The Dillard House, Dillard GA

It was my anniversary. I had to go big. Well, big for me. Going big always includes a road-trip, always. So I gassed up the car and got on the road. Straight up the watermelon 500 (285), then on to N I-75, then to N I-575 we drove past Elijay when I realized I was on the wrong road. Real big.
This is about when I pulled out the map. However this was, as you will see, all part of the Master Plan. Maps should be used only for these needed moments; too much planning, while predictable, causes boredom. We were not bored at that moment.

Necessary adjustments were made plotting the course, and onward we drove. The large road turned into a not so large road, then to a normal road, then we were slap dab in the middle of the curvy mountain roads. Those straight looking red line roads on the maps are not straight. Drivers beware making plans to drive on the red line roads. I was only scolded once or twice about my mountain road driving. References to "The Mini Mine Cart" at Six Flags were made about my "jerky" driving around curves. We passed too many old empty cabins along the way, and saw too many old motels closed down. You know the kind that have individual rooms separated in a semi circle around a central odd looking office. Those motels that remind you of Monopoly in a strange kind of way. Not the big red hotels, but the little green ones. All closed and overgrown, sad and looking over at you when you pass, hoping that you are the next owner, like dogs do at the pound.

People in the mountains have friends with bulldozers. They push dirt around constantly, always looking to make another flat place. I must have seen thirty bulldozers on this little ride. I did also see one giant dump truck. I saw several hills with flat little landing pads cut out so that someone could build something. Nothing was there yet; they just like to bulldoze. I would be willing to bet there is a bulldozer's union, a bulldozers Thursday Night BBQ group, a bulldozer's prayer group, and I bet there is a bluegrass band in Young Harris with a bulldozer driver playing bass.

We passed over rivers and lakes, curving along, a very pretty drive. I was getting hungry. The granola bar snack was long gone. I was anxious to get to our destination. I had eaten there before and had thoroughly enjoyed it. We drove over one more foothill and we were in Clayton Georgia. We turned north on 441, drove over Tallulah Gorge and soon drove into Dillard. Dillard does not strike you as some grand destination when you arrive. No, not a Grand Canyon, a Niagara Falls, or a Saint Louis Arch, just a small town greets you. There is a school on a hill that reminds me of the boarding schools that my boarding school used to compete with in sports. The lawns are all manicured, the buildings are a built in a brick and granite combination with nifty arches and pointy points in the right places. The campus is laid out perfectly, and seems to have been there for eons. The school is called Ranbun Gap-Nacoochee School. click here to go to their site

Looking at their web site and driving past this school reminded me of my youth and the boarding school that I went to when I was in High School. This is a picture of my school, and the building that was called The Inn. We had a grand school on a mountain; poor but grand.
These schools have to be experienced to fully understand the pride that is instilled by attending them. As a student you arrive at the school and the first realization you must deal with at thirteen or fourteen years old is that you are alone. Once you have wrapped your mushy brain around that, you set forth to remedy that issue, or like others, you run away back home. Some kids did not have the choice to run away back home; they were the strongest personalities. Having said all of that, I will have to expound, I am sure, about that at a later date as I have many school stories, many.

We turned in past the large sign on the right and drove up to the Dillard House. I always love looking at the stonework on these buildings. They are built from what I would guess was locally quarried granite with crazy grain in the rock. The mortar is all raised up between the rock; I wish I new why it is like that besides someone thought it was stylish. I love that the builders chose to use arches for the porches and fronts of the buildings. I can only imagine how many times the buildings have been changed, added on to, and renovated over the years, all adding to the character of them all. There is a smokehouse in the back of the main kitchen, a conference room with banquet facilities, horse barns, rooms for rent and much more. There is, however, only one reason I like the Dillard house, and that is fresh vegetables. When you take time to make the trip, the fresh vegetables are going to bring you back.

We entered the double doors and to the right was the registration desk for the other facilities, dead ahead was a giant wooden menu board that was about the size of the leader boards at the Masters. There were smaller boards with engraved names of meats and vegetables that were removable inserted onto the large menu board. We walked on to the left and was greeted by a host that had that look on her face like you were an old friend. She wasn't surprised to see us, or tired, but genuinely nice and welcoming. Since I was technically one hour behind schedule due to the navigation errors on our little journey, she was a sight for sore eyes. She may have even somehow reminded me of my high school dietitian (Mrs. Hathaway) as she glided through the dining room and showed us to our table gracefully. As we sat down the sun was right in my eyes as I sampled the two salads placed on our table. I was about to be irritated about the sun, when I realized two things were happening simultaneously. First I realized that the Cole Slaw and the Cucumber Salad were crazy good, and secondly I realized that my Master Plan was falling into place quite nicely as the sun started to set behind the mountains.

The waiter stopped by and gave us our drink choices; water, lemonade, or iced tea. That is right, if you want Coke or Pepsi products you should have eaten somewhere else. I love it. Country people that really don't care about what you drink in the big city. This was to be the only communication that the waiters had with us other than "would you like more of anything?", which was also refreshing. I did not have to hear a pitch, and trust me I love a good pitch. Then out came a whirlwind of food, all at once there was eight vegetables, two starches, a basket of mixed breads, and four meats were also delivered at the same time swallowing our table.

Our menu included the following: Home cured Ham, cubed steak slathered in a mushroom gravy, barbecued smoked chicken, southern fried chicken (of course), fresh baby carrots, fresh Lima beans, cabbage casserole, acorn squash casserole with coconut topping, cauliflower in a white sauce, cream corn. cream spinach, fried okra, dressing, white rice, cucumber salad, Cole Slaw, and a pimento relish. We also had biscuits, cheese biscuits, yeast rolls and cornbread. Dessert was blackberry cobbler with ice cream. That was all.

During the meal I did contemplate saying yes to answer the waiters only question, but I felt guilty, often thinking of poor souls in worse shape in this world, and was determined to try to sample everything that had been placed in front of me before I begged for more. For the record, one of the poor souls was Oliver Twist. I did want more when I was done, but that was my greedy little mind wanting the pleasure stimulus that the food had provided. My stomach won that argument with my brain, thankfully, as it could bear to receive no more toward the end of the meal.

Every vegetable was fresh, no cans are in this kitchen. The meats were flavorful and tender, except for the home cured ham, which was firm, and had the most hearty salt cured flavor. The barbecued smoked chicken had a deep real smoke flavor and coloring in the meat. The dressing had hints of fresh herbs, and the rice was cooked perfectly. What an amazing meal, no chemicals, no preservatives, save salt. The breads were hand made, light and flaky. If country cooking can be gourmet, Dillard Georgia is it's Paris.As I mentioned the Master Plan was in full swing. There we were, eating great food, in a great old hall with wood paneling on the walls and ceilings. Looking out through the grand pane glass windows, over the fields of vegetables, past the horses and livestock, onto the blue gray mountains with the sun setting behind them. I am not real sure how I pulled that moment off, but I did, and we had a great evening dining at The Dillard House.



gf

Starbucks and Cracker Barrel, Douglasville Ga

Starbucks and Cracker Barrel. Two of the most consistent places to dine or sup in my little hole, in a bigger hole, in the hole that we describe as the Deep South. I think we are still in the Deep South. Deep in what exactly what will be up for discussion at another time.

Both of these chains have their opportunities, but both have a sense of value based on quality. Starbucks is not cheap. Cracker Barrel, while catering to the average country folk, is not cheap. Both companies use their own special thaumaturgy to remove cash from my pocket and make me leave feeling good.

Starbucks first of all has a real cool logo. I think that the mermaid lady is hot, not as hot as she used to be, but really hot and really cool. http://www.deadprogrammer.com/starbucks-logo-mermaid
Cracker Barrel needs to hire some of the Starbucks people to fix theirs, but then again they would have to reprint all of their stationary.

Starbucks has cool chairs, albeit dirty and worn, cool. Maybe cool is overused in my vocabulary. I am officially blaming growing up in the Sixties. Anyway, they do a nice job decorating with calming colors like beige and browns, you know, coffee colors. Starbucks looks like coffee, smells like coffee, and tastes like coffee as they should. They are pretty savvy marketers, they have plenty of nooks to place coffee beans and granola, and cool cups.... crap. ....and different and unique cups, shot glasses, and French presses. However, here of late in my little hole they are pushing some non-gluten, no sugar, save the world cookies and they are botching it up pretty bad. I would call it "Clutter Marketing". Push the big bulky boxes into the middle of the floor causing a near traffic disaster. They also are trying to peddle these $2.50 fake candy bars without displaying the price clearly. It is bad enough that Starbucks makes us feel guilty by telling us what poor soul made these bars, the least they could do is put a price tag on them clearly. People buy the triple-nut-no-gluten-less-sugar-chemical-free-made-in-a-poor-country-or-by some-smart-home-maker bars and cookies just to get them out of the middle of the walk way.

Cracker Barrel has non-cheap cool chairs also, really weird all connected, notched, wooden sturdy chairs. I would love to see how many of these chairs break and what the circumstances were when they did break. I have seen mammoth four hundred pound bacon and egg eaters in these chairs with no breaking, sagging or creaking. These chairs look as though they were constructed by some secret Amish subculture whose roots are from descendants of the Egyptians and the Romans. There are specially hewn kids chairs made to fit on the adult chairs, crafted every so cleverly. The tables are not cheap either, they are heavy wooden tables put together like barn beams, complete with wooden nails and wedges. These actually may be Elvin tables, a remnant from Middle Earth. Elvin anything is not cheap.

I never see a Starbucks TV commercial. I hardly ever see a Starbucks coupon of any sort. They really don't need it. They probably don't want it. So what do they do? OMG we are in a recession! What are they going to do to keep customers?
They make great coffee.
They remember your name (especially if you are an addict like myself).
They buy and sell __________ coffee cups (please input a word other than cool).

The above is what they both do well. They market themselves by selling you trinkets and great coffee in logo recycled cups, with recycled insulator bands, with nifty sipper tops, with a feel good quote stamped on the side that reminds you of the experience even after you have long tossed it into the floorboard of your truck and you watch it as it rolls around when you take sharp turns. Eating or drinking is only part of the deal. Eating and drinking has been mostly pleasurable in my experience with both of these stores, but the other part has been just as pleasing. Yes, the coffee cups and the french presses and trinkets are a bit over priced but they are....coo....crap.....rad....groovy...uh..eclectic.
The Cracker Barrel Country Store is a blend of cheesy Nashville mixed with some "Whisperin' Bill Anderson in the background. All kinds of candy left over from the 50's, fake quilts, college nick knacks, and assorted "I want to be country" goodies. Unbelievably, I always seem to buy something usually more expensive than my food bill. Have you ever bought fudge after eating Uncle Hershel's Breakfast? I have.

Now there are patrons at both stores that I really do not like. Matter of fact, truth be known, I loath. This week there was the lady who came in Starbucks and ordered the caramel latte etc etc blah blah lite this, less that. When the barista finished the drink the customer puckered up her best "I am a complete waste of flesh smile" and says "Wait, ohh nooo, I wanted the caramel UNDERNEATH the whipped cream. And I wanted LITE chocolate on the top". Of course the barista so slightly smiled, apologized, scooped off the whole top and graciously started over. This is why Starbucks rocks, because they have to deal with the anti-humans that come in and pervert a perfectly fine cup of coffee. Matter of fact I am quite tired of all of the "all the toppings on the side", extra this, not that" people, but I may have to include that into the Deep South blog that will be to come in the future.

Cracker Barrel has several levels of people that can creep me out. There are the nice, no, super nice-came-back-from-her-second-retirement lady selling in the retail store. Please just settle for bland conversation with these types. The weather, the latest holiday, or the bluegrass music lyrics wafting down over the crazy farm implements that are hung from the ceiling will do. If not, you will find yourself at the Primitive Baptist Church pot luck dinner on a Wednesday night.
Secondly, there are thirty OCD servers pouring coffee, nonstop, creepy like. I drank no less that eight cups this morning, every cup poured by a different server. Creepy. I also always see some odd employee wandering about, but who doesn't have and odd employee walking around? I have no less that seven odd employees where I work. I always try to be odd just for good measure. Well I really don't try so hard to be truthful.
Thirdly, let me just give you a visual on how creepy the farm equipment hanging from the ceiling is: The movie Twister, the scene is when Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt were running from the twister, that sucked up the red Dodge truck with the windshield that went from shattered to not shattered (you will notice this after the twentieth time you watch the movie). They ran into the big red barn where all of the farm implements were hanging and Bill looks up and around and says "I don't think so!", and Helen Hunt said "Who Are these people"? There you go, creepy hanging farm equipment.

The food at Cracker Barrel will expedite any good heart ailment from mild to severe, but it is after all "country cookin' ". I had Pancakes with scrambled eggs and turkey sausage. The highlight as usual is the little bottles of maple syrup. These cannot be cheap, but they made a cheap meal great. This is very smart on Cracker Barrel's part. I would liken it to Sandra Lee taking a box cake and making some crazy good wedding cake out of it. The food came out on time, and it was hot, and it was good. Sure, I know that the biscuits are not from scratch, and that the pancake batter is from a mix, but it was still prepared very well. The white gravy was thick and flavorful, but I am sure that it was not from scratch, and inane of any real nutrition, and or that it had enough bacon fat and butter in it to kill a small community. Bottom line it was a good breakfast and it was reasonably priced, that is until I bought some country goodies from the retail store.

Again, two good companies with similar business plans. Amazingly enough both companies get their share of bad press about how they do this or didn't do that, but don't let that discourage you from giving them a go. I will take a Caffe Americano please, http://tiny.cc/xlJ3p no room, with Grandma's Pancake Breakfast. Turkey sausage.



gf

Landmark Cafe, Bill Arp

Well then, here I go. Diving into the blog black water head first and with eyes wide open.

I will blog about most everything I suppose, but since I am chest deep in the food industry, I may stay in that murky black water most of the time.

How proud would Bill Arp be if he knew that I started my blog in his name sake community? Not sure, he most likely would not be impressed. Funny, neither was I impressed with the dining fare at the Landmark Cafe in the Bill Arp community.

First of all, very nice job in saving an old building. I believe that it used to be an old grocery back 60 years ago or more. I should have stopped and read up on the building as I was leaving. They did take the time to bring out the history books and explain to the patrons the history of the Landmark Cafe which was displayed by the cash register on the way out. But honestly I just wanted to go home.

The food was bland and boring. I had the vegetable plate for $5.99. I received 4 oz of green beans, from a can, possibly salted. I also received 4 oz of, wait make that 3 oz, of baby carrots, from a can, maybe some brown sugar added. Then there was the corn from a a can, 4 oz, and Cole slaw, cabbage only, with a light pre-made dressing; both were bland. I was to receive corn bread, which I saw when I spied on the table next to us. Even though I did not receive it I noticed that it resembled a shrunken hoe cake. I also could not document the blackberry cobbler that I ordered as I never received that either. Another thing that made my lip curl slightly was that all of the vegetables were served in bullion cups which made eating them very odd indeed.

My better half ordered the fried chicken which was only a half of a breast and was reported as tough and over salted. The mashed potatoes were fresh with a slight butter taste, but again had no seasoning and were bland. The sweet tea was spot on.

I am sure that the cuisine that was unaccounted for at the end on my meal was due to the waiter washing his hands sometime during the process of serving us. Yes, he wrote the order on his palm of his hand like unto Ms Palin. I thoroughly understand a family based business, and I can envision all of the potential nightmares that this could possibly bring, but for the love of Peter use order pads!

Again, the building was the highlight even though I dreamed of turning it into my own creation as I choked down the warmed corn. The ceiling has wooden beams done very nicely, almost covering the blown insulation/asbestos looking bumpy stuff. There was a nice room above the kitchen that had two french doors overdecorated with church flowers and left over Valentines decorations. This room appeared to be the stock room instead of the lover's outlook. Several times workers trudged up the stairs to get the cans of corn and green beans that we were not enjoying.

The entry sported a long granite looking bar which was not being utilized with any comfy high bar chairs for a quick diner to enjoy. It was however cluttered with lids, paper supplies (other than order pads), coffee thermos' with pumps, and an old TV set on Sanford and Sons. The episode that was on featured Aunt Esther, which I did enjoy. Behind that bar were several pieces of coffee grinding machinery, as well as two espresso machines which did not appear to get much use. There was also much clutter behind the bar like Christmas lights and other unused goods. This indeed was the biggest waste of space that I noticed, and it is such a nice space. The walls were decorated with random flowers, but the building does have nice stone work and wood work.

I did not understand the payment process completely at the end. I took the hand transferred ticket to the front counter as I did not see that the owner would be allowing the hand scribing waiter with cash handling. I placed the ticket on the counter and a nice lady came by and asked if I had a to go order. She communicated the need for a cashier to another, and she proceeded to cash me out. The credit card process was awkward to say the least as it was set up like a retail purchase. "Do you want cash or credit"? "Cash back"? "Press 1". For the love of everything that is pure and clean, get that fixed asap.

I may revisit to try breakfast, or to see if they know burgers, but as far as dinner goes I do believe I am done. I hope that these folks do not derail completely and can figure out how to make money at this venture because the community needs a local mom and pop diner. They store was 70% full while we were there, but with the goods they are peddling it may not stay that way for long. The clientele were from the community and were a mixture of teens, adults and a few retired folk. The location is perfect for a local diner which is "5 Points" with a lot of traffic which has increased due to a couple of bridges being out due to the five hundred year flood in the area.

I wish them good luck, they will need it. Stop by some time and try the tea!

gf