I’ve been to almost every notable brunch spot in the ATL, so im always up for checking out a new spot. Brunch is never usually a solo gig either, its the perfect time to catch up with good friends over good food. This past Sunday was a little different though. None of my friends were available to chill or catch up with me, and my boyfriend was at work. All I kept saying to myself was “Dammit I need some new friends!!!” But it was a nice day, I needed to get out and enjoy some 60 degree’ish weather. Feeling like such a loner, I forced myself to get dressed, and gave myself a mission to find a new, chill, brunch spot, that would be perfect for someone going through the same lonely ass scenario as me.

To discover a spot, I retreated to Scoutmob on my iPhone, and found a spot ‘La Mongerie Bakery‘ located in the Old 4th Ward. Very Parisian indeed, I decided to read the reviews and what sold me was reading that they had Chicken & Waffles. I grabbed my Elle mag, locked the door, and jumped in my car to head over to the bakery. After completing a very embarrassing parallel parking job, in front a group of the bakery patrons that were sitting on the nice patio, I went inside. The interior was a very nice, french theme, giving me a hint of what an authentic Parisian bakery would resemble. There was a ton of seating, inside and outside, and it was the perfect zone for someone brunching solo.

La Mongerie Bakery on Ponce & North Ave.

As soon as I grabbed the menu and sat down, I heard a female voice say “Please tell me your here for the Chicken & Waffles”, I looked up and it was my Instagram friend Rochelle. I was so happy to see a familiar face and invited her to sit with me. The crazy thing is that Rochelle and I only knew each other through Instagram, and having some of the same friends. We sat there for almost 2 hours discussing Fashion, Films, our love for Netflix, Gossip Girl (LOL), Life in ATL, cool ass dream jobs (such as being a magazine layout editor), and NYC (Rochelle is from Queens). We had so much in common, and she is a cool ass chick. Right before leaving we exchanged numbers, and exited to our matching Honda Civics (mine black, her’s blue). The ironic thing is that right before arriving to the bakery all I said to myself was “I need new friends!!!” I ended up having a great time, and made a new friend in the process (that sounds sooo corny, but true! lol).

Chicken & Waffles at La Mongerie. Photo from Rochelle's (roooobee) instagram.

Almost forgot to mention, the Chicken and Waffles were BOMB!! Some of the best chicken and waffles I have had in a while, and will give some competition to our very well known friend Glady’s Knights on Peachtree Street. Very well seasoned, and might I add boneless, chicken breasts topped on belgian waffles. Besides that, they gave complimentary mimosas that were amazing, and I was told that on Saturday and Sundays the mimosas are comp! Before leaving I checked out the bakery case, which had some nice cupcake selections. I chose the Chocolate Chip Cookie dough cupcake…I mean, my world wouldn’t be right without grabbing a cupcake if one is available. My boyfriend tried the cupcake and reported that it was “heavenly” .  Then came back to ask if it was cool for seconds.

Choc. Chip Cookie Dough cupcake "Heavenly"

Check out La Mongerie bakery if your ever in the mood for something new, or if you are solo brunching.   Very nicely priced, and the food is awesome.   Make sure you try those amazing Chicken & Waffles…and the added bonus is that it is on scoutmob, so you will get $10 off your purchase!

And If your on Instagram be sure to follow my new friend Rochelle (roooobee) and myself (urbansocial) … we are pretty damn interesting in the Social Media Photography life

Rochelle's Instagram

My Instagram

This is just a typical day in the A… sushi date, drive down Peach Tree from Downtown to Buckhead (longest trip EVER) to get to SHOE LAND. lol  If you live in the ATL and have to match your shoes to your earrings, shoe land has the affordable shoe for you… and I’m all about that DISCOUNT.  On the way, we make a pit stop at CAMI CAKES… the place to go for your cupcake needs.  Long Story short… it took forever to get to shoe land… and I didn’t find a damn thing.  lol  and of course, urban$ocial told me not to go there in the first place.  Disclaimer: We are joking.  Do NOT take us seriously.

Who doesn’t love a good ass spoof?? Especially when its featuring one of America’s favorite families that we either love to love or love to hate!

Shit ‘The Kardashians‘ Say

Featuring @SoChevon & @ChaseAdair <- Follow Them!

Make sure you check out his new album AMBITION coming out 11.1.11!!!

fem-fATL‘s very own ATLcutii turned 23 today!!

She’s the baby and little sis of our group, and plays a very important role to the site!

So gon’ head and tweet her a lil happy bday message –> @atlcutii

Happy Happy Birthday, fem-fATL LOVE’s you!!

Bean Town Beauties

I recently took a trip up to Boston to hang out with some of my girls.  We had a GREAT time soaking up the almost-there sun at the Nantasket beach, while eating fruit and drinking frozen alcoholic beverages in red cups. hehe  Then we headed over to a new shopping plaza for some delicious salads.  I had a strawberry vinaigrette chicken salad. If you like the mix of sweet/salty… that’s your salad!  SO good!  Then, the girls and I window shopped until it turned into we just plain shopped. lol  I found a really good deal on a dress from Express and snagged that up.  I love deals and bargains… almost everything I own was on sale.  Then we went back home to shower up and relax, which turned into us taking our sweet time getting ready.  I wore my new dress from Express, which was a red tube dress that was very simple yet sexy.  It covered me up in all the right places and the red just complimented my tan!  I didn’t want to wear black with red because it’s the summer time, hello!  So I through on some new, nude wedge sandals and BOOM… instant outfit.  Of course, my girls looked awesome too!  We went to a Dominican restaurant for dinner and some light pre-gaming.  I had “Mofongo” which is a mashed plantain dish with your choice of meat mixed in.  I chose chicken.  All of us ate half of our meals to make sure we weren’t going out too full and/or falling asleep.  Then we headed towards Boylston street to check out this club called Venue, which has two rooms (Hip Hop and Latin).  I haven’t been out like this in a looooong time, so this was much needed.  We had a really good time just being girls, being pretty, and of course… letting loose!  This completely makes me miss my fem-fATL and the good ol’ days in ATL.  I promise you, there is no party like the ones in ATL… BUT  I would definitely check out the wonderful city of Boston.  Two thumbs up!

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I’m off today and was inspired that today, July 1st, is also a Friday aka PAYDAY

Mind you, I haven’t watched this video in FOREVER but everytime someone uses the word sequence “it’s the first of the month” I can’t help but have Bone Thugs stuck in my head until the 2nd of the month.

now. before i start, my fav part is the homeless man getting money sprinkled on him by the old white man. next payday, imma take my rent money (because i take that out of my acct so i don’t spend it–self control issues) and then sprinkle it on myself (getting someone else to sprinkle it on me would be sort of degrading). then im gonna take one of these pics (below)– I’d post it on my myspace but i dont have one, so twitter or tumblr will have to do…

I'll make sure my face is in the pic too so u know that it's ACTUALLY my money. and not some random pic with someone's white hands.

Here are those screenshots. Forgive the quality, but I couldn’t upgrade the vid to hi-def.  Oh vvvvell.

what is it about the crystal ball with a clock in it that signifies "i get paid today?"

and then….

This 4th of July, I'm gonna put myself in EVERY pic. Even the sauce-grill ones.

but better….

hats on fire? everyone's? -__-

and my most favorite moment…

I'd be on the ground too. Just take it all in... take it aaaall in.

then the lesson learned….

DON'T TELL ME THUGS DON'T COMMIT !

Now. See for yourself.

don’t spend it all in one place…

I chose him special. I was in a rush but I knew when I laid eyes on him, he was the one. I was choosin hard that night.

Lemme start from the top tho.

A few Saturdays ago, two of my fav friend “womb-mates” were having a birthday extravagaaaaaanzahhh in a laidback spot over in Edgewood (East Side!) and naturally, I was in attendance.

Now, I don’t really drink and I really wasn’t going to drink at the party being that I’m on the E2 diet (still…) but one of the friends partying with us had a bit too much to drink before arriving to the party because she forgot to eat first

(BIG TIME NO-NO).

So, after saving her from the belligerent ladies that berated her outside of the bathroom stall (the urge to pee brings out the worst in people, I’m convinced)– I decided to get her a loaf of bread from the store-front convenient store. Yea, I was surprised that it was open because it was like 12:30 in the morning…

Welcome to Auburn Avenue. CHEAH.

OK so I bring the loaf back to the spot. Sick friend nibbles on a slice and spits it out. I’m telling her to eat up not only for her health, but also because I paid $2.07 for some Great Value wheat bread that would’ve been like 53 cents had I gotten it from it’s home shelf at Walmart. But I had to put myself aside and have compassion. Suddenly, I look around and she is hoping in the car with one of her friend’s who drove her there and then she was gone.

Shocked that all these events transpired within the same 10 minutes of my corner store run, there I was, in an unpaved drive-way surrounded by young hipsters and 4 feet away from someone’s vomit– with an orphaned loaf of Great Value Split-Top Wheat (I could’ve gotten white, but I like to keep it kosher– if you know what I mean).

Now, me and my friends are still sober, mind you. Unsure of what to do with the bread, I begin to give it out to folks. I end up running into an old high school friend-turned artist who yells “hey! lemme get summa that bread to soak summa this alcohol up!”

kyle's cool. + he loves bread. and Supreme hats.

Then… the night begins.

I threw a couple of slices out into the crowd to release some anxious excitement that built up. A young man in the back of the parking lot grabs the slice off the ground, mimics taking quick squirrel-like nibbles and throws it to the ground with a chuckle. “Whew,” I thought to myself; you know when people drink you never know their reaction to things.

My newfound liberty really came into itself when a random guy walked up to me and asked for a slice of bread. He too was sober so he was just a cool, conscious guy looking for a slice of bread that wasn’t the BUTT slice (because no one likes the butt). It was at that moment that I coined the name Jeremy. No longer was it simply a loaf of Great Value Split-Top Wheat.

no one ever likes the bread butt...

[[ A group of us also discussed the idea of "split-topness" and when/why it occurs in the baking process. Aesthetics, i supposed? ]]

After this revelation and candidly welcoming the newest edition to our Sat’day night in Edgewood crew, we went inside only to be enveloped by the VERY SAME LIGHTS used in J.Lo’s “Waiting for Tonight” video.

ya. these were strobin' across our faces all night.

We all partied to a nice mix of hits… from “This is How We Do It” to “Listzomania”… and the DJ even played “Waiting For Tonight” which OF COURSE accompanied with the lights, sent me back in time

::[insert] intense closed-eye reminiscent face [here]::

By the close of the night, we were all sweaty, still sober (all by choice), and Jeremy had been hoisted above the crowd 3 times while all 5 of us (and some drunken onlookers) yelled “Go Jeremy, Go Jeremy” while pointing to the loaf of the hour.

He was spinning around, breakdancing… until. ::gulp:: someone allowed Jeremy to spin into some party-fouler’s wasted beer. No one wanted to touch him after that and he was tossed somewhere to the back of the room.

Jeremy on tha' danceflo'. Breakin' + krumpin'

Yes I know that ending is super anti-climactic, but we made great sober memories that night and have a lasting memory to take with us next time someone carries a loaf of bread into the party.

People have asked if this story would be duplicated– if we will bring another loaf to party with. I always pause and simply say, “No. No. We want the memory of Jeremy to live on.”

RIP Jeremy

Anyway. It would be super lame if we actually PLANNED to do all this.  Spontaneity is the spice of life, chaw…

We’re approaching Memorial Day 2011, which is exactly 2 years from my first trip to MIA.  I had always wanted to step out of the ATL scene and right into MIA.  I always imagined the turquoise waters of South Beach, the sexiness, and the beautiful mix of beach and city life.  So in 2009, my bff (urban$ocialite) decides that we were going to MIA.  I jumped right on that bandwagon (same way I am about to jump on the Miami Heat Bandwagon if they win the NBA championships this year).  We knew where we were going now, just not sure of WHEN to go.  After asking around and word-of-mouth, it was deliberated that Memorial Day Weekend in Miami was when we should go.  Not knowing what the HELL we were getting into, we booked our tickets and were ready for our vacay.

When we touched down, I immediately noticed the crowds of people.  And it was hard not to notice girls’ lime green thong bikinis, matching lime green heels, and fishnet dresses… and even harder not to notice that they had guts and butts and more rolls than a bakery.  I’m talking about confidence that would just blow you away.  As we drove through Collins Ave in our taxi, there were all kinds of rimmed cars blasting different hip hop and rap artists music.  The streets were live.

There were 5 of us, all girls… hitting the streets unsure of what was really going on.  lol  The hype of Memorial Day Weekend in Miami lived up to what it was, but it was almost too HOOD for us.  For example, we were driving back from downtown Miami… I was in the front with the taxi driver, while my sis was in the back talking shit (she was drunk), somebody was passed out (not naming names), and the other was bbm’ing me. lol  The driver almost got us shot and killed at the same time as he was racing some guys in the other car who said he was gonna “blow his f*ckin head off”… mind you we are listening to Michael Jackson “Beat it” while all this is going on.  I immediately make the dude stop the car and we have to walk a block to get to our hotel while guys are tryin to holla at us like we were dog shit to flies.  We were a little different from some of the girls down there too… you could tell it was our first time. lol

On the first night, I was looking up plane tickets to go home!  But, it’s all about the company you keep… so somehow we turnt the trip around and just made it FUN.  The beach was still there… the weather was perfect… the hotel was beautiful… the food was great (although, overpriced)… and it was also a bonus that I met the LOVE OF MY LIFE on the last night we were there.  I loved going to Ocean Drive and sitting out on the patios, drinking a HUGE pina colada,  and people watching.

Anyway… would I recommend Memorial Day in Miami?  Of course!  I recommend everyone see and do things for themselves and not just base their assumptions off whatever anyone else says.  However, if you are a first timer… know that it is HOOD.  You will hear some gun shots, you will feel like they are filming a rap video on the streets, and it’s a big possibility you will not see Miami natives that weekend.  Friends from Miami tell me that they all go out of town during that weekend to avoid the chaos.  I would definitely love to check Miami out other times during the year to get a different feel for the city.

So anyone going to Miami for Memorial Day weekend or you staying in the A?