Over Coffee

     If you have not yet been to Paizanos Restaurant, 7 Jones Street, in Historic Norcross, stop by next time you want an excellent pasta or pizza lunch or dinner out.  Open about four months in what used to be the Olde Antiques Market, General Manager Sal Comarato said he’s still making some small changes to the menu and plans to have the new Norcross liquor-pouring license within the next three weeks. They serve wine and beer now.
   They truck in barrels of water from New York to be used in their pizza dough. Comarato says the water makes a big difference in the taste. You got me!  Word of mouth is going to spread pretty fast about this new restaurant because the food is beautifully presented and tastes wonderful. To my view, it’s the closest thing to a Buckhead restaurant we’ve got in Historic Norcross.
   Paizanos is open at 11:00 a.m. Monday through Saturday for lunch and dinner. Sunday Brunch is 10:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. and then the regular menu kicks in for dinner. I believe owners Bob Fuoto and Mark Granigan have a winner here!
   Visit their Web site at www.paizanos.com.

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   Let me be in a funk over the news that Lord & Taylor will be exiting this Atlanta market and other points South! About one hundred years ago Lord & Taylor in New York did my wedding dress. They weren’t quite finished with the tweakings when it was time for me to leave for Indiana, where my wedding was going to take place. No problem. That fabulous department store put my dress on an airplane and had it delivered to me in Indianapolis. Retailers did things a little differently in those days, especially the ones on Fifth Avenue.  If customer service still existed, perhaps the retail landscape of today would not be littered with so many dead stores. Sadly, the great ones are gone: Best & Co., DePinna’s, Bonwit Teller. I consider Abercrombie & Fitch gone, too. That store used to be a great outfitter, but is now known for its suggestive and offensive catalogs and ragged-out sexually-ennuyeed models.
   It makes me wonder who is running the show at some of these hyped-up retail stores when I see the merchandise that is offered for sale move far away from my standards of quality and my personal taste. Who buys this garbage anyway? Burberry’s used to sell quality business suits for women, but not any more. Eddie Bauer in Seattle used to sell great casual outdoor clothes that would look good and last you for years, then Spiegl got hold of them. Styles in Federated’s stores, Macy’s and Rich’s for instance, were exactly the same. If you weren’t paying close attention, you would absolutely forget which store you were standing in because the stores looked identical and so did the cheesy merchandise. Classlessness took over, good taste disappeared, customer service evaporated into thin air, and I quit even trying to shop in these look-alike clearance rack places that used to be real department stores.
   Several years ago when Talbot’s thought putting zippers in their classic blazer was a good idea I had a conversation with one of the buyers. She admitted that their strategy was turning off their core customers in droves, but that the turn-around time for getting back on track was nearly a year. There are some things that should be left alone in the fashion world, my friends, and brass buttons on a classic blazer is one of them. So is side seam pockets on skirts and slacks.
   Those unfortunate clunky birth control shoes for women are still around and still look awful on everybody who wears them. The Donald Duck toes are still around, too. You would think that women would object to their feet looking like spades, but perhaps they do not know any better. Fashion sense is an intangible thing, but has to be learned. Women particularly need to identify the forms and styles that look good on their own individual body and reject the rest. It isn’t rocket science.

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    Let’s hope that Atlanta’s Hartsfield Airport retains its worldwide identity. When you say Hartsfield Airport, everybody knows what that means and where that is. Let’s name something else for Maynard Jackson. Change has its drawbacks—I still can’t keep the airports in Washington, D.C. straight and how many years has that been? Atlanta, give me a break!

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    When I arrived home this evening, there was the most magnificent buck standing in my backyard. He didn’t move either, just watched me move up the back stairs to the deck. When he finally dashed off, he did not go far. I had the distinct impression that he regards my backyard as his. Our Labrador retriever cleared the area, however, with that sweeping movement she does. It’s the strategy she uses to find tennis balls we huck back there for her.

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    Hope all is well and thanks for reading.

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