Local Eats: Twang Southern Tastes and Sounds

We don’t eat out often—maybe once a week, usually for lunch on the weekend—but when we do it’s usually at a chain (Ruby Tuesday, Outback, or Cheddars). It’s just been more convenient since we know what we like at those places, and because we thought our town was lacking on those local, mom and pop joints. I still think our options are a bit skimpy here, but in an effort to eat local, we’re going to attempt to find less big name restaurants and more ways to support local places.

To start off our hunt for local restaurants, my husband found Twang Southern Tastes and Sounds a few weeks ago in the newspaper of all places. It looked like it had charm, southern comfort, and good food; all the makings of a great place!

And we were right! Twang is tucked away in Payne City within Macon, Georgia; yes, within! Payne City is a city within a city. Next door was a cute antique store (perfect for browsing after lunch to work off all the food), and there was a small market nearby, too.

Twang had me as soon as we pulled into their gravel parking lot. The brick facade was rustic and modern, and there were chalkboards surrounding the door. Basically, it was love at first sight.

Since I didn’t take pictures of the interior, let me spell it out for you: Imagine a huge industrial building (we’re talking maybe three stories high), with brick to brick walls. There was an open concept second floor, and on the main level were booths, tables, and TV screens—one was a huge projector airing the latest football game. The bar reminded me of an old salon and had local beers on draft (try the Red Hare from Marietta, Georgia, it was pretty tasty).

In full disclosure, I actually took a peek at the menu as we were driving over. It’s so expansive and seriously, everything sounded so delicious, that knew I’d need extra time to make a decision. I waffled (quite literally—they have chicken and waffles that sounded divine) over what to get and finally stuck the landing on trying their fried chicken. Nope, not paleo at all, but I figured if I didn’t eat the crunchy and delicious skin, it’d still be better than some of the other options (like the chicken and waffles, that I’m pretty sure I need to try next time to get them out of my mind). My plate came with two sides, so I got mixed Brunswick stew (for me) and some mac ‘n cheese (for Julia).

Our server made sure to tell me that I wasn’t eating at KFC and that the fried chicken was made from scratch, so it could take a bit. He said this, of course, with an awesome southern accent. I was totally fine with waiting if it meant having good quality food. The chicken was delicious (perfectly cooked, moist, crunchy, and seasoned well), the Brunswick stew was a little on the barbecuey side (a bit twangy, so it lived up to the restaurant’s name), and the mac ‘n cheese was creamy, cheesy, and delicious. I had to quality check it for Julia. She gave it too baby thumbs up.

I’m still jealous over my husband’s meal: an oyster po’ boy. Oh man how I love these. His was GOOD! Great big oysters in a toasted hoogie with a remoulade sauce that had a nice kick to it. He got collards as a side and they were so good I think I “tasted” more of them than he got to eat. I’ll definitely get them as a side if we go back.

They also had (which I didn’t get, because it seemed like a better fit in the summer), a “southern mix,” which had (I think) onions, tomatoes, cucumbers in a balsamic sauce. My mom makes something similar, and if it’s what I’m thinking, it’d be great on a hot day.

After lunch came dessert! We usually pass on the sweets, but my husband practically started drooling when he heard the options. Peach cobbler (that just went in the oven, so we’d have to wait for it to come out), pecan pie, or strawberry shortcake. He went for the latter and it was a very good decision. It turns out I’ve never had a true strawberry shortcake before, because this was amazing! The cake was warm and reminded me of what happens if you’d cross a pound cake with angel food cake. My, oh my. It was scrumptious, especially because it was topped with fresh strawberries. Sorry, no photos for you; we gobbled it up before I could even think about taking a picture. Speaking of pictures…I really hope to document more of our local eats (wherever we are), so I’ll work on my iphonography; I didn’t realize how out of focus and grainy these were!

All in all, we were really pleased with our lunch at Twang. Everything on their menu looked so good that we’ll definitely go back to try out some more dishes. Actually, they have live music on the weekends, so if we can swing it, I’d love to hear some local jams while we have our dinner.

Do you eat at local places often?