MARY MAC'S TEA ROOM

He says:
There are few restaurants in Atlanta as famous as Mary Mac's. Ever since it opened in 1945, Mary Mac's Tea Room has maintained the décor, cooking, and traditions of the Old South, and for this reason it has become a destination for both native Atlantans and tourists alike. On any given night you can walk down Ponce De Leon and see middle-aged folk in Hawaiian shirts happily pouring out of a Greyhound bus for some good ole' meat and three.

Boy, are they in for a surprise!

The reason Uptown Girl and I visited this past fall is the same reason everyone goes to Mary Mac's: for real southern cooking. None of this "New South" or "fusion" cuisine with grits sculpted into a skyscraper and topped with portabella mushrooms--we wanted the real deal. Plus, Uptown Girl's parents were in town for the weekend and they were shocked to learn we hadn't tasted fried green tomatoes or collard greens from a proper restaurant yet. So off we went to satisfy our collective curiosity and appetite.

She says:
Wow. After eating at Mary Mac's, fried has taken on a whole new meaning for me. We ordered the "Southern Special" family style dinner (3 entrees, 3 sides, 3 desserts), and out came platter after deep-fried platter--fried chicken, fried okra, fried green tomatoes--all mediocre and pretty much indistinguishable from one another other. The one non-fried thing I remember was the mac 'n cheese, the worst over-cooked pasta and curdled cheese mixture I have ever tasted.

There were a few more dishes which I can't recall right now. Why, you ask? Because after vomiting all of that fried food back up early the following morning, I've tried to erase the entire experience from memory. I won't go so far as to say Mary Mac's poisoned me. I just think that after years of eating a pretty healthy diet, my stomach just couldn't handle all that grease.

He says:
I totally agree with Uptown Girl's assessment. Normally I like greasy food. I'm the guy who buys a bucket of chicken at KFC and leaves nothing but bones. And yet even I couldn't stomach Mary Mac's "food."

Besides the inedible mac 'n cheese, the roast turkey entrée came straight out of the Swanson's TV dinner playbook--thick, goopy, and tasteless. The meatloaf was moist but bland. The fried chicken was the only acceptable dish in my opinion, and even then the exterior was seriously over-crisped, the meat dry and stringy.

As for the desserts, Mary Mac's managed to botch those too. The word "cloying" doesn't do justice to the saccharine-blast that is the Banana Pudding. And the peaches on the Georgia Peach Cobbler may have been Georgian at one point, but they were clearly from a can.

We say:
"New Southern" has erupted across Atlanta for a reason. We'll take a skyscraper of grits or lightly sautéed green tomatoes with a dollop of goat cheese over Mary Mac's deep-fried platters any day of the week. This is one Atlanta institution you definitely have permission to skip.



MARY MAC'S TEA ROOM
224 Ponce de Leon Ave, Atlanta, GA 30308
http://www.marymacs.com/