Landmark Cafe Review

I usually don’t do food reviews but this is a great place to go if you’re looking for good food.  I took a meal home today.  I got baked chicken, fries, and carrots for $5.99–a great deal.  The carrots were okay, a little undercooked.  Your basic cooked baby carrots.  The fries–I can compare them to the fries at Hudson’s except they are SO much better than Hudson’s.  Hudson’s fries are extremely greasy–these are not as greasy.   And the baked chicken–my word.  I was given a breast and a drumstick.  I removed the drumstick and half of the fries and will have a fantastic lunch tomorrow.  The chicken wasn’t dry at all and was very moist.  I was shocked when I entered the door and saw the exposed beams in the ceiling.  They did a great job renovating the building.

Landmark Cafe also serves breakfast from 6:30am-10:30am…and they have chicken biscuits.  They have breakfast items (eggs, grits, pancakes) a la carte but they also have plates.  They also serve hamburgers that are (I overheard the woman who apparently cooks every meal there) cooked over an open flame grill.

The place is already very popular.  Every time I drive by there at lunch time the parking lot is full and part of the parking lot at Pray’s Mill Baptist Church is full as well.  The cashier said people that live nearby drive their bikes to the cafe simply because it’s easier to drive there.  Landmark Cafe is located in the building to the left of Pray’s Mill Baptist Church.  They don’t have chicken every day–I believe the meat rotates from day to day as do the vegetables.  Today they had broccoli and cheese, carrots, and pinto beans, but you can also substitute a side like fries if you would rather.  They also had peach cobbler today.

I’ll try and type up the menu tomorrow into a PDF file and upload it to the blog.  Their current health inspection score is a 100.

Anyone else eat here recently?  What did you have, and what did you think about it?

Road Closure Update

Road Updates: Monday, October 5th, 10:00 AM
Traffic is bad due to the closed roads throughout the County. Please know that the Douglas County Department of Transportation is working 24/7 to re-open as many roads as possible as soon as possible. At the height of the disaster, about 170 roads were closed. That list has now been greatly reduced.

These are estimated repair times, and we hope that repairs can be accomplished earlier; prolonged means more than 2 months. The Douglas County DOT staff is working on roadways and construction contractors are being brought in to work on roads, bridges and culverts. Your patience is greatly appreciated.

• Anneewakee Road at Anneewakee Creek Bridge: 3 – 6 weeks repair time, approaches undermined
• Banks Mill Road at Dog River: 1 -3 weeks repair time, bridge inspection scheduled
• Banks Mill Road at Daniell Mill Road: 1 – 3 weeks repair time, 250’ of asphalt missing
• Banks Mill Road at Pool Road: 1 – 3 weeks repair time, culvert washed out
• Bearden Road off Maroney Mill Road: prolonged closure, road washed out
• Berea Road at Mobley Creek: 1 – 3 weeks repair time
• Blairs Bridge Road at Sweetwater Creek: 1 – 3 weeks repair time, major scour under approach slabs
• Bomar Road (Creekside Manor): 1 – 3 weeks repair time, pavement undermined 3 – 4 feet
• Cantrell Road at Five Notch: 1 -3 weeks repair time, 75’ of shoulder washed out at headwall
• Capps Ferry Road at Chattahoochee River: being evaluated, bridge status unknown, inspections scheduled
• Chapel Hill Road at Fowler Field: City of Douglasville has informed us of a 2 – 3 week repair time, but hopes to have it open earlier
• Daniell Mill Road Bridge north of Jenkins Road: 3 – 6 weeks repair time, road and shoulder washed out, exposed piles on bridge
• Dorsett Shoals Road at Culvert: 1 -3 weeks
• Downs Road between Post Road and Georgia Highway 5: prolonged closure, roadway completely washed out
• East Union Hill Road: prolonged closure, roadway completely washed out
• Georgia Highway 166 at Anneewakee Creek: closed 8 – 12 month period, bridge must be replaced
• Huey Road at Maroney Mill Road: 3 – 6 weeks repair time, one lane of road is washed out
• John West Road near Bright Star Elementary School: 3 – 6 weeks, 50’ of shoulder and edge of road washed out
• Johnston Road at Creek: 3 – 6 weeks, road washed out, bridge inspection scheduled
• Kilroy Lane at Yellow Rock Creek: being evaluated
• Kings Highway at Bear Creek: 1 – 3 weeks, 150 feet of roadway washed out
• Liberty Road west of Banks Mill Road: 1 -3 weeks repair time
• Mason Creek Road at Mobley Creek: prolonged closure, bridge washed out
• Mt. Vernon Road at Woodrow Wilson Park: Pipe washed out-void underneath the road
• Mtn. Top Road: being evaluated, 60’ of roadway washed out
• Nalley Road: prolonged closure, culvert washed out
• North Flat Rock Road near North Walton Store Road: 3 – 6 weeks repair time, culvert washed out
• North Helton Road at Bluff Creek: closed currently being evaluated
• North Helton Road Bridge at Dog River: 3 – 6 weeks, bridge inspection scheduled
• Old Alabama Road Bridge over Sweetwater Creek: being evaluated, bridge inspection scheduled
• Pool Road North of Milam Road: 3 – 6 weeks, 50’ of roadway washed out
• Pool Road between Banks Mill Road at Pool Crest Court: 3 – 6 weeks, 50’ of roadway washed out
• Pool Road near Georgia Highway 5: 1 – 3 weeks, road undermined
• Post Road south of Ephesus Church Road: prolonged closure, culvert washed out, roadway washed out
• Post Road at Dog River: prolonged closure, bridge damage
• South Baggett Road between I-20 and Mason Creek Road: 3 – 6 weeks repair time, 40’ of roadway washed out
• South Baggett Road between Campground Road and US 78: prolonged closure, culvert washed out
• South Helton Road at Liberty Road: prolonged closure, 150’ of roadway washed out
• South River Road Bridge over Bear Creek: being evaluated
• Sherwood Drive: 3 – 6 weeks repair time, roadway washed out
• Skyview Drive at Sweetwater Creek Bridge: 3 – 6 weeks, bridge being evaluated
• Stewart Woods Drive: being evaluated
• Timmons Circle, Tyson Road, Nalley Road – closed – open to local traffic only
• Tyree Road between Post Road and Liberty Road: being evaluated
• Tyson Road north of Railroad: Estimated 1 week – replace pipe near railroad crossing and build shoulder
• Union Grove Road: 1 – 3 weeks repair time
• US 78 west of Busbin Court: Ga. DOT estimates re-opening about October 5th
• Vulcan Drive Bridge at Beaver Ruin Creek: 1 – 3 weeks repair time
• West Banks Mill Road between Liberty Road and Post Road: being evaluated
• West Union Hill Road at Dog River Bridge: 1 – 3 weeks repair time, approaches to bridge have to be replaced
• West Tyson Road Bridge: 1 -3 weeks repair time, bridge inspection scheduled
• Wood Street at Creek Crossing: 3 – 6 weeks repair time, culvert washed out
• Yancey Road between Central Church Road and Stewarts Mill Road: 3 – 6 weeks repair time
• Yeager Road Bridge at Carroll Drive: being evaluated
• Whitestone Boulevard: prolonged closure, culvert destroyed and road washed out

Restaurant Scores

I just don’t have time to update the restaurant inspection page.  Instead, I’m going to list only the low and failing scores here.   69 and below is failing.  The first one is just shocking–and why can’t we find out what the infractions are??  With a score THAT low, the restaurant must have done something SERIOUSLY wrong.  The third one is almost as bad.

Bonz Sports Grill, Fairburn Road–32
Dairy Queen, Fairburn Road–67
Hunan Chinese Restaurant, Fairburn Road–38
Hudson’s Hickory House–68
Quaker Steak & Lube–70 (Note: This is a passing score, but if it had been a 69, it would have been failing)
Tony’s Mexican Grill–78

New Bakery

Anyone been to Eva’s Bake Shop on Douglas Blvd (near the mall)?  I searched for it on Google and it looks to be a chain–found one in NJ as well.

Restaurant Inspection Scores

Restaurant Inspection scores are FINALLY on the Cobb & Douglas Public Health website!  You can find them at http://www.cobbanddouglaspublichealth.org/EnvironHealth/Restaurants/Inspection%20Scores/douglas/douglasscores.pdf

Note that some places have inspection dates of over a year old–here’s hoping that changes soon.  I think the only thing missing is the letter grade.  Here’s a guide to the letter grades:

90-100 is an A; 80-89 is a B; and 70-79 is a C.

Scores below 70 indicate poor health conditions.

Here’s some of the more recent scores (however, some of these “recent” scores date back to January):

Kenny’s Home Cooking 75
Charley’s Steakery  89
Panda Express  100
Tony’s Mexican Grill  81
Johnny Rockets  80
Irish Bred Pub  100
Golden Corral  95
Asia Buffet  87
Church’s Fried Chicken  90
Blimpie Express, 1374 Lee Road, Lithia Springs  75
Bankhead Diner  91
Fabiano’s  83
Happy Buddha, 77
Sammy’s Pizza  80
Douglasville Wasabi  94
Joe’s Crab Shack  87
Mandarin Express  80  (former score, taken about a week or two before the current score, was a 62)
Cracker Barrel (new location on Concourse) 90 (former score, taken a week before the current score, was a 74)
Chick-Fil-A Hwy 5  95
Long John Silvers  98
IHOP  90
Magnolia Cafe  99
Sonic Drive-In  96
Calibou Bakery Cafe  67
Hunan Chinese Restaurant  85

I noticed a few restaurants missing–Sea Breeze being one of them.  Also, I don’t see how they had to have special “software” to do this.  It could have been typed up in Excel and then they could have removed the lines.  The individual violations are also missing.  If a restaurant got a failing score, I think citizens would want to know why.

Five Guys Review

So I went by Five Guys and got a cheeseburger and french fries and brought it home.  I noticed they put some fries in a paper cup, then dumped the rest in the bottom of the brown paper bag.  The cheeseburger was okay, but not really anything to brag about.  It would have helped if they had seasoned the meat–maybe with garlic or onion powder.  They use Kraft American cheese–seems like they could have used a better quality cheese than this.  It reminds me of the cheese they used to serve with nachos in my high school lunchroom (which was more years ago than I’d like to say). 

Better than the fast food burgers, but…I used the nutritional information on their website and calculated how many calories my burger had.  610 calories.  That’s a LOT.  A McDonald’s cheeseburger has 300 calories, while a Wendy’s Jr. Cheeseburger has 260. 

The Five Guys’ fries are another 610 calories (though they claim a regular order is actually half of what they give you–so when you get a regular order of fries, you get TWO servings.  I ate half the burger tonight, half the fries.  However, if I had eaten all of it, the total calorie count would have been 1,220 calories.

I won’t be returning, mainly because it’s too many calories for one meal.

Has anyone else been here?  What do you think?  Do they live up to their high Zagat rating?

Restaurant Inspection Scores

In a couple of months, a year will have gone by with no updated restaurant inspection scores on the Cobb & Douglas Public Health website.  I decided to email the local board of health this morning and got a response this afternoon. 

This person told me they were supposed to have the inspection scores up before December 2007.  They have JUST received the software from their vendor that will allow them to post the scores.  The person told me it would be a few more weeks before scores were up.  Yet most other counties in Georgia have had their scores up since January–and their inspection scores are in simple tables like Microsoft Excel.

Nothing like government-run services, is there?

Five Guys?

Has Five Guys Burgers & Fries already opened?  They’re already showing the address and phone number on their website.  And if so, has anyone eaten there?

Restaurant Inspection Scores, The Continuing Story

It has been NINE months since current inspection scores were last seen on the Cobb & Douglas County Public Health website.  The same message is still on the page from this past April.  To find out a restaurant’s inspection score, you would have to actually GO to the restaurant, which defeats the purpose of being able to see them online.  I went to Martin’s last week–they have a 96. 

What’s their excuse in all these many months?  Does it take nine months to create a grid on a website to display restaurant scores?  Paulding County had theirs up almost immediately after the law was changed.

Oh, and btw, I have been REALLY busy this semester with accounting and haven’t had much time (at all) to update the blog.  If anyone would like to volunteer to write news stories for the blog (crime news, restaurant news, political news), I would appreciate it.  Just post a comment here.

Golden Rule BBQ To Come To Douglasville

From al.com:

“New Golden Rules will roll out by year’s end in Las Vegas and Douglasville, Ga”

Golden Rule is a BBQ restaurant, and though it is a chain, their website at http://www.goldenrulebbq.com/index.php states the restaurant has been in existence since 1891.  They offer catering services as well.   They opened their first location in Georgia in Columbus in 2004.