Hello, all!  The Husband, here – back from months and months on hiatus!  I’ve been off doing other things, mostly traveling, and our reader has probably noticed that I have not been writing about my adventures.  Today that stops, though.  I’ve been in Atlanta for weeks, and I’ve been to some great places, and I’m hoping to knock out a handful of posts before heading home.  My “to-do” list is lengthy already, and I’m hoping to add a couple more restaurants to it before I leave!

As you may recall, I already wrote a blog post about Atlanta quite awhile ago.  It really is a great city – like a big brother to our former home of Charlotte.  If you get a chance, swing through and check out all the great sites and history the city has to offer, including the New World of Coke (post coming soon) – NOT to be confused with the World of New Coke – which would probably be a total flop.

Anyway, so one of my first nights here, I was looking for something to eat.  I was supposed to meet up with some folks in Midtown, but for this reason or that, it just didn’t all come together.  I was headed home, hungry and a little dejected, and I was trying to figure out where to eat.  I was staying up on the north side of the city, and I remembered seeing a little Italian joint near a gas station I had been to.  Well, it wasn’t easy for me to get back to, but I finally found it – “The Mad Italian.”

I popped in, and took a table in the bar area.  The place is a touch dumpy, but it had ALL the markings of being a diamond in the rough.  I was apprehensive AND a bit anxious.  I asked my server, Jennifer, what was good.  I was starving (I’ve been dieting MOST of the time I’ve been here).  She said if I was starving, I should try the pasta, but if I want what they’re REALLY known for, I should try the cheesesteaks.  I tried a cheesesteak, and it was fabulous.  Definitively different from a true Philly Cheesesteak, it was nothing short of scrumptious in its own right.  I decided that when the Wife came to visit, we’d need to come back.

And so we did.  We tried to slide through for lunch (I took her out on a lunch break I had), but the parking lot was just too packed, and the lines were just too long.  We came back for dinner, and the place was still hoppin’, but we were able to get a table without too much trouble.  I asked for a table in Jennifer’s section, but alas, she was all booked up at the time.  Our new server was Jason.  Jennifer, though, did immediately recognize me and swung by to say ‘hi’ and take our drink orders.  It was the start of more fantastic service.

We ordered a pizza roll to start, along with a cheesesteak and a calzone with side of pasta.  Jason was equally knowledgeable and energetic as Jennifer – things were looking good.  I was also excited that I could get Sweetwater brews, which are unavailable (to my knowledge) in Las Vegas. 

The pizza roll was good.  Nothing elaborate – just tasty pizza dough with light sauce, plenty of cheese, and sauce for dipping.

All nice and hot, the cheese was all gooey.

The calzone was smaller than I expected – in fact, from what I could tell, the general emphasis of ALL the food was quality of quantity.  It wasn’t LOTS of food, just reasonable quantities of well-prepared, rich food.  It was great.

The side of pasta was one thing, though, that was much bigger than we expected, although not huge.  It was good, but nothing special.

The cheesesteak, though, was equally good.  Very tasty, a touch on the small side, which was probably a good thing, but fresh and scrumptious.

It wasn’t super cheesy, which might have been part of the appeal actually, but the flavors of everything just melded together just right.

We were done for the evening, but our server, both knowledgeable and exuberant, suggested we take some chocolate cheesecake for the road.  We figured we’d nibble at it over the weekend, and we gave it a try.

As you know, I’m not a big cheesecake guy.  It was good, but give me a nice hearty brownie any day.  Tasty enough, though – particularly if you like cheesecake.

It’s certainly off the beaten path, but the food was worth it enough for me to drag the Wife out of the way to go give it a shot.  The food was great, and VERY reasonably priced, but to be honest, it was the service that put it over the top.  Check it out!