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In the kitchen of Antico Pizza Napoletana, above a communal table, there is a squarely framed print of Vince Lombardi’s famous “Number One” speech. Bedside it, owner Giovanni Di Palma has placed two newer interpretations — in Italian and Spanish — for everyone who works at the Westside pizzeria to read before work each morning.

Economic hard times, blogger-fueled foodie fixations and the unstoppable burger boom — Wonderful World Burgers & More gets at all those things with its bargain-priced, Asian-influenced fast-food menu. Better yet, the Emory Village spot does it in a simple but stylish atmosphere that's friendly and efficient.

Mother had many maxims. Wash your face every night. Always wear clean underwear. Don’t scrunch your face up in a weird expression because it might get stuck that way. Always leave something on your plate. And of course, beware of men with French accents.

Thorn Tree Restaurant in Norcross is something of a crazy creative anachronism. How else to explain a place with an African safari theme that borrows the name of the legendary open-air cafe at the Stanley Hotel in Nairobi, Kenya, and is filled with the owner's extensive collection of hunting trophies? Big gameTexas native Lowell Douglas spent time as a hunter, guide and wildlife manager in the United States, Europe and Africa, including eight years in "the bush.

Since it opened in 2005, Duck’s Cosmic Kitchen has always been a bit of an odd bird. Writing about the Decatur bakery/bistro in early 2006, AJC dining critic Meridith Ford Goldman called it “a little quackers.” But as her review made clear, that comment wasn’t meant to be negative so much as descriptive of the cheerfully off-kilter scene.

It’s not unusual for Linton Hopkins to spend the better part of an afternoon making pickles with fourth- and fifth-graders from an elementary school in Atlanta. The chef and owner of Restaurant Eugene (and Holeman & Finch Public House and H & F Bread Co.

The Vortex and Bone Garden Cantina are among the Atlanta bars and restaurants where the spirit of Halloween is always evident.But given it’s name alone, Graveyard Tavern in East Atlanta may be the spookiest of them all. And on Saturday, this year’s Halloween celebration is an evening extravaganza of music and mayhem, billed “Dirt Nap.

Kabobee may be an unlikely outpost for Persian food, situated at the edges of Castleberry Hill and Mechanicsville, near Whitehall Street and Northside Drive in south Atlanta. But the tasty, inexpensive kabobs and wraps, served up with friendly enthusiasm, are worth the drive from surrounding neighborhoods — and are a real find for downtown workers looking for a quick change from the usual fast food.

A fellow dining critic and I were discussing the phenomenon of the burger, and he asked me why – in Atlanta, particularly – I thought this meager mound of meat had made its way into the gourmet status it now enjoys.Having just had lunch at the Counter in Roswell, my answer came more easily than I might have expected.

Let’s be honest, at Tilted Kilt Pub & Eatery, the signature dish isn’t on the menu. Like Hooters before it, the most prominent feature of this Celtic theme sports pub chain is the uniform of its servers — described in detail on the Tilted Kilt franchise Web site as “knee high socks and short, sexy plaid kilts with matching plaid halter tops under white camp shirts tantalizingly tied to show off the midriff.

Marco Betti is no stranger to Atlanta’s restaurant landscape; he’s been wining and dining Atlantans Tuscan style for 10 years as the owner of Antica Posta, one of the city’s finest Italian restaurants. In mid-July, he opened Joia (“gem” in Portuguese), having renovated the SAGA spot on Crescent Avenue into an elegant dining room with lots of hardwood floor space for late-night dancing.

Judging by the crowd at lunch on a recent afternoon, there’s already a big buzz about Grindhouse Killer Burgers.A dining critic, a magazine editor and a couple of local foodies rubbed elbows with Grady Hospital workers and Georgia State students. And everyone seemed to be enjoying the sudden scene this retro burger bar is creating inside the historic Sweet Auburn Curb Market.

Chef Ron Eyester’s solid cooking at his newly christened Rosebud – once known as Food 101 Morningside – is exactly like he is – totally approachable, down-to-earth, completely likable. And don’t get him started on the Grateful Dead (but more on that later).

Villa Vino is one of those fuzzy concepts that seems to have had aspirations above and beyond just offering food and drink. Maybe that’s partly because of its location in the heart of Buckhead. Opened in June by Menandros Papadopoulos, who also owns the nearby Rio Grande Cantina, the multiple choice self-description, “restaurant/bar/lounge,” suggests a sophisticated destination.

There is a war going on in Atlanta. Somewhere, right now, a pizza – bubbled and blistered from 800-degree heat, cheese and tomatoes blanketing its creviced crust – is being drawn from the dark cave of a deck oven.

“Gringo Mexican” is the pejorative some dining critics use to describe the proliferation of less than “authentic” taquerias and cantinas dotting the restaurant landscape these days. But no matter what anyone thinks or says, these places have become immensely popular, serving up bargain-priced Tex-Mex food and drink to the penny-pinching masses.

Cookbook author Madhur Jaffrey once pointed out that India is a country made up of at least five major faiths, 15 major languages and thousands of minor languages and dialects. Her point was to illustrate the vast cultural differences that influence this country’s varied cuisines.

Like its kissin’ cousin in Buford, Sperata on the Square in Lawrenceville is blessed with the charming setting of a small Southern town. But don’t think these places are anything like a Mayberry diner. In fact, they’re much more a remnant of the kind of fine dining that used to be called “Continental.

Cafe Agora is the kind of quirky, hole-in-the-wall place that’s getting more difficult to find in Atlanta. Serving up Turkish, Greek and Mediterranean cuisine under the banner “Good food/ Real people,” it’s something of an odd remnant of the old party-hearty Buckhead.

Who decided to mix cream cheese with raw salmon and wrap it in rice and nori to create the first Philadelphia roll? Certainly the combination of salmon and cream cheese is nothing new to the Western palate — it’s one of the most enjoyable bagel schmears in history.

Bhojanic describes its concept in four words: “Fusion Homestyle Indian Tapas.” But that doesn’t explain everything that’s going on at this lively, family-run Decatur restaurant, bar and music venue.On many nights, the scene might slowly change from Emory neighborhood regulars stopping in after work for drinks and snacks on the front patio to families and couples out for a bargain-priced dinner to a late crowd gathered to listen to some blues or jazz.

It’s my guess that few of the customers who make their way up the stairs to the rooftop dining area of 5 Seasons Westside know what a tuned-in guy executive chef David Larkworthy is. They munch on pizza blanketed with tangy cheese and topped with organic local blackberries, fried jalapeno peppers, sliced onions and feathery arugula, never knowing that the executive chef is one of our state’s greatest proponents of the slow food movement.

Chef-owner Paolo Tondo of Taverna Fiorentina seems to have led a circuitous life’s route — from a technical degree growing up in Florence, to importing and distributing Italian specialty equipment for the restaurant industry in San Francisco, to co-owning, with Jasmin Reyes, his own restaurant on Cobb Parkway.

Sugo is the kind of restaurant that defines the term "crowd pleaser." How else to explain the way this convivial northside Mediterranean concept -- owned by the Rhode Island-transplanted, half-Greek, half-Italian, Castellucci family -- has grown from its original Roswell location, to a second in Roswell, and a third in Duluth? And now, the family is set to open a new place in Decatur, called The Iberian Pig.

In May, 30 Tables opened inside the luxurious and historic Glenn Hotel, boldly going where two other much ballyhooed but short-lived restaurants, BED and Maxim Prime, had gone before. Atlanta’s Concentrics Restaurants partnered with Gemstone Hotels & Resorts to take over the boutique corner space on Marietta Street, installing longtime Concentrics chef Daniel Chance, formerly of Two Urban Licks, in the kitchen.