Sweet Melissa's Review

Sweet Melissa's is located on the Square in the City of Decatur which many locals call Downtown Decatur.  I've gone to Sweet Melissa's a few times over the years.  The food is consistently good.  It usually isn't on my radar during the weekends because the place can be so doggone crowded.  That is great for them but not for me. Then there is the challenge of parking. If you are a local, you know where to find parking but for those not familiar with the area, you may find it a little challenging. 

On this particular day, I had no concerns about parking.  It was late Monday morning and I had taken the day off from work so I wasn't in any particular rush.  I was hanging out with a new friend whom I'll refer to as Mr. C.  Mr. C is from Dallas and has been in the ATL less than a year.   He knows nothing about the ATL. Mr. C. knows how to get from Kennesaw to downtown Atlanta which is his route from home to work.  And I, being so gracious and kind, will gladly introduce Mr. C to Atlanta.    I told him that he needed to know the City of Decatur (Downtown Decatur) because it may come up in conversation and you don't want to be like....uhhhhhh....duhhhhhhh....hmmmnnnnn....where's dat?  There are many great restaurants in the City of Decatur but I just selected Sweet Melissa's because I hadn't been there in awhile.   

 

I selected the New Orleans Omelet with wheat toast and cheese grits.  All of it was very good and tasty.  The cheese grits were very tasty and creamy.  The omelet had Andouille sausage, shrimp, onion, green peppers and smoked gouda cheese with cajun remoulade.  You can't go wrong with this combination and they didn't.  What I really liked about this omelet was that it was nice and firm and the ingredients were more prominent than the eggs.  I think restaurants go wrong when there is too much egg in the omelet.  If I had made this at home, I probably would have added more cajun seasoning or Old Bay seasoning to the shrimp. 

Mr. C had a create your own omelet.  I forgot what he had added to it.  I think a lot of meat and no veggies...you know how a lot of guys do.  Chefs say that we eat with our eyes first.   If this is true, Sweet Melissa's should rethink how this lonely omelet was presented to Mr. C who already believes that there is no good food in Atlanta.  Since he elected not to have the traditional sides, it left his plate looking rather forlorn.   

Mr. C ordered one of the additional breakfast sides - Shrimp and Grits with Roasted Red Peppers.  Now, this was the real star of the morning!  I hate that this picture wasn't very clear.  The seasoning of the shrimp was perfect.  In fact, next time I go back to Sweet Melissa's I will order this. 

Mr. C raved and raved some more about the food at Sweet Melissa's.  He asked the waitress where the cook was from because they can't be from Atlanta.  I told him that he just might be offending some people.  The waitress said that the chef did go to chef school.  Mr. C...yeah...but where he from?   The waitress was very pleased that Mr. C was so very pleased with the food.  I think it made her day.  I thought the food was really good but my head wasn't spinning and about to pop off.  The coffee was good and hot and the waitress kept it flowing.  I will look at a restaurant sideways if they have good food but can't serve good and hot coffee. 

 

The service was really good and it should have been since there may have only been 4 other people in the restaurant.  But still, the waitress was very friendly and talked to us about the history of the restaurant and the menu in general.  She also encouraged us to try the pancakes next time which she said were outstanding.  She also said we should come back for the live music on Sundays.  You can call ahead of time to find out who is playing and the type of music.   A few years ago, I was there when there was live music and it was very crowded.  Because of the acoustics of the place and all of the people, it just seemed really noisy to me.  This took away from my dining experience. For me, it was too much stimulation for a Sunday brunch.     

About the parking:  If you have good parking karma, you just might find a spot right on the city square which will put you just outside the doors of Sweet Melissa's.  If not, you can park along Ponce de Leon and get a little exercise.  Sometimes there is parking along Clairemont Avenue.  There is a parking deck that can be accessed from either Church Street or Clairemont Avenue.  It isn't obvious but it is directly behind Parker's on Ponce Steakhouse.

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The Decatur Diner - Greek Omelette and Homefries

Greek omelette, homefries and wheat toast with jelly

The Decatur Diner is now closed -  It probably has been closed awhile but I just noticed it. 9/19/12 

 

The Decatur Diner opened a couple of weeks ago.  I had been observing the restaurant since this last summer and wondered why noone was ever inside which is never a good sign.  Come to find out, it had not opened yet.  Anyway, I wanted to check it out and see what they had going on up in there. It is located in the City of Decatur, AKA Downtown Decatur which is only a few minutes away from the Atlanta city limits.

I love the idea of a diner in the mix of what downtown Decatur has become. It has completely transformed itself since I first arrived in the ATL over twenty years ago. I know that someone, homegrown, of another generation is reading this who will say…Now let me tell you about downtown Decatur! I’m sure that they can tell this mid Atlantic transplant a thing or two about downtown Decatur. But anyway, for good and for bad, it seems that the city has cleansed itself from hole-in-the-wall, gritty restaurants and any appearance of the working class. I remember a diner along Ponce de Leon that a friend and I used to go to. I think the diner was called Square Table. It was a beautiful little authentic place where the owner and his wife were also beautiful, weathered-looking people who came out and talked to us about their family, their lives and just about anything. But that was back when downtown Decatur was still more of a small town with a few gas stations along the main corridor. Some of these gas stations have been cleverly reconstructed into trendy restaurants. Back then, the City of Decatur was not a destination place for those visiting the ATL from out of town. It is now after substantial planning and redevelopment. 4.4 million dollars alone was spent just to redevelop the MARTA train station located right in the middle of the town square. I completely get it and I enjoy most of what it has become. I understand that this isn’t unique to downtown Decatur and is common to many cities across the U.S. I’ve dumped a lot of my own dollars into the area as a former tax-paying resident and one that continues to support the city’s businesses and restaurants. At the same time, it seems that something was intentionally lost in translation.

The Decatur Diner kept all of this in mind. It looks rather contemporary. Two sides of the diner along Church Street and Ponce de Leon have huge windows at least 6 feet in height. The chandeliers throughout are made of wrought iron and amber glass shades. They look like they belong in one of the nearby condos and not a diner. But like I said, this is Downtown Decatur.

I enjoyed my breakfast at the Decatur Diner. I selected the greek omelette made of tomatoes, onions and feta cheese. It came with homefries and wheat toast. Grits may be substituted for the homefries. I requested that the omelette be made with egg whites which was done without an extra charge. They gained some points on that one.  I felt satisfied after my meal which is what I expected from a good, decent diner. I enjoyed sitting in my booth, with the tall windows, watching people pass by as they walked along Church Street. The music was good and I enjoyed listening to How Deep is Your Love by the Bee Gees. The staff was very friendly. I heard my waitress talking to the customer in the booth behind me about a scripture that she had read. Maybe he had a bible out or something but that isn’t unusual in the ATL. People will break out into a testimony.

With any restaurant, they have a few challenges. I could tell that they were still working out staffing kinks. There was a little too much running around and the place wasn’t even a third full. I asked my waitress, the scripture lady, about validating parking. She said they didn’t and us employees have been parking all around this city and that one place across the street is $7 dollars a day. I know, being a transplant and all, that $7 a day is a drop in the bucket to pay for parking. However, she raises a valid point. Many people who live in metro Atlanta still do not feel that they should have to pay for parking. Some of the businesses in close proximity to the Decatur Diner validate parking. Other restaurants have occupied the same space but have not remained opened. Hopefully, it isn’t due to bad location Karma. A few really good breakfast places are just down the street, and my favorite one, Pastries A Go Go has free parking. That’s just reality. Decatur Diner is decent diner food and that’s what I expected. I’ll probably be back.