A few DragonCon Saturday snippets

Toured the art show today.  Multiple pieces tempted me, but I'm not sure any will end up going home with me.  Tomorrow will tell that tale.

Ate a reasonably healthy Mediterranean lunch at the nearby Aviva by Kameel.  Long lines, but that's true everywhere near the con hotels.

Attended the Baen Traveling Road Show.  It's always fun, and it was today.  I learned there that my friend, David Drake, had won Baen's readers' award for the best military SF story for "Save What You Can," his Hammer's Slammers story in Onward, Drake!  As the one who commissioned that story, I was quite happy to hear the news.  Well done, Dave!

Dinner took me back to Gunshow for another excellent meal, with dessert afterward at a nearby Jeni's.  Great food all around.

Tonight's people-watching was both the best and the most intense yet.  The Hyatt lobby was tough to navigate and full of spectacle.

The Marriott lobby was even more crowded than last night and featured an amazing assortment of people in costumes--as well as hundreds and hundreds just socializing and looking.

Tomorrow, a publisher brunch, a signing, and time in the art show and dealers' rooms!

DragonCon warm-up

The drive to Atlanta proceeded largely uneventfully, for which I was grateful.  The only exception was the usual terrible traffic that hit about ten miles from the hotel, but I've come to expect that.

Dinner was another wonderful meal at Kevin Gillespie's great restaurant, Gunshow.  All the dishes we shared were very good, but two were particularly delicious.  The first combined housemade pasta they infused with saffron and lemon, a sauce made from fish stock and uni, and both heirloom tomatoes and local butter beans.

Click an image to see a larger version.

Wow, was it good (and way smaller than the picture makes it appear: almost all the dishes are the size of traditional appetizers).

The other standout was a dish that mixed Thai peanut sauces and various vegetables and peppers with Kobe beef tartare.

The peanut sauce base meshed perfectly with the meat.  I was amazed at how good the combination was.

I took a late-evening stroll from my hotel down to the Hyatt and Marriott.  Though the con hasn't officially started yet, hundreds of people were already filling the Marriott lobby, chatting and modeling their costumes and having a great time.

The most popular costume by my count was, to no one's surprise, Harley Quinn.

Tomorrow, I expect a much bigger crowd.

On the road again: DragonCon, Atlanta, day 0

After a little over four hours of sleep, I forced myself out of bed, showered, and began the car trip to Atlanta.  I didn't have to drive for most of it--I was behind the wheel only the last hour and a half--so I was able to doze fitfully in the car.  The rest helped.

For lunch we stopped at Tony's Ice Cream Co. in Gastonia, a place that Sharon, a friend and colleague, had told me about.  I'm going to write a separate entry on it after the trip, but suffice to say for now that I'm really glad Sharon pointed out the place to me.  If you want good, not fancy, cheap food and ice cream, and if you find yourself anywhere near there, don't miss Tony's.  

After settling into the hotel, doing a little work, and napping, I headed out for dinner at an Atlanta favorite of mine, Chef Kevin Gillespie's Gunshow.  I've mentioned this place in previous blog entries (and will do so again soon, because I'm heading back there Friday night), so I won't go into too much detail on it.  The basic premise is one I've not seen elsewhere:  the chefs who cook the many dishes on the menu come to the tables, present the food they just prepared, tell you about it, and see if you'd like to order it.  If you do, they put a tally mark next to the item on the menu.  If you don't want it, they mark off that item.

Click an image to see a larger version.

We sampled quite a lot of the menu, and every dish was at least good.  None blew me away, though the duck confit was probably the closest.

The lone dessert we shared was the best I've yet had there, a take on rocky road.

The marshmallow layer was thick, smoky, and easily the best marshmallow I've ever tasted.  The burnt caramel foam on top played perfectly with the marshmallow.  All in all, it was an exceptional dish. 

As before, I highly recommend Gunshow.  

After dinner, as has become a DragonCon tradition for me, I took a walk through the Hyatt and the Marriott for some people watching.  Because the con does not officially start until late tomorrow afternoon, both lobbies were relatively empty.  

Relatively.  

The Hyatt, for example, featured two remote-controlled droids,

and at the bar plenty of people were getting their drink on.

Over at the Marriott, which connects to the Hyatt via a human habitrail, the main atrium was empty by con standards but hopping by most other measures.  

Tomorrow afternoon, the con starts in earnest.

The best meal I ate in Atlanta

was at Gunshow, as I mentioned in an earlier post from DragonCon.  Chef Kevin Gillespie and his team have created a superb restaurant based on an unusual concept:  The chefs who cook your dishes bring them to you and explain them. 

After you sit down, a server hands you a menu.

Click an image to see a larger version.

You choose something, and the person who brought it to you adds hash marks to the menu.  As you can see on the one above, at this point we had ordered four beverages and one dish, the incredibly delicious tuna tartare with egg.

No, I'm not going to show you our menu at the end, because the number of dishes we tried was downright embarrassing. 

You don't actually order anything other than beverages off the menu.  A chef wanders by with a few dishes he or she has just cooked.  If you like it, you take it--and the chef puts another hash mark on your menu.  It's a delightful way to eat, because you get to talk to the creator of each dish and learn about that dish. 

I have to mention the "Steak frites made by a French guy," which was as good a version of this venerable dish as I have ever tasted.

The chef leaned over, presented the dish, and said, "Would you like to try the steak frites? I'm the French guy."  Everything about this dish was perfect.

The restaurant was hopping when we were there, loud and happy and full of life.

Every single person who worked there seemed glad to be there and invested in what she or he was doing.

The atmosphere was contagious; I found myself smiling all the time and just happy to be there. 

Every single dish was delicious. 

Great food, great people, and a wonderful vibe; Gunshow has it all.  I recommend it highly and without reservation.