Saturday, November 26, 2011
Restaurants Prepping for Saturday's game
Posted by Cliff Bostock @cliffbostock on Sat, Nov 26, 2011 at 1:30 AM
On Black Friday we went to the Varsity with other members of his family. Apparently this is something they've done in years past that I've managed to avoid. I did report on a visit to the Varsity alone about a year ago. I explained then that even when I was a teenager, the food made me instantly sick. No, it has nothing to do with a snobby palate. It has to do with a GI tract that can't tolerate loads of grease.
So, I took 2.5-times my usual dose of drugs this visit and decided to avoid the Trinity of Gut Busters — the hot dogs, the chili and the onion rings. Instead, I got two slider-sized burgers, some fries and a Frosted Orange. I did not double-over in agony. In fact, the fries and the FO were enjoyable and the burgers were sublimely benign.
Apparently, everyone else in the city decided to have their own post-Thanksgiving meal at the Varsity. Finding two adjacent tables for eight was like solving the Rubik's Cube. Maybe the thousand people who milled in and out during our visit were prepping for Saturday's annual Tech. vs. Georgia game, when the Varsity may serve as many as 20,000 people.
It's all about the experience, of course. It's fun to watch kids get their first taste of impending obesity. And, no matter how the food tastes, the place is such an icon for those of us who grew up in Atlanta that the memories it evokes are mainly sweet.
Comments (3)
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After my two visits to The Varsity since I have lived in Atlanta (for the last 27 years), I still shudder to think of going there again. I've never understood the popularity of that place, especially when another hometown place like Zestos has significantly better food in that genre.
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Zesto is not really hometown. It's a chain out of Missouri that went out of business. There are spatterings of Zesto's around the southeast. I do agree it's better than the Varsity though.
Debating the merits of Zesto and the Varsity is kind of like arguing about who is the tallest midget.
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