Taco Mac |
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20 March 2026 - Alpharetta
Yesterday morning I went for a walk to temper my emotions. I'm staying at grandma's house with Nancy, Ken, and Brenton. I keep expecting to round the corner and find her sitting in one of the comfy chairs. But she's gone forever. Ocee Park is not far and has a nice bit of forest behind the ballfields with a trail around a mile long. I always feel better in the forest. Like much of this part of Georgia it's pine forest on sandy clay soils. This is a forest type I spent much of my youth in.
Sitting and journaling in the forest I started to get hungry. Exercise and forests are nice, but a cheeseburger often works wonders for my mood. Ergo I setoff for McDonald's. I thought about how many times I've hopped on the train form Erlenbach where I live to the McDonald's 15 minutes away in Stadelhofen to repair my dour state with a cheeseburger. It works. But I'm the US and can get a burger in Stadelhofen anytime. Walking down Kimbal Bridge I started to think about what I could get for lunch that I can't get at home. Taco Mac!
Hot wings are not really a thing in Switzerland. The Swiss palette is in general not keen on spicy food. And I've been going to this Taco Mac for at least a quarter century. They have like 100 bears on tap. One time dad and Packie and Amir came here together after a round of golf to discover that they'd started a club to drink all their beers and the first prize in a series was a t-shirt at the 13th beer. That afternoon we got t-shirts and mom picked us up. Later they limited the number of beers that count to 4 per visit. When the twins live in Atlanta Brittan even worked at another location on Peachtree.
Arriving there was stepping back into the past. The decor is the same. The weather was nice so I sat on the patio and ordered a non-alcholic IPA from Athletic brewery. They always have some new I've never seen before. Then it was queso dip and 20 wings. And American service makes someone used to Europe feel kingly. The waiter even suggested extra carrots instead of celery when I told him I liked them. Then the manager came out to probe a customer he didn't know who knew the menu without looking. I shared that food was unchanged and just as I remembered. He asked why I hadn't been back and I told him about living in Switzerland and being back for my grandmother's funeral. He offered his condolenscenes and later brought out a piece of free chocolate cake. When I got the biłll my queso dip had been comped and I hadn't been charged for the second beer. A great meal and exactly what needed yesterday from total strangers who knew I wouldn't be back for at least years.
