Pretty Southern

Author: Lauren

  • Truffles Grill Serves Up Atlanta

    Truffles Café, the upscale casual dining establishment located in Buckhead, is pleased to announce that the restaurant’s name is changing to Truffles Grill. With three South Carolina locations (two in Hilton Head and one in Bluffton) Atlanta residents have to try their newest location next to Lenox Mall.

    “We want our guests to know that we are a more upscale concept than simply a casual café, and we also serve dinner in addition to our popular lunch menu,” says Operating Partner Rich Rylke. “Truffles Grill better encompasses the fun atmosphere and diverse menu options that we offer.”

    Mushroom crostini is a wonderful way top start your meal at Truffles Grill

    The ambiance of the dining room, combined with the wide-ranging food selection and attentive personal service, makes Truffles the perfect spot for a night out with friends or a leisurely lunch.

    Truffles offers a diverse menu featuring new items such as tilapia with organic butter and sea salt, shoestring fries and coleslaw; tequila lime chicken – a marinated half chicken, grilled and served with fresh vegetables and garlic mashed potatoes; steak frites with a nine-ounce sirloin accompanied by shoestring fries and coleslaw; and Cajun seasoned tuna with wasabi cream, fresh vegetables and garlic mashed potatoes. 

    Your Southern man will love this smoky grilled chicken breast topped with cheese and bacon!

    The restaurant’s signature dishes include jumbo lump crab cakes with wasabi mayonnaise; basil parmesan glazed grouper; creamy tomato dill soup, a tuna burger chopped with fresh ginger and scallions and topped with cilantro mayonnaise. Truffles bar offers 35 wines by the glass, along with a selection of specialty cocktails and premium-brand liquors. From lagers and pale ales to porters and stout, Truffles also has an expansive offering of beer, both on tap and in bottles.

    The yummy grouper topped with parmesan and basil served with crisp green beans and garlic taters

    The best part about Truffles is dessert. Our feature photo (and favorite menu item) is the Blondie with butterscotch and chocolate chips, served warm with vanilla bean ice cream, homemade caramel sauce and chocolate drizzle. Everything is prepared daily using the freshest ingredients, and menu prices range from $5 to $29. Not a bad deal after a day of shopping!

    Truffles Grill is located at 3345 Lenox Road in Atlanta.  The restaurant is open for lunch and dinner daily – Monday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.; and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.  Seating is available at the door or reservations can be made online, plus the full menu is available for take-out! For more information, visit Truffles website or call 404.364.9050.

    Editor’s Note: Mandy Betts contributed to this article. Food photography by Kevin Patrick.

  • Tybee Island Wedding Chapel Celebrates Opening

    The Tybee Island Wedding Chapel, located on picturesque island in Georgia, held its grand opening celebration on Aug. 12. Festivities were presided over by celebrity host David Tutera of WE-TV’s My Fair Wedding. Tutera called the new wedding destination “a wonderful, important venue full of charm and character.”

    The Chapel was originally built by artisans to reflect the look of a turn-of-the-century Baptist church for the 2010 romantic drama, “The Last Song,” starring Miley Cyrus, Liam Hemsworth, Greg Kinnear and Kelly Preston. It was slated for demolition after filming wrapped. At the last minute, real estate entrepreneur Stacye Jarrell saved the Chapel and lovingly re-purposed it as a unique wedding venue. Nestled among live oak trees and Spanish moss, the building is quaint, romantic and elegant. The beautifully refurbished Chapel has elevated Tybee Island to a premiere wedding destination and is attracting interest from brides and wedding planners from across the country.

    For more details on The Tybee Island Wedding Chapel visit their web site. And if you haven’t been to Tybee Island, you might consider it for your next getaway. It’s about a four-hour drive from Atlanta and 20 minutes from Savannah. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution calls it the “Best One Tank Trip” and readers of Creative Loafing voted it “Best Beach Retreat.” It’s a laid back, eclectic island where you can truly get away and commune with nature. In fact, it was recently awarded the title “Healthiest Beach in the US” by Health Magazine. And who doesn’t want to go to the upcoming Tybee Island Pirate Fest taking place from October 6-9?

    To find out more about Tybee Island click here! Have you been to Tybee Island before, be it for a wedding or a vacation? If so, please tell us what you liked about it in the comments section below!

    [author] [author_image timthumb=’on’]https://prettysouthern.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Karen.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]Pretty Southern contributing culture and lifestyle reporter Karen Hatchett is a life-long southerner and resident of Smyrna, Georgia. She’s a Marketing & PR professional, arts & music lover, jewelry designer and casual gardener.[/author_info] [/author]

  • Delectable Honey From Ross Berry Farm

    Like many Southerners, I use the word “honey” as a term of endearment. But I love that sweet, golden delight made by bees, especially drizzled on toasted muffins and hot biscuits. Man has always enjoyed the benefits of honey. It’s a sweetener for beverages and often cooked in cakes and breads.

    In the South, honey is usually a key ingredient in barbeque sauces. Medicinally it is used for treating burns and soothing throats. Many beauty products like soaps, lip balms and lotions feature honey. And local raw honey, which contains pollen, can help build immunities and alleviate the symptoms of some allergies. While looking for unusual holiday gifts a couple of years ago, I discovered raw honey from Ross Berry Farm. The honey was big hit and of course I kept a few jars. It’s incredibly flavorful and delicious! Looking for the best beauty products? Why not try these beauty products with cbd oil to achieve the beauty that you desire!

    In relation to CBD products as mentioned, you can also check out SmokePost CBD Dispensary available online.

    Recently I got a chance to chat with Terry Ross of Ross Berry Farm and Apiaries in Canton, Georgia. Terry and his wife Jeannie started their business back in 1994. “Originally the plan was to grow raspberries,” Ross explains. “But we soon found that organic raspberries were a fragile crop with a short shelf life. We couldn’t figure out how to ship them fast enough to market.”

    To help pollinate the raspberries, they got some bees. That’s when the magic happened. Ross Berry Farm is in an ideal area for harvesting honey. And as it turns out, raw honey keeps indefinitely!
    “Shortly after we got our first hives I found myself at the local library co-founding The Cherokee Bee Keepers,” adds Ross. Starting with two hives, the farm now has more than 45. “Our hives are scattered throughout the farm and in the north Georgia mountains, so the bees are able to find a lot of nectar sources,” he says.
    Once Ross and his wife got involved with bees, they realized how important bees are to our ecosystem. “Bees pollinate about 1/3 of our food supply,” he explains. He cautions people to be mindful of bees that visit their gardens, and tells me one thing that most people do wrong. If you want to learn how to get rid of hover flies on patio, please don’t use Seven Dust, he says. “Bees mistake it for pollen and it can kill them. If you have to use something, get liquid Seven. It’s best to spray in the evening after bees have gone back to their hives. Spray foliage and not flowers, so you keep the nectar safe for the bees.” You can find everything you need to know about gardening at Homegardenscare.

    I recommend the Georgia Wildflower Honey from Ross Berry Farm. It’s their most popular flavor. I was surprised to learn about the different kinds of pollen that go into making this honey such as cherry, poplar, kudzu, privet, blackberry, blueberry and wild crab apple! They also offer Tupelo and Gallberry Honey. You can purchase honey at their farm in Canton and at locations around the state, like Scottsdale Farms in Alpharetta, and Botanical Garden of Georgia in Athens. For info or to order online, visit Ross Berry Farm’s Website and click on Queen Bee Gifts.

    [author] [author_image timthumb=’on’]https://prettysouthern.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Karen.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]Pretty Southern contributing culture and lifestyle reporter Karen Hatchett is a life-long southerner and resident of Smyrna, Georgia. She’s a Marketing & PR professional, arts & music lover, jewelry designer and casual gardener.[/author_info] [/author]

  • Our Southern Girl in Patagonia

    It’s difficult to write this post. Words like “majestic”, “amazing”, or even “overwhelming” seem too cliché to describe Torres del Paine. Saying that “there are no words” sounds cliché too. Nevertheless, it is really difficult to describe.

    Renting a car like the 67 Shelby GT500 for sale was a fantastic idea. Because most of the famous hiking trails were closed due to snow, we were able to the park in all its glory in one long, photo-filled day. It’s hard to believe that during the summer months, Torres del Paine National Park is actually crowded. Because we were the only people on the roads and hiking trails, it truly felt like we had the park to ourselves. These mountains and lakes were resting here, untapped and unaware we were watching. At first, the colors of the lakes was most surprising– turquoise and cyan, seafoam green and dusty grays, and then out of nowhere, a deep dark purple. All of these colors paired with towering, intimidating and sometimes haunting mountains– I understand why people endure the harsh camping conditions here.

    Shoppok is one of those apps that many people swear by. In fact, many swear by it so much that they are telling their friends about it! What is Shoppok? Shoppok is actually another application that let you sell your old car for cash. The great part is that you can make money while keeping your old car! Many have said that this is the easiest way to buy a car, which makes it a solid choice if you are looking to save money and keep your car.

    We had heard that Torres del Paine was crawling with guanaco– a llama-like animal with darker hair and more grace. But when we saw our first two, we were mesmerized and got out of the car to get as close as possible. After snapping a few pictures and taking turns guessing what sounds they make, we continued deeper into the park. We turned the sharp corner of a steep hill and stopped again: the word “colony” doesn’t even begin to explain how many guanaco grazed before us. We soon felt silly for chasing after those first two. For the rest of journey the guanaco were present: walking in a line on the side of the road, drinking from a small stream or grazing on an impossibly steep hill 50 feet above our car. They managed to prance up all the steep terrain with such ease. And they didn’t seem to mind us staring.

    Like I said, it’s difficult to describe everything we saw in Patagonia. Many of my Chilean students haven’t been to this part of their own country, so it feels like a really special, unique thing to have been able to experience it. In Spanish, the language uses the verb “conocer” to explain visiting a place. (“Yo conozco Patagonia.”) In English, we either use “to visit” (I have visited Patagonia)  or “to see” (I have seen Patagonia) or “to be” (“I have been to Patagonia”). “Conocer” means “to know”. And this verb, for this trip, feels more apt. I visited the landmarks, and saw immeasurable beauty, but most of all, I now know Patagonia. I know why it is so special.

     

  • “The Help” Secret Clips

    Pretty Southern readers, we have a rare glimpse into more than a dozen clips from the film “The Help”! Check it out here for videos and pictures. Here’s a bit of what you can see. We have Aibileen (Viola Davis) and Minny (Octavia Spencer) with their sweet scene at the end of the film after their characters worked so hard to write The Help. This is a fabulous film about courage, gumption and being brave enough to do the right thing no matter how hard it may seem. Together these women become the central voice to write the stories of the black maids working during the Civil Rights movement in Jackson, Miss. Part of the reason Aibileen is willing to help Skeeter Phelan (played by Emma Stone) is because they share the common thread of gumption.

    Here is an incredible scene of Skeeter and Minny at Aibileen’s kitchen table working on their stories together. Really all three women have the same dream: being happy, overcoming adversity, and serving a higher purpose than what their existence currently relegates them. For Skeeter, she dreams of becoming a writer.

    I could relate pretty well to Skeeter’s character. It’s part of why I loved “The Help” so much when the book first hit the shelves. A young journalist trying to make it in the South when society says a girl should be more concerned with finding a husband. Skeeter wants it all and is willing to work for her joy.

    “The Help” hits the bookstores in Jackson. The stories told from the anonymous perspective of several maids has the white society up in arms over who this little blue book is really about. An evil debutante, Hilly Holbrook (incredibly played by Bryce Dallas Howard). When Pretty Southern got to interview Kathryn Stockett we asked the author of The Help if Hilly was ever able to learn to embrace integration. She replied “No. I think Hilly is going to be fighting that demon her entire life because she is so immersed in her beliefs.”

    Just check out the maniacal smile Bryce used for Hilly’s character. It was such a treat to watch this character in the film because she’s the ultimate Disney villain: the Wicked Witch of the South. Not only does she torture her help, Minny and Yule May, but she also torments her own mother (cleverly played by Sissy Spacek) the sweet Celia Foote (Jessica Chastain’s bubbly buxom blonde)

    The entire cast really worked well together as a female acting troupe. One of the best character performances was Sissy as Mrs. Holbrook. What an amazing casting of this role, and with a bit of old lady makeup, any scene with Spacek added a little something extra to “The Help”. Just wait for the scene with the “special pie” Minny made for Hilly Holbrook. Sissy Spacek only makes this plot line even more hysterical.

    Speaking of hysterics, Jessica Chastain may be one of my new favorite actresses. Her performance as Mrs. Johnny Foote was enrapturing. In the book, it’s a bit hard to identify with Celia but her character in the film is absolutely charming. If you’re looking for some sweetness this week, head to your local cinema to see The Help and one of Pretty Southern’s Top 10 Southern Movies.