The Old Mill in Acworth

Yesterday Anna and I celebrated our 39th anniversary. We went to eat at a new restaurant we have been reading about,The Old Mill in Acworth, Georgia, about ten or fifteen miles north of here.

The Old Mill was really an old mill. The history of the place based on their website tells of John Cowan, who left his home in Acworth, and along with two of his nephews with to the Black Hills of Montana (I thought the Black Hills area is in South Dakota) to mine for gold. They had fair luck and had a good find the Spring of 1864. Then, a few years later, came back to Georgia.

John Cowan returned to Acworth a wealthy and built the “Old Mill”, which then was a new mill. He was single.

I have seen the Old Mill for years when I went down Main street of Acworth. It is beside the railway tracks, which probably had something to do with the mill business and a mode of transportation. Up until recent it was a big hollow hull of a three storied building with a huge tall smoke stack.

The landmark of a smokestack is still there, but they closed in the brick hull and made a beautiful restaurant.

When we drove up to their parking lot their was a sign saying “Valet Parking”. It was just a small parking lot. Why would they need valet parking? To give it a flair of richness I suppose. I kept on going. I pulled into the next parking lot which was a youth organization athletic association, which was another old building by the tracks converted. It also had a sign, “No Restaurant Parking”… they were on to us.

I turned around and drove past the restaurant, crossed over the railroad tracks onto Main Street to the pubic parking. Then, we decided we were being too cheap for our anniversary… so we returned to the valet parking and went into The Old Mill Restaurant.

When we entered the hostess asked us did we have a reservation. Anna said, “No, should we have?”
She said, “No.”
Then why ask?
She took two menus and led us into a big opened room. As we walked through, we went by another room, that you could see several people inside talking and laughing. You could also here live piano music and somebody crooning, probably while playing the piano.

In the big opened room there was one other family eating. This was in the late afternoon, an odd time for people to eat…. Reservations?

The waitress was very nice and helpful.

The menu was very reasonable. We both ordered mountain trout that came with two vegetables. I ordered cheese grits that had tiny shrimp in it and mix southern vegetables, which were grilled cooked. Anna ordered green beans and I forgot what else. I think each dinner was about 15 bucks, but with drinks, appetizers, and dessert we upped the bill to $60, which still isn’t bad.

Before we left the room filled up with people. I was amused by an elderly man sitting next to us ordered coffee and asked for honey as a sweetener and mentioned that last time they went across the tracks and bought some honey. And when we got to the parking lot it was full too, the valets were having to run to the parking lot across the tracks, so everybody earned their money.

The trout and all of it was delicious. If I was a rater, I think I would give this joint 5 stars. But, remember, I would give Brandi’s World Famous Hotdogs 5 stars too (not really - maybe 4).