Lexington diners who have mourned the loss of Flag Fork Herb Farm, which closed last fall after more than 15 years of business, can dry their eyes now that its replacement, Georgia’s Kitchen Cafe, is in full swing. Serving breakfast, lunch and dinner seven days a week, Georgia’s is a refreshing new local dining option, with an affordable and unique menu, exemplary service, and lovely, inviting indoor and outdoor seating options.
I recently went for lunch and found myself making plans to come back before our food had even arrived. My guest and I sat outdoors in the courtyard, a garden patio that makes it easy to forget the restaurant is situated on one of Lexington’s busiest roads close to the center of town. With a weathered brick patio surrounded by full-bloom herb and flower gardens, the setting is closer to a New Orleans courtyard than any other spot in Lexington that I’ve seen.
The lunch menu features a handful of healthy and appetizing salads, including a quinoa salad (with parsley, tomatoes, onion and a lemon dressing, $9), a vintage salad (mesclun greens, toasted walnuts, grapes, dried cranberries and multi-grain chips, $10) and a roasted vegetable salad (eggplant, zucchini, peppers and onion, $9), as well as several sandwiches (chicken salad, falafel, pulled BBQ, a ground beef and hummus wrap, all $7-10) and “casserole” options, which include baked brie with mango chutney in a puff pastry, eggplant parmigiana, and cassoulet (beans, bacon andouille sausage and fresh herbs). Breakfast is also served during morning and daytime hours; options include breakfast casserole, chocolate brioche and country-style benedict. The dinner menu is what inspired my plans to return soon – it features dinner portions of many of the same lunch items, with additional entrees that include a hangar steak with chimichurri ($22), sesame seared Ahi tuna ($24) and sweet potato gnocchi with peas an yellow peppers ($16).
For lunch, we started with the cheese fondue appetizer ($8), served with small pieces of crusty bread. Gooey and garlicky, the cheese was divine, and we found ourselves scraping the bottom of the fondue dish with our bread scraps to soak up every last bit. For our main coarse, my guest ordered the kebbe ($10), a ground beef pie traditionally found in Arab cuisine. Served with yogurt-cucmber sauce and an arugula and tomato salad, the dish looked a little different than we were used to seeing it – looking more like a hamburger than a falafel patty – but the flavor was spot on, and he had no trouble cleaning his plate. I went back and forth between the handful of dishes featuring eggplant before settling on the greek eggplant salad ($10), which featured thin slices of grilled eggplant topped with plum tomato, onion, chucks of feta cheese and mache leaves (a small green also known as “lamb’s lettuce”) with a pomegranate molasses dressing. The salad was beautifully composed and the flavors meshed together perfectly.
Georgia’s interior is flocked with floral tablecloths, a charming array of mismatched china and vintage furnishings; admittedly, it’s a very feminine scene, further evidenced by the contents of the adjoining gift shop, Georgette’s Chiffons, which is stocked with handmade jewelry, decadent velvet purses, and curtains and other home and personal accessories. The courtyard might be your best seating option if you are in mixed company – my guest was the only male sitting out there when we went, though he didn’t seem to mind much.
Our total, including tax, was $41.34.