Sister, Can You Spare a Bowl of Soup?

On Church Street Extension in Marietta, after you go by Brandi’s World Famous Hotdogs, you will go cross over railroad tracks, then on the left you will see Run Around Sue’s which is a watering hole.*. Then on the left is a little brick building..** Stop! We have reached our destination. Turn left in their parking lot.

The little brick building has been home to many businesses through the years. It is now home for RED EYE MULE BISCUITS & BURGERS. I hope it sticks around a long time.

I met Paul there yesterday for him to give me the tour. He was there the day before also***.

There isn’t much sitting room at the present: two tables with four chairs each and a counter with maybe five or six stools. I said “at the present” because there is a sunroom-like room on the back. The sunroom is not opened yet, it needs some work.

We sat at the counter and order the deluxe quarter pound hamburgers with all the trimmings. Mine was delicious and juicy. It is served on sliced sandwich toast bread and is just oozing with good stuff hanging from it. Of course I can’t speak for Paul but I think he liked his too; he had the same thing the day before.



The eatery is owned by Joe and Saybra.**** Joe has been around Marietta since 1977..

We arrived at 11:00, between the breakfast people and the lunch people so Saybra had time to talk to us. We met Joe too, before he went to his “office”.
“Why the logo is a red-eyed mule?” Paul asked.

Saybra said, “The red-eye mule is a symbol of the depression when every family that had a mule didn’t go hungry. The red-eye means the mule was worn out (paraphrased).” She seemed to take the depression at heart. She is not nearly old enough to had been part of the depression but maybe her grandparents told her some sad stories.*****


She said she wants some old pictures of Marietta to put on the walls. That will draw the natives – I know.

She was a little distraught over some Marietta ordinances, rules, and regulations. For instance she cannot put a sign on the side of building facing her neighbor Runaround Sue’s. Why? Because it must be facing a street. Well, I think it would be facing a street but not within a few feet. The slight curve with the road, you would be able to see the side of the building easily when you cross the tracks beside Brandi’s.

Speaking of Brandi’s: She said she is not competing with Brandi’s. She is not selling hotdogs. She said she liks Brandi's hotdogs. She also had good things to say about her biscuit competitor up road, the Mountain Biscuit Company.

She told us every food the Red-Eyed Mule prepare is market fresh and the highest quality. It sure tasted high quality, I thought, as burger juice seeped out of the corner of my mouth.

Also,the white bean soup was great.. more morsels than just white beans were in it. The other little things added taste and texture.






*Every time I ride by Runaround Sue’s I wince, thinking of a tragic event that happened several years ago: One evening two buddies, intoxicated, got into a car belonging to one of them and left RS’s. A few miles away on Canton Highway, the guy riding shotgun got sick. He had to throw up. His friend, the driver pulled over to the side, which was in front of a little small barber shop for him to hang his head out the window and throw up. Then, when he was quiet the driver assumed he was OK and drove home, forgetting about his friend. The next morning it horrified a neighbor to see a headless body hanging out the car window. The head was back in front of the barber shop. A telephone support line evidently decapitated the man while he had his head out the window. There is still a cross and flowers that mark the spot.

** The same building in the 50s was a package store. The only alcoholic beverage it sold was beer. Stronger alcohol was outlawed in Cobb County. Then, I don’t remember the building being brick and I think the top had a curve like an airplane hangar. We called it “The Bomb Shelter”. The Bomb Shelter was very rigid on the age of their clientele. They were very strict. They didn’t have to look at your driver’s license. You had to be big enough to push your money across the counter (that was our common joke back then).

*** Is Paul the compulsive type?

**** What do you think of when you hear the word Saybra? I think of a young woman with belly dancing attire (silk veils) on, doing all kinds of twisting and weaving with her body and swinging a saber. Of course, that’s just me – You might have another thought when you hear the word Saybra, but I don’t see why.

*****Sadly, the Must Ministries that take care of the homeless in the area, is just about a block away. I have often seen homeless people walking down that street with their worldly belongings in a back pack or a garbage bag. They have no red-eye mule.