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Thomasville Harrison’s Widely considered the best all-around restaurant in town is this versatile establishment housed in a former bank. Chef-owner Jim Mileo and his wife Barri, the hostess, closed their former Miamore restaurant in a restored Victorian home for a more central downtown location and a menu with more of a French accent. They named it for their first grandchild. The main dining room has well-spaced tables beneath an eighteen-foot-high ceiling. A side room serves as a bar and lounge, with a rear dining area whose walls have been painted with an abstract downtown cityscape. Good sourdough rolls preceded the arrival of our lunches. One of us enjoyed the succulent, herb-crusted grilled grouper, sauced with butter and lemon and served with a house salad tossed with raspberry vinaigrette. The other was intrigued by the "super salmon salad." It turned out to be an odd but tasty concoction of mixed organic greens topped with smoked salmon, capers and roasted garlic mayo. Tirami su, New York cheesecake, homemade flan and spumoni were the day’s desserts. The dinner menu is extensive. A house favorite is the fettuccine mileo, its alfredo sauce enhanced by prosciutto and peas. (912) 226-0074. Entrées, $10.95 to $18.95. Lunch, Monday-Saturday 11:30 to 2. Dinner, Monday-Saturday from 5:30. The Terrace by
Moonlight This used to be known as The Grand Old House, a long-running French restaurant that closed abruptly in 1998. It’s still grand, but now it houses two restaurants with different names and owners. It seems it took two restaurateurs to pay the higher rent. The Terrace is in the former basement tavern. It’s owned by Deborah Heath, who had been running Melissa’s restaurant (see below). The upstairs is Simply Delicious, which moved into elegant mansion rooms from a downtown location. The Terrace, named for the brick terrace at the entry, retains a tavern look. A prominent bar and booths and tables covered with floral oilcloths give it a pubby feeling. The menu is a cut above. There are sandwiches, salads and appetizers from homemade potato chips with warm blue cheese to quesadillas and nachos. Grilled salmon with tomato, herb and garlic sauce was the seafood special at our visit. Other choices ranged from four pastas, served with soup or salad, to grill items, among them rosemary chicken, ribeye steak and beef tenderloin. Surf ‘n turf combined a beef filet with a lobster tail. The day’s desserts were posted as cheesecake, pecan pie and twelve-layer chocolate cake. (912) 228-9844. Entrées, $10.95 to $21.95. Lunch and dinner, Monday-Saturday 11 to midnight. Richard’s Evening
Grill By day this is Henderson’s, a long-running hamburger and fast-food joint. At night, owner Richard Henderson turns it into a grill, decked out in tropical island colors and festooned with colored Mexican and white lights. It’s a large and casual place, much loved by the locals for a broad menu of fresh seafood and a small but well-chosen wine and beer selection at down-to-earth prices. The evening menu opens with starters like crab cakes, green tomatoes, seafood gumbo and oyster stew. There are pastas and "fried favorites," as well as "special stuff" like shrimp creole and pork medallions with apple-pear chutney. You also can get a masterful cheeseburger with fries for an unheard-of $3. Most go for the grilled steaks or "fresh fishes" (grouper, salmon or tuna), each available in a variety of options. We liked the sautéed grouper with caribbean salsa, served with wilted spinach and saffron rice, accompanied by a house salad dressed with a sundried tomato vinaigrette. The key lime pie was a refreshing dessert. (912) 226-3376. Entrées, $8 to $16. Dinner, Monday-Saturday 5:30 to 9 or 10. Henderson’s, 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. Melissa’s Melissa Summitt opened this cavernous brick building as a luncheon restaurant in 1990. She later leased the restaurant to Deborah Heath, who retained the name Melissa’s. When the acclaimed Grand Old House closed across town in 1998, Deborah moved into its lower section and opened a dinner restaurant called The Terrace by Moonlight. Melissa returned to the warehouse to run Melissa’s, with a new look and new accompaniments. The place retains the flavor of the old laundry warehouse it once was, a cavernous space with exposed pipes and beams and funky furnishings. Besides the restaurant and a separate bar with dining area, other spaces house a bed and bath shop plus a coffee and wine/cheese shop called The Idle Hours. The menu offers an eclectic, extensive selection. Among "salads and plates" are grilled chicken and apple with blue cheese and mixed greens, chicken provolone over pasta, a sourdough bread bowl stew of curried ham, apples and dried cherries and a "poet’s lunch" of soup, salad and half a sandwich. Sandwiches range from smoked turkey club to barbecued pork. The grill produces grilled chicken and a bacon-blue cheese burger on a french roll. The blackboard listed tropical semolina cake, buttermilk custard and a chocolate-coffee-banana sundae for dessert. (912) 226-2929. Entrées, $4.95 to $6.95. Lunch, Monday-Saturday 11 to 3. Simply Delicious Newly relocated from a downtown location, Charlene McGalliard’s well-regarded luncheon spot occupies the main floor of the mansion restaurant formerly known as The Grand Old House. The setting in a variety of main-floor rooms is quite elegant. The extensive lunch menu ranges from the ubiquitous chunky chicken salad plate to cobb salad, from a grilled ham and cheese to a philly cheese steak sandwich, from a quiche of the day to an entrée of the day. A tea sandwich platter is served with fresh fruit salad and sherbet or cottage cheese. Weekend dinners are more elaborate. One night’s three-course menu offered a salad of baby greens, a choice of citrus-herbed Atlantic salmon with grilled vegetables or grilled beef tenderloin with marinated portobello on crushed yukon gold potatoes, and a dessert of macerated berries and vanilla ice cream with a crispy sugar tuile. The price varies depending on choice of entrée. The Sunday brunch buffet offers a lot of food for $8. (912) 227-9428. Entrées, $9.95 to $16.95. Lunch, Monday-Saturday 11 to 2:30. Dinner, Friday and Saturday 6 to 10. Sunday brunch buffet, 11 to 2. Material excerpted from Inn Spots & Special Places in the Southeast, by Nancy and Richard Woodworth. Copyright 2000. Wood Pond Press E-mail feedback to: Home
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