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Alice + Olivia! Tonight at Neiman Marcus!

06/23/2010 in Events!, Happy Hour, PSAs, Where we're Shopping by Lauren | 3 comments

Stacey Bendet (aka StaceyPants), designer of one of my favorite lines of all time, Alice+Olivia, will be gracing Atlanta with her presence as she and a team of stylists make their pitstop at Neiman Marcus at Lenox in their Summer Tour 2010!

Here’s the Q+DD: Tonight, Wednesday, June 23rd, Neiman Marcus will host a Happy Hour from 5pm-8pm with live entertainment, cocktails, and snacks to welcome Stacey and her stylists who have been traveling across the country in a vintage airstream!

This awesomeness will be parked outside the Neiman Marcus entrance to Lenox

RSVP to 404.279.5860 or RSVPATLANTA@NeimanMarcus.com

Bonus: you can enter to win a makeover by emailing thetour@aliceandolivia.com. In related news…

PICK ME! PICK ME! I LOVE A+O!

And A+O loves me! Witness:

Me in A+O Santa in...elf?

Welcome to the Dirty Dirty, A+O!

xx, L

(P.S. We totally got the “plus sign is the new ampersand” memo, too! xx, L+L)

Tags: EZ, fashion, Moxie? We got it., Things that are GORG, very important people, You Can Find Me in the A

Happy FRIDAY!

04/29/2010 in Events!, PSAs by Lauren | 2 comments

I plan on ringing in the weekend promptly at 5pm with fun friends and a couple of these bad boys:
Which reminds me! Next week is one of my FAVORITE HOLIDAYS (ok, every holiday is my favorite) CINCO de MAYO!
I mean, what’s not to love? Margaritas, Maracas and… Mariachi.

ai! ai! ai!

LOVES.

Erin loves too…
So come on out and celebrate Cinco de Mayo with me at LOCA LUNA on Wednesday night at Cinco de Spiral!

Remember – your $10 ticket is 50% off with promo code “kraselsky” (no caps.)

And listen. Don’t forget that CAMP DANCE is a week from tomorrow!

Get your tickets TODAY!

Happy weekend!
xx, L

Tags: blame it on the a-a-a-a-a-alcohol, Costumes + Parties, EZ, Festive, I'm just saying..., Moxie? We got it., Spiral Tickets - use discount code "kraselsky" (no caps), You Can Find Me in the A

CAMP DANCE 2010: 05.08.10

04/02/2010 in Camp Twin Lakes, Events! by Lauren | 1 comment

Lindsay, Christine, and I* officially invite ALL of you to CAMP DANCE 2010!

Invitations designed by our very own Mark Wolfe of Wolfepack Creative!

What is Camp Dance, you may ask? Um, it’s only my favorite event of the WHOLE YEAR!

Camp Dance Preparty 2009

Camp Dance Preparty 2007

Camp Dance 2008

Camp Dance 2006

Camp Dance 2007 (nothing ever changes)

Camp Dance 2009

Besides being just an amazing event, Camp Dance benefits Camp Twin Lakes, a fabulous camp for children facing serious illnesses and other physical, emotional and life challenges will be held on May 8th, 2010. For more information on Camp Twin Lakes click here.

Christine, Stacey and I hard at work at the CTL Service Day a few weeks ago:
Here’s the Q+DD on Camp Dance:

Remember when Color War was your favorite activity?
When Bug Repellent was the preferred scent?
And when hand-written letters were the only form of outside communication?

Well pull out your favorite camp photos,
Re-read those cherished camp letters
and put on your favorite camp attire

‘Cause It’s Back!
Camp Dance 2010
presented by Camp Twin Lakes’ Junior Board
Saturday, May 8th
6:30pm-11:00pm at Zoo Atlanta

A Night Amongst the Animals

6:30pm-8:00pm
Sip, Watch, Gasp
Enjoy some complimentary spiked bug juice while you observe the pandas, orangutans, gorillas, and other animals during feeding time
(Animal viewing only during this time)

8:00pm-11:00pm
Eat, Drink, Party
Enjoy complimentary camp-style finger foods, beer, and wine
while you dance the night away to hot jams from Band X.

Cocktail Bar
Each admission ticket includes 2 free drink tickets to the cocktail bar.
Additional drink tickets may be purchased by cash at the event.
Beer and wine are complimentary all night.

Tickets:
$55 through April 4
$65 through April 30
$75 through May 8th

Attire is Camp Casual
Guests Must Be 21 or older to attend.

THE EVENT SOLD OUT LAST YEAR and I had NO strings to pull, PLUS ticket prices increase on Sunday, so get your tickets TODAY by clicking here and click here to see the event on Facebook.

I JUST CAN’T WAIT!

xx, L (+L + C!)
*actually, you are invited by the three of us, plus the entire Junior Board of Camp Twin Lakes and all the fabulous people on the host committee, which I am lucky enough to chair. For a complete list of hosts, click here.

Tags: brian in israel, Brian my brudder, Christine!, come to this or I will hold a grudge. Trust., CTL, do-gooding, EZ, Moxie? We got it., mwolfe, My seestah, oh so hipster, PLU, Ridiculous., Staceyyyyy!, The Shapiros, Things that are awesome..., You Can Find Me in the A

The Greatest Drink Ever Made

03/23/2010 in Buckhead, Cocktails, Midtown, PSAs, Random Musings, What we're Watching by Lindsay | 11 comments

I’m a martini drinker.

me + martini

But, I have three critical martini-related rules.

(Please take note if you plan on ever ordering me a drink..)

Rule #1: Under no circumstance do I want olives anywhere in or around my drink. Ick! HATE olives. It’s a shame, too, because olives adore me…

Rule #2: I want to be able to taste the vodka in my martini. I am an adult – I am not 19 years old and I don’t want to be consuming mostly liqueur. Thank you very much! (A few too many nights at Carlos + Charlies in Puerto Vallarta put me off of sweet drinks fo’ life…)

Rule #3: If I am drinking a martini, I’m going to be seated. The martini glass is an incredibly poorly designed alcohol vehicle. Further, I wear heels when I go out – but I am not great in them. I’m telling you, I know my limitations, you do not want to be anywhere near me when I have a martini glass in my hand and I’m standing up. I spill them when I’m sitting down! So please bring the drink to me at a table and we won’t have to worry about our clothes making an immediate dry cleaning trip in the morning.

Moving on…

I love Holeman + Finch. (This all ties together, I promise.) I just love it. The food is excellent, the scene is superb and I really like the staff. They are hipster w/o the grease + cut off jean shorts. And, they are super friendly and attentive. The high boys in the bar are my favorite location at Holeman to plop down + have a few drinks and small plates.

holeman

So, I’m there on Friday w/ EZ, Ms. Meri + Loren (not Lauren) and we’re ordering our second round of drinks when our server informs me that my go-to-Gimlet is kind of a boring order. I quickly assess him and realize that (1) he is wearing skinny jeans (funny + appropriate hipster-waiter attire, which I applaud) and that (2) I’m fairly certain he looks like he knows what he is talking about, so instead of taking offense – I ask for his expert advice. I made sure he was clear re. my three martini-related rules and he said he’d run with it. A few minutes later as we were all digging into the Holeman 10:00 p.m. burger that we’d patiently been waiting for since 8:00 p.m., our server came back to the table with my drink. BIG problem. He tells me there’s gin in it. Gin?? I don’t drink GIN. I drink VODKA! Needless to say, I’m incredibly skeptical…

However, all it took was one magical sip to win me over. I like gin! Who would have thought?!

certainly not us...

I mean it when I say that this was the best drink I’ve had in my life. It was like flying. Like a day at the beach. Like winning a new car on The Price is Right!!

"one dollar, bob!"

The drink was an AVIATION. Sayonara, Gimlet, you’ve officially been replaced…

behold its majesty

My old partner in crime, Mindy, is in town and last night we cooked dinner for her family, and then scooted over to Ormsby’s. We were there for one drink + a meet up w/ the famous FB, when I heard the Aviation summoning me from Holeman. So, at 11:00 p.m. on a Monday night we headed to Holeman for a late night burger + a few Aviations. I’m addicted.

It really is the most amazing drink. You don’t taste the gin too much, it’s not too sweet at all and it’s surprisingly refreshing. (“it’s magically delicious!”)

mindy + me + martini = perfection. (math is fun!)

You have to try an Aviation immediately. Order it @ Holeman tonight. Seriously! Or, learn how to make it yourself + impress your friends:

Ingredients:

2 oz of Gin
1/4 oz Maraschino Liqueur
1/2 oz Fresh Lemon Juice
Dash of Creme de Violette (optional)
Flamed Lemon Peel for Garnish (optional)

Directions:

Pour ingredients into a cocktail shaker filled w/ ice
Shake shake shake…
Strain into a chilled cocktail glass
Garnish
Sip + Enjoy!

How to Make an Aviation Video: http://bit.ly/93rnBF

If this isn’t love, I don’t know what is.

xx, L

Holeman & Finch Public House
2277 Peachtree Road NE Ste. B
Atlanta, GA 30309
404.948.1175
www.holeman-finch.com

Tags: blame it on the a-a-a-a-a-alcohol, EZ, I heart Foodie Buddha, I'm just saying..., incredibly bold statements, LMR, loren not lauren, mind-a-la, More culture than frozen yogurt!, ms. meredith, oh so hipster, PLU, Things that are awesome..., You Can Find Me in the A

Get Lucky!

03/15/2010 in Events!, Holidays, Parties, What we're Doing by Lindsay | 3 comments

Despite the rain on Saturday…

view of the sun showers @ piedmont park from the luckyfest tent

…we threw on green accessories + ventured out to LuckyFest @ Piedmont Park!

It was a little bit crowded.

erin making her way through the crowd

There was a LOT of mud.

erin in massive mud puddle w/ a leprechan?

But, we’re seasoned Spiral Entertainment party goers – so a little weather wasn’t going to cramp our style!

Here’s our afternoon in pictures:

we got the golden tickets! how? well, we told them we were all lauren kraselsky!!

slick + co.

in prep for luckyfest, jackie + christine ran 10 miles. i prepped by sipping cocktails w/ erin...

KILT-spotting!

(they were excited because they spotted the delta flight attendant who does the pre-flight instructional video)

We were our own paparazzi… Such a fun day!

The REAL St. Patty’s Day, however, is on Wednesday! Celebrate @ Fado’s Irish Pub in Buckhead w/ Q 100 + The Bert Show.

Tickets here: http://www.ticketalternative.com/Events/10421.aspx

I took a day off from work for St. Pat’s last year and went with the little brother to celebrate @ Fado’s. We had a blast! And, I can safely say that it’s the only place to be on Wednesday.

st. pat's '09 @ fado's

Erin go bragh! Here’s to St. Patty’s 2010!!

xx, L

Tags: blame it on the a-a-a-a-a-alcohol, Christine!, Costumes + Parties, day drinking, EZ, Festive, I'm just saying..., LMR, Ridiculous., see and be seen, slick, Spiral, Things that are awesome..., very important people, You Can Find Me in the A

That Boom Boom Pow

02/17/2010 in Events!, Parties, What we're Listening To by Lauren | 4 comments

So, I missed the Black Eyed Peas in Atlanta. But lucky for me, my friend JC (of Trendsetting Productions) invited me along as his +1 to the Birmingham show and to the after-party he produced at Club 1120 and it…was…AWESOME.
First of all, they put on a GREAT show. They’re each incredible performers, of course, but I also thought it was pretty interesting that the whole show was very futuristic. We didn’t get a great pic, unfortch, but Fergie’s opening costume looked a lot like EZ’s Halloween costume:

Always ahead of the trend...

The show had a heavy focus on technology. For instance, the tour was sponsored by Blackberry and you could BBM Will.I.Am and your message would appear on a screen during his set list. And they had dancing robots. That’s right. Dancing. Robots.
Witness:

see?

more robots

It was a great concert. Each of the Peas had their own solo time. Fergie was, of course, my favorite. I love her.

Check it out, it’s like she was singing right to me:

So pretty.

We had a BLAST. The icing on the cake was the after-party, though. JC produced the event, and as his +1, I got to accompany him not only to the party, but to the VIP section where all 4 Peas were hanging out. (!!!)

Appl breaking it down

It should be noted that I am NOT COOL around celebrities. In fact, when I lived in NYC, I worked at a high-end retailer on Madison Ave and eventually got banned from waiting on the celebrities after several awkward stammering incidences and a near meltdown over Liza Minelli. True story.
Anyway. Luckily, pictures were not permitted in VIP (otherwise you KNOW I would be plastering 283471242 pictures of my cheesy mug with Appl, Tabu, Will.i.Am AND Fergie all over the Q+DD.) JC and I tried to be sneaky and get them in the background. Unsuccessfully.

Who's that in the background? Oh, just my friend Tabu. Whatevs.

All I knew for sure was that I wanted to chat with Fergie. Bad. Luckily, JC was aware of my celebrity “problem” and was careful to spend what he thought was adequate time coaching me on my opening line. We eventually came up with:

“Hi, Fergie. My name is Lauren. My friend set up this party and we both live in Atlanta but I grew up in Birmingham and it’s great to see such a big name come through here. The show was great!”

We practiced several times. I felt prepared. I put my game face on, headed over to Fergie and….

“Hi. Um, HI. I’m Lauren. The show was…um…I’m obsessed with you.” <grin>

At which point, Jonathan saved me and I was eventually able to make a full recovery and act like a normal person with the rest of the BEPs and the crew.
Even though I was a bit of an idiot to Fergie, it was still “A Good, Good Night.” …In retrospect, perhaps I should have taken Mer’s advice and limited my conversation with Fergie to strictly discussing Kids, Inc…
…sssssssigh.

xx, L

Tags: celebrities!, EZ, fashion, I'm an idiot., I'm just saying..., Things that are awesome...

This might be the year…

02/03/2010 in Events!, Guilty Pleasures, Parties, Random Musings, What we're Doing by Lauren | 12 comments

…I get flagged for excessive celebration of my birthday.
56685883CC202_Super_Bowl_XL Between my Houston party…
birthdayhouston1 birthdayhouston2 My office party…
princesscake Frog_to_Prince My party at Smith’s with my cast mates…
castmatebirthday Dinner at Woodfire Grill with EZ…
woodfiregrill Dinner at Rathbun’s/Krog with my family…
rathbuns And, of COURSE, the amazing brunch that Lindsay threw at Waffle House…
wafflehousebrunch birthday mimosa …dayianu! (that would have been enough)

But I have to tell you, I couldn’t have been happier with the 5th annual LK/EZ Birthday Bash. Party Preppy was DEFINITELY the best one yet!

Witness:
partypreppycake partypreppyboys partypreppydinajackieerin ashhamby partypreppytc partypreppylana partypreppygirls partypreppybrooke lindsayslick preppypartystef partypreppydkbz lindsaylaurenpreppy It. Was. Spectacular! We packed Whiskey Park with popped collars, pearls, cardigans, top siders, even seersucker in the dead of winter. Erin and I were tickled pink (and green!) partypreppyblowing

Thank you so much everyone! I am SO lucky.

Special thanks to my amazing, supercool (and handsome!) cousin Rob Goldstein who took care of EVERYTHING for us. If you ever want to book a party at any of the Ws, I strongly suggest getting in touch with him at rgoldstein@gerberbars.com. He’s the bomb.com

Now, I think I am officially DONE celebrating this particular birthday. (Well…after Birthday dinner at Repast with Seth tonight…)

xx, L

P.S. For the record, the only thing that party was missing was my seestah. Next year, KT!

Tags: Costumes + Parties, EZ, I'm just saying..., Moxie? We got it., Ridiculous., Seth Says, Things that are awesome..., Things that are GORG, Things we love!, very important people, You Can Find Me in the A, Yowza.

Four Popped Collars Cool

01/26/2010 in Events!, Guilty Pleasures, Parties by Lauren | 5 comments

It’s that time again. I know I’ve referenced it before, but it’s time. It’s time for LK/EZ Birthday Bash 2010! (THIS SATURDAY! 01/30/10!)

The Q+DD on EZ/LK Birthday is this: I’ll spare you all the girly details of our friendship (for another EZ post, please click here), but basically we were introduced when we both were fresh out of college causing trouble living in Manhattan. We discovered many, many similarities, but the most relative to this story are: (1) our birthdays are less than 48 hours apart and (2) we both love theme parties. Sadly, we were only able to have one superawesome party in NYC before I flew south, but luckily, EZ joined me in 2006 to resume our theme party madness.

Since then there has been Masquerade (at Bazzaar 2007):

There were no pictures, really. But our masks were cu-u-ute

80’s (at Sweet Lowdown 2008):
breakfastclub lkez80s1
Dirty Vegas (At Sutra 2009):
vegas

Lindsay + crew preparty. Brings a tear to my eye. Fabulous.

lkezvegas
and now…we bring you…

PARTY PREPPY!
erinlaurenlogo Here’s your official invitation:

Party Preppy: EZ/LK 5th Annual Birthday Extravaganza
We’re going green…Pink and Green!

January 30, 2010 at 9:30pm

Whisky Park at W Hotel Midtown
188 14th Street NE
Atlanta, GA

Pop your collar, don your argyle, bust out your best pink and green-
It’s BIRTHDAY TIME and this year we’re Partying Preppy, dah-ling!
Clad in our cable knit, vests and headbands…a must
All of our favorites will be there: Ralph (Lauren), Lilly (Pulitzer) and Trust (Funds)!
So remind your butler to shine your pearls and press your little golf beanies
And meet us at Whiskey Park to sip very dirty Belvedere 1X martinis!
From the Queens of the theme parties, it’ll be smashing, my pet -
Faux snobby, faux sho‘… channel your yuppie Country Club set!
It’s not the Upper East Side…or Martha’s Vineyard either
Its PARTY PREPPY, Muffy, and we want you to be there!
erinlaurenprep
You know you love us!
xoxo, EZ and LK

*brought to you by Whiskey Park Atlanta and Belvedere 1X Vodka!
croquet
So, get your ascot to the W Midtown on Saturday night and come celebrate with EZ + LK! Click here for the Facebook invitation. Be sure to RSVP!

xx, L (+EZ)
fourpoppedcollarscool

Tags: Costumes + Parties, EZ, I'm just saying..., Moxie? We got it., PLU, Ridiculous., Things that are awesome..., Things we love!, very important people, You Can Find Me in the A, Yowza.

Pro-Con-Pro #2…

01/22/2010 in Buckhead, Where we're Eating by Lauren | 10 comments

Ok, I’m bringing back Elle Woods. Wednesday, EZ and I went for our annual 01/20 “day-between-our-birthdays” dinner at Woodfire Grill and I think a Pro-Con-Pro is in order. (if you are unfamiliar, please refer to a previous Pro-Con-Pro by clicking here)

I KNOW you know how excited I was for this dinner. I’m a Top Chef FREAK, I am overly excited by any kind of celebrity (especially Kevin Gillespie and his beard)… kevinsbeard …I ADORE hype, and I love food and fancy restaurants more than probably anything else in the word (except handbags and lip-gloss. Duh). I have to tell you, the food at Woodfire did NOT disappoint, but the chances of my return are slim. (I just deleted “to none” when I remembered the restaurants proximity to my condo. It’s CLOSE.) Here we go: PRO: The restaurant itself is awesome. It’s in a really unexpected location (Cheshire Bridge. Not 7-8 months ago did Lindsay drive me to where I left my car on CB to find a full-fledge police hold-up happening ON. MY. CAR. Luckily, Taqueria is close and there’s not a whole lot a stiff margarita can’t cure.)

I digress.

The interior is very cozy and homey and chic all at the same time and I absolutely adored it. It’s earthy and warm and very simply decorated. The crowd was pretty (EZ and I saw a gorgeous woman in a fabulous romper. A ROMPER, y’all!), and these super slick .com guys from Cali bought us some incredible vino. Plus, it is very difficult to get a reservation, and you know how I dig that sort of thing. (That is, if I can score a reservation myself.)

CON: I am just going to say it: the wait staff was a liiiiiiiiiittle obnoxious and pretentious. Sorry. They were. I was sad about it because on Top Chef, Gillespie always seemed really down-to-earth. The perception is that he’s just this super nice guy from Georgia with a natural talent for cooking who just wants to make delicious food and help elevate the national (international?) opinion of American Southern cuisine.

I thought the experience (read: the wait staff) would be equally earnest, but it wasn’t. I’d have to launch into a whole new pro-con-pro to tell you about the hostess’s customer service skills, but to make a long story short, we ended up eating at the bar. (Which is fine, I love to eat at the bar. It worked out.) Anyway. The bartender who was serving us was so condescending. In a voice my sister used to use with her Kindergarten class, “this menu is different than anything you’ve seen before. It has the date on it. It was printed today.” (Thank you! Good to know. They don’t do that at McDonalds!) and when we asked about various items on the menu she felt the need to repeatedly tell us that “everything is executed perfectly.” My general opinion is that if you need to tell everyone how great you are, you probably aren’t. (And for some reason, this chafed me more than if you ask a server about an item and they don’t know anything about any of the menu items) Plus, no lie, she actually used the term ” je ne sais quoi.” With a straight face. Woodfire wait staff: if I have one piece of advice for you, it would be to focus on connecting rather than impressing.

Pro: The food. The food was inspired. Brilliant. We adored our food and weren’t at all disappointed. First of all, I can’t remember what it was, but we were served a really refreshing amuse-bouche, phenomenal house-made bread and delicious herbed butter. Then we shared the foie gras (pan seared with braised pistachios on foie buttered toast), the sunchoke risotto (fried sunchoke. Celery “salsa.” Toasted walnuts. TaDIEfah!) and the duck (Grilled. With warm farro salad. Insane.) Our foodie bar-neighbors-turned-dinner partners were equally impressed with their meal. It was just a perfect flavor combination, perfect portion size…everything on our plates was JUST PERFECT.

So I guess the Q+DD is that this is a situation where I can’t wait for the hype to die down. I hope that Woodfire survives this little bout of celebrity and endures as one of our city’s fabulous little restaurants. Please, someone just let me know when that happens, I like to dine with a bit less ego…

xx, L

Woodfire Grill
www.woodfiregrill.com
1782 Cheshire Bridge Rd NE
Atlanta, GA 30324-4922
(404) 347-9055

Tags: Beef., EZ, I'm just saying..., PLU, You Can Find Me in the A

The Quick Quick Quick + Dirty Dirty

01/20/2010 in Events!, Guilty Pleasures, Random Musings, What we're Doing by Lauren | 2 comments

I’ve been a little busy consuming massive amounts of sugar in celebration of birthdays and babies and such and I’ve just fallen a little behind. cake

…but I do need to tell you guys a few things:

1. Kindredly arranged for a PRINCESS CAKE for my office birthday party today. Complete with raspberry filling and a tiara (!!!) on top. I got so many amazing gifts (hello, Lululemon, I will be coming to visit you with my gift card this weekend!) but best of all was… a Grow-a-Prince.
Frog_to_Prince
Yep, Frog to Prince in 72 hours. Just add water! I’ll keep you posted…

2. Our AMAZING, beautiful, wonderful, phenomenal friend Joanna Duff
joannaduff
Will be performing at Smith’s Olde Bar on Friday night. (Yes, in addition to being drop-dead-gorgeous and the author of one of our FAVORITE blogs, www.shirtordress.blogspot.com, Jo sings! And plays the gee-tar!) Be there. I will be. She promises that if 25+ people show up she will perform in a Snuggie. And she will look hawt.

3. I am going to be performing in A Sunday Afternoon at Loehmann’s just FOUR MORE TIMES. camobaby Dates are as follows:

Tomorrow* (01/21)

Sunday (01/24)

Next Thursday (01/28)

Next Sunday (01/31)

And that. Is. It! Please come and see me. Please. www.ansleyparkplayhouse.com

*MY BIRTHDAY. FYI. No presents, please.

4. You are all, all of you, invited to Party Preppy: LK/EZ Birthday Extravaganza 2010. erinralphlauren Here’s the Facebook invitation: http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#/event.php?eid=225857957346&index=1

Be sure to RSVP to be on the list.

5. Spiral Oysterfest is 02/13/10 at Park Tavern. www.spiralentertainment.com for tickets and use promo code “kraselsky” (no caps) for 20% off your ticket. They are only $10 right now (that’s $8 for you!) but the discount will increase with the ticket price.

Ok, that is it for right now.
I just have so much to tell all of you, I don’t even know where to start…

xx, L

Tags: EZ, I'm just saying..., Moxie? We got it., PLU, Ridiculous., Sometimes I'm an actress., Things that are awesome..., very important people, You Can Find Me in the A, Yowza.

5 Reasons Saturday Was Awesome:

11/23/2009 in Festivals, What we're Doing, Where we're Eating, Where we're Shopping by Lauren | 4 comments

1. Brunch with Maura. I started out at Apres Diem for brunch with adorable, happy little Maura. If someone can think of a better way to kick off a Saturday, I wish they would tell me. I have never spent any time with her when I didn’t leave in a fabulous mood and Saturday was no exception. Fact. Plus, Apres was doing a lively brunch business!

2. SHOPPING. After I left Maura, I was in such a good mood that I proceeded to SPEND. ALL. MY. MONEY. If you are looking for my benjamins, you can find them at the following places: Mitzi and Romano, Paper Source, Barney’s Co-Op and, of course, Nordy’s.

Mitzi + Romano in the Highlands

3. Super Amazing Chili Cookoff. I found FoodieBuddha (crying in his cocktail over Michigan’s loss…) and we made our way to the Atlanta Brewing Company for the 3rd Annual Liberty Park Chili Society Cookoff hosted by Jimmy who writes the blog Eat It Atlanta.

(Sidebar: Y’all. I have blog friends now. !!!!.)

The scene at Atlanta Brewing Company

It. Was. Awesome. There were a GRILLION different kinds of chili. Traditional chilis, creative chilis, superspicy chilis, chocolate-based (mole) chiles, chilis with all kinds of fabulous toppings (hello, pimento cheese on chili!) chilis with various proteins: beef, chicken, turkey, venison, bison, bean (vegetarian)….I mean…I was on chili overload. The best part for me, though, was the shameless lobbying that each charismatic chili chef was doing for their own chili. Loved it. I think it was safe to say that equal parts moxie and chili were served that evening. The Buddha felt like personality weighed heavily on the way he would cast his vote and I had to agree. Eventually all votes were cast…

brilliant. I straight up stole this picture from Eat It, Atlanta.

And tallied…

(counting ballots)

The ultimate winner was, as I predicted, Cowboy Hat Chili. Dude had on a cowboy hat and reminded voters of his moniker as he doled out ladlefuls. Sage advice from the musical Gypsy, “you gotta get a gimmick if you want to get ahead…”

"Don't forget Cowboy Hat, y'hear?"

Jimmy + friends raised a chunk of change for Project Open Hand and everyone seemed to have a blast…I know we did!

My new chili friends. Hi!

4. Post-Chili Beverages. The Buddha and I decided to wash down our chili with a few drinks at the Bookhouse on Ponce. Y’all: I adore this bar. It’s low key and cozy and funky and just a perfect little place to hang out. We were, of course, NOT eating, but the menu looked pretty darn good. Gastro-pubby. You know.

I ordered a flight of delicious beer, mostly selections from the specials menu:

hand-crafted beer thingy

and FB got a super-manly Cape Cod:

Our adorable server. The umbrella was a nice touch, thanks!

Fab fab fab. Thanks for taking me, FoodieBuddha! Even though you make me take pictures by myself, you’re a riot and you show me great places, so I forgive you.

The BookHouse Pub
(404) 254-1176
Ponce de Leon Place
Atlanta, GA 30306
www.thebookhousepub.com