New Orleans – The People’s Restaurant is carved out of an old diner in Roswell. The grill is visible to view and the restaurant so small at times you feel you can reach out and touch the chef. There are 7 bar stools along the counter top and 4 booths in the main area. They have another area roped off, if there are a lot of customers.
I came one day with my wife. She was seeing a physician in the area that I work so we took off afterwards, looking for food. This eatery had caught my eye, while going to Red Salt and Indigo, and I had been reading about it on the Internet. The web site was a little confusing, as it spoke of catering. I figured we could straighten that out on site.
Once there, I ordered half a muffuletta and an off the menu seafood gumbo. My wife ordered a vegetable plate. The food came rather quickly.
A muffuletta is a well known New Orleans sandwich so large that a whole muffuletta can feed two. The muffuletta I was served was warm, toasty, delicious and well worth the drive. In my opinion, the muffulatta was the star of the foods we ordered. The seafood gumbo was a good gumbo, but not a great gumbo.
In my opinion the vegetable plate is good, but that recommendation comes with a warning: this restaurant sweetens their greens. I had never run into that before. I’ve been asking ever since. I now know two ladies whose grandmothers would sweeten their greens. It seems to be something the “older folks” would do.
In any event the sweet got into the red beans and also the jambalaya and that affected my wife’s enjoyment of them. I did taste the greens. They were tasty and tender. The jambalaya had a sneaky spiciness that built as you ate it. The red beans and rice weren’t bad at all, but had some sweetness from the greens.
Service was both personal and good. As small as the restaurant is, not all items on the menu (mostly sides) were available.
Verdict: A bit of New Orleans in Roswell. Serves a mean muffuletta. Recommended, and highly recommended if you’re after the sandwich.
New Orleans – The People’s Restaurant
659 Atlanta Street
Roswell, GA 30075
(770) 642-6400
Update: Recipes where collard greens are sweetened can be found here, here, here, and here. In the last recipe it’s a reader that suggests sweetening the dish.
August 18, 2009 at 8:26 pm
What a coincidence, I have been feverishly searching for a braised greens recipe after eating at Legal Sea Foods for Restaurant Week. I usually can’t stand greens, but they came as a side with my meal and they were sweet and delicious! I think the 3rd recipe link you provided is just what I’m looking for!
August 19, 2009 at 1:21 pm
I’m glad you found them useful. That wasn’t the intended purpose. I was doing it to show that the restaurant was following a well known tradition.
I suspect I’ll find more of this as I review more restaurants.