Fork in the Road Cafe cooks up down home cooking

0
251

It’s like going for a meal at your grandmother’s house and sitting down for a Southern-style meal where everything is made from scratch. That simple notion, one that is hard to find in today’s world of pre-packaged restaurant fare, is just one of the things that make Fork in the Road Cafe in Peachtree City a different and delectable dining experience.

Southern-style country cooking is the order of the day at the Fork in the Road. That means authentic, from scratch menu items like fried chicken, meat loaf, chicken and dumplings, squash casserole, macaroni and cheese, broccoli casserole, fried okra, turkey and dressing, cornbread, fried green tomatoes and, perhaps in a food group all their own, real buttermilk biscuits.

“It’s like you’re going to your family’s house for dinner,” Debra Colston said, as if signaling forth the memories of past years at grandma’s house. “You walk in on hardwood floors and sit at a table with a table cloth and flowers. And every item is fresh, everyday. It’s all scratch-made, right down to the cream sauce in the macaroni and cheese.”

Owners and Peachtree City natives Michael and Debra Colston remember the city from the late 1960s and early 1970s. Travels across the U.S. to places such as Nashville and San Francisco could not match the home they knew and, in 1999, the couple returned with the desire to raise their children in Peachtree City.

The couple prior to establishing the restaurant owned a manufacturing plant and later lost it. But that loss only opened the door for another opportunity, one that gave Debra a way to start up a restaurant she had always wanted and, just as important, to use the recipes from her grandmother and others that she had compiled over the years.

Today, and any day, at their unique Fork in the Road restaurant and catering business on Huddleston Road Debra and Michael, their sons Michael, 11, and Max, 8, and Debra’s mother and father-in-law are on hand at what is truly a family-run business. That means food prep and cooking, running the register and bussing tables. Virtually every aspect of the business is family operated.

Beyond the standard homestyle menu items that are always available, the restaurant also features additional favorites on Mondays through Thursdays. Then on Fridays it’s all-you-can-eat catfish for $9.95 or seafood for $19.95.

Authentic Southern-style cooking is a hit with customers at Fork in the Road. Many of the customers who have become regulars since the restaurant opened in April come three or four times a week because they can always get something different, Debra said. One of the regulars is Peachtree City resident Peggy Baker.

“I’ve been around Southern food a long time and Fork in the Road is the real thing,” Baker said. “I’m a regular customer and I’m in the restaurant two or three times a week. And I bring relatives and friends all the time.”

But that is not all there is to Fork in the Road. There is also the catering service that features mouth-watering, up-scale cuisine such as citrus herbed shrimp, steamed pork dumplings or crab and goat cheese empanadas with mango chutney. The catering service is available for weddings, birthdays, company and holiday parties and school and summer festivals.

All things considered, there is really nothing quite like homestyle cooking and there is certainly nothing like Southern-style, made from scratch cooking.
To taste the real thing visit Fork in the Road Cafe & Catering at 114 Huddleston Road in Peachtree City. Hours are Monday-Wednesday from 11 a.m.-2:30 p.m., Thursday and Friday from 11 a.m.-2:30 p.m. and 4:30-8 p.m. and on Sunday from 11 a.m.-2:30 p.m.

For more information visit www.forkroad.com or call 770-631-2883.