mary mac’s tea room.

Many people have asked about how restaurants on my list are and whether they’re worth going to or not. Most of the time, I don’t remember all the details. So, in order to stop you demanding people from asking me questions all the time, I’ve decided to start documenting my restaurant travels.

Last night, I experienced Mary Mac’s Tea Room for the first time. Locals find it quite “ornery” that I’ve been in Atlanta for so long and have never been to this little slice of southern heaven, but my arteries and I now realize why this place is a must if you ever come to Atlanta.

Our server, Tracy, is a pleasant black woman who despite having a table of Korean fob tourists next to us was able to keep us served and happy in the most efficient and southern way possible. When she wasn’t explaining what “collard greens” were to the Koreans, she was able to bring me my first dish of the night – a house specialty they called the “pot likker”.

Basically, it was a cornbread muffin in a salty and savory collard green broth, served piping hot. For being as incredibly salty and over-flavored (like all southern food) as it was, it was rather delicious and soothing.

Next came our entrees. I had the plate of fried dead sea animals with potato cakes and a vegetable and cheese souffle…

and Slin had the chicken fried steak with fried green tomatoes and broccoli souffle.

There was so much southern goodness in every bite. Seriously. The potato cakes were chewy and flavorful, which is hard to come by with…potatoes. The two of us joyously ate until we couldn’t breathe. Really, we had trouble breathing.

Tracy finished us off with dessert. I had to sacrifice my entire souffle for a to-go box in order to shove this bread pudding with wine sauce down my stomach.

Slin had strawberry shortcake.

Both were way too overloaded with sugar. My teeth started hurting halfway through. Don’t even get me started on how my poor stomach felt.

Some people may confuse my rantings about this place as complaints, but rather, these are exactly the right qualities that a proper southern meal should have – overly salty, overly sweet, overly greasy, and everything cooked in lard in a cast iron skillet. It’s not something a southern immigrant like me can handle all the time, but to the locals, it’s what keeps them alive.