I thought I had lost a friend. I had been visiting the Fork in the Road Restaurant in Peachtree City for several years. I enjoyed this restaurant because:
• It was locally owned and operated, with the owners among those cooking and serving;
• The employees were friendly and always helpful; and
• The food was as close as one could get to the way my mother and grandmother cooked.
I never went to the restaurant to stay on my diet because most of the offerings featured good-old Southern “comfort food.” It was a great place to meet family, friends, or church members. An added plus is that they always served me more than I could eat.
When I heard they were closing, I was genuinely saddened. Then I heard that they were not closing but moving and my sadness left. Then I heard that they were moving to a place on Highway 54 near Fayetteville and I was saddened again. I was unhappy about the move for two reasons:
1) I would have to drive farther to have lunch there
2) The restaurant had, I thought, a strong base of customers in Peachtree City and I was doubtful that the clientele would drive that far to have lunch or dinner. I was fearful the Fork in the Road would wither and die.
On the first point, I was right. On the second, I was dead wrong. When I visited the new location, the place was packed. The food was just as delicious and comforting as it had been in the old location but the new place was bigger, brighter, and retained all the customer service and “down home atmosphere” I liked about it for all those previous years.
There are several items on the ever-changing menu that I especially enjoy:
• The meatloaf that is actually better than my mom’s
• The fried okra
• The pot pie
• The fried chicken
• The various casseroles
• Green beans cooked like they should be (not crispy or crunchy)
• A bottomless iced tea and soft drink glass
This is not the place to go have tofu or bean sprouts or food without taste. It is a place for all those foreigners from up north or out west to go and experience Southern cuisine as it has been prepared for generations.
There is one thing I have not yet tried, but will soon experience, and that is the all-you-can-eat seafood buffet offered on Friday nights. I am told that the buffet includes crab legs, fried oysters, oyster stew, baked fish, fried catfish, fried shrimp, fried scallops, frog legs, peel and eat shrimp, BBQ chicken, pulled pork (have to have a few things for the non-fish crowd), plus a host of sides.
Anyway, all this to say that I didn’t lose that friend as I feared. It is true that I have to drive a few more miles to get there but it has been well worth the extra effort.
[David Epps is the pastor of the Cathedral of Christ the King, Sharpsburg, GA (www.ctkcec.org) . He is the bishop of the Mid-South Diocese which consists of Georgia and Tennessee (www.midsouthdiocese.org) and the Associate Endorser for the Department of the Armed Forces, U. S. Military Chaplains, ICCEC. He may contacted at [email protected]]
