Weaver D's: Automatic For The People in Athens, GA

Long before the marketing slogan of Dexter Weaver's meat and three restaurant found its way to the title of a Grammy nominated album by REM, Weaver D, as he is known to the locals had been feeding hoards of business people, students and up and coming musicians some of the best traditional southern cooking in Athens, Georgia.

As I have told many of you before, in the south, we don't really refer to soul food as soul food. We simply refer to it as food because, regardless of our race, in the deep south, it is the foundation of all of our culinary traditions.

Dexter Weaver is an interesting guy. A one time evangelist turned culinary entrepreneur, he clearly serves up some of the best down home southern style cooking in a town that has an abundance of meat and three places. And he serves it up quite affordably.

One might think that Dexter would have taken the earnings from his fame circa 1991 to upgrade his 16 seat cinderblock restaurant. But, really, the only change he made was about years ago when he chose to paint the exterior of the restaurant electric green so that it could be better sighted as one rounds the curve on Broad Street.

Weaver D's has a menu posted on one of those plastic press on menu boards that sits at the front of the restaurant. It lists fried and baked chicken, pork chops, and a short list of vegetables (including Macaroni and Cheese and rice) that come with your choice of an entree.

But, to clearly understand the depth of the menu, one must listen to Dexter's sing song cadence as one waits in line. In that cadence, Dexter announces the specials of the day.

"we got the meatlooooooaf, we got the squash casserOLE, some blackeeeeyed peas, and some chicken in graaaaavy"


Recently, on a visit, it was meatloaf and chicken gravy (his version of smothered chicken) There was also his excellent sweet potato souffle, yellow squash casserole, pole beans with potatoes, and an excellent cornbread stuffing studded with chunky pieces of onion and celery...all things that I would have missed if I relied exclusively on the menu board to make my choices.

I chose a daily special of the rich, slow cooked, fall off the bone chicken thighs cooked in gravy, served over the staple southern starch of white rice, collards, sweet potato souffle, and a deliciously fresh and warm corn muffin. It included my choice of self served sweet tea or lemonade. I'd be remiss if I didn't note that Weaver D's mac and cheese, made with five kinds of cheese is one of the best I have ever had. The sweet potato souffle is another must on Weaver D's menu. Its chocked full of nuts, marshmallows, and brown sugar. Its flavor and consistency is more that of a really good sweet potato pie than a side starch at your midday meal.

After placing your order at the cash register and paying for your lunch, one then steps over to the open window to the restaurant's kitchen. Weaver instructs the server what entree you have chosen and you pick your sides from big pots of slow, long cooked southern vegetables and starches that sit on a stove and in a warmer behind the kitchen pass through.. The cook/server serves up your lunch on a styrofoam plate that is handed to you two handed as the plate growns under the weight of your tasty southern lunch.

The total price for my lunch at Weaver D's on Thursday was $4.75 including a beverage.

Athens is not the kind of place that you find yourself in by accident. You generally have to have a reason to be there. If you do find yourself there, Weaver D's is a great example of a really great small town southern plate lunch. The fact that it has a bit of a history and an interesting and eccentric owner makes it even more of a must stop kind of place.

Enjoyable and informative post, Will. Thanks. I haven't been to Athens and my time in the South generally has been extremely limited and only in big cities. But I guess I'm a Yankee through and through: I need you to explain "meat and three" to me.

The only thing that occurs to me is a meat dish (entree) and three sides.


Thanks.

Yep, a "meat and three" is a meat dish and three "vegetable" sides.

When ordering a plate, "vegetables" are considered anything not mostly meat. Mac and cheese is a vegetable in this context. Vegetables can have small pieces of meat and/or be cooked in meat juice, so "vegetable" does not always equal vegetarian.

A "vegetable plate" is ordered when you just want the sides without the meat. Typically this would be four "vegetable" sides with a biscuit or cornbread. Vegetable plates are more commonly ordered at lunch, especially on hot days.

Will's post makes me long for a road trip....thank you Will. Go Dawgs!