OK, so I’m a little late in getting this one written and published.
Hang with me.
I’m going to spare you most of the details about how we ended up at the Southern Bistro. Just a little back story should do. We’d made plans for my Young Harris College roommate, Mike and his (much) better half, Michelle, to come up from Savannah for a YHC alumni event with the Braves at Sun Trust Park. Another YHC friend, Linda, and her hubs Barry were planning to meet us all for dinner and the alumni event and baseball game. However, due to a series of events that are a bit more convoluted than I care to describe, we ended up at the Southern Bistro with Linda and Barry and our friends Charlene and Leon, who also are YHC alumni. Let’s just say that from the time we started planning this shindig to the time we actually made it to the restaurant, we’d ditched Plan A, bypassed Plans B, C and D and were on Plan E…or maybe F. No matter, when we get any portion of our YHC crowd together we always manage to have a good time.
OK, back to the Southern Bistro…
Rather than tell who had what, I’ll just give a quick rundown of the dishes that we ordered:
Appetizer:
- Blue Cheese Potato Chips with applewood Bacon, green onion, cherry tomato and blue cheese fondue.
Entrees included:
- Grilled Chicken Sandwich with applewood bacon, Swiss cheese, Georgia lettuces, tomato and truffle honey mustard on an egg bun;
- Ahi Tuna Cobb Salad with avocado, applewood bacon, cherry tomato, green beans, feta cheese, hard boiled egg and green goddess dressing;
- Springer Mountain Farms Buttermilk Fried Chicken with Bistro mac and cheese, green beans, cucumber dill salad and chicken gravy; and
- Gulf Shrimp and Grits with andouille sausage, caramelized onion and tomato pan gravy.
If you’ve read this blog for a year or two you can probably guess who ordered the shrimp and grits.
So how was it? I asked for comments and Thumbs Scale scores from our group a few days after our visit. Here are the general comments I received:
- Blue Cheese Potato Chips: “Meh”;
- Grilled Chicken Sandwich: Two “nothing specials” and a “really good” (OK, I had a bite and I’ll give it a really good too);
- Ahi Tuna Cobb Salad: “the tuna was overcooked, definitely not seared and rare inside”; and
- Gulf Shrimp and Grits: not your typical creamy shrimp and grits but very good nonetheless.
How did the Southern Bistro fare on the Thumbs Scale? How about 9 thumbs up out of a possible 12. All in all, a fairly respectable score. Not great but not bad either. Call it a little above average. I also asked our crowd if they would be willing to give the Southern Bistro another visit and got two ‘probably nots’, two ‘probablys’ and two “sure, ours was pretty good.” As always, your mileage may vary…
