstore to Cave in to Corporate Control

Best Dancer

Best New Choreographer

Best Jazz Radio Station That Has No Real Competition

Best Way To Seem Cool For Just $1

Best Kosher

Best Place to Buy a CD Without Having to Prove Your Indie Cred at the Door

Best Lighting of a Diva

Best Alternative Radio, Before Alternative Became a Marketing Tag

Best Place to Rack Your Balls

Best Mexican

Best Used CDs (That Can't Be Shoplifted)

Best Singing Stones and Rumitones

Best Radio Show for Flaming Anglophiles

Best Middle Eastern

Best Place to Be Bowled Over

Best New Vinyl

Best Literary Event

Best News Story During A Sweeps Month

Best Southern

Best Bar Where Everyone Knows Your Name

Best Place to Find Replacements for Long-Lost Pablo Cruise, Christopher Cross and/or Peter Frampton Records

Best Imitation of the Record Store Clerks from High Fidelity

Best Improv Group

Best Sign of Hope at the AJC

Best Soul Food

Best Place to Hide From the World

Best Southwestern

Best Place to Meet Your Neighbors Who are Not at the PTA Meeting

Best Place For Filmies to Geek Out

Best Place to Hear Spoken Word

Best Continuing Reason to Mock the AJC

Best Steaks

Best Place to Channel Bukowski

Best Hobby Shop if Your Hobby Is Self-Pleasure

Best Enthusiastic Local Author

Readers' picks

Best Sushi

Best Place to Escape to When Wifey Wants to Spend Sunday in Church

Best Bike Shop For the Uninitiated

Best Drag Queen

Best Local Overall Music Act

Best Tapas

Best Bar to Drown Your Stereotypically Southern Sorrows

Best Place to Discover a Bright Orange Wurlitzer

Best Band Still Working to Keep Their HOPE Scholarships

Best Tex-Mex

Best Place to Hone Your Queer Eye

Best Place to Buy Your Guitar Stuff, Keyboard Stuff and Other Stuff

Best New Local Band Transplanted From the Midwest

Best Thai

Best Place To Reminisce About Lilith Fair

Best Place to Revive a Cocktail Dress with Cocktail Stains

Best Band You Might Wind Up Hating Once They Get Famous

Best Vietnamese

Best Spot to Fish for Mullets

Best Place to Replace a Zipper on the Fly

Best Place to Be Promised a Rose Garden

Best Local Rock Band

Best bagel

Best Place to Swill a Home Brew

Best Barbecue

Best Beer Slinger You Can Take Home To Mom

Best Place to Imitate Art

Best Reminder of the Redneck Underground's Glory Days

Best Biscuits

Best Place To Drink Tequila Without Licking Your Hand

Best Place to Find Shoes for Every Occasion

Best Local Eclectronic Ensemble

Best Burrito

Best Place to Drink One Dry and Dirty

Readers' picks

Best Blues Band to Shake Your Ass To

Best Local Soul/Funk Act

Best Hamburger

Best Drink for Mambo Kings

Best Avant-Something-or-Other Act

Best Ice Cream

Best Intown Study of the Static Head of Hops

Best Local Former Hip-Hop Act That's Become a Loose Partnership of Eclectic Musical Visionaries

Best Fried Chicken

Best Place for Beer Snobs Outside the Hip Zone

Best Loungecore Act That Continues After the Fad Has Long Passed

Best Pizza

Readers' picks

Best Singer/Songwriter

Best Sandwich/Sub

Best Local Brew

Best Local Independent Music Collective

Best Wine List

Best Impersonation of the Traveling Wilburys in the Form of a Local Supergroup

Best Wine Bar

Best Local Jazz Pianist

Best Local Vocalist

Readers' picks

Best Local International / World Music Act

Best Local Chicken Coop Thumper

Best Local Indie Hip-hop Prophets

Best Local Guitar-Slinging Momma

Best Reissue From a Local Musician

Best Ubiquitous Ex-Atlanta Artist

Best Ignored Comeback by a Local

Best Pre-Concert Ritual by a Local Band

Best Live Act That Won't Make You Feel Guilty For Leaving Before the Encore

Best Barn-Burning Bluegrass Brothers

Best Band that Requires Earplugs to Prevent Combustion

Readers' picks