Omnivore - Recession ends on the Westside

• Cliff Bostock

• Cliff Bostock

We set out Sunday for Taqueria del Sol’s celebration of Hatch chiles. So, apparently, did half the city. The deal was $12 for all the chile dishes you could eat. We lingered long enough to take a picture and left.

So, we headed to the nearby Real Chow Baby. We were told there was a 30-minute wait there. That’s 30 minutes before we could stand in the very long line with our plate. No thanks.

We took off for Bocado. Closed. We looked across the street at 5 Season Westside. Way too noisy.

Next up was Yeah! Burger. I wanted to try the Creole burger I’d heard about. The restaurant was recently named one of Bon Appetit’s favorite burger joints in America. It’s also one of Atlantans’ favorites, apparently. A line from hell. Bye bye.

By this time, we figured, had we stayed, we could have scored a chile relleno amid the teeming mass outside Taqueria del Sol. But we went to La Fonda Latina. Its patio was crowded but there were plenty of tables. We even saw Lady Gaga there.

We turned out to be sitting beside Tony Paris, former editor of Creative Loafing, who returned to Atlanta a few years ago after doing stints in New York, Tokyo and Jerusalem. We did enough reminiscing to make ourselves feel thoroughly ancient. I first hired Tony as a music critic when I was editor of the Atlanta Gazette, Creative Loafing’s long-dead competitor, around 1977. We had joy/we had fun/we had seasons in the sun.

• By Cliff Bostock

For dinner, I ordered my longtime favorite here, the paella. It tasted even better than I remembered. Although it’s a quicky version, it tastes better than most paellas I’ve encountered around town. Wayne ordered his favorite, the grilled chicken, but found it “old tasting.”

I think it was my conversation with Tony that made it taste old.