Sweetwater Bar & Grill (Lake Wylie, SC)

4582 Charlotte Hwy, Lake Wylie, SC 29710, T: 803-831-1788

 

Sweetwater Bar & Grill is a sports bar in a weird spot on the outskirts of the small town of Lake Wylie, South Carolina. It is quite large and has the classic sports bar food staples, but with a huge selection of flavors for the chicken wings and tenders. We stay for a while, as we are one hour early for a World Cup game we want to watch.

We start with the Appetizer Special ($10.99): 4 Wings (Smokin' Hot), 4 Buffalo Bites (Sweet Chili Thai), and 1 Quesadilla. The wings are quite meaty, well prepared, though comes with little sauce, which is not too hot, but has a nice after-zing. The buffalo bites are chunky small chicken tenders. The quesadilla is "surprisingly yummy for such a small thing" and "well-packed with cheese" (according to my wife).

We follow it up with more Buffalo Bites ($8.99): 5 Honey Habanero and 5 General Tso. Both are chunky, thick battered, and tasty, but not very spicy. I later get the Three Alarm Burger ($7.99): a half-pound burger, blackened, with chili, hot sauce, jalapeños, lettuce and tomato (I ask for no pepper Jack cheese). I have them with Buffalo Chips. The burger is pretty stacked, a bit dry (not medium as asked), but has a good kick – it has a bit of an odd taste to it, as if there is cheese in it. The chips are Burger King like, crunchy but not that flavorful. M. gets the French Dip ($8.49) with French fries. The sandwich didn't look that good, but was actually very tasty, in part because of the good au jus. The fries are BK-style.

Verdict: 84/100

Nice sports bar with good food and broad selection of beers.

Buffalo’s Cafe (Athens, GA)

196 Alps Rd #49, Athens, GA 30606, T: 706-354-6655
 

Buffalo’s Café is a regional chain of sports bars with fifteen locations in Georgia, one in California, and one in Doha, Qatar. The menu is a mix of classic American and TexMex fare – hence the self-reference as “Southwest café.” I come to watch a World Cup game and start with a Taster ($7.99): six quite small chicken wings tossed in fairly little "Scorchin'" buffalo sauce. Not remarkable.

I later get the Chicken Tender Platter ($10.99): breaded chicken tenders with curly fries, coleslaw, and garlic bread. I substitute curly fries with homemade chips. The tenders are quite thin and thinly battered. They are bit dry, the batter is bland, the honey mustard sauce is ok. Chips are fresh and ok. Coleslaw is bland, garlic bread buttery but quite tasty.

VERDICT: 75/100

This was the second time I visited Buffalo's Cafe and both times the food has been between bland and ok.

Fatz Cafe (Athens, GA)

4115 Lexington Rd, Athens, GA 30605, T: 706-425-8780
 

Fatz is a regional chain with some 50 locations in the Southeast, combining regular American staples with more traditional Southern fare. They have a large menu including burgers, seafood, and chicken & pasta. On this late Saturday evening the clientele is very old and very white.

The little rolls that they start you off with are fresh and greasy. Oddly enough they taste more like zeppole than like bread. I order a combination sample ($11.99) of baby back ribs, chicken tenders and onion rings, which here are called: calabash, ribitizers and onyum straws (what?!). I choose to have the ribs grilled rather than fried. They are still quite fatty, but fall of the bone and have a decent BBQ sauce on them. The tenders are small but pretty good. The onion strings are mostly batter.

VERDICT: 83/100

Very decent experience and the little rolls will bring me back, even though it will take weeks to get all the grease of my hands.

The White Tiger Gourmet (Athens, GA)

217 Hiawassee Avenue, Athens, GA 30601, T: 706-353-6847

White Tiger Gourmet is one of Athens’ unique restaurants. It is a small BBQ joint housed in a shack in a posh residential area of town. With a cult status and erratic hours, you are often confronted with either a closed door or a significant line. As I arrive at 5.55, five minutes before opening on a Friday summer night, there are already three sets of people waiting. In the two years I’ve lived here, I have only been here once; or, more accurately, I've been here six times, but it was open only once.

I am hungry and decide to have two sandwiches and no sides. The BBQ Pork Sandwich ($6.50) is basic: smoked pork on a kaiser roll with homemade sauce. The big onion roll is packed with a chunk of tasty moist pulled pork with a relatively light and thin sauce. Definitely the best pulled pork sandwich I’ve had in Athens (which is not know for its BBQ, however). After that I started on the dish that White Tiger is best know for: the Bacon Cheddar Burger ($7.50). It is a half pound burger on a kaiser roll with bacon, field greens, tomato (normally it comes with cheddar, which undoubtedly gives it an even better flavor). While the bun and burger are a bit dry, the bacon at times chewy, and the mayo sparsely applied, the big burger tastes almost as good as it smells (which is outrageous).

VERDICT: 90/100

As is the case at all BBQ places in Athens, the best dish is not BBQ. Still, White Tiger is absolutely worth the hype and frustration. I’ll be back soon!

Taco Mac (Duluth, GA)

3543 Peachtree Industrial Boulevard, Duluth, GA 30096, T: 678-387-3403 

Taco Mac (or T.Mac) is a chain of sports bars that started in Atlanta and now has 30 locations in the Southeast (25 in Georgia, mostly in and around Atlanta). It serves ca. 100 beers on tap and 150 in the bottle, all-natural meats, and the menu includes a mix of classic pub food and classic Tex Mex. I had visited the Decatur location before, and really enjoyed it, so I decided to watch one of the World Cup games at the Duluth location, on my way back from dropping my wife off at Atlanta Airport.

I start out with the Chips and Salsa ($4.25), which is a big bowl of fresh thin chips and fresh thin salsa with a little kick. I continue with Six Wings ($6.95), which I get with "3 Mile Island" sauce, the third hottest they have. They come with one side, so I take French Fries. The fries are thin and salty, but not that crispy. The wings are very hot, or rather sharp (habanero and pepper), but a bit dry. On top of that, the service is pretty terrible: I wait more than 20 minutes for my order in a two-third empty restaurant.

VERDICT: 85/100

This score is based on both my experiences and I will return at another location to see which one was more representative. I hope the Decatur one, which was really satisfying in terms of food and service.

Huck's Cafe (Commerce, GA)

605 Homer Rd, Commerce, GA, T: 706-335-6346

 

You want to step back in time and have good old American fast food in a non-corporate setting? Go to Huck’s Café in Commerce, where time truly stood still. They mostly serve burgers, hot dogs, and bbq, but have all kind of other items too. The service is fast and friendly and the food is old-school and very affordable.

I order a "Huck Burger" ($3.50), which is actually a plain burger to which you can add all kind of toppings. I choose to add BBQ sauce and tomato. The burger is a bit dry and the bbq sauce has little taste, which makes the burger fairly similar to what you would get at a basic grill party at friends. The Stew Dog ($2) is a (friend?) hot dog with Brunswick stew on the side – I add some onions to it. It is pretty decent, but the stew is a bit too sweet for me. The best part of the meal the half order of Fried Chips ($1.25), which are directly out of the frier, crispy and perfectly salty!

VERDICT: 75/100

Honest old-school fast food as it was done (I assume) in the 1960s.

Over Easy Cafe (Asheville, NC)

32 Broadway, Asheville, NC 28801, T: 828-236-3533
 

The Over Easy Café is one of the most popular breakfast/brunch/lunch spots in downtown Asheville and almost as famous for its lines as for its food. It’s only open between 8 and 2 (Sunday 9-2) and has relatively limited space. This, in combination with its reputation, means that you will almost certainly have a wait for 15 minutes or (much) more. We have to wait for about 25 minutes as we arrive just before noon on a summer Monday. The food is, of course, all local and organic.

Fighting the urge to go for the Traditional Breakfast, i.e. fried eggs, toast, etc., I decide to be adventurous and order the famous Breakfast Tacos with chorizo ($10.50): scrambled eggs, onion, salsa, fresh cilantro, on two corn tortillas. Quite tasty. M. has a Hash Bowl with poached eggs and all kind of fresh and tasty stuff. We also get one of the fresh juices ($6.50), the Detox, which combines citrus fruits with beets and ginger. It tastes very fresh and very gingery.

VERDICT: 87/100

All in all Over Easy Café is a great place for breakfast for foodies rather than for pig out enthusiasts. Although I might come back for the French Toast, which looked delicious.