The Smith House is an elbow-to-elbow eatfest. Tables are communal, shared by local folks and visitors, who all behave as though they were at a family party, passing platters back and forth, chattering happily about the delicious food.
Pay one price and eat your fill. There is no menu to look at. Everything the kitchen has prepared that day is brought to the table in large serving dishes. Count on fried chicken, supplemented by Brunswick stew or catfish and hushpuppies; plenty of southern-style vegetables, including such specialties as chestnut souffle, turnip greens, and fried okra; and always warm breads: cracklin cornbread, blueberry lemon muffins, angel biscuits.
Smith House history starts before the Civil War, during Georgia’s gold rush, during which a wealthy Vermonter named Captain Frank Hall built a mansion, complete with carriage house and servants’ quarters, smack on top of what he thought would be a great vein of gold. For reasons too complicated to note here, he never mined the vein; and in 1922, long after Captain Hall’s passing, Henry and Bessie Smith bought the house to run it as an inn, where for $1.50, travelers got a room and three square meals a day. Mrs. Smith was a sensational cook, and word spread fast about her fried chicken, country ham, and platters of fresh vegetables. By 1946, when Fred and Thelma Welch took over the kitchen, the Smith House was known for family-style feeds.
Today the Smith House has become an attractive bed-and breakfast base camp for exploring the spectacular North Georgia mountains; the meals at its happy tables remain pure country.
Sunday | 11am - 7pm |
Monday | CLOSED |
Tuesday | 11am - 3pm |
Wednesday | 11am - 3pm |
Thursday | 11am - 3pm |
Friday | 11am - 7:30pm |
Saturday | 11am - 7:30pm |
Other Nearby Restaurants
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Matthews Cafeteria
Tucker, GeorgiaMatthews Cafeteria is a Main Street restaurant popular among locals who come for fried chicken, meat loaf, or catfish sided by well-cooked Southern vegetables.
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Stilesboro Biscuits
Kennesaw, GeorgiaBest biscuits and a sumptuous cinnamon roll put Stilesboro Biscuits on the good-eats map northwest of Atlanta. Small place, big crowds. Prepare to wait.
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Mountain Biscuits
Marietta, Georgia** THIS RESTAURANT IS PERMANENTLY CLOSED **
A bakery/restaurant in a former gas station northwest of Atlanta, Mountain Biscuits supplements its traditional biscuit menu with a yummy deep-fried biscuit. -
Village Burger
Dunwoody, GeorgiaVillage Burger is the place to go for burgers and outstanding fries in Dunwoody, Georgia. Top off the meal with a cup of frozen custard.
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Old South Bar-B-Q
Smyrna, GeorgiaOld South BBQ in Smyrna, Georgia, is known for smoke-cooked pork, beef, chicken and ribs, as well as for an amazing barbecue salad.
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Edna’s
Chatsworth, GeorgiaDining at Edna’s is a tradition for visitors to the north Georgia mountains. Best eats: superlative fried chicken, meat-and-three meals, peanut butter pie.