METRO DINER (3075 Atlanta Highway, 706-708-9243, metrodiner.com): It’s quite possible that Metro Diner is the most aggressively normal restaurant I’ve ever eaten in. Opened last year in front of Target, in a space that was previously Hardee’s, it is a franchise out of Jacksonville, FL. Guy Fieri made the reputation of the original, opened in 1992, by featuring it on his “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.” That might lead you to expect something self-consciously wacky, like fried cheesecake bites or a burger topped with Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, but there’s nothing of the sort on this menu. Instead, Metro Diner serves breakfast all day and an array of American standards like meatloaf, roasted chicken and fried shrimp. It’s like Cracker Barrel without the kitsch, solidly middle America.
Walk in the door and ignore several Athens-themed signs, and you could be literally anywhere. It’s the perfect location for a table of elderly men to shoot the breeze, or a convenient place for a mom shopping with kids to stop with safe options for everyone. Would I suggest that you go here over a local restaurant? Not really, but it does seem to meet a need.
Inside features diner-themed decor, with some neon that says “where the Dawgs eat” (a statement also emblazoned on the T-shirts staff wear for uniforms) and a black-and-white checked floor. There are a couple of large TVs that encourage you to order the current specials. The space isn’t huge, and it isn’t tiny. The staff isn’t super fast, and they’re not super slow. The food isn’t amazing, and it also isn’t terrible. Right down the middle on pretty much everything, with the exception of the payment system, which involves you tapping to pay at your table (it’s kind of nice!).
Metro Diner makes a decent fried chicken (it beats out the herb-roasted version of the same protein), which is an impressive value: $16.99 for half a chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans and a biscuit. Its fried shrimp is too salty, but plump and nicely fried. The coleslaw is passable. As you’d probably expect, the portions are large. Huevos rancheros comes with a sun of double-fried tortilla chips around the edge of the dinner plate, topped with eggs however you want them, fried pickled jalapeños, bacon, sausage, black beans, onions, tomatoes, corn and more. For $12.79 you could likely feed two people, and it’s got flavor and color. The menu is significantly bigger than just these choices, with pancakes and waffles, ribs, soup, burgers, a club sandwich, meatloaf, fish and chips, and some bowls. Metro Diner also offers kids meals and family meals that feed four, and it is open 8 a.m.–8 p.m. daily.
FOXTAIL COFFEE (357 W Hancock Ave., 706-215-9557, foxtailcoffee.com): This brand-new coffee place, also a location of a franchise out of Florida, occupies the ground-floor space at Hancock House, a fancy loft/townhome complex. The branding is intensely modern farmhouse: cool neutral colors, exposed wide-plank wood, pressed-tin ceiling, subway tile. The staff wears black-and-white-checked shirts, and the clientele is largely Greek life. The front door is huge and hard to open, plus often blocked by a line of people at the register. The goal is to present the appearance of a boutique shop—macaron pistachio lattes, affogatos that can be ordered as a flight, $4 tiny packages of chocolate-covered snacks by the register—but the presentation and the reality don’t line up as nicely as they should. Things don’t move quickly. The staff is friendly but seems overwhelmed.
The coffee, which comes with a pretty hefty price tag (a good 60–70 cents higher than Starbucks; $1.50 more than Jittery Joe’s), isn’t particularly well brewed. Even the cold brew tastes bitter and acidic, not as smooth as it should. A bagel topped with egg, turkey sausage and pepper jack was so tough and flavorless that I didn’t finish eating it. The cake pops, the croissants (priced higher than Independent’s and not even in the same area code, let alone ballpark), the muffins, none of them are really worth your time, although they could provide some sustenance if you were to hang out and study at Foxtail, something that seems like a common activity. There’s also gelato, available in flavors like “blue monster,” which is a strong hint that you’re not dealing with a traditional artisanal product. It’s very sweet, obviously in a flavor like birthday cake. But so are the flavors like pistachio that are usually more geared to a grown-up palate.
It’s convenient for the people who live in the building, and it’s a good replacement for people who used to go to Starbucks downtown but can’t do that anymore since it closed. There’s free Wi-Fi and some nice counter seating if you want to linger and study, but if you’re looking for good coffee, there are better places mere blocks away. Foxtail is open from 6 a.m.–9 p.m. daily, and does not have its own parking.
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