Roswell Ghost Tour: Spirit Crawl

So last Saturday night, Northside Foods Amalgamated Industries experienced the first "Spirit Crawl" hosted by the Roswell Ghost Tour. What's a Spirit Crawl? It's a ghost tour, but with booze. How can this go wrong? (Hint: It doesn't!)

Spooky old building? Or trendy new
Southern eatery? I'm so confused!

Before I get into reviewing the crawl itself, let me preface this by saying I'm not a believer in ghosts. I'm an "interested skeptic". I like hearing the history that goes with old buildings and feeling that creepy-cool shiver you get when you hear a scary story, but ghosts aren't a thing with me. That said, the Roswell Ghost Tour is one of my favorite local attractions and one I highly recommend. I've been on it multiple times and never had a bad experience. I like that they research and document their featured hauntings thoroughly before featuring them and never tell a story they don't have permission for. Even if I don't believe myself, I can respect someone that puts this kind of time and attention into creating a worthwhile experience.

So the Ghost Tour recently received permission from the owners of The Mill Kitchen and Bar to add their building to the tour. If you didn't know, that gorgeous stone building across the street from Barrington Hall used to be a funeral parlor throughout most of the twentieth century. The business has moved to Mansell road, leaving the building empty. Mimosa Salon on the lower level? Used to be where the corpses would get done up. The beautiful glass enclosed dining room? Used to be the portico where the hearse parked. The building has a fascinating history and it's no wonder it's thought to be haunted. The previous owner of Pico Autentico/Relish wasn't interested in any negative publicity from ghost investigators, so the building has only recently been added to the ghost tour.

For the spirit crawl, we were offered three flights along with the tour: beer, wine and specialty cocktails. All were provided by The Mill and served on the premises. You started the tour at the Square, where all Roswell Ghost tours begin, and walked over to the restaurant and upstairs to the private dining room where the beers were served. After that, we walked to Bulloch Hall and heard the stories associated with that house and the nearby Mimosa Hall. For the second leg, we went upstairs in The Mill again and enjoyed our tastings of wine while one of the restaurant employees told us about her personal experiences with the buildings ghosts. Afterwards, we walked over to Founders Cemetery, The Bricks and "The Creepy House", which is exactly as advertised. We ended at The Mill's bar, where we were served our cocktails.

This is the oldest example of townhouse architecture
in the United States. And it's haunted. 

All in all, it was a good tour. It took about twice as long as a regular ghost tour, so if they offer it again, be ready for a late night. Our guide, Beth, was friendly and knowledgeable and kept things moving along at a good pace. The drinks themselves didn't wow me much. Everything was good, but not great. The tastings felt a little rushed to me, I found myself having to quickly gulp a glass of wine I was enjoying so I could leave with the group. Maybe next time they can truncate the tour a bit to give you more time to enjoy the drinks? Either way, it was a really nice way to spend a fall evening. If they offer this tour again, I'd recommend it. If they offer it again, but this time featuring another restaurant on the Square, I'd go on it again.

I took a bunch of photos with my phone, including some with the coveted "orbs" that are supposed to indicate a haunting. You can check them all out here.

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Wolf Mountain Winery in Dahlonega

So a couple days ago my husband came to pick me up at work. My truck died over the summer and we're down to one car right now. Anyways, he mentions something about having a surprise for me this weekend.

"Oh, what is it?", I ask.

"If I tell you, it won't be a surprise anymore."

"No, I'll just be surprised NOW."

Which is how I found out I was having lunch at Wolf Mountain Winery in north Georgia on Saturday. I had visited the winery for a tasting last summer when I went on a tour of three north Georgia wineries from LivingSocial with one of my sisters. (I've uploaded my pictures from that day to Flickr.)

Wolf Mountain is owned by the Boegner family. Karl Boegner was the original manager of Chateau Elan in Braselton and you can see that same attentiveness to detail and the experience at Wolf Mountain. In fact, I think they do a better job at making your time at the winery feel like a special occasion. It's definitely a smaller winery, but they make up for it in wonderful ways. I hesitate to call it "off the beaten path", because it's a pretty busy and well known winery, but it's not the same kind of resort destination.

Anyways, let's talk about our day! Look at that gorgeous building. That's the cafe and tasting room. You have to walk up the incredibly steep driveway to get there from the parking lot. My calves burned. But the walk is totally worth it, because at the top you have a gorgeous view of the valley and the vines themselves.

The tasting room is a beautiful glass enclosed patio that overlooks the vineyard. You can go out to sit a tables to enjoy your glass, or stand at the dark wood bar where they pour.  My husband and I shared a tasting flight of eight wines for $20. They tell you this will equal about two glasses, but the pours are generous, so its really just a bit more than that. I won't get into too much detail about the wines, since eight is a lot to keep track of in your head (I think it's tacky to take notes while I'm eating and drinking in public. I also think it's tacky to snap pictures with my phone, but my blog would be pretty boring without that. Sorry good taste and propriety.) But Wolf Mountain is an award winning wine maker and none of the wines offered disappointed.  Our server was knowledgeable and chatty and though he was busy with several other patrons, I never felt rushed or unattended. We could have taken longer, but we had a lunch reservation at the cafe upstairs.

The cafe is another beautiful, light, airy room overlooking the valley. We had a table on the patio, which was perfect with this early fall weather we are having.  We started with a tomato mozzarella spread with pita chips. The cheese spread was savory and delicious. The pita chips were thick toast points that were lightly fried, not baked. It makes a chip that's both chewy and crispy. It was a little much for two people, but we ate it all anyways. We're both gluttons for good cheese and bread.

I ordered the crab cake sandwich special. It was a large crab cake that included kernels of grilled corn, but otherwise very little filler and a house made mustard sauce. It came with fries, which were just fries. Very few places put effort into their fries. The bun overpowered the crab cake, so I just ate the cake by itself and left the bread. It was a pretty tasty crab cake by itself and I'd probably order it like that if I saw it on their menu.

I paired my sandwich with a glass of their Plentitude white wine. This is a 70/30 blend of Chardonnay and Viognier grapes. It's dry and crisp and just the sort of thing I like drinking on a pleasant almost fall day.  I've had it before and I think it's about a perfect wine for this time of year.

My husband ordered a smoked brisket sandwich which was served with a horse radish sauce on soft focaccia bread. This was a pretty amazing beef brisket. Mr. Northside is from Texas and they know their smoked beef down there. So if his semi-hysterical natterings while eating are any indication, this is really good brisket. You should eat it.

All the prices are pretty moderate, especially considering this is a "fancy" place. This isn't a cheap date, but it's not going to break your piggy bank either.

After lunch, we walked around the grounds again and enjoyed the gorgeous scenery. Everything seems to have been placed to give you just the perfect view or backdrop wherever you go at Wolf Mountain. Like I said before, attention to detail.

So yeah. My husband pretty much wins at surprises. Aren't you jealous now?

Like my poorly lit iPhone pictures? I'm on Flickr now! And you can like me on Facebook!

It's my wine in a box, yo

So we bought two Target "Wine Cubes" for New Year's Eve. That's the equal of eight bottles of wine. And wouldn't you know it, but no one did much drinking that night. I think I did the most, drinking most of the mulled wine on my own. So now I'm stuck with a considerable amount of wine. (And also beer, because my husband decided on his way home that what our party needed was a 12 pack of Budweiser, even though only one of our invited guests drinks that. And he got stuck on the way back from the airport with his wife and didn't make the party anyways. But that will be another posting.) I do cook with wine, but in moderation. My husband does not like the taste of white wine in his food, so I can't use more than a half glass or so of that at a time.

Now, I'm not a wine expert by any means. I drink what I like and what I can afford. Usually, that means I'm shopping at Trader Joe's, which has a nice selection that overs over quickly at a price that means I can enjoy a glass of wine with dinner more than occasionally.

The Chardonnay I am drinking right now, for example, is fairly good. Not great, but I don't think I've had a great Chardonnay. But it's light and refreshing and citrusy just like a good Chard should be. I would buy this wine again or serve it to family without being embarrassed. I recall the Shiraz I used for the mulled wine to be good as well, but since I adulterated it so much, I can't say fairly until I have a glass of it alone.