Chazz's Place, Marietta

At barbecues during his tenure with the Kansas City Chiefs, Al Boyce took pleasure in cooking for his fellow teammates. Faced with the free time of retirement and the new responsibilities of being a father, Boyce took his passion further by experimenting with preparation and seasoning techniques and calling on the grilling wisdom passed down to him by his own father. His ventures bore succulent, lean barbecue, which he now plates at Chazz's Place, a southern-inspired, home-style eatery named for Boyce's young son. Each cut of meat that cooks in the grill's aromatic smoke retains as little fat as possible to keep morsels well-textured but healthy. Filets of tilapia, salmon, and catfish adorn dishes grilled, deep-fried, or blackened, which harnesses the traditional method invented by Cajun chefs to protect meals from the monsters under their beds. Though hours of careful cooking go into each entree, the Marietta Patch heralds that sides are Boyce's specialty—especially the yams, which reporter Melissa Kory says have a "flavorful punch" and "the traditional zing with an extra pow."