[Atlanta] ካፌ ፋሲካ
When nytemarewulf and I finally arrived in Atlanta on Friday night, we already had a plan: Ethiopian food, and I saw that there were tons of restaurants in the Atlanta area, and there was one right in Stone Mountain, where oakthorne, nimbuscub, and ericdabear (our hosts) live.
The problem, of course, came when I called to make sure our huge group (us five plus four from The Lilburn House) would be able to eat, and apparently they were doing renovations, but the lady (whose English was poor) said that they could still serve. Then, no more than three minutes later, I get a call back as soon as we give directions to the Lilburners that they AREN'T serving because there are paint fumes in the restaurant. Our game plan was: meet the boys at restaurant we CAN'T go to, and then drive to the restaurant we WERE going to, which was conveniently across the street.
Oh my, written Amharic EVERYWHERE. The linguist in me damn near orgasmed. We get to the restaurant, Café Fasika, and ... yeah, the big group of big bearded guys got some looks. The place was very dimly lit, and it felt like a bit of a dive, particularly when we were sat under the fan that kept going, "clickclickclickclick clickclickclickclick clickclickclickclick....," and we couldn't help but smile as our food was served on dishes that apparently used to belong at a Chinese restaurant, with all the kanji painted on them. :: laugh :: But you know what they say -- the bigger the dive (at least with ethnic restaurants), the better the food. And the food here was excellent. Many of the guys there quite enjoyed their dishes, though some were hesitant to order anything spicy (I believe it was AJ who, of chillos, said, "... what do you recommend for someone who finds ketchup too spicy?", or something along those lines!), but everyone seemed to enjoy the food.
Oh, BTW: the link in the above paragraph leads to their webpage, and while the food pictures are accurate, I so don't remember the inside looking like the pic on the site!!!
(I was warned the opening page was causing virus detectors to go off; I redirected to a page after this in hopes that this has been circumvented, but in any case, please exercise caution if you do look at the above. Sorry guys!)
The problem, of course, came when I called to make sure our huge group (us five plus four from The Lilburn House) would be able to eat, and apparently they were doing renovations, but the lady (whose English was poor) said that they could still serve. Then, no more than three minutes later, I get a call back as soon as we give directions to the Lilburners that they AREN'T serving because there are paint fumes in the restaurant. Our game plan was: meet the boys at restaurant we CAN'T go to, and then drive to the restaurant we WERE going to, which was conveniently across the street.
Oh my, written Amharic EVERYWHERE. The linguist in me damn near orgasmed. We get to the restaurant, Café Fasika, and ... yeah, the big group of big bearded guys got some looks. The place was very dimly lit, and it felt like a bit of a dive, particularly when we were sat under the fan that kept going, "clickclickclickclick clickclickclickclick clickclickclickclick....," and we couldn't help but smile as our food was served on dishes that apparently used to belong at a Chinese restaurant, with all the kanji painted on them. :: laugh :: But you know what they say -- the bigger the dive (at least with ethnic restaurants), the better the food. And the food here was excellent. Many of the guys there quite enjoyed their dishes, though some were hesitant to order anything spicy (I believe it was AJ who, of chillos, said, "... what do you recommend for someone who finds ketchup too spicy?", or something along those lines!), but everyone seemed to enjoy the food.
Oh, BTW: the link in the above paragraph leads to their webpage, and while the food pictures are accurate, I so don't remember the inside looking like the pic on the site!!!
(I was warned the opening page was causing virus detectors to go off; I redirected to a page after this in hopes that this has been circumvented, but in any case, please exercise caution if you do look at the above. Sorry guys!)