Quickie serves country cooking made from scratch

ALBANY — The diner is an American staple. The East Coast is known for its establishments with chrome-covered counter-tops and drive-in-style burgers and shakes, but the South has its own unique charm when it comes to the dining experience.

We live in a Waffle House, Huddle House, International Pancake House utopia where your favorite grits and hashbrowns are only a quick short-order away. And don’t get me started on the fried chicken. But what really represents Southeast American eating? It’s our ability to make the most home-like experience without novelty and with a unique flavor profile that can’t be explained. On Slappey Boulevard, the Quickie restaurant is holding up this tradition with a bang — a made-from-scratch, no-boxed-mix, hand-battered and gloriously old-school kind of a bang.

Owner Tamara Layfield took over Quickie back in 2013 and now she, her sister-in-law, April Moore, and Tamara’s daughter, Adrienne Layield, run the place with a menu that keeps family and home at the forefront. Tamara Layfield was the manager at a bank who baked as a source of stress relief, and Moore had long worked in the restaurant industry.

“We just decided to jump in with both feet and give it a try,” Layfield said of her move to the restaurant industry.

On first impression, you can feel how important the restaurant’s regular customers are. It was probably the giant camera around my neck that did it, but it was hard to ignore that the locals seemed to notice I was new there. Who is this stranger? What’s she doing? Where’s my coffee?

But I think that’s part of Quickie’s charm. I want to be a part of the inner circle, too, a regular customer. Where’s the sign-up sheet? Lead me to the back room where Layfield keeps all of her hand-crafted pies and desserts that deserve to be in a glass vault.

After talking to Layfield about her business, it was time to get down to the eating business. What’s the dish? Two hard hitters were up to bat: the hamburger, which she claimed to be the best in town for the price, and the hamburger steak, which is their top seller. The hamburger steak won out, but don’t worry, the burger is represented well here, too.

I made my way to the “bar,” where I could see what was going on while I waited for the food. Note to self: Cooks do not like to have their photo taken during a lunch rush. Customers piled in to order their favorites like clockwork. This was the first time I had gone to a restaurant for a Signature Dish story when the restaurant was busy. They certainly don’t have to worry about becoming a ghost town any time soon.

“We really try to take care of our regular customers because they’re our bread and butter,” Layfield said of her loyal clientele fondly. “They take care of us.”

And when it came, wow, what a plate of food! Here you have King Hamburger Steak with his bespoke onion gravy crown; Queen Mashed Potatoes with her smaller, but just as important, gravy crown; Lord Bowl of Black-Eyed Peas, made from scratch; and Princess Cornbread Pancakes at the side, ready to steal both of the royals’ crowns because she is an ambitious sort. I liked the cornbread, okay. Also, you can dunk it in the gravy. Whatever, this analogy makes sense. Just work with me.

The hamburger steak, if it was on a bun, would have been called the best burger I’ve ever had. But since I didn’t actually try their on-the-bun version, the message is strongly implied here. It was cooked all the way through, but it was incredibly juicy. I’ve had hamburger steaks that were just a frozen meat disk with canned gravy on top, and I like them for the nostalgia in that blue boxed mac-n-cheese way. But there was something about the Quickie hamburger steak that makes me want to never even look at a frozen disk of meat ever again … probably for the best, actually.

I’m sitting here twiddling my thumbs because I can’t put taste to newsprint yet, and I have to think of the proper words to tell you specifically how good this is. Where is Willy Wonka with his lickable wallpaper when you need him? Snozzberries anyone? This hamburger steak deserves the title of king. I truthfully don’t even like beef, and I ate the whole thing. Spoiler alert: This was a leftoverless meal.

You just have to go try it for yourself.

Layfield picked out my sides based on what were popular with the dish, but there were plenty of others to choose from. I am at war with their mashed potatoes. Why, you ask? Because they kept disappearing in my mouth before I had the chance to chew. Why are these mashed potatoes so airy? Who put these clouds on my plate? Send them back, I came here to chew.

In all seriousness, these masked potatoes were shockingly light. Quickie uses real, hand peeled potatoes and no flakes or powder, but are you sure? Are you really sure, Quickie? What do you blend these with, Thor’s Hammer? Whoever is behind these potatoes must either be using the world’s finest food processor or has an inordinate amount of arm strength.

The black-eyed peas tasted exactly like grandma used to make — except my grandma doesn’t make black-eyed peas. But if she did, I think you could get very similar peas at Quickie. They have a flavor anyone could enjoy with their hamburger steak or pork chop.

To the side were those aforementioned cornbread cakes. I regret not asking for the actual name they use for them at Quickie, but I’m sure if you tell them that you would like a plate of the cornbread things that The Albany Herald girl started a small cult over, I’m sure they’ll take care of you. Actually, I’m sure it just comes as a side for plates like these, but I still felt like I was given the secret to space transition to nirvana.

On a completely different note, it is now illegal to serve cornbread in a fashion other than in pancake form. This is my decree as self proclaimed (for this article only) Cornbread Queen. They were crispy, soft, warm and made a perfect match to literally any food they could come in contact with. Hamburger steak and gravy? Check. Mashed potatoes and black-eyed peas? Check. Birthday cake? Why not, I’ll try it.

After mining my way through this lunch, I eyed the cakes on display at the counter. You know, the cakes Tamara Layfield makes herself. Baking was a form of stress relief for Layfield, and she makes everything herself. You can really choose from quite a selection of classic desserts that no amount of buzz-worthy cupcakes can compete with. Some of her desserts include buttermilk pies, cobblers and coconut custard pies. I asked the staff to choose their favorite dessert for me to grab a bite of. The ladies went back and forth between the chocolate cake and the blueberry cake. Can I try both, I said. I tried both.

The chocolate cake is actually a vanilla cake with chocolate frosting. The cake was so moist and decadent. The chocolate frosting Layfield makes herself, and you can 100 percent taste the cocoa. It was so rich it could have been indicted for tax evasion. The blueberry cake, which was my favorite of the two, also had a vanilla base but the frosting takes the cake.

Layfield makes a frosting out of cream cheese and cool whip and then mixes in fresh blueberries to make this tangy, sweet, breakfasty dessert that I want to have again and again. She could bottle it and sell it. This frosting would be amazing stuffed inside french toast or on top of a waffle. I’m not trying to take away from the cakes because once you try them, the quality will speak for itself. But I have to sing the frosting’s praises right now.

Overall, Quickie is the place you should take your friends and family for a good, country meal. This is the American diner right here in southwest Georgia. Just because this isn’t the place you spot just off of the interstate on a long trip does not mean that this isn’t the place to have that specific experience served on a plate. Quickie really is a perfect representation of Southern eating.

Quickie Restaurant is located at 1906 N. Slappey Boulevard in Albany.

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