Barbecue and In and Out

Absolute crack of black predawn and the cab calls. He's out in front of the house, a few minutes early, and Plot and Duck have only been out of bed fifteen minutes but they're ready too. A lightning fast trip down the empty 101 to the airport, followed by a too-slow check-in-line, then another lightning fast trip on a comfy 757 to Atlanta.

Plot has already consulted with Chef Pickle on where to eat in Atlanta this time. Tonight it's dinner at the renowned Watershed. "Have the Shrimp Grits," Pickle says, so shrimp grits is what it's gonna be, but you can't just eat shrimp grits without a proper warmup. So JJ-aka-PP takes Plot and Duck to Daddy Z's Barbecue for the pre-dinner snack.

Man, this is good stuff. The sauce is unique -- smooth and closer to a brown sauce than a classic barbecue sauce, though vinegary and sweet enough. Collards, slaw and a corn muffin round it out.



The waitress at Daddy Z's is from Grenada. So now Plotnik knows the sound he'll be hearing for the next few weeks -- he knew she was from the English speaking Caribbean but not Jamaica. She's easy to understand, but she' s been in Atlanta for 17 years so maybe that's the reason. We'll know in a few days.



Dance-Nik, Plotnik read and loved The Old In and Out on the plane. It didn't take too long too read -- how long is the show? (NotThaTLucas would wonder where are the car chases in this play?)

The idea of a woman looking for her father's eyes in those of her various lovers intrigues him. Very wonderfully done and you both have very different styles of writing, but they're quite complementary. And the book looks great. Plot'll write you soon when he has more time.