The building sets the tone perfectly. This was a public library built in 1938 in what I would call…read morethe Neo-Federal style as so many post offices and town Halls. Every town loves a beautiful old building, but nobody really knows what to do with it when it's no longer a library or a post office or whatever, and it usually ends up either being scrapped or thrown away. Witnessed the countless number of beautiful Victorian train stations that have bit the dust over the years. Usually too much out cry these buildings go far away or get knocked over. This however, is a beautiful repurposing.
I started out with an appetizer of baked French onion soup. The soup came out perfect with a homemade crouton on top and smothered and Swiss cheese, it also came out in a traditional French onion soup crock. The soup was very mild, not overly peppered as so many are these days. The onions were of mild variety, but not too sweet. It made for an excellent soup.
Something else to shout about is their delicious bread. Their used rolls are homemade, you can tell that they were made in a muffin pan because they are indented and shaped like muffins on the bottom. I assure you they are the best yeast rolls. You will have anywhere outside of Paris France.
Despite the fact, they have an extensive wine list, I stuck with sweet tea, because I am in Bainbridge Georgia. To the wine connoisseur, I don't think anything will be out of place, but I don't drink that much wine anymore so I can't really say if it's a first rate wine list or not. But all the usual suspects were there and the prices were reasonable.
I opted for the surf and turf, because it had several things from the menu that I wanted to try the shrimp on the surf and turf are giant. They came out, freshly braided and fried still hot. It's obvious that they did not come out of a bag, they were breaded on site cooked on site and delightful. The steak was about 10 ounces of New York strip cooked, medium rare. It was hand cut, and did not come out of a bag, it was a little tough, but then again that is a New York strip. If I could've substituted the ribeye, I think that would've been a good choice. The vegetable kebab was part of the plate and I loved it. It was my side item. It was not overdone. It was not tough. It was not the great vegetables, it was everything that a vegetable kebab should've been and was grilled perfectly on a nice bamboo skewer. I also had the delicious side salad. With blue cheese dressing it was an absolute wonder of a salad. Once again, nothing came out of a bag.
To finish the evening off, I had caramel cheesecake, also homemade, a good baked cheesecake with a nice thick, crumbly graham cracker crust. The caramel sauce with sea salt was homemade the consistency of it was thick. It did not come out of a squeeze bottle, it was layered down by hand while it was still hot, a very nice touch. Worthy of note, the owner came out and seated me. I had called ahead and found out that they opened at five, I told them I would be there and wanted a table for one at 501 and I got just that. The place is really nicely done pretty not overly fancy perfect for large groups. They have a large staff that takes very good care of you. My server was around just about the entire time, just bringing out my food checking on me making sure I had plenty of ice tea. It was a wonderful experience a couple of tables over from me. Someone was celebrating their birthday. The other owner came out and he's saying to them, this guy should've been on Broadway. He's got a wonderful set of pipes.
