Food Feature: Old Hickory

As the self-elected capital city of the New South, Atlanta nevertheless has an Achilles heel. In fact, it probably has a whole chorus line of bum legs, but this discussion is only concerned with our lack of good, cheap barbecue joints.

True, you can find decent barbecue if you go looking for it, but you shouldn’t have to seek it out: A real Southern metropolis should have delicious, or at least decent, BBQ places as fixtures in every neighborhood. You shouldn’t have to feel obligated to take out-of-towners to Houston’s if they want good baby back ribs, yet here it’s easier to find good, inexpensive Thai food than mouth-watering ‘cue.

The situation today is a far cry from not so long ago, when the Old Hickory House chain had plentiful and reliable restaurants across the city. The first Hickory House opened in 1952 and over the decades developed a reputation for the finest Brunswick stew in the South, reportedly served in Jimmy Carter’s White House. As a high schooler, I rarely failed to visit the Pharr Road location at least once a week for an infusion of BBQ sauce.

But in the intervening years, hard times have hit the chain, and only a few sites currently remain in operation. The Dunwoody location proves pleasingly incongruous among the uniform Colonial Williamsburg architecture of the surrounding shops of Dunwoody village — sort of like a rustic relative at a snooty wedding reception. It has a loyal local clientele, proving unexpectedly crowded on a drizzly Memorial Day afternoon, yet the walls’ green color scheme gives it a rather dismal atmosphere.

Visually preferable is the Old Hickory House in Tucker, tucked in around the corner from Northlake Mall. This spot better retains the chain’s atmosphere of down-home hospitality, with friendly servers maneuvering through a clean, spacious interior, where the cozy wood fixtures have been polished to a sheen.

The meals of yesteryear no doubt taste better in retrospect, but nevertheless the Hickory House’s food (essentially the same at both locales) has gone downhill since its heyday. The Brunswick stew can be sweeter than necessary, with plenty of corn, tomatoes and vinegar, yet not enough meat. The barbecue platters, whether pork ($8), beef ($8.20) or “hickory chick” ($7), tend to come in tasty, generous portions, nicely complemented by the tangy, ketchupy sauce. The pork and beef arrive especially savory with hickory smoke, yet the chopped versions of each meat dish probably are more comfortable in sandwich bread than standing alone on a plate.

Some barbecue places will take pains to offer flavorful, non-generic salads to curry favor with diners who may not be hardcore carnivores. The Hickory House isn’t one of those places, as the chargrilled chicken salad ($5.49) features a helping of the hickory chick on a bed of dull lettuce leaves and undistinguished salad fixings. Other vegetables (among numerous choices) also disappointed, such as the black-eyed peas reduced to the consistency of refried beans and the corn on the cob rendered remarkably flavorless. At least, the coleslaw can be nicely understated and not too gloppy.

The Old Hickory House currently might be best as a place for simple, unfussy carry-out BBQ meals, with most items also available in bulk. And with the wafting scent of hickory smoke, both locations are unquestionably aromatic places for dining in, where you can smell the charred meat and hark back to the glory days of Atlanta’s BBQ joints.??