PEACH BUZZ: Celebs open kid-friendly hospital zone

There was no shortage of manpower Wednesday as Atlanta Thrashers Eric Boulton, Johan Hedberg, Eric Perrin, Marty Reasoner, Jim Slater, Chris Thorburn and Todd White teamed up with country superstar Garth Brooks and NFL legend Troy Aikman to cut one very impressive red ribbon.

The occasion: the grand opening of the Child Life Zone at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Scottish Rite. The connection? Thrashers head coach John Anderson’s players are active participants in the Garth Brooks Teammates for Kids Foundation. The Child Life Zone is the product of a partnership between the Garth Brooks Teammates for Kids Foundation and the Troy Aikman Foundation.

Brooks, who turned up in his trademark black hat, had a hug ready for his fellow foundation fund-raiser Aikman as a roomful of attendees —- including Teammates for Kids President Don Johnson and Children’s President & CEO Donna Hyland, Atlanta Falcons player Keith Brooking and Falcons announcer Wes Durham —- helped celebrate the state-of-the-art addition to the city’s children’s health care facilities. The Thrashers were dashing in designer suits donned for the festivities.

The celebs took time to play card games with the kids and even checked out the facility’s new Wii system.

The Child Life Zone is a 3,500-square-foot educational and therapeutic environment for children and their families built within the hospital. Its kid-friendly highlights include a putting green, basketball court, performance theater, reading nook, demonstration kitchen, outdoor koi pond and a host of high-tech electronics. Oh, yes, and one Garth Brooks Stage.

We’re told that Atlanta’s is the sixth zone to be completed, with three facilities open in Texas, one in Oklahoma City and the Kravis Children’s Hospital at Mount Sinai in New York.

Atlanta ‘Explosion’

On Super Bowl Sunday, people across America woke up early to prepare a 5,000-calorie log of porcine overload dubbed the “Bacon Explosion.” A Kansas City barbecue team invented it. The New York Times noticed the recipe going viral on the Internet and threw some more gas on the flame with an article that got every bacon fiend in the country salivating, including Atlanta photographer Adam Waterson, who gave it an A+. His advice? “Cook it very slowly, off heat, so the fat can drain away. It was something like four hours.”

“It is really good and not greasy as I imagined,” concurred Atlantan Alison Bearman, whose husband, Granger Marchman, prepared it. “It is smoked for quite a while, so it mainly tastes like smoked meat. I didn’t really taste the bacon flavor as the smoke flavor trumps all.”

The Bacon Explosion consists of sausage stuffed with a core of crispily cooked bacon, then rolled in a lattice of bacon strips and slowly smoked. Oh, yeah: The lily gets one more coat of gilt —- a barbecue sauce glaze. Waterson had one final word of advice for all those interested in barbecuing their own explosions: “You should consider it a PART of brunch, not brunch. Make other stuff to go with it.”

BLT for free

Denny’s wasn’t the only restaurant chain overwhelmed Tuesday because of an offer of free food. BLT Steak —- Atlanta’s newest, hippest, gotta-be-there-to-be-somebody eatery —- had its grand opening party Tuesday night at its digs in the downtown W hotel.

The joint was wall-to-wall people, from public officials to other chefs to staffers from the nearby Georgia Aquarium.

The line for the grub was, by itself, about 20 minutes long. Chef Laurent Tourondel beamed, shaking hands and greeting the few guests who were actually able to cut through the mob to get close to him.

CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

“General Hospital” actor Stuart Damon is 72. Writer-producer Stephen J. Cannell is 68. Actress Barbara Hershey is 61. Actor-director-comedian Christopher Guest is 61. Actress Laura Linney (“You Can Count on Me”) is 45. Singer Bobby Brown is 40. Country singer Sara Evans (below) is 38. Actor Jeremy Sumpter (“Peter Pan”) is 20.

OVERSCENE

Singer Kenny Rogers (below) and his wife, Wanda, lunching at Chops with Pano Karatassos, the owner of Buckhead Life Restaurant Group. The Rogerses are honorary co-chairs of Taste of the Nation, the spring event that benefits the restaurateur’s fave charity. Chef Daryl Gassmann sent out a seared scallop amuse bouche to the VIPs.

Contributing: John Kessler, Leon Stafford and news services

Got a tip for Peach Buzz? 404-526-2749 or buzz@ajc.com