Attorneys of Atlanta

Mary Mac's Tea Room: 65 Years of Recipes from Atlanta's Favorite Dining Room

Description

In Mary Mac's Tea Room, author and owner John Ferrell brings together over 100 classic recipes from this venerable institution of Southern comfort food.

When Mary Mac's opened in 1945, it was one of 16 tea rooms around Atlanta, Georgia. More than 60 years later, it stands alone in carrying on the tradition of bringing great Southern cooking to everyone from blue collar workers to celebrities.

Now you can bring home many of the restaurant's famed recipes, along with richly illustrated photography, old menus, postcards, and artwork from its magnificent history.

Reviews

Rating: 4 / 5
Date: 2010-09-03
Summary: "Authentic Southern cooking"

Quintessential Southern cooking, the focus of Mary Mac's Tea Room, is in the limelight of this unusual cookbook. In operation since 1945 under several owners, the tradition never changed.

The recipes are simple with a small number of readily available ingredients. They are well-written, easy to follow, and in logical order. Many are illustrated with large, professional food photos. The index is very good with cross references (though page errors did slip in). Fried Okra, for example, is under both F and O.

This book is much more than a traditional cookbook -- it is filled with historic information and photos mainly of this landmark Atlanta restaurant but also to lesser extent of central Atlanta. Short chapters are devoted to history, to personal experience of the owners, to both loyal and celebrity customers (though a bit overdone -- Richard Gere appears five times), to workings of the kitchen, and to devoted staff, some of whom spent decades in the Tea Room.

Full-page photos of many old-time staff members with their comments in sidebar add a delightful personal touch. Many stories from the past are equally charming.

This book is very much for Georgia readers. For genuine Southern recipes, it is hard to beat.

Reviewed by George Erdosh

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Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2010-08-26
Summary: "Their Pepper Sauce is Boss!"

I recently received and have read from cover to cover this wonderful southern cookbook. Having grown up in the South, I know a thing or two about what it takes to make southern soul food. I can say this book is a real classic. Greens and Pepper Sauce go hand in hand and the Pepper Sauce from Mary Mac's is the best. If you have never tried it you must. This is southern to the core. Sip some Sweet Ice Tea and endulge.

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Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2010-07-23
Summary: "RECIPES FOR SOUTHERN COOKING AT ITS BEST"

Just a glance at the cover of MARY MAC'S TEA ROOM makes mouths water, while the 125 recipes culled from the records of this Atlanta landmark restaurant will have you racing to the grocery store then heading for the kitchen. Forget haute cuisine and think down home comfort food, whether it be macaroni and cheese or fried chicken (yes, the secret to this succulent fried chicken is buttermilk).

Many of the recipes are almost identical to those served 65 years ago when Mary Mac's opened in 1945. Today it is the last of 16 tea rooms that served Atlanta in the 1940s - long may she offer new guests "a complimentary cup of pot likker and a piece of cornbread"!

After a warm, affectionate Foreword by Marie Lupo Nugren, daughter of Mary Mac's owner for 30 years, Margaret Lupo, the seven chapters offer Appetizers; Beef, Pork & Poultry; Bread & Beverages; Seafood; Pickles & Canning; Sides; and Desserts (including an irresistible Peach Cobbler topped with a flaky pastry crust and served with vanilla ice cream).

To choose a favorite recipe from among all of these would be an impossibility. The Mr. at our house would be happy if I just began at the beginning of the book, cooked my way through, and then started all over again! However, if pressed he'd have to admit to leaning toward the Country Fried Steak and Gravy with Peanut Butter Pie with Chocolate Crust for dessert.

Today Mary Mac's is owned and operated by John Ferrell who promises to keep the tea room's traditions of friendliness, hospitality, and home cooking alive. He's aided by a faithful staff, many of whom have been with Mary Mac's for some 35 years (Shirley Mitchell baked their yeast rolls, corn bread, peach cobbler and cinnamon rolls for over three decades and is still busy in the kitchen). A loyal, happy staff and legions of delighted customers say more than words ever could about Mary Mac's Tea Room.

Enjoy!

- Gail Cooke

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Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2010-07-14
Summary: "Put some South in your mouth."

People in this part of the country know where to look for different types of food:

For seafood, you go (or went, anyway) to New Orleans. (Also for a general range of incredibly good and spicy dishes.)

For barbecue, you go to Birmingham (The Golden Rule and/or Dreamland), Memphis or Chapel Hill.

For just flat out full-tilt-boogie Southern cooking done right, there's only been one place for years - Mary Mac's Tea Room in Atlanta.

I must confess, i haven't eaten there in ten years or so, but if it had seriously changed for the worse, i'd have heard. Everyone in Atlanta would have heard.

Mary Margaret Lupo founded the place in 1945, and at the time there were sixteen tea rooms of the same type in Atlanta - today there's only one. You walk in, sit down, read the menu that's printed fresh every day as what's available changes, and you write your own order on a little order ticket and hand it to your server.

The standard meal has always been a fixed-price meat and two or three sides plate - three or four meats to choose from and several different sides. You can order a la carte, but it's not recommended if the rest of your group goes for the package deal, because it takes longer.

And, if you've never been there before - some advice - arrive early.

You will find letters and testimonials from all over the world on the walls - including one from the Dalai Lama. Jimmy Carter and James Brown are other habitues you might have heard of.

Back in 1983, they published a cookbook with several of their most popular recipes.

Now, the current owner (he's owned the place since 1994) has published a new cookbook.

You need it.

Buy it.