PICKLED

Fried pickles? Way easy to botch. Many places do. And not many places serve 'em to begin with. (Can't remember the name of this shithole bar in Destin, FL where I first had them [Hot Tamale will have to help me out with that one]. Waitstaff there was so overtly coked up they looked like they'd been eating powdered donuts all day. Happy Hour specials found us ear lobe deep in oysters, pickles, cheep brews.) They did 'em well and Littles Food Store (est. 1929) in Cabbagetown does 'em well too.

Littles changed ownership since half of fucking Chestnut Hill moved into the n'hood and gentrified the place over night. Around the mid- to late-90s, Littles was basically my canteen as the band's practice space was a short walk up Carroll St. Back then they delivered. We'd call in orders (always got the red hot split) and here came Kenny a half-hour later, lanky go-nowhere easy-like-Sunday morning guy with Redford stache and a pack of Pall Malls rolled up in his BVD sleeve. We even wrote a song about him, "Kenny Delivers." No shit. Hey, it aint Kristofferson, but it works.

Thankfully Littles has mostly resisted Pottery Barnification and still serves good food at surprising prices. Place smells like the old Littles and they kept "ambient" ephemera going with Panorama Ray art and photos. Sad peeping them tho. Seems like another time/place. But fuggit, newbie management kept the "Littles Burger:" 1/4 pound of fatty fucking beef embellished with lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, American cheese, and served on one of those cheapo sweet white bread buns Kroger sells by the truckload. They hawk fried okra, too, which gets 'em points. Several different hotdogs in as many guises. Works for me. And they gots pickles. Basic dills fried in what tastes like a batter seasoned with Lawry's and Old Bay. Only downside is they dish 'em out with some kinda blah dill mayonaise that tastes like whipped canola oil. Gotta go w/ Ranch, ding dong. Even better if it's made from "scratch" with the packet you can buy in the sto.