A Takeout Review: Ponko Chicken

Hello all! I know we’ve been MIA for a bit. With the Pandemic getting worse, we haven’t really been eating out as much as we would like, but we have been supporting our local restaurants by picking up at least 2 meals a week. Outside of that, we’ve been working on some repairs from a flood caused by a backed-up drainage pipe in our home. It has been quite the journey!

But! We did get a chance just two nights ago to visit the newly opened Ponko Chicken in The Maxwell! So, we are excited to bring you a review after a long time and share our experience.

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Yummy Ginger Yums

If you’ve been to the Alpharetta Farmer’s Market, you may be familiar with the White and Teal stand called Ginger Yums.

Ginger Yums is a soon-to-be brick and mortar establishment in the heart of Alpharetta where you will be able to enjoy ginger in different forms – the taste, the health benefits and so much more! Ginger Yums will be housed at 61 Roswell Street, a historic landmark in Alpharetta. This is the location of the Skelton-Teasley house, the oldest building in the city, and it sits on one of the highest points in the city.

Read on for more…

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Ponko Chicken Sets their Eyes On Alpharetta

Another Atlanta favorite has set their eyes on Alpharetta! Following on the heels of many long time big city favorites such as Bocado Burger, Ponko Chicken is the next big local brand to be headed for our town here on the north side.

Billed as a Japanese Fusion restaurant, this fast-casual is expanding for their first time outside of 285.

Read on for more…

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Alpharetta Loses a Favorite

Frequent visitors will recall our love for Botiwalla. So much love that we’ve posted about them a total of three times! (the announcement, coming soon, and review posts)

Since the pandemic began, Botiwalla, located in the heart of Alpharetta City Center, has remained closed. We were hoping to see them them open back up for take out or delivery, but alas, they have remained shuttered.

Over the last few weeks, rumors began to circulate that Botiwalla would remain closed for good. This week, What’s Up Atlanta confirmed as much in their recent post.

Read on for what will replace Botiwalla…

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What’s the Latest Scoop?

Hello friends and neighbors! We know this our first post in a few months. I think we can all agree 2020 has thrown us a bit of a curveball of a year. We’d like to start off our resurgence by hoping everyone is doing well and is in good health.

With us back to the party, there’s only one question – what’s the latest scoop? Well, we went to the Grand Opening weekend of Where’s the Scoop to check it out!

Read more for our first thoughts on one of the latest additions to Downtown Alpharetta!

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We want to #HelpOthers. A word for Local Merchants and Restaurants.

If you haven’t figured this out yet, we love the many shopping and dining destinations Alpharetta has to offer. If you’re in Alpharetta, or even anywhere close to it, I’m inviting you to participate in a free initiative that my daytime employer, LivePerson, has launched to help support small businesses during this unpredictable and challenging time.

Our teams at LivePerson have created HelpOthers.io, a national marketplace where consumers can purchase gift cards from small businesses to be used down the road when social distancing situations resolve. Our hope is that getting money into the hands of small businesses like yours now will provide the resources to serve your customers in the future.  

What makes this initiative different from traditional gift card operations is that customers can easily purchase gift cards through messaging — they can support you just as easily as they can send a text message. And, you will have minimal administrative work on the back end to manage the purchasing, cash and eventual redemption. There will be no fees incurred by you at any time. I too asked “what’s the catch?” but there is none as far as I can tell, and I’m on the inside in this whole deal. LivePerson is based in Alpharetta across from Avalon and we want to do right by the community in these times.

To get started, sign up for free at HelpOthers.io. Then, you’ll receive instructions on how to alert your customers about how they can support you by simply messaging their gift card requests. 

LivePerson is a public company that provides conversational AI solutions to businesses of all sizes, from mom-and-pops to big brands like The Home Depot. If you’ve ever talked to a company over chat or messaging, there’s a good chance they were using our services to write you back! We’re one of Fast Company’s World’s Most Innovative Companies, and we’ve been in business for 25 years.

I, and many others in Alpharetta, personally look forward to supporting you during and after this unprecedented difficult time. 

If you are a business and sign up for HelpOthers.io, please reply to this post and we’d be happy to feature you on MyAlpharettaLiving. If you have any questions or comments, please contact us as well.

If you don’t own a business but want to find a way to help your favorite local businesses, then send them this info too. The more businesses that sign up to offer the gift cards, then the easier it will be for the community to support our favorite places.

This is all about the community, and together, we will not just survive this struggle, but come back stronger and better than ever!

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Sheltering In Place and how to Eat Out without Eating Out

Hello again, My Alpharetta Living family! First and foremost, we hope everyone is staying as healthy as can be in these trying times.

We are not doctors of any kind on this blog, and won’t pretend to be. Instead, what we are, is fans of Alpharetta, and especially the amazing culinary community that has sprung up in recent years.

Of course, it’s not possible to eat out anymore with current Shelter In Place rules, so we’ll have to pause the restaurant reviews for now, but what we would like to talk about is how we can help some of the places we love most in these trying times.

Did you know that many local restaurants are offering delivery, curbside pickup, or to-go services still during the lockdown? The Alpharetta Convention and Visitors Bureau has composed a pretty awesome guide of who is still operating that we would like to share with you (it’s a long list):

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Hate Alpharetta traffic? It’s time to take action!

Hello friends! It’s been a bit since our last post, sorry for that! Even restaurant bloggers take some time off from time to time.

To kick off 2020, we’re starting on a bit of a different note. As you know, we are forever-long residents of Alpharetta and die-hard loyalists of the City, but it’s come to a point that even we need to address some issues here in our hometown.

Have you noticed that traffic seems worse than it used to be in the morning, at lunchtime, and even at night? Have you noticed that our great parks have stagnated? How about how our pedestrian-friendly downtown area that isn’t always so pedestrian-friendly?

That’s right, the City has been growing by leaps and bounds, and our public infrastructure has not kept pace with the development.

What is to be done? It’s simple, we need to invest in the City before it’s too late. Roads and sidewalks don’t get cheaper, and we’re already behind the curve, so the time to act is now.

Alpharetta’s day time population is roughly double it’s night time population, meaning basically 2x as many people are working in the City during the workweek, coming from neighboring communities, which adds a lot of stress to the local infrastructure.

This upcoming Monday, February 17th at 6:30 PM, the City Council will start their regularly scheduled meeting and on the agenda is to discuss “Bond Projects.”

These aren’t just any projects, these are projects to reshape how the City handles it’s core infrastructure needs. It’s improving roads, sidewalks, crosswalks, parks, everything we love as Citizens of Alpharetta. It’s not a matter of if the changes are needed – they absolutely are – it’s how soon we can implement them.

If you’re sick of sitting in traffic like me, then please join us Monday and telling the City Council the time to act is now.

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Alpharetta Restaurant Roundup

When you think of November, you think new restaurant openings, right? Okay, maybe not. Conventional wisdom often associates new openings with Spring and Summer, but we’re in for a treat here in Alpharetta as we’re about to have a flurry of new openings in the next two weeks. Let’s break down what is new and what is coming soon.

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This Weekend – Wire and Wood Festival Returns!

If you’re a fan of singer-songwriters, then this is the weekend for you!

Returning to downtown Alpharetta, The Wire & Wood Alpharetta Music Festival brings together nationally and locally recognized musicians to perform their original hit songs, and tell the stories that inspired them. The 2019 Wire & Wood Music Festival will feature seven stages across the downtown landscape including main stages on Milton Ave, at the Village Green and a special intimate venue inside Alpharetta City Hall.  Additional music stages are being sponsored and hosted by Ceviche, Citizen Soul and Central City Tavern. Artists will gather together to perform their original songs giving music lovers a behind-the-scenes look at the stories that inspired country, rock, blues, Americana and bluegrass songs. 

Map of the Festival
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