Mountain Biscuits, Marietta GA

Here is a first for our blog. We’ve never considered a restaurant for inclusion, dined, declined and then gave them another chance before. Mountain Biscuits, a very busy place on Old 41 between the Church Street Extension and Barrett Parkway, got back on our better side after a less-than-thrilling introduction suggested just enough promise to make me want to give them another try, and while the results still were not quite perfect, the second trip was certainly warranted.

A few Thursdays back, I was looking around for something new to eat or revisit, when Mountain Biscuits came up as a “nearby suggestion” to some place on the Marietta Square that I was considering. They allegedly made a very good chicken sandwich, and so I drove over there to try it. The drive wasn’t at all bad, and the lovely old building, very photogenic, was inspiring. It is no fault of the restaurant, but the illusion of a middle-of-nowhere roadside shack is sadly spoiled by the presence of some condos across the street.

While the service was impeccable and very friendly, I found this chicken sandwich to be completely overrated and overpriced. It wasn’t bad, and I was not offended, but it was incredibly ordinary. It just tasted like an interstate fast food chicken sandwich, and I couldn’t understand why on earth I was paying $5.75(!) for something that tasted like it came from a Wendy’s or something. The bun, in particular, set off the trucked-in alarm. I crossed this place off my “to-blog” list.

But I noticed something curious as I had my lunch. From 11 to 3, six days a week, they offer lunch, with the promise of burgers and barbecue and an overindulgent plate of loaded fries that I might have ordered had the awesome, super-friendly woman at the register not told me that they were frozen fries. While they were not completely packed while I was there, they were nevertheless busy, and despite the lunch hour, every single person who came in seemed to be ordering biscuits instead of typical lunch fare. Were these biscuits really so good that they made for better 1 pm lunches than this ordinary sandwich?

My return was assured when the woman at the register started passing around little sample cups of their potato salad. While I almost never order this anymore for diet reasons, I do certainly love it, and this stuff was incredibly curious and interesting. If you will, it’s baked potato salad, and it tastes a whole lot like a loaded baked potato, with bacon and sour cream. In point of fact, while I have had better, I have never had anything like this, and I believe in celebrating unique dining-out experiences. I also felt that I should be judging a restaurant based on what they make in-house, rather than what some truck brings. If the potato salad was any indication, they really can make some great stuff here.

So two mornings later, while my daughter embarked on a lengthy and detailed makeup job for her Anime Weekend Atlanta costume, Marie and the baby and I paid them a second visit for breakfast. We joined a very long line and were rewarded with some excellent biscuits. They are not, perhaps, quite in the same league as Stilesboro Biscuits a few miles up the road, who set the gold standard, but they’re nevertheless really good. The line’s length is testimony that they are doing something very right.

I think these treats are a little firmer than Stilesboro’s, and Mountain makes them memorable by putting this wonderful concoction called Farmer’s Biscuit Syrup on the tables. It’s sort of a thin molasses and it goes incredibly well with a hot, buttered biscuit of this consistency. Frankly, should we return for breakfast one day, I won’t even bother with any meat filling. As good as the country ham was, and it was quite good, I think drowning a plain biscuit in this delicious goo and eating it with a fork would really be something. Doesn’t that sound insanely indulgent? I’ll do that on a day when I’m planning to eat two ounces of steamed cauliflower for lunch.

I do, however, operate with a pretty strict three-strikes rule where Fox News is concerned. If I do go back for a third visit and the single TV there is still tuned to that propagandist garbage, it will be the last time. Maybe I’ll wait a good while, and see whether they’re giving their lunches the same homemade attention as their breakfast, and told that guy in the Flowers Bakery truck that he no longer needs to bring them those awful buns. The baked potato salad is clearly a step in the right direction and shows what they want to be doing. Hopefully, over time, they’ll refine their lunch recipes further and turn out a chicken sandwich that’s every bit as unique, and warrants the price. If they’ve turned that divisive dirt off the TV, it’ll show that they really mean business.

Falls View Restaurant, Forsyth GA

It’s a pretty bold claim to say that yours are the “best catfish this side of the Mississippi.” That’s an awful lot of land, you know. Fortunately, Marie and I visited a restaurant just a short hop from I-75 that might can honestly make that claim. Falls View Restaurant, which is near Forsyth and Jackson, and across from the gorgeous High Falls State Park, is one of the last places on our list of Roadfood.com-reviewed Georgia businesses to try. It’s an incredibly convenient place for interstate travelers to pull over and stretch their legs for a little while before enjoying a quite good fish supper. Incidentally, the restaurant itself claims to be in Forsyth, while both Urbanspoon and Roadfood.com call it Jackson. I’m not familiar enough with the area to judge, so I tossed a coin.

We came to the park from the east, having spent the afternoon eating and shopping around middle Georgia and just enjoying ourselves tremendously. We stopped at the park first, and spent more than an hour walking around. There’s a large pond dammed up by the parking area, but most people make their way across the state highway and onto one of the trails to go play in the waterfall.

Since I’m stating this boldly, in public, I should point out that, legally, you are not meant to swim here. There are signs all over the place telling you not to. Swimming is prohibited. But people were doing it anyway, by the dozens. There were between twenty and thirty people splashing around and cooling off in the wonderful swimming hole at the foot of the falls. Brave teen boys were on the falls themselves, sliding down into the deep water beneath them. It looked mighty dangerous, but I’d have done the same at their age. Marie and I were not dressed to get completely drenched, but we waded in up to our knees and had a terrific time.

After too-short a time in the swimming hole, we knew we had to make our way to the restaurant and get back on the road. My mother was watching the children and we did promise that we’d be home at a certain time. We found out that the climb back up to the parking area was a lot steeper than I had thought, and were pretty spent by the time we got back to the car. Turns out the restaurant was close enough that we could have just walked there instead.

Falls View was opened by John H. Wilson the week before Christmas in 1969. He sold the business to his son Tommy in 1988, and he, after a sixteen year run, sold it to the present owner, whose name is Almond, in 2004. She made some minor modifications, but otherwise has kept the place’s rustic charm and front porch rocking chairs. There’s a touch of gentle whimsy to the place; one table up front is given over to a great big catfish, “reading” a menu in some shock over its content. I told her that we found out about her restaurant from Roadfood.com, and she didn’t know what that was. I encouraged her to stop by.

This is a place that welcomes visitors of all ages, but their clientele is in the older brackets. I was reminded of Jim Stalvey’s in Covington; it is a restaurant that appealed to my parent’s generation and has never taken the time to reach out to a younger crowd. I don’t suggest that they should change anything, but, heck, that Ms. Almond had never Googled her place to see that the review at Roadfood.com was the top result suggests that they’re comfortable with their aging base. It all adds up, as it did at Stalvey’s, to a wonderfully timelost experience. They just don’t make restaurants like this anymore, where a server asks, when she takes your order, whether you want onions and pickles, and, indeed, brings you a small plate of white onions and dill and sweet pickles as an appetizer.

The catfish was indeed really good. Apparently, most of the time, they have an all you can eat special with them, but a sign on the door sadly reported that on this Saturday evening, they could not offer it, as their sources did not catch enough. But we made one of the best decisions that we made all day when Marie ordered the red snapper so that we could try a couple of different fish. It was completely wonderful, and totally outshined the celebrated catfish. Definitely try this yourselves, dear readers.

If you are traveling between Atlanta and Macon in the evening on a Wednesday through Saturday, then this is absolutely a place to consider. I’m aware that I have pointed our readers at some pretty out-of-the-way joints, but this isn’t even five minutes off the highway, and it will give you a wonderful experience celebrating a style of restaurant that is slowly fading to time, and enjoying some really terrific seafood and steak fries while you do. I’m very glad we were able to visit this place.

Fresh Air Bar-B-Que, Jackson, Macon and Athens GA

I’ve been looking forward to sharing a few words with you good readers about Fresh Air for quite some time. If you’re interested in Georgia barbecue, then this is one of the state’s best-known and most beloved old shacks. It’s a very old one, in fact, having opened in 1929 in a small store between Flovilla and Jackson. The original building was almost all pit, a gigantic brick smoker with a curious L-shape that has been intriguing guests and sparking conversations for many years. The faithful have been making pilgrimages to this lovely stretch of road for decades to hear about their history and smell the smoke from this pit. The building has been remodeled and expanded many times over the years. The upstairs dining room now seats about twenty, with another large room just down a short ramp. On Saturday afternoons, this place is packed. Continue reading “Fresh Air Bar-B-Que, Jackson, Macon and Athens GA” →

Old Clinton Bar-B-Q, Gray GA and The Whistle Stop Cafe, Juliette GA

This blog, you might have noticed, is full of hyperbole. I don’t set out to write this way; in fact, I struggle against it. When I was a teenager, I saw a documentary about Jack Benny, and somebody noted the way he enjoyed life so darn much that he would honestly describe every meal that he ate as the very best meal he’d ever had. I think that had quite an impact on me. Yes, I’d love to say that my life really does improve so much every day that the meal I just had is superior to the previous day’s meal. Isn’t that just a magical way of looking at life? Continue reading “Old Clinton Bar-B-Q, Gray GA and The Whistle Stop Cafe, Juliette GA” →

Barker’s Red Hots, Roswell GA (CLOSED)

We were very glad to read that Barker’s, one of the two or three best hot dog places in the city, and sometimes, depending on my mood, the very best, was opening a second location, and doubly so when we read that it would be open in the evenings. When the main store on Windy Hill cut back its single dinner-time operation, on Friday nights, that killed our ability to visit much. Mostly, our Saturdays are devoted to getting out of town or trying something new.

Then again, perhaps we’re unusual in that we enjoy trying something new even more than returning to a reliable favorite. Most people in our neck of the woods with a Saturday free and wanting a hot dog, if they’ve any sense, will either head to the Barker’s on Windy Hill or spend the extra gasoline to motor over to America’s Top Dog, because nobody in the city cooks up a dog as good as these places. Well, I suppose the curiosity factor might lead them to Richard Blais’s new place, Hd1, which everybody started yammering about two weeks ago. I may have to get over that way soon.

Typically, during the fall, when we don’t have family plans on a Friday, we might defer to our daughter. She might want to go to a Sprayberry football game or see a movie with friends. While we plan many things in advance in anticipation of trying something new, we sometimes have to wait until the last minute on Fridays to factor in her plans. So a few Fridays back, she had no plans and Marie wasn’t keen to cook, and the girlchild suggested hot dogs, so we drove over to Barker’s new location.

I do wish they had built up our corridor instead of going to Roswell, but that’s just geographic selfishness, I suppose. There’s just no way to get here quickly from us, but if you live anywhere near Woodstock Road and King, around the Roswell High district, this is a fine little evening getaway.

The problem, of course, in taking the family to Barker’s is that it really can get expensive for a family to eat here. I blame the restaurant for having so many yummy things. Their sweet onion rings have a strong claim for being the best in the state, and the beef on weck sandwich, again clearly the best around, really is priced quite high at nearly eight dollars. Normally, we just get water when we go out, to conserve on calories and cost, but their Loganberry punch is just so wonderful that we keep coming back to it. I really do wish they’d offer some combo meal options.

Of course, I could have saved a little money had I just got two dogs like I normally do, but I just couldn’t resist this beef on weck. The meat is just so good, and the salt and horseradish complement it so well. I wish it came with fries. Yeah, okay, so they throw in a bag of Lay’s, but, really, who likes Lay’s? This absolutely delicious roast beef on such a chewy, salty and wonderful bun is not at all served well when accompanied by this imitation “potato” flavored cardboard.

Marie got two original red hots, one with slaw and one with chili. The difference between this slaw dog and the one that I had earlier in the day at the Dari Spot, north of Gainesville, was like Jekyll and Hyde. Honestly, I do have a taste for fast food dogs, but the simple satisfaction of a boiled dog with a mayo-heavy topping is, nevertheless, totally blown out of the water by a charcoal-grilled dog served with a much better blend of slaw, with the mayo not overpowering the flavors of cabbage and vinegar. What’s done over charcoal here is all the difference. One day, my daughter will consent to actually having one of these bad boys, but she is still perfectly satisfied with her steamed “city” dog, served with a ladle of melted cheese.

We’ll probably go to Hd1 before long and see what they have to offer, but for my money, Barker’s is in a very rare class indeed. I’m glad they’re serving the Roswell High community. But seriously, guys, there are some empty storefronts around Sprayberry that could use a big charcoal grill installed. Consider us for your next location, would you?

(Update 8/23/12: Sadly, this location closed in August 2012. The Windy Hill store remains open. Better luck with the next expansion, friends!)

3 Lil’ Pigs Bar-B-Q and Dari Spot, Gainesville GA

Boy, I just had no luck whatsoever with 3 Lil’ Pigs. I read about the place over at Buster Evans’ terrific barbecue blog earlier this year and was excited to go to Gainesville and try their chicken mull. So Marie and I went up in June and learned that they were closed on Saturdays. After the trip that we took to Chattanooga, Matt stayed overnight with us, just to have a guys’ break and play some Catan, and I took him home the next day, allowing us the chance to finally give them a try. They don’t serve mull any longer. The young fellow at the window was apologetic, but explained that they were throwing out too much of it to continue offering it. Can’t win for losing, can we? Continue reading “3 Lil’ Pigs Bar-B-Q and Dari Spot, Gainesville GA” →

The Black Cow and The Cannon, Columbus GA

So, finishing up our little jaunt down to Columbus, we returned from Phenix City with a late sack of lunch for Maggi, who felt much better after a little longer rest and recuperation. I’m sure seeing Auburn get routed in Death Valley helped on that front. (The Clemson Death Valley, that is, and not the LSU one, not that it matters overmuch who routs Auburn.) The four of us gossiped and caught up and let the baby show off his mighty lung power, and our hosts persuaded us to reconsider our dinner plans. Continue reading “The Black Cow and The Cannon, Columbus GA” →