Moxie Burger - Marietta, Georgia

Over the past couple of weeks the Dining Companion and I have been scouting out dining spots where the 4LB Wonder would be welcome. With patio season in full swing that task has been fairly easy. As I've mentioned before I use the website BringFido to find dog friendly spots in any given area. Moxie Burger was a great find.

Moxie Burger is located in a picturesque business district made up of local, small businesses.
 

We made our way there for lunch a couple of weekends back. We got a nice tour of the business park thanks to the 4LB Wonder's desire to smell all the things. After a bit of a walk we found a seat on Moxie Burger's shady covered patio.

Although not visible in this photo water dishes are available for 4-legged visitors

Moxie Burger is a fast casual place. Most typified by the process of ordering at a counter and then having your order delivered to your table. We grabbed a menu to look over our choices and then I went inside to place our order.

Besides the traditional beef burgers, Moxie also offers a few other options. You can get a lamb burger, a black bean patty, a portobello cap or a turkey or buffalo burger. Something for most everyone. They also offer hotdogs, salads and a nice variety of sides that include things like brocolli salad and goat cheese fritters. A nice, well thought out menu.

I decided on the eponymous Moxie Burger and the Dining Companion had The Entrepreneur burger which is Moxie's build-your-own-burger option.

The Moxie Burger - Bacon, fried green tomato, pimento cheese & Moxie sauce

The Entrepreneur Burger - Lettuce, tomato, onion and mayo

The burgers were good; perfectly cooked, sturdy but soft buns and plenty of tasty toppings. You can get beer or wine to go with your burger as well as the usual soft drinks.

Overall we were happy with Moxie Burger and plan to get back there soon. The fact that the 4LB Wonder is welcome is a nice perk that we really appreciate. 

 Happy dining!

NOTE: In our search for pet friendly dining spots we found a couple more that made the cut for return visits.  

The Rib Ranch in Marietta serves breakfast, lunch and dinner and welcomes furry family members on their patio. All this from a BBQ place that also serves a really decent bowl of Texas chili.

Pisano's Pizza in Kennesaw, GA A great Antipasto Salad as well as pizza by the slice, strombolis, pasta and sandwiches.

Mellow Mushroom - Kennesaw, Georgia

Image from Mellow Mushroom website

It's fair to say that in any new city I usually find myself making my way through a list of pizza joints. Always searching for the pizza that'll be my go to.

I've been on a continual quest, for my idea of good pizza, for years. I've found it in a few places; a decent Sicilian pie here, the pretty good hand-tossed pizza there. Some really good pizza.

Original Atlanta location - Image from Mellow Mushroom website

That quest recently brought us to Mellow Mushroom. Mellow Mushroom is a pizza chain that got its start in Atlanta, Georgia in the early 1970's. You can still feel the peace, love and hippy vibe when you walk into their stores. 


As the Dining Companion can attest I have a pretty vague way of describing what my ideal pizza is. As has been said before, I know it when I see it. Or taste it in this case.

I found pizza happiness at Mellow Mushroom.

Our usual go-to order is a regular cheese pizza and it didn't disappoint. The crust was crisp with great chew and wonderful flavor. I'm not sure what all the Mellow Mushroom folks are doing with their dough but whatever it is, keep on doing it. The crust is great, the pizza sauce was flavorful and the whole thing is topped with lovely, melty, cheese-y goodness. 

Cheese Pizza

Mellow Mushroom has a lot of inventive pizza combos on their menu. One of those caught the attention of the Dining Companion. Along with the cheese pizza we got the Red Skin Potato Pie. It's made with red skinned potatoes, bacon, caramelized onions, do I need to go on?!

Red Skin Potato Pie - Olive oil and garlic base with sliced roasted red potatoes, Applewood smoked bacon, caramelized onions, cheddar and mozzarella cheeses. Garnished with chives then drizzled with sour cream and spicy ranch dressing

The potato pizza was easily the best pizza I've had in a long time. Seriously. It's that good. If you're lucky enough to have a Mellow Mushroom nearby go get this pizza.

Quest complete. At least for now.

Happy dining!

Alamo Street Eat Bar - San Antonio, Texas - THIS LOCATION IS PERMANENTLY CLOSED

*** THIS LOCATION IS PERMANENTLY CLOSED ***

The Dining Companion and I spent some time in one of our favorite places this past weekend, San Antonio, Texas. Over the years we've visited several times and spent a lot of time on the main part of the River Walk. On this visit we did things a bit differently. Instead of going over familiar territory again we spent most of our time in the King Williams area.

We've visited this neighborhood before but not in a few years. One of the places we tried was the Alamo Street Eat Bar. Eat Bar is the site of a walk-up bar that is surrounded by food trucks. The trucks change but there were at least five both times that we visited. 

The bar has a good selection of beers and they feature several that are local to Texas.

We grabbed a couple of beers and took a look at the trucks. We decided on a burger from Chris Callum’s Attaboy Burgers and some Beignets from Where Y’At Third Coast Kitchen (I was looking forward to trying the po'boys at Where Y'at but they had moved on when we got back, maybe next time.)

A tasty burger and a cold beer - doesn't get better than that

Beignets - Powered sugar covered fried deliciousness

We also had some pizza. Sadly I don't have info on that truck. It was a wood fired margherita pizza with tapenade for extra flavor.

This pic does the pizza no justice...good crisp crust, flavorful toppings

There's a covered area in front of the bar and some tables around the site to kick back and enjoy the scene and the food.

 

On one of our visits a local bike gang showed up...no, not that kind of bike gang.
This kind...

Circa 1962

Alamo Street Eat Bar is a great place to pass an afternoon. People watching, cold beer, good food and pet friendly. If you ever find yourself thinking about a trip to San Antonio plan on making this one of your stops.

Happy dining!

Fong's Pizza - Des Moines, Iowa

One of the last places we visited in Des Moines was also one of the most unique. We stopped in at Fong's Pizza. This place is a mash up of a lot of good stuff. Most well known for their unusual pizza combos Fong's also does salads and sandwiches and has a list of Tiki drinks a mile long.

Pick your poison!

We took a seat at the bar and took a look around.

This is not a great picture but the Origami Swan mobile is pretty cool so I'm putting it here anyway

The usual suspects

  I didn't have a Tiki drink but the umbrella drink I did have was great. It might have been a Zombie.

One of the reasons I was at Fong's was to try the Crab Rangoon Pizza. I like Crab Rangoon, I like pizza, seemed like a winning combo. And, I'm happy to say, it was.

Crab Rangoon Pizza

 Fong's also has pizza by the slice served for lunch, Happy Hour and on their late night menu. The Dining Companion had the lunch slices that day, sausage and cheese.

The slices were good. While the crust was pretty standard for Midwest pizza the sauce was excellent. Spicy without overwhelming the topping and just really flavorful.

Unlike the High Life Lounge, I don't think Fong's will become a part of our regular stops in Des Moines, But, if I find myself craving a great Tiki drink or an unusual pizza topping, Fong's will be at the top of my list.

Happy dining!

Nancy's Pizza - Atlanta (Buckhead), Georgia

My dining companion is a fan of Chicago deep dish pizza. I like it too but I prefer Sicilian style pizza. Neither style is easy to find. Many places will say that they make one style of pizza or the other but most of the time the claims are unfounded. So it was with a healthy dose of skepticism that we headed to Nancy's Pizza recently. There are two locations in Atlanta, the only outposts of this chain located outside of Illinois. That in itself seemed promising.

Nancy's keeps track of the time locally and in its home base of Chicago

Nancy's is located in a strip mall in the Buckhead area of Atlanta. The space is pleasant enough. Several tables fill a space that is dominated on one side by a large projection TV screen and a bar on the other.

Orders are placed at the counter and brought to your table by a server, typical fast casual dining. We each ordered a personal sized pizza, about 6",  grabbed our table marker and headed off to wait for our pizza. And wait we did, which to me, in this case, means that the pizza was being baked to order and not just warmed up in an oven. I took this as a good sign.


The pizza was well worth the wait. The crust was crisp and flavorful, stuffed full of delicious ingredients and authentic to the Chicago style.

Having been disappointed by what was passed off as Chicago deep dish pizza in the past, it was a treat to be served the real deal. If Chicago style deep dish pizza is your thing and you find yourself in the Atlanta area, pay a visit to Nancy's Pizza. It's good pizza and represents this Chicago mainstay in fine fashion.

Happy travels!