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SUGGESTED READS

• Party Out Of Bounds: The B-52s, REM, and the Kids Who Rocked Athens, Georgia, Rodger Lyle Brown

• Adventures in Hi-Fi, Tim Abbot & Rob Jovanovic

USEFUL WEBSITES

www.southernshelter.com

www.visitathensga.com

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LINK YOUR TRIP www.lonelyplanet.com/trip-planner

TRIP

26 48 Hours in Atlanta

29 Hogs & Heifers: A Georgia BBQ Odyssey

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TRIP 29

Hogs & Heifers: A Georgia BBQ Odyssey

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WHY GO From North Carolina to Memphis, “Southern BBQ” is a fat-soaked umbrella encompassing smoked meat soaking in succulent sauces with countless regional variations. Georgia’s BBQ is no exception. Revered Southern food historian and author John T Edge leads us on a pot-bellied journey through Georgia’s pilgrimage-worthy BBQ pits.

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The Deep South’s contributions to the American culinary landscape are well documented – fried green tomatoes and pecan pie among them – but perhaps no food is more inherently Southern than a juicy plate of smoked meat. As we might once have overheard at a Georgia-Florida football game, “It ain’t a tailgate if BBQ ain’t ate.”

In Georgia, the term BBQ is synonymous with chopped or pulled pork. Sure, there is chicken and beef brisket, but they play second fiddle to the hog around here. Wake up at Highland Inn, a bygone lodging stuck between hostel and hotel, in Atlanta’s trendy Virginia-Highland neighborhood and make your way east to Old Brick Pit on Peachtree Rd in Chamblee. Located just outside Atlanta’s city limits, a massive brick pit as old-fashioned as the barn in which it sits stands true to its name. Pulled pork doused in a vinegar-based sauce (rare in Atlanta) piled high on a sandwich with coleslaw is the big seller here.

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TIME

3 days

DISTANCE

740 miles

BEST TIME TO GO

Mar – May

START

Atlanta

END

Marietta

ALSO GOOD FOR

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Heading north out of Atlanta on I-75 then I-575, two dueling BBQ joints with a storied history are using pulled pork as ammunition in a culinary political war. In tiny Cherry Log, halfway between Ellijay and Blue Ridge, liberal BBQ is served up at Holloway’s Pink Pig, a favorite of former President Jimmy Carter. About 10 miles south on Hwy 515, you can’t miss Colonel Poole’s, a right-wing roadhouse that still hangs Pat Buchanan For President signage inside – and is known as the Taj-Ma-Hog – just off the highway. Almost as interesting as the excellent pulled pork here is the Pig Hall of Fame, which looks like a folk art pet cemetery for pigs with small piglet signs dedicated to regular customers peppering the hillside like little portly headstones.

Paul’s in Lexington, 16 miles or so east of Athens on Hwy 78, has been a Saturday-only affair since 1929. Jimmy Paul, a third-generation smoker, reckons he cooks 50lb to 60lb of barbecued pork on any given Saturday (about three hogs). The pulled pork is served on old-school checked tablecloths. Don’t even think about showing up after noon unless you want to eat nothing but baked beans and ’slaw. Continue south on Hwy 78 to Neal’s in Thomson, where the hash (leftover pork mixed with BBQ sauce and served over rice) is every bit as important as the BBQ, still done here in a 55-gallon wash pot.

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“I’ve been coming to Fresh Air since 1948. That’s 60 years! I was a student at Mercer University in Macon and I used to hitchhike up and down Hwy 42. Then I got a car and I kept coming. I’m still coming. It’s some of the best BBQ I have ever tasted. It’s always excellent.”

Jim A Langley, Savannah, GA

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From Thomson, head down I-20 westbound to Hwy 36 south into Jackson. You can see the smoke billowing from the chimneystack as you crest the slight bend in Hwy 42 out of town: Fresh Air beckons, the Holy Grail of Georgia BBQ. The old, pioneer-style wooden street shack holds its ground here as if to declare, “We haven’t changed a damn thing in 80 years.” The outdoor