Atlanta: Southern Eatery

Atlanta is filled with trendy cafes and restaurants that seem to pop up on random corners every week.  Asian fusion, tex-mex, pizzeria, you name it. But, one place you really shouldn't miss isn't a trendy hot-spot at all, it's just an all-time favorite traditional southern cooking establishment called Mary Mac's Tea Room.

Don't be confused with the name though; While their sweet tea will fill your sugar quota for the week, it's not what you think a "tea room" would be.  What used to be a small tea room in 1945 has grown and expanded into a bustling southern kitchen where traditional southern hospitality comes first.

I was going to lunch with a friend of mine who is relatively new to Atlanta, and remembering Mary Mac's from my childhood, I decided it was the perfect place to go.  Sunday at 1pm is anything but idle for most lunch places, but we decided to brave the crowd anyway.  We walked inside Mary Mac's to find a waiting room filled with church-goers dressed to the nines.  Luckily, with a party of two, we were seated after just a couple minutes.

The menu is filled with more southern goodness than you can imagine. After sorting through the variety of fried items you have to make your selection and write it down on an order card given to you by the waitress.  I really like the traditional parts of Mary Mac's that haven't changed in over 65 years!

Basket of goodies for our table.

A basket of goodies was placed on our table after we ordered: bread rolls, corn bread mini-muffins, and cinnamon rolls! Everything was so delicious, and we still had so much food coming.  I ordered fried chicken with my two sides of fried green tomatoes and cheese grits.  My friend had fried shrimp with fried okra and the sweet potato souffle. Everything happened to be in the same color family, orange-ish brown, but is was so delicious that we just didn't think about it!

My meal: fried green tomatoes, cheese grits and fried chicken.

Somehow the picture of my friend's food didn't turn out, but you can imagine it very similar in shade to mine, but in the shape of shrimp.

If you are in the Atlanta area I definitely recommend finding your way to Mary Mac's to experience this classic Atlanta establishment.  Just enjoy the calorie-fest and don't even try to count them; That's what southern cookin' is all about!