Omnivore - Bony sliders, tomatoes, Justin Bieber, ice cream...and where my figs is at?

• www.yuthink.blogspot.com
• Was it the baby-back-rib slider?

Wednesday was the anniversary of Wayne’s 29th birthday. We landed, as usual on Wednesdays, at the Shed at Glenwood for the restaurant’s popular $3 slider night.

Chef Lance Gummere had concocted some delicious newbies, including a panino with prosciutto, provolone and cherry tomatoes. But the standout was one featuring bone-in baby back ribs, beautifully barbecued. Owner Cindy Shera told me that they only sold four of them the entire night.

I speculated that people didn’t want to deal with the bones, not realizing they were easily lifted out of the meat. The bones impart a big part of the flavor, so you certainly wouldn’t want to remove them prematurely. I can understand that the restaurant similarly sells very few of the occasional sliders stuffed with soft chicharrones and green sauce — those are alien to most American palates — but ribs are a Southern fetish. Weird. You ain’t gonna break a tooth, people.

We also had a plate of sliced Parma ham topped with grilled figs picked just that morning. These were my first figs of the season and now I’m ready to begin my annual search for the best fig dishes in town. Please help if you can....

Speaking of freshly picked produce: We dined Thursday night at Grant Central Pizza. Owner Donnie Parmer was in the kitchen and produced a Caprese salad that included yellow and red heirloom tomatoes from his own garden. They were amazingly good.

Parmer told us he’s been in a battle with squirrels over the tomatoes. “They’ve gotten at least 400 of them,” he said. I offered to lend him a book entirely about ridding your life of squirrels but I think I threw the useless thing away....

• http://clatl.com/atlanta/ImageArchives?by=1223504
• “Yo, I love Jake’s Ice Cream”

Word on the street is that Justin Bieber has declared Jake’s Ice Cream his favorite in a soon-to-be published article. (And Jake’s honey-fig ice cream has long been among my favorites.) I haven’t yet learned the publication’s name to verify the rumor...

Speaking of Jake’s Ice Cream, I stopped by owner Jake Rothschild’s Irwin Street Market recently in a wild, sweaty craving for one of the King of Pops’ exotic popsicles paletas (they’re not allowed to call them popsicles). An employee informed me that KOP has moved out of the market, whose kitchen it was using. She didn’t know why. I’m guessing they outgrew the space.

It was rush hour and I didn’t want to head to the usual North Highland cart across from Manuel’s. So I decided to stop on my way home in Cabbagetown at Little’s Food Store, where I vaguely remember that they sell KOP. I looped around Carroll Street twice, unable to find a parking space as usual, encountering the usual bottlenecks that make visiting any business there a nightmare. So I went home and ate a peach.

The end.