Mountain View
Doc Lawrence
Spring Dining-Roast Duck Picasso & Regal Wine
When Pablo Picasso visited Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, a feast was held featuring good food and fine wines. Ms. Toklas prepared dinner for many notables including Hemingway and Fitzgerald. For Picasso, it was roast duck which he thoroughly enjoyed, remarking that it was perhaps “better suited for Mattise.” Many proven recipes for duck cooked in the oven are worthy and I offer a very simple but delicious one.
Easter Dinner Down South
Easter observance during my baby days culminated in a feast, a family tradition maintained throughout the land. Surprises were not common. My mother was the quintessential self-taught Southern cook who used no cookbook and ran her kitchen with military precision. The dinner table would rival a spread in a fancy restaurant. Colorful choices of meats, fowl, vegetables and fruit salads were served with sweet iced tea.
Along The Gourmet Highway-Southern Outdoor Feasts
Good weather stimulates the appetite. Something magical happens when we’re immersed in sunshine, breathing fresh air and gathered with family and friends. The urge to entertain runs deep, and will often result in food and drinks served with imagination and flair.
A Children's Art Book-Food, Dreams and a Lesson
Life has certainly changed for so many during the uncertainties of the pandemic. We did the best we could to survive and be considerate of others. We avoided many things for safety reasons and we deserve lots of credit for practicing the “Golden Rule.”
"Hot Stuff" in Lawrenceville: The Donna Summer Musical
After a 2018 run on Broadway and a 2021 national tour, the “Queen of Disco” arrived on the Aurora Theatre stage in Lawrenceville’s Arts Center. SUMMER: The Donna Summer Musical lovingly documents the legacy of Donna Summer as a soundtrack of her top hits guiding the audience through three stages of her extraordinary life. “Duckling Donna” is a preteen girl with a dream, starting out in Boston. “Disco Donna” finds the beginnings of success in her late teens and 20s. Then in her 50s, “Diva Donna” is shining at the height of her career. Featuring classic Donna Summer tunes like Hot Stuff, Bad Girls and No More Tears (Enough Is Enough), this electric musical inspires the audience to sing along as they learn the backstory behind the disco music powerhouse.
The Priest Who Saved Atlanta's Churches
Atlanta’s Church of the Immaculate Conception is just a block away from Georgia’s Capitol. I began visiting there many year’s ago, a St. Patrick’s Day ritual to pay homage to Father Thomas O’Reilly, the Irish preist who saved Atlanta’s Churches from General Sherman’s torches in 1864. O'Reilly, a genuine servant of God, acted to preserve houses of worship and relieve the suffering of innocent civilians during our national tragedy.
Street Life: The Carlos Museum at Emory University
Set in the heart of the Emory University campus, the Michael C. Carlos Museum is a dynamic, interdisciplinary center for the study of art and culture, with collections from Africa; ancient Egypt, Nubia, and the Near East; ancient Greece and Rome; the Indigenous Americas; and South Asia; as well as American and European Works on Paper.
Street Life: Atlanta's Fernbank, More than a Museum
Fernbank Museum is celebrating its 30th Anniversary with a year of exciting special exhibits, giant screen films, themed Discovery Days, nighttime nature adventures in WildWoods: AGLOW, Fernbank After Dark adult science nights and more.
Elvis at Rest
Elvis at Fox Theatre in AtlantaFox Theatre Archives. Elvis with The JordanairesHugh Jarrett Collections. "Elvis at Three," by Rev. Howard FinsterAtlanta High Museum of Art. Sitting on a porch in rural Pennville, Georgia during a frightening summer thunderstorm, Reverend Howard Finster spoke about Elvis Presley. The visionary preacher and world-renowned folk artist who often spoke in parables said that while Elvis was dead “his soul is not at rest. His mission on earth wasn’t completed.”
Frank Lloyd Wright’s Florida Masterpiece "Child of the Sun"
"Child of the Sun" greets visitors.Florida Southern College. Lakeland, Florida-This central Florida city has the charm of other small Southern towns like Thomasville Georgia, Aiken, South Carolina and Franklin, Tennessee. Good restaurants, beautiful vintage homes, pedestrian-friendly sidewalk shopping and polite locals. But, Lakeland stands alone with its connection to fabled architect Frank Lloyd Wright.
Tunes By The Tracks- A Stone Mountain Tradition
Travel throughout Georgia on a given Friday during warm weather months and chances are there’s an evening concert in a city park. Marietta has them in Glover Park. Also, Dahlonaga, Kennesaw, Norcross, Roswell, Gainesville, Blairsville and countless others follow suit.
The Gourmet Highway-Alligator Point Oyster & Artichoke Soup
The Gourmet Highway is equal parts imagination blended with actual experience. These journeys allow the palate to expand with each meal, providing an additional benefit that invariably comes with wines, when poured, that are either familiar or exciting introductions. Since ancient times, the dinner table has been a birthplace of friendship and love. Those who share good food and fine wines soon feel a soulful exhilaration, a spiritual reward rooted in our culinary DNA.
A Fishing Club of Their Own-The Stone Mountain Hookers
They began during the height of the Covid pandemic. Fishing with friends-all retired women- at a beautiful private lake. Over a year later, the ladies of the Stone Mountain Hookers, a name they adopted, are still having fun, fishing regularly, and all the while learning the important basics of angling.
Dog Days Dining-Down South Today
Summertime down South is a glorious season for culinary adventures. Al fresco dining with friends, a slower pace that provides more time for enjoying lunch while encouraging good conversation between bites and sips. This is no time for sparse menus: salads do have their place but are not the only options.
Meeting Ernest Hemingway: Author Jim O'Kon Remembers
Author, Esteemed Engineer, Global Traveler Jim O'KonJim O'kon. Jim O’Kon once met Ernest Hemingway. While still in high school in Atlanta he came to Havana, Cuba for a track competition known as the Havatlanta Games. It was a life-changing event that transformed a teenager, infusing him with ambitions and dreams that eventually led to a biography of the fabled author, Sitting in Hemingway’s Chair, (Amazon 2021), a remarkably original work about the man many called “Papa.”
The Undisputed Queen of Southern Sandwiches
Local Tomatoes, Good Bread and Mayonnaise Combine for Flavor MagicDoc Lawrence. Deep South delicacies are closely tied to tradition and soil. Tomatoes stand almost alone as the most heralded miracle from our gardens. Thomas Jefferson is credited as America’s first pioneer of the tomato, bringing seeds over from England for Monticello’s revolutionary gardens.
Doc Lawrence
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Veteran journalist, editor and publisher (Nationwide News), and published author specializing in food, wine, drinks, visual and performing arts, travel and cultural tourism. Screenplay creator, "Requiem for a Wine Taster," in production.
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