Oysters and Absinthe: Now a Thing

Short takes also can be good posts, like this one:

Just a couple of months ago, my Georgia Trend editor and I were talking about grilled octopus, and how it seemed to be the rage. I noticed it often came in a restaurant that featured a bocce court (such as Atlanta's Leon's and No. 246, or, in the case of the Optimist, a small putting green). The latest sensation, it seems, is oysters on the half-shell, where you'll now often find them at a place that also offers absinthe, the newly legal French spirit once known for its popularity among Parisian artists (Picasso, Van Gogh, Lautrec) at the turn of the 20th century. However, it often was vilified as the "green fairy" for the hallucinations it allegedly produced. Newly legal because of improved and safer production, absinthe requires special equipment to serve it in the traditional way: A decanter that has a slow, dripping spout that allows the absinthe to fall, one drop at a time, over a sugar cube perched on a special perforated trowel over the (traditionally, short, carved, pedestaled) glass. You can tell it's been served correctly if (a) your order takes a long time and (b) if it arrives a cloudy green color. To try oysters and absinthe the way crazy Parisian artists did, go to Decatur's Kimball House, downtown Atlanta's Public House or Athens' Seabear.