Inman Park spot serves big comfort food

Service: varied

Best dishes: new potato skins, craft grilled cheese, flat-top mac and cheese

Vegetarian selections: tofu fried hash, veggie burger, salads

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Price range: $-$$

Credit cards: all major credit cards

Hours: 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Sundays, 8 a.m.-10 p.m. Mondays-Thursdays, 8 a.m.-11 p.m. Fridays, 9 a.m.-11 p.m. Saturdays

Children: yes

Parking: shared lot, valet in evenings

Reservations: no

Wheelchair access: yes

Smoking: no

Noise level: low to moderate

Patio: enclosed area with garage-style doors that can be raised

Takeout: yes

Address, phone: 465 N. Highland Ave., Atlanta. 404-537-4493

Website: www.folkartrestaurant.com

Breakfast out — that’s a tough one. Am I wrong? Choose between greasy spatula A, chain house B or that independent, once-small brunchery that grew a little too big for its britches.

On many weekends, we either take the family to brunch or meet people out for the morning meal. We tend to rotate through the same few independent spots that don’t require you to send an unlucky nominee to wait an hour or two for a table.

When new breakfast or brunch restaurants open, I keep tabs on them, hoping for a newbie to add to the rotation. This is particularly true when a proven chef digs into the project. So it was with great interest that I visited Folk Art, the new Inman Park breakfast-all-day operation from Wisteria’s chef/owner Jason Hill.

How would a restaurant qualify for my list? Decent service, affordability and family friendliness are all a given. Beyond that, the menu would need to offer well-executed basics for the eggs-and-bacon bunch and maybe a few “cheffy” options for those of us looking for something a little more interesting. Local sourcing would score bonus points.

Folk Art masters some of the criteria for a great cafe, but not all. The prices are reasonable and the kitschy license-plate-laden decor comes together in a laid-back but energetic kind of way. Where it falters is in unpredictable service and a menu boasting big comfort food that quickly becomes monotonous and lacks the oomph that makes it worth the splurge. This is not Wisteria.

Hill will be the first to tell you that Folk Art is not his signature restaurant a few doors down the block. The original concept was for Folk Art to be a meat-and-three with a cozy country store selling pickled veggies and the like. Both space limitations and neighborhood pressure to open an affordable breakfast-and-lunch hangout prompted Hill to alter the plan.

If you build it, they will come? Locals have warmed to the restaurant during the day, and Hill hopes the recently added dinner service with craft beer and signature cocktails will soon catch on. In Folk Art’s first week, however, it was back to the menu board. He plucked the cheffy items right off the menu. “Sausage and bacon sell,” Hill said, “People want straightforward things.”

Sausage and bacon it is. Apparently other big sellers include those colossal indulgences that dissolve your cares in the moment but later send you to the gym awash with guilt.

Maybe your day demands a heaping serving of the flat-top mac and cheese, casserole-style mac griddled with extra cheese for a toasty, crackling crust on top of the gooey goodness. Pair that with the juicy double patty melt ($9) on marbled rye or get your cheese on with the craft grilled cheese ($7.99), a melty mess of yum with layers of cheddar, provolone, Gruyere, Swiss and creme Brie.

You can start your food therapy with simple appetizers like the lightly battered fried green tomatoes ($4.99) or fried pickles ($3.99). Why not live a little and order the new potato skins ($4.99)? The taters come hollowed and heaped with pimento cheese melting into a bean-y bath of pork chili.

Maybe simple is better. Only taste will tell. If I’m going to blow my calorie wad on a single dish, I want the most bang for my bulge. I zeroed in on the roasted pork verde ($9.99), an intriguing mixture of 48-hour brined pork, roasted green chiles, pork chili, tortillas and a fried egg. It sounds like a gut buster. It sounds delicious. Yet something is missing, something to unify the ingredients and add depth.

I had a similar reaction to the one-note pan-fried breaded pork chops with gravy ($12) and the Southern comfort ($13.99), Folk Art’s take on shrimp and grits. The watery grits and chopped shrimp sang a sad, soppy song.

If you’re piling it on, choose one of the homey desserts from cake domes on the diner-style counter. The day’s selection may include a moist apple-walnut-spice cake ($3) drizzled with thick white glaze or a perfectly acceptable pecan pie thick with corn-syrupy filling ($3).

Or you could take a page from my book and order one of the four French toast specialties for dessert. Four thick triangles of challah come layered with toppings like a spicy cinnamon pecan sticky bun rendition ($7.99) or a bananas foster mixture sweet with the ripe fruit ($7.99). Perfect for sharing.

No, Folk Art is not Wisteria. It doesn’t have the same execution, finesse or level of service, but it also doesn’t come with the same price tag. No matter what you expect from chef Hill, what you have is a businessman who has given the neighborhood what it wants: a spot to add to the rotation for those within walking distance.