Georgia guide dishes up local cuisine

ALBANY — When traveling, finding a good place to eat can be a challenge. The local residents know where the good food is, but that doesn’t help if you don’t know the locals.

A statewide guide in its second year, however, can take the mystery out, at least for 100 restaurants in Georgia.

Last week, the Georgia Department of Economic Development’s Tourism division released its 2016 state culinary guide, Georgia Eats, which features “100 Plates Locals Love.” The free guide also includes 10 flavor tours, feature stories, exclusive recipes from local chefs and information on popular food festivals.The list can be found online at www.exploregeorgia.org/article/100-plates-locals-love.

Officials with the department noted that about a quarter of all travel spending goes toward dining, which in 2012 generated about $201 billion in tourism expenditures for food services.

“Culinary tourism has been on the rise over the last few years as consumers are looking for unique food and beverage experiences while traveling,” said Kevin Langston, deputy commissioner for tourism at the Georgia Department of Economic Development. “Georgia offers visitors unique culinary experiences in every corner of the state, making it easy for visitors and locals to taste the many flavors of Georgia with locally grown products, award-winning local chefs, notable food festivals and much more.”

The “100 Plates” feature, which includes restaurants in different regions of the state, has proved to be popular after making its debut last year.

“We did the first one last year,” Emily Murray with the state’s economic department said. “This is the second annual list.”

To be considered for the “100 Plates” list, someone familiar with the restaurant and a particular dish has to nominate it.

“We did an online nomination period in November,” Murray said. “We promoted the nominations on social media and on our website, so local people actually could go in and nominate their favorite local dish online. We received nearly 600 nominations.

“From those 600 nominations, we had a panel of tourism industry experts help whittle the list down to 100. We also took into account online reviews of the restaurants, Yelp reviews and things like that. But it starts with locals.

“It’s neat to see which ones end up on there.”

No metro Albany eateries are on the 2016 list, though three made the initial “100 Places” last year: Austin’s Firegrill & Oyster Bar for its barbecue, Harvest Moon for its Homemade Chicken Pot Pie and Mark’s Melon Patch near Sasser for its boiled peanuts. (Last year’s list can be found online at www.exploregeorgia.org/article/100-plates-locals-love-2015).

“You can be on the list multiple times, it just has to be a different dish,” Murray said. “It can be the same restaurant, but if they had one dish one year, it’d have to be another dish the next year. We wouldn’t use the same dish multiple times.”

The decision-making process, like the nominations, has some local flavor in it.

“We take the local nominations and sort through those based on reviews, and then we have local tourism industry experts, so there’s someone who’s actually familiar with the restaurant and familiar with the area,” she said. “They help us narrow the list down that way as well.”

Albany is in the Plantation Trace region. On the dishes list this year from the region are:

— The Jonathan (a chicken, rice and white cheese dish) at La Hacienda Mexican Restaurant, Ashburn;

— The Shrimp Basket at Blue Anchor Seafood and Grill, Bainbridge;

— Fried Chicken at Odom’s Country Cafe, Blakely;

— Grilled Peanut Butter and Jelly at Cafe LeLe, Colquitt;

— Fried and Baked Chicken at the Tarrer Inn, Colquitt;

— Shrimp & Grits at Jonah’s Fish and Grits, Thomasville;

— Manchester Farms Quail at Liam’s Restaurant, Thomasville;

— Peach Town Porkchop with Town Branch Bourbon and Peach Glaze at the LOCAL Kitchen:Bar, Tifton;

— Pulled Pork & Pimento Cheese Wontons at Steel Magnolias, Valdosta;

— Memphis Nachos, The Bleu Cafe, Valdosta.

Two dishes at restaurants near metro Albany that are in the Presidential Pathways region also made the 100 Plates list:

— Filet Mignon at Daphne’s Lodge, Cordele;

— Chicken Salad Plate at Sweet Georgia Baking Co., Americus.

Copies of the 2016 Georgia Eats can be obtained a number of ways. They’re in the state’s 12 visitor centers, and the guide is available online at exploregeorgia.org. Interested persons also can contact the Georgia Department of Economic Development’s Tourism division for a mailed copy. In all cases, the guides are free and, Murray says, “very popular. We go through all of our quantities of this guide.”

Later this year, the process will get started on a list of 100 Plates for the 2017 guide.

“I’m not sure exactly when we’ll start the nomination process again, but we’ll make that announcement,” Murray said. “It’ll most likely be later in the fall.”

A tour that included all 100 would be, no doubt, very fulfilling.

“I’ve tried a couple, not the whole 100,” Murray said with a laugh. “I’m going to try to get through the first list first and then eat my way through the state.”