Joe Hoeffner

1 week ago | thetakeout.com | Joe Hoeffner

Nobody eats or drinks in a vacuum, and there will always be intangibles that affect your perception of the things you consume. That disappointing hot dog you scarfed down for lunch in February may have tasted delightful if you ate it at a baseball game in spring; the average pint of Guinness tastes better in Ireland on vacation than it would at home; and, of course, tomato juice hits different on an airplane.

1 week ago | thetakeout.com | Joe Hoeffner

We understand why people would opt to buy pre-peeled shrimp, whether they're going to brush shrimp with sugar and grill them or are planning to make shrimp cocktail at home rather than buying the overpriced appetizer from a restaurant. Convenience is a precious commodity for most shoppers and home cooks: Why should they take the time to peel the hard, chitinous shell off of however many shrimp they just cooked when they can just buy them without the shell?

1 week ago | thetakeout.com | Joe Hoeffner

Telling a bartender to "make it a strong one" is one of those things people say in movies or television that has a certain snap to it, such that you might want to try it out yourself in real life. ("Shaken not stirred," "keep the change," "follow that car" — many such cases.) It not only conveys that you're someone who can hold your liquor, but that you've had the kind of day where you might need a stiff drink. Hey, we've all been there.

1 week ago | thetakeout.com | Joe Hoeffner

The modern grocery store is a place of almost mythic abundance. There's a reason children used to get oranges in their stockings at Christmas: fresh fruit in the middle of winter was once such a rarity that it became part of a special gift-giving holiday. Nowadays, thanks to industrial farming, global supply chains, and advances in preservation, you can eat as much fruit as you like at any time of the year. It's a wondrous state of affairs — but, lest we forget, not a natural one.

1 week ago | thetakeout.com | Joe Hoeffner

If you gave us three guesses as to where a bar themed around Abraham Lincoln might be located, we'd probably go with Washington, D.C., Illinois, and Kentucky. We wouldn't have guessed it would be in Georgia, the Empire State of the South, and we certainly wouldn't have guessed that it would be in Savannah, a city that Lincoln never actually visited. And yet, there's Abe's on Lincoln, a Savannah bar decorated with countless napkin drawings of President Lincoln himself.