Former music venue provides cozy, trendy atmosphere

Last Resort Grill

174-184 W. Clayton St.

706-549-0810

By ANNA DOLIANITIS

If you’re looking to escape and unwind with a quiet meal, Last Resort Grill on East Clayton Street is not the place for you, but if you want a lively environment in which to enjoy great food and drink with friends, this quaint, tucked away eatery is the perfect venue.

Last Resort, a downtown Athens institution that began as a music venue in the 1960s, provides a surprisingly chic decor, a dimly-lit dining atmosphere with lively chatter, and the promise that you will absolutely run into someone you know.

The restaurant serves southern food with a modern twist, and whether you choose brunch, lunch or dinner, you won’t be disappointed.

By far the best meal, Last Resort’s lunch menu offers large-portion salads with a diverse mix of greens and other vegetables, as well as treats of nuts, rare cheeses and homemade hummus, all hovering around $7 each. The South by Southwest salad, the best lunch item, combines artichoke hearts, feta cheese, grilled chicken, capers and the diner’s choice of homemade dressing. Lunch is served Monday through Saturday 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Dinner at Last Resort should be planned in advance. If you’ve skipped lunch, the Last Resort Praline is worth a try. Even with the medley of cheeses the chicken breast is stuffed with and the honey nut glaze that coats it, this dish — served with grits and steamed vegetables — is just short of heavenly.

While the dishes — ranging from homemade pastas to stuffed pork chops and a variety of fish — seem to get more delicious by the forkful, there is a downside. The sweet sauces and cheesy fillings fill you up quickly, and if you don’t leave enough to fill a to-go box, you’ll be too full for dessert.

For a lighter dinner, try the Vegetable Patch, a mix of marinated Portabello mushrooms, grilled vegetables and homemade sweet mash and Yukon gold mashed potatoes. Add a couple small appetizer plates to share with your dinner companions for a satisfying experience.

The dinner menu is slightly more expensive than lunch - somewhere in the $12-$18 range, but the portion size and savory taste are worth it. Dinner is served Sunday-Thursday 5 to 10 p.m. and Friday and Saturday 5 to 11 p.m.

If you’re dying for fish, call ahead to check the menu. While a bit of an inconvenience, the restaurant won’t order certain types of fish if the freshest isn’t available.

Even for the perpetual dieter, dessert at Last Resort is a must. Upon walking into the art-filled restaurant, glance to the left and pick out one of the restaurant’s cheesecakes to try. While the black and white chocolate cheesecake may be too rich for some diners’ tastes, the raspberry and New York Style cheesecakes - or a slice of layer cake - is the perfect way to end a great meal at this downtown eatery.

Brunching at Last Resort is a Sunday tradition for many, if you can wait until noon to have a mimosa with your omelette. The Very Vegetable omelet mixes squash, zucchini and onions and is stuffed with Pepper Jack cheese, and at about $7 to $9, is the perfect way to start a Sunday.

The restaurant’s host and waiters are attentive and knowledgeable about the food and plentiful wine options. The restaurant’s co-owner, Jamshad (Jaamy) Zarnegar, is a constant fixture at Last Resort, always stopping by to check on the food and make sure customers are enjoying the Last Resort experience. Often, Jaamy’s smile is the one that greets diners at the door.

While Last Resort doesn’t take reservations, calling ahead is always a good idea; Then, the wait will be about 15 minutes, regardless of the day of the week or time of day. Tables aren’t crowded together, but the claustrophobic diner might ask to be seated near the entrance or on the outdoor heated patio.

From the outside, Last Resort appears little more than a hole in the wall, but walking in, any diner can appreciate the cozy yet trendy atmosphere. Whether it is dinner for two on a Saturday night date or happy hour drinks for friends in need of a mid-week break, Last Resort is a go-to place for great dining and socializing in Athens.

Five Star Day Café is the place to go for home cooking

Five Star Day Café
229 E. Broad St.
706-543-8552

By SHANESSA FAKOUR

Walking past Starbucks on Broad Street in downtown Athens, I almost missed the hole in the wall restaurant that is Five Star Day Café. Opening the door, I noticed red and white plaid tablecloths covering wooden tables, half of them taken by people dining in. Patrons placed their orders at the counter before seating themselves at a table. Considering the restaurant’s small size and casual style, the menu prices were higher than I expected. However, the foods’ portion sizes and taste made up for that.

After viewing the day’s specials colorfully written on a chalkboard, I decided to leave the beef stroganoff alone and order the Carolina BBQ with a side of collards, a cornbread muffin and sweet tea. It seemed to be a popular meal choice, as three people in front of me ordered it with different sides – macaroni and cheese and coleslaw. I sampled my friend’s macaroni and cheese and discovered the pale yellow seashells to taste cheesier than I expected. Next time, I will look for a vegetable entrée so I can enjoy those carb-filled sides.

Local artists’ paintings decorated the walls with symbols famous to the University of Georgia, such as the arch, the bulldog Uga and the insignia G. Incoming patrons desiring a late lunch crowded the entrance door and easily overpowered the soft music playing in the background, as they waited to place their orders at the counter.

Opened in 1998, the restaurant aims to serve the highest quality of “gourmet soul food,” according to its menu, with Southern favorites, such as stuffed meatloaf, pot roast, southern fried chicken and trout. The café serves breakfast with classic dishes such as eggs benedict. The lunch menu is boring to look at, however. Combinations of soup and salad along with PB&J, grilled cheese and BLT sandwiches make it easy to skip over to the meals listed under “Gourmet soul.” That is where I found my $8 BBQ sandwich placed on a large sesame seed bun.

The BBQ tasted great because it had a little kick at the end of each bite. The massive amount of pulled pork loaded onto the toasted buns was enough for two meals. In fact, I took about half of it off to set aside for later, and still was left with a full serving of tasty BBQ on the bun. The collards tasted fresh and seasoned. Again, the serving was plentiful, and I brought more than half of it home. While eating my sandwich with a fork - the BBQ was hard to pull apart- I sipped on delicious sweet tea. Other Southerners might find it lacking in sweetness, but I thought it contained just the right amount of sugar. In fact, I tasted more sugar in the cornbread muffin than in my drink. I considered the muffin to be my dessert after a satisfying meal.

With a friendly staff that served meals in less than 10 minutes, Five Star Day Café is definitely a place to go to satisfy a craving for home cooking set in a casual diner. Don’t let the small size of their kitchen or restaurant fool you – the meal easily meets the standards of hungry Southerners looking for quality “gourmet soul food.” For those desiring great tasting BBQ, make sure you don’t pass the restaurant while walking downtown. It’s easy to do, and you’ll be missing out on a delicious meal!

Mama's Boy, the perfect hangover cure

Mama's Boy
197 Oak St.
706-548-6249

By SARA GOODMAN

Curing a hangover has never been easier than eating at Mama’s Boy for Sunday brunch. Self-described as “Southern fun dining,” the restaurant cooks up regional favorites that evoke a nostalgic feeling of Southern charm. The restaurant opened its doors three years ago and in its short time has become an Athens weekend ritual for both college students and locals. And like most of the college students waiting for a table, I, too, was hungover.

My typical antidote after a night drinking is grease; large and vast amounts of greasy cuisine. Whether it’s Waffle House, McDonald’s or just a bowl of lard, grease instantly cures me. However, the process of healing a hangover at Mama’s Boy is different. Not only because of the lack of grease in the food, but also because the restaurant is your mother’s 1950’s kitchen. Entering the restaurant, everything seems familiar. The dining room is straight out of Pleasantville. Think robin’s egg blue walls, white billowy curtains and retro black Formica dinette sets. It felt cozy without feeling cheesy, homey but not gimmicky.

Drinks are served in glass mason jars, including the house favorite strawberry lemonade. The electric pink drink, which was too sugary to quench my severe dehydration, reminded me of the juice from lemonade stands of my youth. This juice, though, was a little more grown up. The sugary and acidic combination creates a vibrant flavor, reminiscent of a tropical drink, umbrella included, sipped poolside. Although it was too sweet for my impaired taste buds, the pink drink was visible on all the surrounding tables.

Eating at Mama’s Boy felt like eating at home, with the added pleasure of being served and cooked for. The brunch menu, which is served Saturday and Sunday from 8 a.m. until 2:30 p.m., ranges from dessert for breakfast to oyster sandwiches. In between is the vegetable and egg scrambler with spinach, onion, goat cheese and tomato with a familiar appeal mixed with sophistication. The key element in this dish is the goat cheese. The creamy consistency of the tart cheese combined with the ultimate hangover cure, scrambled eggs, makes for a mature version of cheesy egg.

Served with a homemade buttermilk biscuit and cheese grits, the sides are the perfect chasers. The biscuit is the type of biscuit that would make Paula Deen proud: flakey, fluffy and best prepared in the creamy butter and fresh strawberry jam served with it. The grits are thicker than a true Southern accent and are covered in a layer of shredded cheddar cheese and butter. With each bite, these grits silently reaffirm why I live in the South, and make me instantly forget about my menacing stomachache.

But it’s not just the vegetable and egg scrambler saving the day. The corned beef and potato hash with its two poached eggs and chive hollandaise makes for a convincing remedy, as well. The salty corned beef mixes with perfectly seasoned potato hash to create the traditional breakfast dish. The dish, though, could have used more meat and an additional sprinkling of hollandaise sauce. The mill town breakfast plate is the standard two eggs your way and thick cut bacon. Mama’s Boy serves only the real thing when it comes to bacon. I’m talking about generous slices, freshly sizzled— not microwaved. The breakfast taco plate provides a surge of creative energy, with the dish requiring eaters to choose from a variety of fillings, ranging from beans and pico de gallo to tofu and bacon. If sugar is your thing, sample the Georgia peach stuffed toast. Topped off with powdered sugar, pecans, whipped cream and maple syrup, the gooey mounds of bread taste like peach cobbler for breakfast. And trust me, you don’t need the syrup.

If you’re feeling especially queasy from your night downtown, avoid the fried chicken biscuit, which tastes like the deep fryer zapped the entire flavor out of the chicken. Ditto for the fried oyster sandwich. The small fried oysters were further shrunken by the frying process and ended up tasting dry, chewy and overcooked. A drawback to the Sunday brunch is the large crowd, which causes the kitchen to work overtime with not enough hands to keep up. Also, be prepared for the noise. The small restaurant echoes throughout with the packed-to-capacity dining crowd, which is not ideal for a spinning head. And don’t be scared away by the approximate wait-time the hostess gives you. Typically, she’s off by at least 30 minutes. Prices, though, won’t cause your head to pound as all brunch items are under $9. After a night out on the town, it’s safe to reopen your wallet on Sundays at Mama’s Boy. Your hangover will thank you later.

Mama's Boy: A side of Southern charm

Mama's Boy
197 Oak St.
706-548-6249

By DERRICK THOMAS

The location of Mama’s Boy Southern Fun Dining says a lot about the restaurant. On Oak St. in Athens, it’s too hip for Watkinsville, but also a little casual for downtown.

As I walk into the petite building, maybe 10 cars outside, fresh coffee enflames the nostrils as a friendly face asks me to sit wherever I like. “I’ll just follow you with the menu,” she says with a smile. With a dining room no bigger than a nice living room, the choice is limited to a couple of booths and just over a dozen tables. A table for two in the corner will suit my companion and me just fine.

We had our doubts as we walked in. With a bit of a townie feel, my friend and I wonder, “will we be welcome here?” Before long, the casual dress of the workers, the soft Southern rock soundtrack and the welcoming service put us at ease.

This place is for everyone. A group of girls are having bible study in a corner booth. A couple of students quietly enjoy each other’s company. An older couple sits down next to us after a few minutes – obviously regulars. Even the bus boy enjoys the local paper as he wraps silverware.

The environment is all well and good, but things get serious when our plaid-shirted waiter asks us what we would like to drink. Let’s see if that coffee tastes like it smells… Nope! Disappointment. The coffee, while in a delightfully oversized mug, is nothing special. At least it’s hot.

As my friend decides what to order, I try to decide whether I like my coffee. We look over the menu, and two workers enjoy a laugh behind the Waffle House-style bar, and we are glad to be here. Yeah, the coffee’s average, but the water comes in a Mason jar! This is my kind of place.

We order, and in just a few quick minutes, our hot breakfast has arrived. The biscuits and gravy I ordered are not exactly what I expected. Two biscuits under white sausage gravy, right? Wrong. Two large biscuits (cut in half, seeming like four) are smothered in beige bacon gravy. Not what I expected, but how bad can you screw this classic up? The answer is, not at all. These soft buttermilk treats were baked for the sole purpose of bathing in this newly-discovered gravy. And the “thick cut” bacon that accompanies is crisp with an above-average flavor. All of a sudden, this coffee ain’t so bad.

I asked my companion to keep the assessment of her sausage biscuit to herself, so as to not sway mine. It didn’t look like much: just a single sausage patty on one of the aforementioned buttermilk biscuits. No jelly. No cheese. Really, how good can this be? Wow. This is the most simple – and fantastic – biscuit I’ve eaten in some time. The biscuit, as mentioned, is very good, but it simply compliments the abundant flavor of the sausage.

The food is great. The only problem is that our (perhaps too) casual waiter has yet to give me a chance to tell him about it. Not to mention I need some more of this increasingly satisfying coffee. He eventually comes.

As we finish our meals, I notice the beer and wine in the refrigerator behind the bar. The simple selection of beer offers Miller High Life and PBR for the good ole boys. Meanwhile, Amstel Light and some Terrapin Golden Ale will satisfy any local hipster. The wine ranges in price from $19-$40 a bottle. Breakfast has been good, but we must come back for dinner and a few drinks.

We receive the check and realize we have both enjoyed a late breakfast for around $10 a piece (including tip). The food was very good, and the service was okay (although he did offer a coffee to go). But Mama’s Boy isn’t going for a memorable fine dining experience. Instead, as the name suggest, this “Southern Fun” diner offers a laid-back experience that is just as much about the cozy environment as it is about the good home cooking. And the coffee really isn’t that bad.