Credit: Rodney Ho
Credit: Rodney Ho
The tall, bearded, jovial Jim Stacy is already known in Atlanta for his quirky ways. His resume includes nightclub owner, punk-rock musician, tattoo artist and even professional Santa Claus. His "Get Delicious' specials on Public Broadcasting Atlanta are consistent ratings draws for the local network.
Now a national audience will get to appreciate Stacy's avuncular ways with a new Cooking Channel show debuting Friday night called "Offbeat Eats with Jim Stacy."
"I'm no fancy chef but I know how to cook, I know how to eat and I know how to have fun," he said in his opening pilot, which is already available on the Cooking Channel website and first aired in the spring on the TV network itself. "It's all about getting off the beaten path. I'm looking for the rebels making innovative food all across America not in the tourist traps but only the places I can take you."
The pilot has a theme about one of his favorite subjects: monster movies. He starts in Midtown Atlanta with Villains Wicked Heroes, where each sandwich is named after a classic villain from an old movie (The most popular sandwich is named after a classic James Bond classic villain Odd Job, which is spicy Korean chicken.)
During the show, he provides his expertise and critique while interviewing the owners.
Jason McClure, a co-owner of Villains, said Stacy was completely disarming. "After five minutes," he said, "you forget you're talking to a six foot six man with a giant red beard. He's as warm and easygoing as you'd want. And he has great respect for the food and a lot of good knowledge." Stacy even showed McClure that the Chinese takeout boxes they use could be turned into plates. "I had no idea!" he said.
Here's the pilot you can sample online:
And here's my interview with Stacy:
Stacy said he has learned a lot from his "Get Delicious" specials, which he created on a shoe-string budget and dubs "a love letter to Atlanta." Those Emmy-winning episodes drew the attention of national TV networks. He was a host last year on the short-lived Destination America show "Deep Fried Masters," which led to two appearances on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno." He ultimately decided to work with the Cooking Channel.
He admires fellow metro Atlantan Alton Brown, a regular on both the Cooking Channel and the Food Network. " 'Good Eats' is like a bible to me," he said. He also loves Anthony Bourdain's writing on his foodie travelogue shows, including the current award-winning CNN series "Parts Unknown." Stacy said he likes to blend the science of eating like Brown with the social and cultural aspects Bourdain explores and his own dorky love for pop culture.
At a Louisville, Ky. restaurant in a video arcade, he staged a live Donkey Kong game with whiskey barrels, ladders and gorillas. In Ft. Lauderdale, he fell in love with a mid-century Polynesian restaurant. In D.C., he riffed with a former musician friend who owns a pie shop. Other themes feature the circus, cheese and the beach.
Stacy currently runs a year-old eatery in Avondale Estates called Pallookaville Fine Foods, which features a variety of corn dogs and 30 soda fountain flavors (e.g. banana, marshmallow, sour cherry) plus a heaping of kitsch. A TV plays an old Laurel & Hardy movie. Posters of his favorite films (e.g. "Creature from the Black Lagoon") line the walls. A life-sized one-eyed Mike Wazowski from "Monsters Inc." sits atop a window sill.
He spent six months building the space out himself. "Everything in here is recycled or reused,' he said. "The entire bar is built out of an old bowling alley. The moldings come from a mansion torn down from Peachtree in the 1970s."
Credit: Rodney Ho
Credit: Rodney Ho
Credit: Rodney Ho
Credit: Rodney Ho
Credit: Rodney Ho
Credit: Rodney Ho
Credit: Rodney Ho
Credit: Rodney Ho
TV preview
"Offbeat Eats with Jim Stacy," 9:30 p.m., Fridays, starting October 17, Cooking Channel
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