You need to prepare yourself mentally for the Atlanta Gift Show. There are eighteen floors of gorgeous gifts and housewares with winding hallways, folks wearing big market passes stamped with QR codes and strange sets of elevators … and that’s just one of the buildings. But there’s nothing more fun than going to see the newest and most exciting products out there, so off we went.
The official title for this grand show is The Atlanta International Gift & Home Furnishings Market. Most folks however call it simply “The Atlanta Gift Show.” We went looking for some new things to bring to Maddie Merriweather’s trunk shows and of course, for our online store.
We started out at 9:00 am on the very first day of the show, visiting with vendors, finding new products, buying and asking questions. Atlanta’s gift show is different than NYNow (the gift show in New York), and you need to figure out the system. Turns out the system works like magic. You figure out what you want and then the staff members in all of the showrooms use little scanners to scan barcodes and voila, you’re new products are on their way.
Six hours later, we were toast. So it was time for a little relaxation and fun. At nightfall, we set out for a local restaurant called Watershed housed in a chic, industrial feeling building on the edge of Buckhead. Watershed is co-owned by Ross Jones, a North Carolinian who found her way to Hotlanta thirty years ago. We’d gotten a tip via an NC bridge group that if we found her place, we’d find good food. Well, the bridge group was right. There’s a daily special, but we opted to go à la carte after a long day of wholesale therapy. At the bar we found a pro bartender who whipped up their signature margarita and served it in a mason jar with a thick slice of fresh lime and just the right amount of ice. We added a little simple syrup to smooth things out and had a moment to enjoy the fab dark and cozy atmosphere. For dinner, we chose a nice spicy cauliflower soup, which tasted very farm-to-table and was mighty delicious. Cauliflower is so in right now and it was a favorite even when it wasn’t quite as popular. We added an order of yummy piping hot cornbread that came with about a 1″ pat of butter and real honey. It takes practice to smear on just the right amount of butter on the top of the 300 calorie per bite cornbread mini-loaf and then delicately spread on the gorgeous thick honey. But my God it’s worth it.
Might As Well Go There Yourself
Watershed
1820 Peachtree Road NW
Atlanta, GA 30309
E: friends@watershedrestaurant.com
P: 404-809-3561
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