Just remember you are in the South! Not the eclectic watered down Atlanta, but the deep South. Cooking and restaurants are not what you are used to if you come from New York or Atlanta or any other city. That being said, what they do have is good and better shared with friends and a bottle of wine.

I revamped the Southern bead retreat site to include links to many of the nearby restaurants. Then I found some good links that included most nearby restaurants:

http://restaurants.uptake.com/georgia/pine_mountain/393071883.html and/or http://www.pinemountain.org/5001-1.htm

For more reading and reviews try here at TripAdvisor:

http://www.tripadvisor.in/Restaurants-g35187-Pine_Mountain_Georgia.html

If you want to see what neighboring towns look like and travel a bit for dinner you have your choices of Lagrange, Opelika, and Columbus. For nice dinners in nice Southern atmospheres I would suggest the former two. It is about a 45 minute drive to Opelika. It is about a 25-30 minute drive to LaGrange. The reason I suggest these two towns is that there are about 4 really good restaurants in LaGrange and at least 2 excellent restaurants in Opelika. You will be here for a week, so you may want to consider a small trip.

For those looking closer to where we are staying, there are many choices. You have the restaurants associated with the hotel and then surrounding independent restaurants.

There is on place in particular that we have not tried, but are really interested in going to. This is called the Carriage and Horses. Here are some links. Please use my links as I was having trouble with their site and went to google cache to see it.

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:qN4rfdWTm-YJ:www.cometodagher.com/pictures.htm+http://www.cometodagher.com/pictures.htm&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a

Make sure to refresh your browser to see all the pictures.

What really has me interested in this place is the menu. If you use the link below you will see an example of a dinner menu:

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:uVJ4WbbYL9gJ:www.cometodagher.com/dinnermenu-1.htm+http://www.cometodagher.com/dinnermenu-1.htm&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a

And for lunch:

http://www.cometodagher.com/lunchmenu-1.htm

So for me, it looks like at least an exciting place to try. How bad could it be? They have a wine list and a great menu and they take credit cards and they are nearby. I say it is a go. I know we will be spending at least one night here, you can count on it.

I remember there was at least one person at the last retreat that had a BBQ craving. Trust me, I get them too. Georgia has an unusual bbq style. What I have learned is that when they say BBQ around here, it means pulled pork on a bun with a form of sauce with mustard in sweet to hot and covered with coleslaw if you want. From where I come from it means amazing ribs, but I'm getting used to the sandwiches here. Now I have not eaten BBQ around Calloway, but there is one place that looks like it had great reviews. All I can say is that it looks good and will give you a tasted of this areas BBQ style. Here is the link to some reviews. It is called Three lil Pigs, but I hope by the time of the event one of those pigs are left as I know I'll be looking forward to this.

http://maps.google.com/maps/place?cid=17795611360454111591&q=calloway+gardens+bbq&hl=en&cd=3&cad=src:pplink&ei=kJwfTIHoI5TGywTW_Ni5Bw

I found another place called Joey's BBQ in Manchester nearby.

http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/149/932261/restaurant/Georgia/Joeys-BBQ-Manchester

Now just in case you don't know, Warm Springs is real close by. Nice quaint little town made famous for the springs Roosevelt used to bathe in. The have some restaurants too. Here is a link to them:

http://www.warmspringsga.com/restaurants.htm

Now if you go to LaGrange, you have so much to choose from and most of the restaurants are located on the same street.

Ones I have eaten at in the past that are very good include:

The Basil Leaf which is now for lunch and they merged with Venucci for dinner. I have not eaten there in the past couple months but they were always excellent.

Then there is Tulla's for New Orleans type food. Sometimes hit or miss, but usually a great meal.

Another excellent place is C'sons where we have eaten: http://www.csons.net Wonderful restaurant.

Now for Opelika, I include this because these restaurants are worth the drive.

Cafe 123: http://www.cafeonetwentythree.com/

The Warehouse Bistro: http://www.warehousebistro.com/dining/

There is one steak house that I mention because it is really an interesting place. It is a small shack right off 185. It is called Hunter's Pub. They have great fried lobster tails. Basic steak meals are good for me, but not excellent like an expensive steak house. It is a nice interesting night out so you can take some pictures and say you ate here.

So I know I have included alot. Most of the restaurants will require a reservation. All the ones I mention are locally owned and are not chains. In Columbus, we have a few locally owned, but IMHO our best is Carabas. We also have a place called The Buckhead Diner which is good, but you will also need reservations. There is a basic Vietnamese restaurant in Columbus. There are two good Korean restaurants. There is one pretty good Thai restaurant. There is one excellent, and I mean excellent, Chinese restaurant (right next to The Beadcage.)

I plan to be at the event to discuss anything about food and restaurants as I know pretty much all the places.