Dining out on summer veggies
The tomato vines are bent over double. Okra, butter beans and corn are at their peak. And you’ve got a hankering for a plate of fresh vegetables. Well, bless your pea-pickin’ little heart. You’ve found nirvana.
From lunch counters to fine dining establishments, from the south side to the north, Atlanta restaurants are ripe with the taste of the season. And though the culinary influence is deeply Southern, the styles are as varied and vivid as succotash. There's Americana (Carver’s Country Kitchen, tucked inside a vintage grocery on Marietta Street). There's retro (the Colonnade, still serving aspic and pear halves after all these years). There are James Beard Award-nominated high-enders (Restaurant Eugene) and rustic newcomers (Miller Union) — places where the menus are updated regularly to reflect what's fresh.
Fried green tomatoes, yellow squash, creamed corn, blackberry pie: Everybody has a summer craving, and it’s usually steeped in the tastes and aromas of memory. If you find yourself hungry for the honest-to-goodness flavors of the Southern farm table, here are a few places to keep in mind.
Best bargain
Among stalls laden with hampers of peas and baskets of peaches, the Oakwood Café at the Market resides quietly in the concrete wasteland of the State Farmers Market in Forest Park. A plate of four vegetables will cost you $6.50 ($5.25 for three). And with the rotating daily menu, you can try something new every day: field peas and snaps on Monday; squash casserole on Tuesday; fried green tomatoes on Wednesday; and so on. (Greens are always on the menu.) If you like a sweet-salty combination, ask for the sweet-potato cornbread. And if it seems ironic that the peach cobbler at the State Farmers Market is made with canned fruit, that’s OK. It’s still pretty darn tasty. 16 Forest Parkway, Forest Park. 404-214-5660.
Sophisticated Southern
When Alabama-born chef Scott Peacock left Watershed restaurant in Decatur, I prayed: “Please, Lord, whatever you do, don’t let the new chef mess with that vegetable plate.” Well, I’m happy to report that Joe Truex, the newly appointed executive chef, hasn’t changed much at all about Watershed’s elegantly composed “hot vegetable plate,” served with a cake-y corn muffin ($14 at lunch, $16 at dinner). A recent visit was a like a return to Grandma’s, only better: butter beans with cream and country ham; delicious white peas, buttery yellow squash, perfect fried okra, sliced tomatoes and green beans. 406 W. Ponce de Leon Ave., Decatur. 404-378-4900, watershedrestaurant.com.
Food for the soul
A downtown favorite with an atmosphere as homey as the food, the Busy Bee Café is a shoebox-size room that fairly buzzes at lunchtime. Just before “Sunday Dinner,” which starts at noon, you may find folks lined up outside, waiting for the front-door key to turn. Veggie lovers can choose from collards, turnips, fried okra, buttered okra, string beans with potatoes, “fried” (cream-style) corn, and on and on (four items for $9.50, three for $8.50). The kitchen has finessed the art of breading its vegetables; the crispy coating of the fried green tomatoes does not obscure that tangy inner goodness. Next time, we want a bite of that broccoli cheese casserole everybody seemed to be ordering. 810 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, Atlanta. 404-525-9212, thebusybeecafe.com.
Pie hole
Greenwood’s on Green Street is a Roswell institution known for its G-normous portions, spectacular pies and a whimsical garden that’s so lush the place could be mistaken for a gardening store. (Check out the rusty old International pickup with a flatbed carpeted in sedum and the peace sign and Elvis busts out front.) As for the veggies, the collards are tangy, the creamed corn is sweet, the broccoli casserole with canned fried onion rings a throwback to the “Mad Men” era. While certain things like black-eyed peas and mashed potatoes are standard, the server said the kitchen would be taking advantage of seasonal produce like string beans and squash. (Three veggies are $7.75, four for $8.75.) And about those pies: There’s everything from coconut cream to butterscotch. The blackberry, filled with berries and topped with a sugary crust, is a real pie (not a cobbler) — a total flashback to the childhood ritual of berry-picking. 1087 Green St., Roswell. 770-992-5383.
