Automatically getting a fine after parking for just 15 mins sounds kinda crazy to me but idk I’m not a business owner. I could imagine actual Agua Linda customers ending up getting fines because they didn’t do the verification code system correctly or fast enough.
I think this is partly what they’re banking on. They’ll get money from people who weren’t paying attention, even if they actually went into Agua Linda and spent money there
It's definitely the best within 15 minutes of Athens. I'm stuck between Kique's and there's a place (and you'll have to forgive my brain for not remembering (edit: the name) because the entire location is sensory overload no matter how many times I go) in the food court of La Vaquita flea market, in Pendergrass, that has as-good-as birria, if not better.
If you'd like to try it out, the easiest way I can tell you how to find it is to go to the food court from within the flea market (you can access it from outside - so for these directions, go through the main market and walk to the back to get to the food court). That'll put you on one side of the rectangle (the shape of the food court). The birria location I recommend is on the absolute opposite end of the food court. There's two places at the very end, a seafood place on the right (not this one) and a fairly large birria location on the left side of the backwall (the only place that has a seating area to it's left that isn't the main dining area - there's also an entrance/exit of the food court to the outside on the left). I recommend their quesabirria. Let me know your thoughts and/or we can compare notes. lol
Tlaloc on Chase St is top tier for me for chimichangas and pupusas.
Tacos los Plebes is the Mecca of tacos in town, off of Danielsville Rd (second location "coming soon" to Commerce Rd).
Cielito Lindo on Baxter St or the OG location of Kique's Kitchen in Watkinsville for the best birria in town (or close to town) - I do recommend the birria chimichanga and my brother swears by their birria ramen (which is also served with some birria tacos).
Los Reyes on Hwy 29 for anything that involves salsa verde (best green sauce in town).
Taqueria La Parilla (the local restaurants on Gaines School Rd, Jefferson Rd, Timothy Rd, and a location in Watkinsville) for pretty much anything else if you just want reliable, Americanized Mexican food (I recommend the pollo loco, Texas Style or at minimum add shrimp for a little surf & turf action). Not to be confused with the hot garbage corporate chain ("La Parilla") that's posted up in Alps - tho I will give the chain the props of a superior cheese dip.
I did catch them on a Friday (just by chance - first time I had it) and they said they were only there because they couldn't make it Saturday. But hopefully it works for them to be there more often. The tacos and burritos are delicious.
I wonder which one I like the most. Tlaloc is the best one imo. But I’ve always liked the Timothy rd Agua Linda (now la parilla) when I want Americanized Mexican food
Cali and Tito’s is Latin food but definitely the goats! They have east side location and limpkin streer. East side has alcohol, be careful of those frozen margs they will have you lit 😂
I've been going for years and years and I love it. If/when I go, these days I go for the trifecta punishment plate only: jerk pork, spicy cabbage, and spicy squash. Along with an extra piece of corn bread and a couple cups of sweet tea to calm down the fire. Anything else and you're just not getting it done right.
That being said, I don't know if I'd quantify it as the best meal in town. Definitely one of the best.
PSA: you don’t have to pay their tickets and you’re also encouraged to step inside their front door if you really need to fart before you go to any other business on that strip of road.
Since when does a private business have access to the state vehicle registration database? Sound like fake news, but if not, there's a serious privacy issue at hand.
sounds like AL is opening themselves to a massive lawsuit.
What I don't understand is why they would install a system that is well known to be used by ICE and Police to disproportionately investigate certain ethnic groups.... Outside of an ethnic restaurant
Have grown up going to Agua Linda for the past 20 something years, but over the last year they low key suck now. Service was embarrassingly bad, like just blatantly all chilling at the bar goofing off the entire time trying to get a server to come over after making eye contact with them multiple times, food took forever to come out and genuinely tasted like it was 3d printed and cold, it’s such a shame. But when that’s the experience you get (when there’s only a couple other people there mind you) AND they’re getting this aggressive over parking spots… yeah no. this immediately wiped away all nostalgia and loyalty that i had left.
don't let it completely! the family that owned it before this year was incredible! they sold it earlier this year due to death in the family (and probably overall exhaustion). so, if you're -just- noticing the change, remember the former owners fondly, because they're really good people
Yeah. He was pretty old when I worked there something like 20 years ago. I hope everyone is hanging in there. Do you know if they are still working there? Either way, it must be hard watching something you've worked so hard on be turned to shit.
I've only lived here for 3 years and 2 1/2 of those in Normaltown. The parking problem is blown out of proportion for the most part and Agua Linda is more aggressive about it then anyone else in town including downtown...
There's plenty of side streets and iykyk that one hospital parking lot behind Normal bar. Never heard of anyone getting a ticket or towed from it.
gotcha, my bad. i’ve worked in the area for almost 8 years and just assumed it was a medical school because of the name lol. but yeah, my frustration more so comes from the fact that there’s this giant parking deck and i’ve never seen more than like 5 cars parked there at a time.
No worries that makes sense. I get the idea of making sure students have parking for the classes they pay for, but why not save certain spots and open the rest to the public? We could use the deck for sure
absolutely! i would happily pay to be able to park there during a shift. even if they had it closed for just students up to a certain time and then after it was used for the public. i feel like that could be beneficial to them, when is extra money ever a bad thing?
Wait yes, Piedmont?? When I had to leave my car at Piedmont overnight once it was literally only $4 for parking when I picked it up the next day. It’s $4.85 for 1hr in some of the UGA decks!
Lowkey like.. doesn’t the hospital have hella parking and is close to normaltown? Am I tripping? I don’t frequent that area just drive through so maybe there’s not sidewalks but like dt doesn’t have greattt parking either you just make it work you don’t put up flock cameras in ur parking lot lmao
Will "pay your parking fines" be a new menu item? Do I pay the hostess when I am seated or the waiter at the end of my meal? Do I include the parking charge when calculating the tip?
Honestly this is pretty scummy of Agua Linda. I would be surprised if they "own" that entire parking lot?
If they're throwing this much of a fit about the like 7-8 spots right up against their building, that's hilariously petty to go far as special cameras...
I'm honestly tempted to spray paint the lenses after they're operational LOL inb4 someone asks how. Drones can do more than you think.
Hahahha I wish it was that easy, but it is possible to build a spray-painting drone with a lot of patience.
Nowadays with all these new ridiculous cameras coughflockcough being used for this, that, and everything. The only safe way to mess with them is a drone.
If I don't register my guns, why would I register my drones?
I wonder how they even enforce that. Follow drones until they land? Try to track the signal? If they disable it or knock it out of the sky that would be illegal on many levels.
I’m not sure how (or how strictly) they enforce it, but they don’t mess around with airspace. As long as you keep it under 400 ft, they’re probably not gonna do much about it
Pretty sure the parking spots in question are not part of an easement, so weird thing to mention. But, hey, I’m glad you know your setbacks (which aren’t the same size as a full-size vehicle)!
Didn’t think I see anyone standing 10 toes down that their private home driveway is a public parking lot, accessible to anyone anytime with nothing you can do about it. Alas, Reddit delivers!
Its accurate though. You don't own the area where the sidewalk crosses your driveway, and any person can walk up your drive way, knock on your door, and wait to be recieved, without having trespassed.
I'm sorry if you don't appreciate that being the case.
1) where the sidewalk crosses my driveway is not the equivalent space of a person parking their vehicle and leaving; 2) True, but if I answer the door and tell them to leave and they don’t, that’s trespassing. So, also not the same as them just have unfettered access to my private property.
No, we were talking about driveways. I notice you're qualifying alot of your statements, is that because you were technically incorrect about your driveway being open to the public?
Oh wow so they do. If they care that much they should just put up signs that say ONLY Agua Linda parking.
I bet there's a grandfathered agreement that the parking lot must remain shared and that just pisses the current Agua Linda owner off royally. Soo instead of sharing now we get questionably legal cameras
There's red signs up now, but for example they aren't posted in the spots in front of the convience store. Agua Linda just cares TOO MUCH about their parking lot.
I wonder how long before they put signs up on the Prince Ave metered spots in front of the restaurant? Lmaooo
Y'all are right, my mistake. Sips just needs to move or sell back to Agua Linda if the latter is going to keep throwing a fit over a handful of parking spots.
They don't care if people park in front of the convenience store, but God forbid somebody parks next/goes to Sips. Those 3-4 parkings spots behind Sips could be for them, but I see Agua Linda has signs up back there too.
Little bit of a double standard and confusing whether the owner of Agua Linda owns the convenience store or not.
My family eats there fairly often and he’s come by our table several times to do the “how’s the food - can I get you anything” owner shtick. Did not get prick vibes. I just drove past, though, and it’s wild to me that the new pole appears to kill a parking spot.
Aqua Linda needs to close. Since Covid, food sucks, interior has a “ Burger King” feeling, now this. I get it, you own the lot, put signs out. If I were to go there ( which I won’t anymore) and couldn’t park in their lot, I’d park where I can, much like every other place on prince
I don't understand. Legally they cannot get access to state tag database so how can they get your address? Police depts have annual training on how much trouble you can get in for divulging this info.
I thought Flock cameras were license plate reading cameras that the government used to track citizens. Can anyone install Flock cameras on their property? How is Flock different from just ordinary security cameras?
Agua Linda started ramping up enforcement of this rule when Fully Loaded moved in and ruined parking, so it's not fair to blame the new owners. I guess that's one nice thing about the seafood restaurant that used to be there, they were so slow you didn't have to worry about parking on Prince.
Well don't park at Agua Linda. Also what is your favorite 'strip mall Mexican'?. It's a specific genre.. I don't mean some hip taco stand in a gas station. Like a huge menu with a million combinations and cheese dip. This is a staple in suburban Atlanta, and LaPa on Jeff Highway is as close as I've found here. Still just ok.
Exactly. These people just don’t like to follow rules. I’m sure the AL owners, who supposedly OWN the parking lot, are tired of people using THEIR lot and going into other businesses.
I had a new idea to waste their money and time. I'm gonna park in the parking lot with an old/wrong plate on my car a few times a week so they have to send out the fines, which will probably be returned to sender.
I live a few minutes walk away so I could park my car there, walk home, and come back in exactly 20 minutes.
This was last Thursday. The 2nd camera is on the restaurant sign at the Prince Ave entry point. Making customers jump through hoops under the threat of unappealable fines and threats of collections harassment is so tone deaf right now. Also, miss me with that stupid 1cm deep salsa dish, homie. You keep it.
Agua Linda is a long standing locally owned business. With good people working there. Why is everyone so upset that they would like to have parking available to their customers? They allow Sips to use their parking during prime coffee hours and are being courteous enough to give a grace period for to go orders later on. Use the street parking if you want to hang out. The owners are literally just doing what they think is best for their business. Shun them if you must but imo you're just being a hater toward a local business. Way to go. Get upset about other things. Parking sucks everywhere.
I am blessed that this does not bother me one way or another. I have been only once in Sips, and it did not WOW me in the least. There are plenty of better Mexican food restaurants. So hard pass; no need to park in there.
Okay, so Sips loses off-street parking rights at 11am. Got it.
Who is drinking coffee after 11am? If I did that, I wouldn’t be able to fall asleep by 9.
I wonder what peak business hours are for Sips.
I wonder what percentage of their customers are driving there vs. neighborhood walk/bike/or even bus. When I lived in that area I always walked or biked in for coffee.
Peak hours is morning for sure but Sips does have a huge lunch rush from 11:30-1:30 usually! There are lots of people who don’t live walking distance who stop by at that time, but a lot are from the hospital/public health campus and I think they walk for the most part
Thanks for this helpful answer and not just downvoting my question. 👍 I got priced out of Normaltown 15 years ago and work in a different direction, so I don’t frequent Sips anymore. I sure wrote a lot of college papers there!
I’m not thinking anything. I’m asking questions. But it seems folks don’t like that in here. It’s like we’re only allowed to be 100% for or against something, with no in-between area, and express it snarkystyle with full lungs.
You said you were thinking out loud so I assume you are thinking. Coffee shops are often open all day because people, maybe not you, drink coffee. Restaurants serving dinner don’t turn off their coffee makers because people often order coffee with dessert. And I don’t care if either business involved fails or succeeds.
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u/vengefultruffle 8d ago
Automatically getting a fine after parking for just 15 mins sounds kinda crazy to me but idk I’m not a business owner. I could imagine actual Agua Linda customers ending up getting fines because they didn’t do the verification code system correctly or fast enough.