Restaurant experiment: Mary Mac’s Tea Room

Mary Mac’s Tea Room

224 Ponce de Leon Avenue at Myrtle Street

Atlanta, GA 30308

404-876-1800

http://www.marymacs.com/

Mary Mac’s Tea Room is one of Atlanta’s oldest restaurants.  I wondered if it is the oldest, but it appears that the oldest is Horseradish Grill.  Hmm, very interesting.  Anyway, Mary Mac’s was up and running in 1945, making it one of Atlanta’s senior citizens.  Therefore, I found it fitting to take Yankee Lisa to, for some old southern food.

At a little after 7 PM on a Sunday evening, we were seated promptly after being warmly greeted and guided through a maze of rooms.  Each room is named.  I don’t know which one we were in, but we were at a table next to the Ferrell Room which I recalled because of Will Ferrell.

No one approached our table for a while which was actually okay because the two of us were pondering the menu.  This place is very interesting in that you write down your order on a slip of paper; pencils are provided on the table.  Our nice server came over, and he took our drink orders while we continued to refine our selections.  It took a little while to get the H2Os but what can you do.

Lisa and I both ordered under the heading of “Traditional Southern Specialties.”  Each of these entrees is served with your choice of two sides and a selection of breads.  Eventually I settled upon the Smothered Chicken ($11.95) while Lisa opted for a four piece fried chicken plate.

The list of sides was 36 items long, wow.  Needless to say, it took me several minutes to decide which ones to select to go with my smothered chicken.  My sides were 1) fried okra and 2) okra and tomatoes.  Can’t resist okra.  Lisa went with fried green tomatoes, fried okra, and pot likker.  I wasn’t sure what the latter was, but it sounded quite intriguing.  Like so tasty, you wanna lick the pot clean?

The bread basket consisted of cornbread, cinnamon rolls, and yeast rolls.  The cinnamon rolls and cornbread were pleasing.  At this point, I realized I was filling up on bread so I hit the brakes and didn’t consume the yeast roll.

[Excuse the fork and fried chicken piece in the photo below.]  That ended up being a smart plan since the food portions were quite generous.  Lisa’s pot likker resembled an Asian soup, as it was a clear broth with bits of collard leaves floating about.  She kindly let me have a sample.  Wikipedia informed me that pot likker goes by other names such as pot liquor but it is just the leftover liquid following boiling greens.  My chicken drumsticks came out on a bed of rice.  They were pretty good though kind of slimy to handle with the fingers.  I also sampled one of Lisa’s fried chicken drumsticks and found it not bad.  I liked the fried okra because the shell was crunchy and not too bready.  The okra and tomatoes had a very subtle hotness to them which I could handle.  Yum.  Great value!  I finished my plate but was too full for dessert.

There was a large table of girls diagonally away from us.  I saw their server bring out tiny teacups full of pot likkers to each girl.  The cups were much smaller than the side of pot likker than Lisa had ordered.  Almost like amuse bouches.  Then I was scrolling through some Yelp reviews and learned that complimentary samples of pot likkers are offered to new diners.  I felt cheated since I was a new diner and wasn’t offered pot likker even though I had a spoonful of Lisa’s.  Oh well.  Maybe next time!

Restaurant experiment: Chai Pani

Chai Pani

406 West Ponce De Leon at Fairview Avenue

Decatur, GA 30030

404-378-4030

http://www.chaipanidecatur.com/

I’d first heard of Chai Pani in Asheville since I was there and it was suggested as a dining option.  When I was doing research on the place and visited its website, I found out that there’s a location in Decatur, GA.  So Chai Pani was nixed as a restaurant destination in Asheville, but we kept it in mind to check out in Decatur.

Dave and I actually were heading to Farm Burger one evening, and the line there was kind of long.  Since Chai Pani happened to to be next door, Dave suggested we check it out.  That sounded like a plan.

It took us a couple of minutes to be seated, not because all of the tables were full but because there was only one hostess, and she had to seat a couple of parties that had arrived before us.

There were tons of people, especially families, chowing down the in spacious seating area.  It feels like an old garage, and I think there were some Bollywood movie posters up as decorations.  Chai Pani’s thing is Indian street food, so they have a lot of small plates that are appropriate for sharing.  Our waiter was cool.  Like a lot of other restaurants in the downtown Decatur area, you apparently need to have multiple tattoos to work here.  Dave and I eventually decided to order three plates to split.

I saw matchstick okra fries ($7) and knew I had to have them.  I just love anything okra-related.  These were dainty strips that crunched and had zingy lime flavors, salt, and a special  spice blend.  I can believe ’em when they say on the menu that this is a signature dish.

Up next was the sloppy jai [kheema pav] ($9).  The menu has this to say about the joes:

Spiced lamb hash simmered with tomatoes, ginger, and aromatic spices. Garnished with onions & cilantro, green chutney, sweet yogurt and served on two toasted buns. The most awesome Sloppy Joe ever.

I need to stop here and say that I was a fool and forgot to ask for no cilantro on everything.  If you hate cilantro like me, you’ll quickly notice how many options have cilantro in them.  And if you also are wary of spicy stuff, it’s like navigating a mine field since so many of the offerings are spicy  Eep.

I’d never been a hug sloppy joe person.  I can’t even remember the last time I’d eaten a sloppy joe.  Maybe as a kid in elementary school?  Anyway, I liked these but they would have been much better if they lacked my least favorite herb.  At least you could pick out the leaves.  The square buns reminded of of Krystal’s/White Castle.

Dish #3 was the tomato and cheese uttapam ($9.50).  Chai Pani describes uttapam as

Savory crepes made from rice & lentil batter, with a variety of toppings. A South Indian specialty and highly addictive. Traditionally served with sambar (vegetable stew seasoned w/ tamarind).

This was new to me, as I’d never had uttapam before.  It was kind of like an Indian pizza.  There was also a mixed vegetable option available, but Dave and I chose the tomato & cheese option.  I could really taste the spice, ginger, and cilantro.  I did like the consistency of the crepe part, spongy.

I kinda still wanted a little more, so I decided to order a kheer to cool my mouth off a bit and to end the meal on a sweet note.  The kheer was a smidgen too sugary but it was still delish, and I liked the added touch of pistachios.  I forgot the price, but it was around $4.

I know next time, I’ll have to request all my consumables without cilantro.  Or just eat several orders of the matchstick okra fries!  Yum yum yum.