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Vinings Heritage Day is a special event created to celebrate Vinings Village’s past, present and future. Vinings Heritage Day will be staged at four different locations within walking distance of the heart of Vinings.

Admission to Vinings Heritage Day is free. Proceeds from the sale of food, beverages, pumpkins and maps will all benefit the Vinings Historic Preservation Society “Save the Chimneys” fund for repair of two chimneys on historic buildings in the community.

In my continued quest to investigate mall food, I decided to check out another of the new restaurants that came about from Cumberland Mall’s “Extreme Mall Makeover”. Always having had an affliction to eating at the mall, my family enjoyed a superb dinner at Stoney River a couple months ago.

This time around, my wife and I decided to check out Maggiano’s Little Italy for lunch. My wife went for the salad and sandwich. She started off with a very nice Cesar salad followed by the Prosciutto, Fresh Mozzarella & Pesto on Flatbread, which consisted of sliced imported Prosciutto di Parma, fresh mozzarella, tomatoes and arugula folded together with pesto sauce in their homemade pizza dough. It was quite good, but the Prosciutto seemed a little flat (in terms of flavor).

I went for a nice bowl of tomato basil soup (yum!) and their house specialty Braised Beef Cannelloni, which was fresh pasta stuffed with braised beef, Asiago and Parmesan cheeses. This dish was hot enough to burn my tongue and even when it cooled a bit, it really didn’t do much for me. It really isn’t more than what I described above. Shredded beef with cheese oozing out of the cannelloni. Was on the heavy side and not much flavor.

We both enjoyed a wonderful glass of Brancott Sauvignon Blanc from Marlborough County in New Zealand with our lunch and the ambience is quite nice. Maggiano’s has done a great job of creating a brand new restaurant that has the feel of New York and is a great spot for large parties who can take part in their family style dishes.

We finally moved on to dessert and settled on splitting a Tiramisu and enjoying a nice cup of cappucino. The Tiramisu was the highlight of the day. Very nice flavor, texture and just the right mix of ingredients, although I do believe it was alcohol-free. Not the way Grandma used to make her Tiramisu, but perfect for the kids and tasted great.

So when you’re thinking about that next dinner out, be sure to check out Maggiano’s, a recent addition to the Smyrna Vinings restaurant scene.

Move over Jonquil Plaza, here comes Jonquil Village. Above is a photo taken this week and Jonquil Plaza has been demolished and the debris is being removed. It suddenly looks like a gian parking lot and the images of the worn Jonquil Plaza are fading.

The $181 million, 14-acre Jonquil Village project has an approved $26.2 million tax allocation district subsidy. This subsidy has been the cause for much heartache over the last few months as the Cobb County School Board sued the City of Smyrna over the project.

In June, six of the seven Cobb school board members filed a lawsuit in Cobb Superior Court against Bacon, the Smyrna City Council and Smyrna City Clerk Susan Hiott for allegedly violating the Georgia Open Records Act.

The suit was brought after the city allegedly failed to provide the school board with financial documents it requested concerning the $26.2 million Jonquil Village TAD subsidy and how city officials calculated its $181 million value for the project. A TAD is an incentive for developers to build in economically distressed areas to increase property values, which results in more tax revenue and requires cooperation between the city, county and school district to quickly repay project bonds.

Both sides are currently in talks to resolve the lawsuit.

In the meantime the Jonquil Village project moves on. The mixed-use project includes retail space, a Publix grocery store, office space, an underground parking deck and more than 300 condominiums. A. G. Armstrong Development is the developer for the project.

Once demolition is complete, construction should be on an 18- to 24-month schedule. But don’t expect to see much being built up for awhile. The first structure to be built will be the 1,000 space underground parking deck. Everything else will be built on top of this structure.

On a recent trip to the Georgia Aquarium, we decided to try out the Luckie Food Lounge, just north of the aquarium at the corner of Luckie Street and Ivan Allen Junior Boulevard, across the street from the aquarium parking deck.

From outside, you get a unique vibe of the restaurant, an Asian fusion feel to the landscaping and a real contemporary feel due to the architecture of the building. Upon entering, the shere size of the place is amazing and you can see that while it does have the appearance of a chic nightspot, it’s going to equally be loved by kids.

When you walk in the front door, you immediately notice the large aquarium tank and the kids are pulled to it like a magnet. Luckie also features two other large aquariums and it’s clear that they didn’t one to be outdone by their neighbors. Their intimate aquariums don’t have to serve the masses like the Georgia Aquarium and feature very exotic sea life that you won’t find next door.

If possible, get one of the booths at the front of the restaurant to really enjoy the aquarium or sit in the sushi bar in the back, which is home to the other large tanks. Luckie definitely plays off the aquarium theme with plasma TVs everywhere portraying ocean life, including in the bathrooms.

Showing that this isn’t just a cool place to get a drink after work, Luckie has a great children’s menu. The kids can see their menu using a ViewFinder. I haven’t seen one of these for years and found it to be a neat differentiator and a fave of the kids. For the rest of us older folks, we get a traditional menu (oh well).

One thing I will tell you is that Luckie does not fall short. Many restaurants have a great ambience, but the food lacks and some don’t worry about the ambience because they know their food kicks butt. But at Luckie, they wanted both.

My kids selected the cheeseburger and the macaroni and cheese from their ViewFinders, then quickly turned their attention back to the aquarium located by their seat. The colletion of exotic fish is simply amazing.

My better half went for the fish tacos, which consisted of grilled Chilean sea bass, a jicama poblano slaw, tomatoes, sour cream, avocados and cilantro rice. It was quite tasty, but could use a little more zip to it. I decided to try out their shrimp and grits. That’s right, my continuing quest to find the world’s best shrimp and grits.

Their shrimp and grits are served with a mound of cheddar grits in the middle of the bowl and surrounded by shrimp, Shitake mushrooms, bacon, scallions, tomatoes and a lemon butter sauce. From the menu, I was hoping for something a little different. My two faves to date have been South City Kitchen’s cream-based shrimp and grits and Goldfish’s tomato-based shrimp and grits (why they switched to a cream-based I’ll never understand).

I was hoping that this was a little different. And wow, it was. It was not as heavy as the typical cream-based shrimp and grits and the unique ingredients create a fabulous taste explosion. The replacement of the typical Andouille sausage with bacon added a different spin on the traditional recipe. The lemon-butter sauce pulled the flavors together and made the dish a sheer delight and firmly places Luckie on the top of my list for shrimp and grits.

Finally, we decided to check out their dessert menu and opted to go see firsthand their large selection of homemade cakes and pies. We settle for two to share at the table. The Twelve Layer Chocolate Cake and the Lemon Raspberry White Chocolate Cake. The two provided a nice variety and were finished in a flash.

So the next time you head down to the Georgia Aquarium, stop by Luckie Food Lounge for lunch or dinner, you won’t be disappointed.

Smyrnabration,brought to you by Q100 and The Bert Show, is back tonight at Smyrna Market Village from 5-11pm tonight. Smyrnabration is billed as the ONLY carnival just for 21 and up. Come mingle with Atlanta’s sexiest singles. Ticket price includes unlimited rides on the Speed Dating Ferris Wheel, Love Slide, Makeout Moonwalk, Twister and unlimited plays on the carnival midway. Tickets are $20 in advance and $25 at the gate.

Carnival games and prizes, hot carnival food, ice cold beer, delicious funnel cake and much more! And…someone will win a free trip for two to Las Vegas! And don’t worry, the Georgia and Alabama game will be televised inside Atkins Park.

So come on out to Smyrnabration tonight at Smyrna Market Village!!!