By Susan Baldani

If you’re looking for fresh, cooked-to-order Southern comfort food, Home grown GA has a table waiting for you. Cozy and comfortable, it’s designed to make diners feel like they’re eating at grandma’s house.

“Our goal in opening Home grown GA was to create a place where everyone feels welcome. Our staff is friendly and you feel like you belong from the minute you walk in,” said Lisa Spooner, the owner.

Since they didn’t know what to put on the walls, they invited local artists to display and sell their work. Now their walls are lined with amazing pieces. There’s also an area in the back of the restaurant called the Thrifty 5 & Dime. Here, patrons can view handmade art, vintage finds and clothing while waiting for a table.

Kevin Clark, the chef, graduated from the Art Institute of Atlanta but also credits his mother, Phyllis Clark, for teaching him the true meaning and methods of home cooking. A stay-at-home mom, she cooked all the meals.

Kevin and Lisa previously worked at Paul’s in Peachtree Hills and Rolling Bones BBQ. When they first opened Home grown in 2010, they had a small menu with breakfast and lunch items. When customers started making personal requests, they honored them and expanded the menu.

Some of the favorite dishes are the Comfy Chicken Biscuit, an open-faced biscuit made from scratch with fried chicken and sausage gravy, the Grant Stack, consisting of fried green tomatoes, bacon, and house-made pimento cheese on grilled Texas toast, and the Lynne Stack, which was created by a customer and features fried green tomatoes, salmon patties on a bed of sautéed spinach and roasted tomatoes covered in pimento cheese. The specials are also always a hit and include meatloaf on Wednesdays, chicken ‘n’ dumplings on Thursdays and pot roast on Fridays.

The food is so delicious that they were the winners of the 2018 Experts’ Choice Awards. Fewer than 2% of restaurants worldwide receive this award.

Home grown GA used the freshest ingredients, like local trout, pork and shrimp from southern Savannah. They get many of their vegetables such as mushrooms, greens, radishes, and okra from local farmers’ markets, and continuously change their menu so they can have the best seasonal ingredients.

“There’s a pride in using local as it supports the local economy,” said Lisa.

Written for Midtown Lifestyle magazine in Atlanta, GA
http://www.midtownlifestylepubs.com/