West Cobb Diner, Marietta GA

This is Marie, contributing a chapter on the West Cobb Diner. This was a place chosen by my mother-in-law, who wanted to have an opportunity to show off her newest grandchild to her friends, so of course that makes this a place that is friendly to large groups straggling in at odd times. Much better than the places that like to keep a big group in waiting area purgatory until Mr./Ms. Always-late arrives!

The West Cobb Diner was actually on our list of places to check out before this invitation, but when we tried to go, the wait time was much too long and we had to go to plan B that day. We learned then that this restaurant is really difficult to find. It is hidden in a very nice strip mall and completely invisible from the road. I was very pleased to get the invitation, not least because I certainly don’t mind showing off the kid even though there was a competing and newer baby at the same lunch! There will always be younger babies than mine, but he is still new enough it’s hard to wrap my mind around the idea that someone might want to look at some other child.

Anyway, we made it there after about half the table had been served, but with a few diners still to come. It was a friendly crowd and the only disadvantage I could tell was that the table and noise level made it a bit difficult to carry on a conversation with anyone not actually next to or across from you. The server did a great job keeping track of all of us and keeping our glasses full. She wasn’t going to let the guaranteed large-table tip limit her.

The food has a Southern-style slant, with fried green tomatoes in the starters, pimento cheese on the burgers, bacon in the beans and white gravy for the biscuits – but you can also get a steak if you want it, or thai noodle salad, or any of a number of other things not strictly Southern but which don’t appear to clash at all. One of the benefits of going with a huge crowd is seeing what everyone else gets and making a note for the future of anything interesting on their plates. My next order is probably going to be the meat loaf or the pork chops.

I got the vegetable plate, sadly passing on the non-vegetarian beans and peas, and wasn’t able to finish it all. The food is very good, well-made and stayed hot while I wandered around the table to bring the baby to various fans calling for his presence. Since I tend to eat too fast because I don’t like food that has gone cold, that’s saying something. The food is simply well-made. For a place with a fairly large menu, that is pretty good. Make sure to check out the menu board to see what is available for vegetables. As a transplanted Yankee, it does always strike me as odd that things like mac-n-cheese are counted as vegetables, but all the sides I got and those ordered by others looked great.

And of course a review by me wouldn’t be complete without a comment on the desserts. The diner has a glass case with a selection of cakes, pudding and pies that is comprehensive without being overwhelming. The servings are generous, especially the chocolate layer cake.

Melody Lane Mediterranean, Marietta GA

Here’s a most peculiar story about a restaurant that I had somehow visited twice before, when it was chocolate and when it was peanut butter, but never when it was a Reese’s treat. Melody Lane is the new incarnation of two prior ventures, one of which excited me, but I thought, wrongly, that it had vanished.

When I first moved to Marietta in 2003, I drove north on Canton Road and spotted Melody Lane Deli on my right. I stopped in for a sandwich and found it really unimpressive. It was mainly a breakfast place; making lunch sandwiches seemed like an afterthought. I didn’t give it any more consideration; life’s too short for unimpressive food.

Years passed, and David took the kids and me to this little Mediterranean grocery, located just a hair north of Melody Lane, but on the left, where they were serving up gyros and falafels to guests at a teeny little counter with four bar stools. They told us then that they would soon be moving, probably to the strip mall across the street. I said that I’d look out for them, particularly as they sold cans of Vimto, one of many soft drinks that I like but rarely find. In time, though, the grocery store closed and nothing new opened in that strip mall.

More years passed – I really have lived here too long – and I followed a recommendation from a new food blogger in the area, A Girl and Her Words…, to give Melody Lane a try. She raved about the excellent Mediterranean food available here. “Wait a minute,” I thought. “Is that really that crummy breakfast place?” By this time, I’d forgotten all about that grocery store, and didn’t realize what had happened until I spoke with our server after Marie and I had a childfree supper to celebrate our anniversary a little early. The grocery store had moved across the street by buying the restaurant!

The evening was memorable for one thing even above the food: this was the first time that we left the baby with his two older siblings for a couple of hours. Marie and I were probably just a little distracted, and waiting nervously for one of our cell phones to ring with a crisis.

We started with an order of baba ghanoush, a dish that I like at some places a lot more than others. This was one of the good ones. It was really creamy and lip-smackingly tasty. I followed that with a tabouli salad for myself. This, sadly, wasn’t the best I’d ever had. I liked the tabouli at a place a little south that has since closed a lot more.

Marie had the chicken shawarma and just loved it. The meat is broiled and seasoned with tahini sauce, parsley and garlic. By comparison, my kafta – ground beef and onions with parsley – didn’t come close. It was very good, but the chicken was just so wonderful that I got menu envy again.

This was an inexpensive and simple way to celebrate our anniversary, but we were kind of keeping things as simple as possible over the course of May as we got used to having the baby around. Now that we know about Melody Lane, I hope we’ll revisit it soon. I want an order of that shawarma chicken to myself, to be honest.

We’re taking a longer-than-normal break, but we’ll be back on Monday. Have a great weekend!

Café de Paris, Marietta GA (CLOSED)

Last Friday, Marie’s father came to visit and to see his first grandchild. He’s been an awesome stepgrandfather to my older two kids, but this is the first grandbaby that he’s been able to cuddle and to whom he can read poems. It was a good visit, even if it did reinforce his negative feelings about Atlanta’s sprawl and traffic, and we enjoyed a couple of good meals while he was here.

He suggested that the six of us go to a French restaurant. Urbanspoon showed that Café de Paris was not very far from us and it had a good review from the enjoyable Atlanta Restaurant Blog, so that made our decision easy. Friday rush hour traffic through all this sprawl was still pretty awful, but we got there in about twenty minutes.

We all had very good meals here, although my daughter, still confused as to whether or not she actually likes coffee, found her cappuccino too bitter and had to add about a half-pound of Sugar in the Raw to it. Marie had Quiche Lorraine and her father had a shrimp carbonara dish. I had pan-fried grouper and my daughter had a Divan crepe, which comes with chicken, mushrooms and broccoli.

To be honest, the entrees all seemed very good, but I was most impressed by the soup. None of us had their lemon artichoke, which comes highly recommended, but we each had either the tomato basil or the shrimp and corn chowder, which was excellent. The chowder is not on the menu every day; it should be.

For desserts, most of us enjoyed the creme brulee, but Marie chose to have a strawberry crepe. I think she made the better choice. She was very pleased with it, and we were very pleased with the experience.

Traveling Fare, Marietta GA

This is Marie, contributing a chapter on Traveling Fare, or rather more specifically Paul’s Pot Pies. It may seem a little odd considering that it’s May in Georgia, but we had a couple of very cool days that made a baked hot pie something to look forward to as an evening meal. My mother had come to visit and wanted to offer a treat, and this was just the thing.

Traveling Fare is a local Marietta business that has been around for over a quarter of a century. You can go to the small storefront just off the Square and get a lunch, or buy some of the pot pies to take home and bake for dinner.

Our latest opportunity to try these came when my mother came up to visit our new baby and wanted to provide a no-fuss meal that would still let her enjoy his company. Since the little guy tends to be a bit fussy around dinner time (probably the only time of day he regrets the whole milk diet thing) and needs extra care and attention then to be happy, a meal we could pop into the oven and forget about for an hour was just the thing.

I have to admit I would never have given them a try if it weren’t for the Marietta Square Farmer’s Market. There’s nothing like a free sample for making you want to go spend money to get more of what you just tasted. They are a regular at the market and show up with large casserole dishes that let them give quite respectably-sized samples. The pies themselves are really cute, with a hand-cut flower made out of pastry dough decorating each one.

I don’t know how many of our readers might have spent some of their starving-student or strapped-newlywed meal budget on those under-a-dollar frozen soup-with-a-crust things that went by the name of pot pie and would therefore flinch away from the mere idea. These are not those pies; these are something delectable and substantial, filling and a pleasure to eat. Also, aside from the traditional chicken or beef stew-type varieties, you can get Jambalaya with sausage and rice, creole shrimp with lots of shrimp, and several other varieties. I’m a fan of comfort food and have to admit that the chicken is my favorite, but the rest of my family prefers the Jambalaya. I haven’t had the opportunity to try all the flavors yet, but so far there hasn’t been one that was unsatisfactory or even slightly disappointing.

The storefront is quite small, and the bulk of the business seems to be take-out and catering, but if you choose to have lunch there you can chat with Paul behind the counter. The lunch menu includes some intriguing salads that I should check out soon. He’s quite friendly and willing to tell you about his products or just talk.

The Festival of Nitrates, 2011

When Marie learned she was pregnant, she did some research and found that nitrates are really bad for carrying babies. So she excised hot dogs and sausages and salami from her diet, and suffered silently without some of her favorite foods. She consoled herself with hamburgers when we visited America’s Top Dog, and when we were in Nashville in November of last year, we did not make the requisite stop by Noshville for a big salami to pack for the ride home.

Now that the baby’s with us, I took her out for a little splurging. Over three days, we had hot dogs at what I would argue are the three best hot dog places in the city, and we picked up some salami to make some terrific sandwiches for dinner. We’ve been to all three of these places before and love them all. First up, on Thursday, just as soon as she was discharged and we kissed byes to the baby (who stayed in the hospital for 24 more hours), was a lunchtime trip to Brandi’s World Famous Hot Dogs.

As ever, there was a mob here, and the topic of conversation around the counter was why in the world Guy Fieri had not featured this place on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives yet. Heaven knows it qualifies. Marie had two dogs, one with slaw and one with chili. The chili here is really finely ground beef in a devilishly hot sauce. I prefer to eat them with chili and slaw together. The slaw cools the burn of this firey concoction somewhat.

On Friday, the baby now safely home and he and Marie napping peacefully, my older son and I ran out to get some meat. We drove over to Austell’s Patak-Bohemia, an incredibly popular meat market located in the middle of nowhere, down past some industrial blight. Sort of an all-purpose European-styled butcher shop, guests can order more than a dozen varieties of salami here, along with everything from kielbasa to bacon, and fill their basket with imported treats and sodas like hazelnut Kit Kat bars and fizzy lemonade.

We went home with three bags of salami, enough for several sandwiches. I had enjoyed their house version the last time we came here, but they didn’t have any on this visit, offering the tourist salami instead. I felt faintly disappointed by the name. My son enjoyed the Hungarian salami the most, while I liked the spicy Durango salami. A small stack of that on a bakery bun with mustard, horseradish sauce and a slice of Havarti cheese was quite excellent, and we used not even a third of what we purchased that evening, leaving us plenty of salami for the next week.

On Saturday, we took our baby out for his first visit to a restaurant. Marie suggested that we go to America’s Top Dog first, as she was already familiar with our other destination. We arrived just as they were opening and had a short wait as the grill warmed up.

We each had a half-smoke, and I’m glad to say that my hype of this remarkable little beef and pork sausage didn’t overwhelm the reality. Marie agreed that this was completely amazing. I top mine with brown mustard, Cincinnati chili and a small pile of cheddar cheese. It’s just unmissably good. I also had an original top dog with Texas chili and giardiniera relish and it was also as wonderful as I hoped. The fries were just a little bland this time out; they seem to have been sitting for a few seconds longer than they should have been, but with dogs this great, we weren’t all that interested in the fries anyway. Besides, the onion rings are even better.

For our final stop on the tour, we came back to I-75 and Windy Hill for the wonderfully good Barker’s Red Hots.

Barker’s is another of our favorite places to visit, although we haven’t gone very often lately, in part because they are no longer open for dinner and in part because I’ve been enjoying their beef on weck sandwich even more than their dogs. Oh, and Marie being pregnant. The staff greeted us like old friends and asked where we’d been, and you’ve just got to love service like that. ATD might have the best dog in town with their half-smoke and topping bar, and Brandi’s might win on chili and charm, but really, for overall quality, Barker’s is indeed something special. Asking me which of the three is my favorite will net you a different answer any day of the week.

Marie and I each ordered lightly grilled red hots. They cook over charcoal here and the results are never less than excellent. She had hers with slaw and I had mine with mustard, thick hot sauce, onions and pickles. Since we had the fries at ATD, we went with onion rings here. Marie and I differ on this point; I think we flat out got them backwards. Barker’s fries are so darn delicious it’s sinful, but their onion rings, while excellent, are not quite as good as ATD’s. Marie loves the sweet crisp to Barker’s rings, and prefers them to the fries. Whichever, a meal here is a genuine treat, and we wouldn’t think of eating here without a cup of loganberry punch.

The baby seemed to enjoy the day out and his first real look at this weird world of ours. He didn’t enjoy being changed in the teeny restroom at ATD, and one day down the line, he’ll probably give me an earful for not sharing any chili with him. Kid’s got plenty of time for chili, though, and we’ve got a lot more of it to eat.

Marietta Diner, Marietta GA

So the day after our new baby boy was born, I wasn’t going to rest on my laurels and have any more lousy hospital or chain food like I did on the day he arrived. I still had two other kids to take care of while Marie recuperated in the hospital, and so I came back to Marietta to give them some more attention and some supper.

My daughter chose to go out with friends, so my older son and I went over to Marietta Diner for the first time in ages. I have mentioned this place a couple of times before; this is the flagship location for a group that runs some of Cobb County’s most well-known restaurants. We’ve covered their sister locations Marietta Fish Market and Cherokee Cattle Company in this blog before. While each of the other stores pick one style of cuisine and does an efficient, if sometimes larger-than-sense job of it, the Marietta Diner elects to do everything, and do it pretty well.

One thing that potential guests need to know is that there is always a crowd here. I’ve never had to wait for more than a few minutes, and occasionally, like last Wednesday, not at all, but I’ve never seen the place without plenty of people and an almost full lot. That’s any hour of the day. The Atlanta area is home to quite a few neon-and-chrome diners, but this place is easily the most popular and beloved of them all. Somehow, the army of staffers employed here manage to provide quite excellent hands-on attention to detail, fixing errors instantly and providing really prompt service while being pulled in many directions. The difference in customer service here and at any equally busy place – say, last month’s trip to La Fonda Latina – is like night and day.

I told my son up front that I’d allow him a gigantic treat from the gigantic dessert menu if he would keep his dinner selection on the cheap side. That’s never easy to do here. With a menu the size of a small phone book, and with a list of daily specials longer than many other places’ entire offering, it’s hard to narrow down what you want and find the right price. Reveling in humongous portions, some of the offerings are somewhat pricier than I might like.

We came, incidentally, because for some reason a few hours before, I found myself having the oddest craving for a gigantic deli sandwich, the likes of which are best found at The Square Bagel. That place is not open for supper, but I found a reasonable facsimile of what I wanted at the Marietta Diner. Called a Sloppy John, it’s a huge stack of corned beef, melted cheese and cole slaw served with Russian dressing and fries. Already satisfied by the spanikopita and the bread they bring to each table, and the salad that I enjoyed, I ended up having half this sandwich for breakfast the next morning.

The salad was a good example of the staff proving how on the ball they are. I had asked for the Greek-styled side salad, but they brought me this unbelievable thing that was assuredly priced higher than the $4-odd on the menu. It was served in a bowl the size of a basketball, featured a towering leaf of lettuce positioned like the feather of a garish headdress, and included several grape leaves and anchovies. It looked terrific, but far more than I could eat! I pointed out the error and it was corrected almost instantly.

My son had a burger, served with fries, a side of slaw and a couple of onion rings, and for dessert, he went up to the showcase and wasn’t seen again for several minutes. Slices of cake here are priced around seven dollars each and are just tremendous. He finally decided on Butterfinger flavor and could not finish it. We ended up taking three boxes home for leftovers the next day.

This place isn’t really for people who are looking for something inexpensive, or sensible portion sizes. It’s all about conspicuous consumption here, and the restaurant’s enormous popularity proves they’re doing right by their crowd. It’s genuinely good stuff, and while I’m hardly a regular here, I’ve certainly never had a bad meal.

The Marietta Square Farmers Market

This is Marie, talking this time about the Marietta Square Farmer’s Market, which we’ve been visiting most Saturday mornings for the last few years, even if parking there is often difficult. Since 2008, it has grown and there is usually a very nice crowd.

The organic eggs sold by vendors there taste so much better than standard commercial products that they are just about the first things I go for every visit. The first couple of years I went there were only a very few vendors who sold eggs, and they often sold out very early. This year it seems every third vendor is selling eggs, so I can actually go a little late, say 9:30 or so, and still be able to get my fix. The first year there was a lovely older gentleman who was a ball to talk to and who also sold turkey eggs as well as chicken eggs; sadly, he didn’t have a card, doesn’t seem to visit the Marietta market any more, and my memory is terribly faulty, so I can’t share his name with you.

My current loyalties are with a business called Little Red Hen Farms. While their eggs taste just as good as those from the other vendors, the deciding factor is a) I have a strange fondness for the green eggs from araucana chickens, and b) these folks sell the eggs in dozen-and-a-half lots, which seems to be just about the right amount. They also have a web site and Facebook page where I can see happy chickens walking around in grass. That means a lot to me. Another dealer I have had good experiences with is Bray Family Farms.

After getting my egg fix I wander around to the veggie dealers. The farmer’s market prices in Marietta don’t discount all that much from grocery store prices; the main benefit is in quality of product. There is a large stand at the entrance of the market that is a resale place, and they generally have all the seasonal stuff first because they get some of their things from Florida early in the season, and then they keep getting things later than the local folks because they ship from the Carolinas. The truly local folks have a more limited selection but generally their things are a little better, especially the ones who sell tomatoes. You can get a very wide variety of those, and although it is well worth paying a little extra for the heirloom types, even the standard commercial varieties taste better when they have been picked the day before. The hydroponic lettuce dealers are pretty good, too, and I can’t say that one is better than the other; that said, Lee and Gordon Greens has given very slightly faster customer service and good advice. The thing I like most about their products is that they sell the whole head of lettuce with roots, so if you wrap the roots in a wet paper towel you can keep your purchase crisp and wonderful in the fridge for a surprisingly long time. There are a few other folks who have the extremely seasonal goods – one vendor sells out of a basketful of lovely things called Dragon Tongue beans during their extremely brief season, for example. Look for whatever obscure heirloom variety makes you happy.

Another of my favorite vendors is Emily G’s Jam of Love. Yes, I know, you may balk at paying $8 for a container of jam. However, if you actually look at the ingredients list for just about any commercially available one you will see that sugar is the first ingredient, rather than the fruit. If you do see fruit as the first ingredient, check whether that’s because they use more than one kind of sweetener – usually that accounts for the placement. A really good, flavorful jam has to be mostly fruit by weight, and that’s what these folks do. They have some interesting varieties as well; their Bold Blue is a really good accompaniment to pork, for instance, and the seasonal Pear Honey is delectable. The nice thing about going to the farmer’s market is that you can actually taste the varieties before you buy, so you don’t wind up choosing at random. Though honestly, you’ll probably be happy with whatever you pick up.

A favorite of the children is the Hometown Honey stand. They sell flavored honey straws along with pollen, regular honey, and beeswax. I have to admit at having picked up a few honey straws for snacking myself. The kids also enjoy Zara May’s Handcrafted Fudge. I try to avoid getting even the samples there because my limited budget winds up being spent on things we can actually turn into dinners.

After the essentials are taken care of, I usually try and pick up some chocolate milk from Johnston Family Farm. I say “try” because it’s a stupendously good product in very limited supply, and you have to be quick or it’s going to be gone gone gone. My husband actually has to cut his portion of chocolate with skim milk because it’s that rich. After that, if there’s any money left, it’s open season on the treats and goodies.

The King of Pops vendor who recently started coming to the market has some appallingly tasty products. Grant was tempted to come join us shopping when we told him that King of Pops was selling Arnold Palmer flavored popsicles, but sadly that wasn’t among the ones they brought the following week. He bought an orange coconut for the boychild, and we shared a raspberry lime. Truly, you have never had a popsicle this good.

Paul’s Pot Pies have been welcome, albeit infrequent, additions to our menu. I recommend the creole shrimp flavor, which is not always carried – ask about it. After checking their web site as a refresher I realize that another flavor that hasn’t been in the free samples is chicken curry–I will need to check them out. Another recent addition to the “only for a splurge” is Atlanta Fresh Artisan Creamery. Their yogurt is great. I wish I could afford more of it.

The farmer’s market in Marietta may not be very large as these things go, but it is a pleasant experience every time. And if you enjoy free samples, you will definitely have a good time grazing the aisles.