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Better than Your Average Burgers are earning grill stripes across America. Our burger board primes you with a herd of ways to pretty up a patty for spring and summer grill sessions. Vegetarians and cluck-o-tarians, hold your beef. We can fill your buns just as easily.

Eat it and Tweep: BurgerFi® Tweets with Burger in Hand

 

Develop a personal relationship with the burgers and burger masters at BurgerFi® (@BurgerFi). Besides keeping up with quips, see who's heading over to the new Emory Point location and get a feel for the local faves to cut down on your own decision-making time.

Sample Tweet: @advtastes You can tell a lot about a person by looking at what they order. We have decided you are awesome!

MLA At Large

 

  

We had a blast at the Emory Point BurgerFi® opening last week and just couldn't resist getting a photo with the extra large burger out front! Stop by there soon - the burgers are delicious!

Croon a Tune at Gilbert's on Wednesday Karaoke Nights

Sing your heart out at Gilbert's Cafe & Bar in Midtown on Wednesday nights from 10 p.m.-2 a.m. Whether you're an aspiring professional or you just lost a bet with friends, you're guaranteed to have fun performing for the lively crowd at Gilbert's. Got a touch of stage fright? Craft cocktails, brews and wine from the bar will have you believing you're "The Voice" in no time. Warm up those vocal cords and call 404-872-8012 to make your reservation!

People's Food Truck Revs Up to Hit Streets Following April 27 Launch Party

     

Have you heard who's driving into the A? People's Food Truck is arriving this weekend and is ATL's new "feel good food" truck. This truck runs on compassion for saving and building lives and desires to help a community develop itself through sustainability and stability. People's, the mobile arm of non-profit City of Refuge (COR), will teach skills, provide jobs for and help feed people. People's rolls out, COR community staffing will sell items from a menu created by Ford Fry (JCT. Kitchen & Bar, No. 246,The Optimist and Oyster Bar at The Optimist), and every meal purchased will help feed those in need. Saturday's launch celebration begins with COR's "Refuge Run 5K" in the morning and shifts gears to the People's Food Truck party at City of Refuge from 5-7 p.m. that evening. Grammy award-winner Micah Massey provides musical entertainment. To attend the free event, RSVP to tony@cityofrefugeatl.org with your name and number of guests. People's, start your engine and let the "feel good food" roll. 

Kick-Start the Spring with Article 14's Patio Opening Party on April 24

   

Claim your perch on the patio at Article 14 on Wednesday, April 24, or you'll be guilty of missing a fantastic night out. Shelve the workday at 5 p.m. when the party begins and stay on for cocktails, wine and ice cold beer until it ends at 9 p.m. Big clue on where to look in Midtown: the patio is upstairs, outside of Olmsted. Capping the day with a drink and appetizer at Article 14 could easily become an amendment to your after-work routine.

Help Cover Bantam + Biddy Windows with Autism Speaks Puzzle Pieces

April's window treatment at Bantam + Biddy uses colorful puzzle pieces interlocking in support of the Autism Speaks puzzle piece fundraising campaign. Midtown neighbors already know of the Ansley Mall eatery's devotion to assisting local charities, and Autism Speaks occupies a special niche in Co-owner/Executive Chef Shaun Doty's heart. If you're in the area to eat, shop, visit Piedmont Park or the Atlanta Botanical Garden this month, Doty and Co-owner Lance Gummere encourage you to stop in and purchase an Autism Speaks puzzle piece. You'll receive a brightly hued puzzle piece -- with a place to write a name and a message -- to add to the window's $1,000 puzzle-building goal. Nothing puzzling about where the money goes. All money raised goes to nonprofit Autism Speaks, the world's leading autism science and advocacy organization, for funding research into the causes, prevention, treatments and a cure for autism. Will you be a part of the process in finding the missing piece?

Benefit Your Taste Buds and Open Hand at Dining Out For Life Plus More in this Week's Dish

The MLA team has been out and about this week, eating up delicious burgers and fries from BurgerFi® at Emory Point. Can't seem to get burgers off the brain? Check out our Pinterest board for better than your average burger recipes and create your own. There are burgers galore, plus much more in this week's Dish!

Dining Out for Life on April 24 Assists Open Hand

As if we needed an excuse to say “let’s dine out,” grab a friend or pick a date and attend the 21st Annual Dining Out for Life event on Wednesday, April 24 benefitting Open Hand. This is one of the largest fundraising events of the year for Open Hand. Restaurants all across Atlanta will donate 25 percent or more of each table's tab -- breakfast, lunch or dinner -- to the community nutrition programs of Open Hand. Suggestions? Enthusiastic participants include Aria, Bantam + Biddy, Communitas Hospitality restaurants Gilbert's Cafe & Bar, HOBNOB Neighborhood Tavern and 10th & Piedmont, and Fifth Group Restaurants Alma Cocina, Ecco, Lure, The Original El Taco and South City Kitchen Vinings. Make reservations online for some restaurants. Nonprofit Open Hand has delivered more than 20 million meals since its start in 1988. By Dining Out for Life, you can help the organization continue its work in our community: delivering more than 5,000 nutritious meals every day, providing nutrition education, therapy and coaching, and empowering folks battling chronic disease and disability to live more healthily and independently. So be sure you dine out for breakfast, lunch and dinner to contribute to this great cause!

Atlanta Restaurants Take Going Green Beyond Salads on Earth Day and Every Day

We're happy to be celebrating Earth Day today, but why on earth would we limit it to one day out of 365 when Atlanta restaurants have already made the commitment to going green year round? 

 

At Midtown's Ansley Mall, Bantam + Biddy minimizes pasture to plate time by gathering its pastured poultry from regional sources. Their "honey do" list includes raising their own bees to produce honey for the eatery.

BurgerFi® takes the "better burger" movement beyond the kitchen's 100 percent hormone and antibiotic free beef from humanely and sustainably farmed cattle. The Emory Point location follows green practices and kitchen oil recycling to minimize environmental impact. The soon-to-be EarthCraft certified restaurant uses energy, water and resource-efficient building design practices including using sustainably harvested wood, LED lighting, low-flow water fixtures and low-VOC paints and finishes. And your bottom's perched on a bottle. Those chairs you're sitting on while enjoying your burger are made from recycled Coca-Cola bottles.

The sky's the limit for green practices at Midtown's popular Ecco. The Fifth Group Restaurant is the state's first dumpster-free restaurant and the first Georgia restaurant to receive Green Foodservice Alliance certification. Ecco's rooftop garden incorporates cold frame structures covered with Agribon, a material that guards plants from wind, frost, cold and insects, allowing earlier planting dates and a wider variety of produce to be grown. Cedar beds, custom-built by Farmer D Organics, use a drip irrigation system harnessing air conditioning condensation and timer-managed watering. Produce raised goes directly into the restaurant's seasonally inspired menu.

The largest solar barn in the Southeast resides on the largest Certified Organic farm in Georgia -- White Oak Pastures, 2,000 acres strong in Bluffton, Georgia. Owner and fourth-generation cattleman Will Harris follows sustainable practices all around, from the pasturelands' 100 percent Georgia native sweet grasses to the zero-waste processing plant that follows Dr. Temple Grandin's humane animal handling process. Harris' determination to farm a better way is an inspiration to farmers, restaurants and food producers. The farm is Certified Grassfed, Certified Humane, Animal Welfare Approved, Certified Organic and follows Good Management Practices approved by Silliker, Inc. Recognitions for setting farming standards and being dedicated to the sustainability of organic farming in Georgia are many, including 2012 Distinguished Conservationist and the 2012 Les Dames d'Escoffier International Green Ribbon.

Pizza Perfection - Made by You!

 

Ah, pizza. Who doesn't love a good pie? But to make your own from scratch - well, that's scary.  Max's Coal Oven Pizzeria, baking with the only genuine coal-fired pizza oven in Georgia, wants to calm your fears by way of two-hour interactive pizza making classes led by pizza masters. Learn the secrets of mixing, stretching and tossing the perfect crust, selecting ingredients so as not to cause a tragic mozzarella slide off, and baking the whole masterpiece to optimum crispness. Get fired up learning about the legendary coal-burning process used up in NYC. Upcoming class dates are May 6, 13 and 20, and June 3, 10, 17 and 24. Classes sell out quickly, so don't wait for your dough to rise before reserving your place! To sign up, call 404-974-2941. Max's Coal Oven Pizzeria is located in the heart of the Luckie Marietta District Street in Downtown Atlanta. You can do it!