Zaac – Sorry to say, my opinion stands. Maybe I haven’t lived in a city with truly great pizza, but I was glad I visited Max’s. The sauce/tomatoes and mozz was above average to me, and I will continue to highlight and feature the development of pizza in Atlanta, particularly establishments that are making an effort in terms of quality of ingredients and production. Also, I wasn’t a huge fan of Fritti until recently and on my visit to Rosa’s I thought it was overrated. Plenty of people emailed me angrily when I expressed my dislike for mellow mushroom. Everyone has their opinion and level of exposure, and I don’t see that as ignorance.

I have always found this notion offensive, that Florida isn’t “Southern,” because of the unstated question that it begs. If the South isn’t defined by its borders, then what IS it defined by? Is it the place where a certain portion of the people are ignorant? Racist? Prone to incest? If you’re going to tell me it’s culture, then what culture are you talking about — Appalachian? Coastal? Agrarian? Plantation? African-American?

The answer is both easy and obvious: The South IS defined by it’s borders — not by its failures, and not by any one among its various cultures. Florida is a very distinctive environment (collection of environments, really), and brings an interesting richness as a prominent region of the American South.