Mild Monday
July 10 — Part-time Atlantan Elton John ended his five-year farewell tour this weekend with a final show in Stockholm. “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” closed out the set.
☔️ It’s raining as we send this, and through the morning, with a high of 81° today.
🙏🏽 Dr. Christine King Farris, the last sibling of MLK Jr., will lie in state at the Georgia Capitol rotunda on July 14.
🗳️ Brookhaven has officially asked DeKalb County to put the annexation of Toco Hills neighborhoods to a referendum on the November ballot.
⚖️ Four residents of DeKalb County have filed suit in federal court to compel the city of Atlanta and the state of Georgia to allow them to collect signatures to put the “Cop City” issue on the November ballot.
🔎 APD homicide investigators are requesting the public’s assistance in identifying two persons of interest in a June 19 murder.
💦 Chattahoochee Riverkeeper is reporting that E. coli levels are starting to drop following a sewage spill that closed 15 miles of the river.
🐔 Chick-fil-A is planning a new restaurant in Buckhead without a drive-thru window.
📰 Legendary Georgia political journalist Bill Shipp died on Saturday. He was 89. Maria Saporta shares her memories of Shipp here.
🕖 Today’s newsletter is ④ stories.
• Getting to know Chef Pat Pascarella
• Theatre Review: ‘Wicked’
• Global Headlines: Chris Eubanks at Wimbledon
AND
• Look & Listen: True crime podcasts
Have a good day,
Collin, Sammie, & Madison
📚 Our newest newsletter launched yesterday. Stacks is a monthly newsletter about Atlanta’s literary scene. If you missed it, here’s a link.
💕 Meet Hatched Dating, the free and fun dating app redefining the swipe by making it less “show me” and more “know me.” Exclusively available in Atlanta, Hatched is changing the digital dating game by diving deeper into values, attitudes, personality, and interests to help users discover more meaningful matches. Check it out here!
SPONSOR MESSAGE
1. 6 things you didn’t know about Chef Pat Pascarella
❓If you follow Atlanta restaurant news, you’ve seen his name often over the past few years. Chef Pat Pascarella, a co-founder of The Porchetta Group, is on a journey of introducing Atlantans to his authentic and memorable Italian dishes made with quality ingredients and skillful techniques, and his growth in the city in only six years is remarkable.
With four restaurants open today (Grana, The White Bull, Bastone, and Alici) and two more slated to open this year (Grana’s second location at Ashford Lane in Dunwoody and its third location at Roswell’s Southern Post), it’s clear that this chef and his Italian eats (meatball flight, anyone?) are here to stay.
As he prepares to introduce his signature recipes to two new neighborhoods, Pascarella shared some stories from his past along with his plans for the future.
🧑🍳 Click here to learn more about Chef Pat.
You say tomato, I say tomato
SPONSORED BY GEORGIA ORGANICS
🍅 Attack of the Killer Tomato Festival (#AKTF) returns to Westside Provisions District on Sun., July 30 from 1-4 p.m. for an annual celebration of the juiciest fruit in Georgia: tomatoes.
Passes include tastings and beverages featuring tomatoes in all the ways from Georgia restaurants, bars, and other tomato-serving establishments.
This annual fundraiser benefits Georgia Organics, the oldest statewide non-profit providing direct support to local and organic farmers, and celebrates the delicious Farmer Champion partnership between Georgia’s organic farmers and the culinary teams who make local ingredients shine.
🎟️ Tickets include tastings and beverages from local chefs and bartenders.
➡ Get your tickets today.
2. Seeing ‘Wicked’ is like the first time, every time
THEATER REVIEW | BY SAMMIE PURCELL
🧹 At this point in “Wicked’s” history (it debuted on Broadway in 2003), at any show there’s a real divide between those in the audience who have seen it multiple times and those who have never seen it at all.
As you wait for the show to start, you can hear conversations around you between “Wicked” veterans and the friends they’ve brought with them to experience the show for the first time. If you’ve seen the show before, it sort of makes you jealous, in a way – you’ll probably start wishing that you could experience it for the first time again too.
But as soon as the curtain rises, it doesn’t really matter if you’ve never seen “Wicked” or if you’ve seen it 100 times. The magic and strength of Stephen Schwartz’s music is still as potent today as it was 20 years ago, the story just as winkingly sly and emotionally resonant. And with two dynamite leading ladies at the helm, the Fox Theatre’s new production is one you don’t want to miss.
👑 Click here to read Sammie Purcell’s full review.
3. NATO summit; Eubanks shines at Wimbledon
GLOBAL HEADLINES | VIA WORLD AFFAIRS COUNCIL OF ATLANTA
🇬🇧 Atlanta native and former Georgia Tech tennis player Chris Eubanks is making waves at Wimbledon. The Westlake High School graduate is the last American man still alive in the tournament, and plays in the Round of 16 at 7:30 a.m. today (above via Twitter) (TV: ESPN).
🇳🇱 The Dutch coalition government collapsed over the weekend after a disagreement over asylum policies. New elections are expected in mid-November.
🇺🇸 President Joe Biden is in London this morning for a meeting with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. He’s scheduled to meet with King Charles this afternoon.
🇱🇹 After London, Biden heads to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, which sits just 20 miles from the border with Russian ally Belarus. World leaders will confront global security issues including North Korea’s use of nuclear weapons, and requests for membership from Sweden and Ukraine.
🇪🇹 The Ethiopian Orthodox Church has apologized for not protecting church leaders and followers during the war in the Tigray region. The conflict was the world’s deadliest in 2022, with more people killed than in the war in Ukraine.
🇧🇷 Brazil’s government said that deforestation of the Amazon rainforest is down by a third since President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva took office in January.
🌐 To learn more about the World Affairs Council of Atlanta, visit their website.
💕 Meet Hatched Dating, the free and fun dating app redefining the swipe by making it less “show me” and more “know me.” Exclusively available in Atlanta, Hatched is changing the digital dating game by diving deeper into values, attitudes, personality, and interests to help users discover more meaningful matches. Check it out here!
SPONSOR MESSAGE
4. Keepin’ it classic: True crime
LOOK & LISTEN | BY MARA DAVIS
Podcasts are great because long-form true crime series can be evergreen. And just when you think you’ve heard them all, there is a great one you haven’t yet discovered. And if you’re new to podcasts, well, you’re welcome.
📱 “Dirty John:” Con man John Meehan meets businesswoman Debra Newell on a dating app. He seems a little shady, but the heart wants what it wants. They hook up and it goes absolutely bonkers from there. Meehan terrorizes everyone in his path. This series became a Bravo show because real life is way crazier than fiction.
🥀 “Root of Evil:” This is the story of the family behind the infamous Black Dahlia murders. There is so much horrific baggage you almost can’t believe it’s real: murder, incest, rape, betrayal, and surrealism. “Root Of Evil” is not for the faint of heart. But if true crime is your genre, you can’t miss this one. File under: how the hell did this really happen?!
🌙 “In the Dark:” Season 1 focuses on the abduction of Jacob Wetterling in rural Minnesota. Season 2 examines the case of Curtis Flowers, who was tried six times for the same crime. The series got so much traction that part of the investigation made it all the way to the Supreme Court. It’s the gold standard of podcast investigative journalism.
🔎 “Up and Vanished:” This is about the 2005 disappearance of beauty queen and high school teacher Tara Grinstead. Atlanta’s own Payne Lindsay heads to Ocilla, GA to find out why this case is still cold. This is an addicting series that keeps you guessing. And it’s another example of how a podcast leads to substantial answers on a crime (pictured).
