A family affair

A family

affair

Mom, sisters feed

hungry Fayette folks at Right on Thyme

Right on Thyme,

located at 375 East Lanier Avenue in what is commonly referred to as "the

little blue house," has been serving up hot meals for Fayetteville

diners for more than three years.

Owner Gail

Downing, along with co-owners Gayla Whitestone (her twin sister) and Martha

Foster (their mother), serve breakfast and lunch each weekday at the restaurant

while simultaneously operating a thriving catering company.

With its focus

on daytime meals, the restaurant has built a solid base of regular customers

from the surrounding business community. "My customers are very loyal,"

Downing said. "They're very consistent."

The busiest

days are usually Thursday and Friday. "Thursday is chicken day and

Friday is fish," she said.

That's partly

because the lunch crowd knows what it's going to get at Right on Thyme.

Using a basic menu that includes a good supply of meats and vegetables,

with everything fresh and nothing canned, folks come here to get what's

often called "home cooking" "Grandma's house," as

Downing put it.

On the catering

side, Right on Thyme handles corporate events throughout the metro Atlanta

area all during the week along with a large number of weddings in Fayette

and surrounding counties, as well as special events such as 50th and 75th

anniversaries.

A large part

of the catering operation consists of food deliveries to homebound customers

in the area. Many elderly couples rely on these meals, Downing said, because

one spouse is ill and the other is heavily involved in caring for the

sick one. Some area residents receive meals five days a week from Right

on Thyme, or while recovering from surgery or going through a bereavement

period.

The company

is a family operation, as Downing stressed during a recent interview with

her four-month-old daughter, Amber Nicole, in her lap as eight-year-old

John played nearby and Gayla's husband worked in the kitchen.

Amber Nicole's

birth slowed Downing a little bit, but she was catering an event two weeks

after the blessed event before returning to the kitchen full-time at the

six-week mark. In true family style, her substitute during maternity leave

was her husband, who is the pastor at Glenhaven United Methodist Church

in Decatur.

"He was

'Gail' for a month," Downing said with a laugh. "You should

have seen it."