Covington - Conyers Restaurants

Jimbo's Grill at the Mill

2007-12-28T20:06:00.000-05:00

Jimbo's Grill at the Mill is part of the effort to finally do something with the Porterdale Mill, which had long sat as an abandoned textile mill in search of a purpose. Now it's been turned into a rather impressive set of apartments, and the cotton warehouse next to it is full of shops and restaurants like Jimbo's Grill.

For a place that's only been open a few months, the Grill at the Mill shows some potential. It's very clean, for one thing, and they made an effort to use some good, fresh ingredients for the burger's garnishes. Jimbo seems to be mostly about grilling burgers and hot dogs (although the hot dogs are actually broiled). The burgers themselves are OK, but not exactly distinguished. If you like hot dogs, the ones they have are good.

The ambience could use a bit of fine tuning. A place like the Cotton Warehouse has had decades to accumulate so much character it positively oozes out of the brick walls. And the balcony in the upper level dining area has a nice view. However, the decour could use a bit more of a theme. There's a variety of reproduction vintage posters and faux-retro decorations on the wall, but they cover quite about five decades and several different topics - gambling, movies, vintage vermouth ads, 1950s diners, and more.

A review of Jimbo's wouldn't be complete without mentioning the dessert menu. It's not what you would expect here at all. Jimbo uses his relationship with the management at the wedding cake bakery next door to put some top notch sweets in here. You can order nintey-nine cent petit fours that are just plain astounding. They're served with a level of ornate presentation that is about as unexpected as Jeff Foxworthy giving a serious lecture on theology. But Jeff Foxworthy can talk about issues facing the church if he puts his mind to it, and Jimbo can serve up desserts that you shouldn't miss.

Thai Palace

2006-03-23T20:45:00.000-05:00

While Hollywood may have once considered Covington representative enough of the Deep South to film the Dukes of Hazard here, Newton and Rockdale Counties are cosmopolitain enough to have a large variety of ethnic restaurants. In fact, Conyers has not one, but two Thai places. I've only been to one of them so far, the Thai Palace.

The Palace is located in Old Town Conyers, which is the oldest part of town. Unlike Covington Square, which has kept much of its traditional look, Old Town Conyers has gone for a more bohemian look, painting the buildings in wild colors. The buildings look almost like a section of Atlanta's Little Five Points, although Old Town Conyers hasn't attracted quite the same crowd.

Thai cuisine is notorious for using very spicy food. Most of the spiced dishes here can be ordered at a mild level. Venture above "mild" at your own risk.

Many of the entrees are heavy on vegetables and seasoning, with the meat almost added as a condiment rather than letting it take center stage. Since the meat does not heavily influence the flavor of such dishes, you can order many items on the menu with your choice of beef, chicken, pork, shrimp, or tofu. There are a few items, though, that are mostly meat in curry sauce. Most of their traditonal items are served alongside a large, ornate aluminum bowl of rice (which is trying unsuccessfully to look like it is actually a silver bowl of rice). Entrees typically cost around $7-8 each.

I don't normally order apetizers, but they have one that is too good to miss. Their chicken satay is excellent. If you're not familiar with satay, it is thin strips of meat served with peanut sauce and a cucumber relish. However, I'm not sure that description does the Thai Palace's chicken satay justice. It's like saying fillet mignon is just dead cow.

One touch that I especially like is the effort they put into garnishes. It's not uncommon to find a carrot transformed into a butterfly or a vegetable flower sitting on your plate.

If there is one downside, this is not a place to eat if you are in a hurry. They take the time in bringing the food out. But unless you have something very urgent on your agenda, it's worth the wait.

Contact:
Thai Palace
914 Commercial St.
Conyers, GA
770-785-7778

A different sort of drive through

2006-03-11T14:56:00.000-05:00

My wife and I were at Thomas's Country Buffet yesterday, and we noticed one of the back doors was open. As I said in my review, Thomas's used to be a train station. I could see a yellow Union Pacific locomotive waiting on the tracks outside. I made a comment about that to the waitress, and she said, "Oh, the engineer just stopped here to pick up dinner." That's definitely not a sight you see every day. I just assumed railroad crews brought bag lunches with them.

Mad Dog's BBQ

2006-02-17T21:13:00.000-05:00

Some people say that it's impossible to make a good barbeque that will pass a county health inspection. Those people haven't been to Mad Dog's, where they proudly display a health inspection certificate with a big red 100 on the wall. And they manage to make top-notch barbeque anyway. The pork has a good and smokey taste, and the generous amount of butter that they use on their bread makes this my wife's favorite spot for a barbeque sandwich.

The sauce they use is an authentic Georgia BBQ sauce, the kind with a fair amount of vinegar and red pepper as well as tomatoes. The mild sauce already has some detectable hot pepper, and the hot one is hotter without being overpowering. It definitely doesn't resemble the thick commercial pseudo-Texas glop that you find in stores.

Mad Dog himself is a pretty friendly guy. If there isn't a line at the counter, he'll come out and talk with the customers about how their relatives are doing or the time one of his regular customers challenged a DJ from 96 Rock to a race after he had claimed that drag racing took no skill. There's a little cork board on the wall about that episode too, to commemorate one of the Regular Guys getting smoked by a teenage girl at Atlanta Dragway.

It's hard to believe that a restaurant could have the feel and taste of an authentic small town BBQ joint when it's located in a strip mall and has a perfect score from the county health department. But Mad Dog's pulled it off.

Contact:
4489 Highway 20 South
Conyers, GA
770-922-2272

Tokyo Hibachi Express

2006-02-12T20:58:00.000-05:00

Many foreign language books start with easy-to-learn phrases that may be useful in the land where the language is spoken. One that you learn relatively soon in Japanese for Dummies is how to say, "Is that an octopus?" If you are looking at a sushi bar, you'll find that this phrase is, indeed, a useful one to know.

Admittedly, I'm not a very big seafood fan. It's hard to find fresh seafood, so I tend not to be any more adventurous than shrimp unless I am very certain that the place where I am eating gets some very fresh seafood. Tokyo, a Japanese restaurant in Conyers, does not have the freshest of seafood.

What they do have, however, is hibachi dining at a bargain price. You can even order fillet mignion for $11. You'll find a few signs of cost cutting; you have to pay extra for hibachi vegetables, and they stretch the fillet by mixing it with diced mushrooms. They don't skimp on the total amount of food, though - they'll serve enough fried rice to cover half the plate to a depth of an inch, and fill the other half up with your entree, along with the expected soup and salad. Overall, it's a pretty good place to find inexpensive hibachi food, which can be something of a rarity here. Most Japanese restaurants in the area will set you back a few more dollars per plate.

Decour is about what you might expect, with bamboo in the front and Japanese artwork on the walls. It doesn't look like they spent quite as much on the decorations as the competition, another reason why their prices are lower. Still, they keep the place pretty clean. Looks like they spend their money where it counts the most.

Contact:
3020 Edwards Drive
Conyers, GA
770-860-1234

I can't say I'm too surprised...

2006-02-12T20:56:00.000-05:00

It looks as though Cosmo Joe's has gone out of business.

El Charro

2006-01-24T20:28:00.000-05:00

Good baked custards are getting very scarce. In fact, it's hard to write about them without having to fight back the temptation to make a dreadful pun about the infamous American cavalry officer who got killed trying to fight too many Indians. It's hard to find the creamy, sugary richness of a real custard anymore. Unfortunately, a generation of diet crazes and lazy cooks have driven real custard out of our kitchens and restaurants. Instead, custards have been largely replaced by ice cream, which can be good, and Jello Instant Pudding, which is a decidedly poor substitute for the real thing.

So, what does a lament for custard have to do with a Mexican restaurant? Well, El Charro is one of the few places where you can get a real, freshly baked custard, as the Mexicans have been keeping this tradition alive in the form of the flan. And El Charro has what may very well be the finest flan in all of Newton County. The flan here is amazingly rich, with a hint of cheese. It's definitely a perfect ending to a dinner.

Well, I probably should say something about the rest of the food here too, since you probably won't just order a flan. It's the standard Tex-Mex fare, done reasonably well. It's hard to point to any one particular specialty, but they have the usual assortment of burritos and fajitas and other normal entrees. Curiously, the fajitas here come with a squeeze bottle of Parkay, which I don't normally use.

They also have a very affordable lunch menu. If you stick to water for your beverage, lunch here can be just as cheap as at a fast-food joint, but with the quality you expect from a sit-down restaurant.

El Charro has two locations in Covington now. The main difference is the one out by Wal-Mart is larger and newer, but the food and menus are identical. Decor is the expected Mexican theme; both have paintings of guitar players, since El Charro is Spanish for a type of musician.

Check it out, and support your local custard.

Locations:
3165 Elm St.
Covington, GA

9148 Covington Bypass
Covington, GA

Mamie's Kitchen

2006-01-17T07:25:00.000-05:00

If the events that brought my wife and me together were a Truman Capote novel, it would be called Breakfast at Mamie's. We have probably had more Saturday morning breakfasts together here than anywhere else. While Mamie's does serve lunch too (but no dinner), it's their breakfast that is their biggest draw. Most of the foods are typical Southern greasy spoon fare - grits, pancakes, fresh-made biscuits, eggs, and sweet tea. As one of the signs at their Brown Bridge location says, "It ain't healthy, but it sure tastes good!"

Perhaps one of the most amazing items on the menu is their chicken biscuit. They take a huge piece of chicken breast - no processed and ground stuff here - and fry it in a light, fluffy breading. The chicken slice dwarfs the biscuit that they serve it on. There's so much meat, grease, and goodness here that if you eat it all for breakfast, you might not need lunch. Seriously.

Locations:
11245 Brown Bridge Rd.
Covington, GA 30016

1295 N. Main St.
Conyers, GA 30012

2821 Evans Mill Rd.
Lithonia, GA 30058

7121 Highway 278
Covington, GA 30014

Nagoya Japanese Steak, Seafood, & Sushi

2006-01-12T20:43:00.000-05:00

Where does Covington's self-appointed restaurant critic go for his own wedding reception? Since we had a fairly small guest list, we decided to have it at a restaurant instead of going to the trouble of renting a venue and arranging for catering. And Nagoya had both excellent food and a room big enough to hold our reception. Perfect.

As with many hibachi places, the food is only half the experience. The rest is watching the food prepared in outlandish hibachi style while you watch. The chefs at Nagoya are experts at the usual juggling and pyrotechnics, making flaming volcanos from onions and catching shrimps in their hats.

While hibachi restaurants often have very similar menus no matter where you go, Nagoya does have a few entrees that are a little different. For example, one choice is fillet mignon with garlic. Other than a few unusual items, if you've been to a hibachi restraurant before, you'll know what to expect. And if you haven't - you're in for a treat.

Contact:
1065 Access Rd.
Covington, GA 30014
770-784-9988

The Village Deli

2005-12-30T14:40:00.000-05:00

The Village Deli is on the opposite side of Covington Square from A Touch of Country,in more ways than one. In contrast to the Dukes Boys themed diner, The Village Deli aims to look like it was transplanted out of New York City. One wall inside is covered with a mural of a park in a rather generic-looking big city.

Since Arby's no longer carries French Dip sandwiches, this is about the only place in town where you can get a good French Dip sub. While the price is a lot higher than Arby's - around $8 or $9 for a sandwich with a side item - the sandwiches are pretty high quality, with Boar's Head meats and high quality bread. The French Dip sandwich I had today came served on a crusty French roll covered with toasted sesame seeds. They also have an excellent assortment of pastries and cakes for desert - something you aren't going to find at any chain sub shop.

All their sandwiches include a trip to the pickle bar. This one is about twice the size of the similar thing at Quizno's, and has some truly unusual offerings. The most unusual is probably the picked green tomatoes. I haven't seen that anywhere else.

If there is a weakness, it's that the side items could use a little work. While you can get fries with your sandwich, this costs extra - the usual sides are chips, potato salad, macaroni salad, or coleslaw. I opted for the potato salad and found it to be incredibly bland. At one point I even tried pouring the au jus from the sandwich into the potato salad to see if I could make it more interesting. That did help, somewhat.

All in all, it's a good choice if you want a sandwich that's a cut above what you would find at a chain, and are willing to pay extra for it.

Contact:
1124 Monticello St. SW
Covington, GA 30014
678-342-2184

A Touch of Country

2005-12-06T21:54:00.000-05:00

Ask people throughout the South to picture a town square, and they'll probably imagine one like the one at the center of Covington. The Square has just about everything you would expect - buildings that have stood for years, a tree lined central square with a monument, a hardware store that also sells homemade fudge, and a historic courthouse over a century old. In fact, many TV producers have come to Covington and filmed our square when they need a small-town Southern setting. The first show was The Dukes of Hazard, of course, but they also filmed the TV version of In the Heat of the Night and recently an episode of Three Wishes here.

The Dukes Boys are local heros here. There is an annual celebration that draws many of the surviving cars from the show, along with countless replicas. Many of the cast members live in the area, or did. And it's only fitting that the Square should have a small museum dedicated to The Dukes of Hazard and In the Heat of the Night.

A Touch of Country is that museum, a furniture store, and a restaurant, all in one. Don't let the name fool you; the food here is actually more like a classic diner than country cooking. The menu includes burgers, corn dogs, BBQ sandwiches, and homemade chili. They also have a Frito Pie - that's a combination of chili, Fritos, cheese, and sour cream. Of course, no diner menu would be complete without shakes and floats. They even have a "Hazard County Float," a citrus concoction with orange sherbet and Sprite. The food is about average quality for diner food - not exactly fine dining, but perfectly good for a casual lunch when you're not feeling like chain fast food. And this is the perfect place to stop in for a cold shake or float during a car show on the Square on a hot summer day.

This is certainly a friendly sort of diner, too. It wasn't long after I walked in today that some of the regular patrons started discussing whether one of the people out for a stroll in Covington Square was Cooter or merely a Ben Jones lookalike.

The museum is not all that big, but it's probably worth a look if you are a fan of either In the Heat of the Night or The Dukes of Hazard. They have several signed photos, props, a clickboard, and even a door from one of the General Lees, signed by several of the cast members. There is no admission charge, either.

La Luna

2005-12-04T13:24:00.000-05:00

Silence greeted Kelly and me when we walked into La Luna. There was only one family sitting at a table, and no staff in sight. In a minute, a waitress came out of the kitchen and apoligized; the staff had been planning their Christmas party. We only saw two more groups of people arrive during the whole time we were eating there.

I don't usually expect a restaurant to be almost deserted at dinnertime on a Friday evening in a fair-sized town. The empty feeling somehow clung to the restaurant like a fog. It somehow even extended to the walls, which were decorated with a classy mixture of paintings and antiques. Somehow, the decour felt like it was missing something, just like the restaurant seemed to be missing patrons. I felt vaugely unsettled by this. If I were Stephen King, I'd start to think of writing a story about a restaurant haunted by the ghost of a murdered chef just to capture that feeling.

The food did nothing to explain why the restaurant was so empty. We ordered an apetizer of fried mozzerella that we agreed was one of the best fried cheese foods we'd ever tried. I couldn't pass up a fifteen dollar New York Strip Steak, which came with diced potatoes and green beans. The steak was so big that I wondered how they could afford to sell them at that price. The preparation showed an outstanding talent with spices. The only demerits to my meal were a few tough spots in an otherwise tender and flavorful cut of meat.

The service also did not seem like a ready explanation for why there were so few patrons. After the slight delay in getting a table, they waited on us like we were the only ones there. While we almost were the only ones there, the staff was most attentive and polite.

There were a few cleanliness issues, but they did not seem to be enough to explain their business woes. The men's room had a small hole in the plaster, and one of the "legs" for the sink was missing. I suspect some of this defered maintenance was a symptom, not a cause, of the small number of customers. The only other thing I could think of was a small fleck of bone that turned up in one of Kelly's meatballs, but surely that would have to be just a small case of bad luck... wouldn't it?

I'm still a little puzzled as to why La Luna seemed so empty.

Contact:
1820 GA Highway 20
Conyers, GA 30013
770-922-9888

Sunset Grill update

2005-11-28T18:26:00.000-05:00

Not too long ago, my fiancee and I both received letters from the Sunset Grill announcing that they'd brought back some of their old favorite menu options. So we thought we'd check it out. The Salads Your Way is definitely back in full force, with even more options that you can add. Sadly, they don't have avocados anymore. The menu doesn't say that these can be added to the burgers like the old menu did, but we asked anyway. As it turns out, they'll put these toppings on burgers, too, for 50 cents each. To celebrate the return of outlandish burger options, I ordered an Italian-themed hamburger with capers, sundried tomatoes, and mozzerella with a side of broccoli. It's great to have a place to go when you want the sort of burger that asking for it your way at Burger King would a really strange look.

Tava's Pizza

2005-11-22T07:33:00.000-05:00

Since this is a Greek pizza parlor, I feel compelled to look up a quote from My Big Fat Greek Wedding. One that seems appropriate is from the father: "There are two kinds of people - Greeks, and everyone else who wish they was Greek." He probably said that on account of Greek food. Sometimes such delicacies as baklava, gyros, and stuffed grape leaves make me wish I were Greek, too. While you can get the first two here, unfortunately they don't have the stuffed grape leaves here. I either have to cook these myself, or make the long drive to Sweet Devil Moon to get these.

It's pretty much unheard of for a Greek restaurant to have bad gyros or baklava. The Greek food here is no exception, prepared well even if it doesn't do much to distinguish it from other gyro places. The Greek salad portions are fairly large here, with the sizes above small probably being intended for sharing. Two people could share an appetizer and a medium Greek salad here and call it a meal.

The pizza's not bad either, even if it isn't quite the Mellow Mushroom. The crust is relatively thin and crispy, with a list of both relatively traditional and Greek toppings. Their Mediterranian Special, for example, has feta cheese (along with mozzerella), tomatoes, gyro meat, and several branches' worth of black olives. They don't skimp on the toppings any more than they skimp on the salad portions.

Tava's Pizza is a good everyday restaurant. It's neither likely to top any charts, nor is it likely to be the sort you'll hear horror stories about terrible food. It's simply a solid choice for when you feel like dining out and getting some decent Greek food without spending a fortune.

Contact:
4489 Highway 20
Conyers, GA 30013
770-388-9566

R L's Off the Square

2005-11-14T18:19:00.000-05:00

Have you ever seen a restaurant advertise something as "A taste of Bourbon Street?" Every time I see such a thing, the first thought that comes to mind is, "Has the guy who wrote that menu ever seen Bourbon Street?" Bourbon Street is full of people looking to satisfy a wide variety of appetites, but food generally isn't one of them. I could see a bar saying their beer was a taste of Bourbon Street. But only if they served it to-go so one could fully enjoy the authentic public drunkeness experience of the Big Easy.

You will find no such innane advertising nonsense at R L's. The chef here came from New Orleans, and writing on the menu only describes the care he puts into his cooking. They have no need of inappropriate Louisiana references to sell their food. R L's serves up a variety of authentic Creole food. You'll find the expected crawfish and jambalaya on the menu, and there are also some original creole creations such as The Turner.

The Turner is one of those combinations that sounds unlikely when you first hear about it, but it works. To make one, start by taking some jalepeno and cheese grits. Fry them up into patties that sort of resemble flat, burger-shaped hush puppies. Now stack two of these with three layers of meat. Top it off with a generous helping of meaty, spicy soup, and garnish with shrimp, parsely, and tomatoes. It's definitely not the sort of food you see everyday... but it works so well that you have to wonder why you don't.

This is a fairly upscale restaurant. Expect to pay between $12 and $20 for an entree. However, you definitely get your money's worth. Not only is this top-notch cooking, but the presentation is truly impressive. If the Atlanta Grill served Creole, it might arrive on plates that looked like these.

This is not the sort of restaurant I would compare to Bourbon Street. Instead, it reminds me of an afternoon I spent in Jackson Square, listening to a street jazz band, watching a musician, and looking at a sidewalk art show. R L's is straight out of the part of New Orleans that you could visit and not be embarassed to write to Mom about.

Contact:
1113 Floyd St. NE
Covington, GA 30014
770-788-5045

Thomas' Country Buffet

2005-11-10T17:46:00.000-05:00

It should come as no surprise that the county where they filmed In the Heat of the Night and the first couple episodes of The Dukes of Hazard would have several excellent Southern restaurants. Thomas' Country Buffet is one of my favorites for casual dining, a great place to grab an inexpensive lunch or dinner. At $6 (tax included) for an all-you-can-eat buffet, it's almost as cheap as fast food.

The restaurant occupies half of an old railroad depot, not to mention a pair of converted boxcars. It's easy to imagine how it must have looked in the height of the era of steam trains, as passengers stopped for a brief rest on their way from Augusta to Atlanta. And if you are having difficulties imagining it, the artwork on the walls should help. Decorating the walls with paintings of steam trains, vintage railroad posters, and old railroad logos is a fairly obvious choice.

The food is quite good. The menu depends on the day of the week, and to a lesser extent, the time of year. If you stop in, you can pick up a copy showing their rotating menu. There is always a couple of different meat dishes and a wide selection of vegetables. One vegetable that is not to be missed is their fried green tomatoes; I don't know if I have ever been to a restaurant that prepares these better. These are served weekdays (except for Monday, when they are closed) and on some Sundays. According to the menu, they don't normally serve fried green tomatoes on Saturdays.

For some reason, this buffet has changed hands several times in the past few years. Given how crowded it has been recently, I think Thomas (whose name is pronounced with a long "O") is going to be able to hang onto this for as long as he wants.

Contact:
4122 Emory St.
Covington, GA 30014
678-212-0186

New blog feature

2005-10-17T21:39:00.000-05:00

I've added links on the sidebar whenever I review a restaurant with a website. So far, two of the places I've reviewed have them. I was amused to find that the homepage for the Sunset Grill has not one, but two Certified Angus Beef logos. This is getting to be a running joke.

Now that's customer service.

2005-10-17T20:54:00.000-05:00

I don't intend to review big national chains on this blog. Not that I have anything against big national restaurant chains, but it's just that they are pretty much the same anywhere. If you've been to one Pizza Hut, you've got a pretty good idea of what to expect at any other Pizza Hut in the United States. You might get a few surprises if you walked into a Pizza Hut in Tokyo, but in most cases, a sign from a national restaurant chain lets you know that you're in for a familiar experience.

While food quality is often quite uniform throughout a chain, management is going to be different. The staff will often reflect the manager's commitment to customer service, or lack thereof. Tonight I want to tell everyone about how well the staff at the Covington branch of Longhorn Steakhouse handled a slip-up.

On Saturday, my fiancee and I had dinner with two of our friends before going to the Corn Maze. Our friends both ordered steaks, one medium, one medium-well. Both of the steaks came back bright red on the inside. These were not medium by anyone's definition.

Once the waitress came back to ask how our food was, we pointed this out. She promptly took the steaks back to be cooked some more, even though both of them were already half-eaten. While they did a good job getting the medium-well steak done, the other one refused to change. On finding that the lady who ordered it was still not pleased with it, the waitress immediately offered her a choice of a fresh new steak or taking the entire steak dinner off the bill entirely, meaning that the sweet potato, salad, and the extra potato they brought out with the new steak would all be free. They didn't ask any questions or make things difficult; they just glanced at the steak and said they would do their best to make everything all right.

Now that's customer service for you.

Cosmo Joe's

2005-10-14T17:09:00.000-05:00

I'm not too sure this blog has very many regular readers yet. But if you are one, you might get the impression I only put up positive reviews. Actually, that's just because I have started this blog with some of my local favorites. I also write reviews when I'm not particularly impressed, such as with Cosmo Joe's.

Cosmo Joe's might best be described as a mediocre greasy spoon. The menu offers hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken strips, and a couple of sandwiches and salads. They have some comments about the hot dogs being Chicago hot dogs, but I wouldn't be able to tell a Chicago hot dog from a Springfield imposter anyway. Although they aren't quite a fast-food place, their prices are about the same as what you'd pay at the golden arches. I tried a regular cheeseburger, which was edible but decidedly unimpressive. The french fries were unpeeled and thin, sort of like what you'd get at The Varsity. Altogether, the quality of the food seemed a bit below what you would expect from an average national fast-food chain. It could be a lot worse, though - it's not pre-Thickburger Hardees bad, for instance.

The decor is, at least, relatively interesting. I'm not sure who Cosmo Joe is supposed to be, but from their logo it appears he is a bush pilot with a dog. Perhaps there is some sort of schtick they plan to build around him like McDonald's did with Ronald MacDonald (not to mention enough other characters to make a kid's TV show). The entire building is decorated with a 1930's airport theme. It's certainly different, and a relatively tasteful theme.

The odd thing about Cosmo Joe's is that it completely looks like it's a chain restaurant. However, I haven't been able to find any others, either in person or on the Internet. They may have some ambitions about starting a chain, but I think they ought to work on perfecting their food first.

Contact:
1427 Highway 138
Conyers, GA
770-483-9899

Update: As of February 2006, Cosmo Joe's appears to have gone out of business.

Sunset Grill

2005-10-13T20:37:00.000-05:00

The Sunset Grill serves Certified Angus Beef (tm). They do not want you to forget that. They put the Certified Angus Beef logo on the hostess's podium. They put the Certified Angus Beef logo on the menu. They put the Certified Angus Beef logo on the steak itself with a little plastic pin. Thankfully, I have not seen any waiter sporting a Certified Angus Beef tattoo.

The food is quite good. They have a fair amount of seafood and several chicken and pork selections. The staff has obviously put some time into coming up with good combinations of herbs and seasonings for these. They also offer an interesting chopped salad with cinamon-roasted nuts and a variety of soups. Most of the dinners also come with an interesting Sunset Grill trademark, rolls with mango butter. And, of course, there is a large selection of steaks, which can be topped with your choice of nearly a half dozen kinds of herbed butter. All the steaks are, in case you might forget, Certified Angus Beef. Not that I have ever been able to tell the difference between how an Angus cow and a Herford cow taste.

They have a fair number of fruit-flavored tropical drinks. In fact, there is always a tank of berries soaking in vodka on the bar counter to make fresh Berry Ticklers, which are fairly sweet punch-like cocktails. If you aren't looking for an adult beverage, they have a wide selection of non-alchoholic drinks too. Their bartenders put just as much care into making an elaborate multi-layered fruit punch as into the ones with booze.

Cleanliness is usually quite good. They even keep an assortment of lotions and hair care items in the restroom. I say usually because the last time I was there it looks like their cleaning staff had not yet noticed a particular and probably recent, uh, contamination. I'm pretty sure this was an isolated case and happens just about anywhere.

But if there is one nagging flaw to the place, it is that it seems as if they've sold out compared to what they used to be. The Sunset Grill used to be a lot more offbeat, looking like a beach house restraunt in Key West had somehow fallen through a wormhole and landed in Covington. They still have two large saltwater aquariums and a few other beach cues, but it used to have so many wooden parrot carvings that you wondered if Jimmy Buffet ran the place. They also used to offer an astonishing variety of sandwich toppings, so you could skip the usual lettuce, pickles, tomatoes, and onions in favor of a burger with avocado and bell peppers, with the diced peppers brought out in a gleaming stainless steel cup. I really miss some of their quirkier fare, and wish they hadn't tried to become more mainstream.

Contact:
10205 Access Rd.
Covington, GA
770-787-9800

Little Phillies

2005-10-06T20:23:00.000-05:00

As you have probably guessed from its name, the house specialty here is Philly cheesesteak, which they serve in a half-dozen different ways. It's a pretty good cheesesteak, a mammoth sub of meat, vegetables, cheese, and grease. Add a side of their wavy-cut fries, and you'll have a lunch too good to tell your cardiologist about.

One interesting option is the cheese steak salad. They take the meat, cheese, and everything else, and drop it onto a really big garden salad. It's even more filling than having it on a roll. My favorite one to order is a pizza steak salad, where they cook pizza sauce in with the meat. I just love it on top of a salad with honey-mustard dressing. Maybe it's just me, though, because I often find myself having to repeat that to an astonished cashier.

There are plenty of other common lunch items on the menu. They have several other sorts of sandwiches, plus burgers, hot dogs, Buffalo wings, and shrimp. I've been meaning to try some of these, but every time I go there, I find the lure of their cheesesteak too hard to resist, whether it's on bread or lettuce. Maybe it's because this place is run by an authentic Philadelphia transplant who learned how to make them at the source.

Contact:
10255 Industrial Blvd.
Covington, GA
770-786-0095

Mellow Mushroom

2005-10-04T20:01:00.000-05:00

Hands down, the 'Shroom is my favorite pizza joint. Ok, maybe joint was a poor choice of words, given its hippie atmosphere. Just about everything about their pizzas are top-notch, including an excellent selection of toppings that you aren't likely to find at larger pizza chains. For example, one of my favorite toppings is there is basil pesto. Combine it with grilled chicken, tomatoes, and broccoli, and you have a real knockout combination. Of course, you can order a basic pepperoni if you're not feeling so adventurous.

They also offer sandwiches, salads, and calzones. With their typical sense of humor, they describe the calzone as a "pizza turnover." The salads are especially generous, to say the least - a small salad is dinner-sized, and I haven't ever seen anyone order the full sized ones. I'd imagine they are the size of a large pizza if the "small" salad size is any indication. There is also a decent selection of beer to wash down your pizza.

The hippie ambience also contributes to the restaurant's charm. Psychodelic cartoons of talking mushrooms adorn the walls, while the kitchen is decorated with various bumper stickers ranging from liberal to libertarian. Rounding things out is an ample supply of copies of Creative Loafing.

If there is one drawback, it's that this may not be the cleanest restaurant in town. I haven't found any sticky tables or other real gross-outs, but this is the sort of place where you can expect a bit of writing on the bathroom wall. On the other hand, this is the only pizza place I've seen to have someone scrawling political slogans on the bathroom wall in Latin.

Contact:
1880 Highway 20
Conyers, GA
770-761-4500

A second blog

2005-10-04T19:52:00.000-05:00

Planning to visit Newton or Rockdale County in Georgia? Looking for what your dining options are? This blog is all about the local restaurants, especially local chains or independant operations.