Olden Charm

Dine on Southern and contenintal fare while basking in the charm of the historical Swanson home!

Husband and wife team, Michael and Kim Sheridan, found themselves tired of the corporate rat race. With backgrounds in the corporate world and no previous experience in the food industry, Kim Sheridan and her husband were taking a huge leap of faith by venturing into the tenuous role of restaurateurs.

Armed only with their love of cooking and entertaining, they decided to open a restaurant in Kim’s hometown of Perry, Georgia.

Located on Carroll Street, in the charming historical district, the Sheridans’ restaurant not only retains the visceral beauty of days gone bye, but it has also continued to bear the name of Swanson, the name of the building’s previous owners.

Originally a livery stable built around 1800, it was purchased and converted into a home by the Cox-Swanson family during the 1880’s. In 1920, an addition was added to complete the structure which stands today.

The restaurant, unlike the building, is relatively new—having just opened its doors to the public in October of 2002. Despite the volatility and fickleness of the food industry, it nonetheless seems to have been well received by the local community and its visitors.

Should you have to wait, iron benches on the grounds and a chairs on the wrap-around front porch offer an opportunity to enjoy the big, lazy willowy trees and the charming nearby storefronts. Indeed you might even choose front porch dining.

The traditional interior of the restaurant is just as welcoming and keeps with the historic atmosphere created by the old home. Heart of pine floors, high ceilings, and tall windows with wavy Victorian glass can be found throughout the house. The restaurant has two main dining rooms. The smaller dining room to the left has cream walls, and a blue ceiling, accented by blue and cream French toile window cornices.

The main dining room to the right is gaily decorated with yellow walls and a bright floral, floor-to-ceiling window treatment.

All of the restaurant’s tables are covered with immaculate white linens. On this occasion, each table was adorned with yellow carnations—ruffled in pink—mirroring the main dining room’s color scheme. Mysteriously in this meticulous ambience, much less care seems to be taken with the placement of the silverware.

The Swanson’s menu varies greatly depending on when you choose to dine. If you prefer Southern home-style cooking over continental fare then it’s best to visit the restaurant for a Sunday, lunch.

“Southern Sunday,” as it is aptly titled, provides diners with a choice of down-home favorites like fried chicken, chicken & dumplings, meatloaf, and more. Select three sides from a listing that encompasses a wide range of Southern staples like field peas, fried okra, various vegetable casseroles, boiled cabbage, congealed salads, and the like.

If you prefer continental selections, you’ll enjoy the lunches and dinners served on Tuesday through Saturday. But, here again, even continental selections differ depending on whether you are having lunch or dinner.

The lunch menu offers soups and salads that could easily serve as a light meal, a host of unusual gourmet sandwiches, as well as four entrées. The entrées include a chicken salad sampler with fruit and pasta, a quiche sampler with the house salad and fruit, grilled chicken Cally with sautéed vegetables; and grilled citrus mahi mahi with sautéed asparagus and the house salad.

The dinner menu allows you to choose from five appetizers which include items you can find on most any menu like artichoke spinach dip and lump crab cakes to more unusual and intriguing items such as blackened alligator, buffalo fried shrimp, and fried green tomatoes.

I loved the fried green tomatoes! Served in a terrific batter they were wonderfully crispy and had a sweet and spicy pimento sauce that worked well with the dish’s traditional tangy flavor.

All of the dinner entrées sounded highly appealing. With twelve entrée selections, diners may choose from seafood, chicken, beef, or lamb options.

All dinner entrées are served with your choice of a vegetable or starch and come with bread and a salad. Oddly enough, there also happens to be a soup and salad section on the menu....hmm, I guess that’s for the ultra salad enthusiast who just can’t get enough of a good thing.

I selected the Dijon honey-rubbed, grilled rack of lamb which was served in a pool of demi glace sauce and a baked potato for my starch, accompanied by the Swanson house salad—a spring mix of greens which was topped with freshly cut pears, feta cheese, crumbled bacon, and pecans. The salad was quite good, though I didn’t care for my selection of the house Champagne vinegarette, which, when combined with the feta cheese, made the salad taste overly bitter.

The rack of lamb arrived medium-well—as requested. Luckily, it was incredibly tender as I never did receive that steak knife. I enjoyed the lambs demi glace sauce, which was distinctly sweet while still managing to maintain a hearty flavor. The sauce complemented the lamb while not interfering with the lamb’s natural favor.

Desserts included a bread pudding with a Kahlua caramel sauce, poached pear a la mode with pecan caramel sauce, lemon ice pie (chef’s selection), and a chocolate decadence cake with chocolate ganache and pecans. I chose the latter. It was served warm and it practically melted in my mouth. It was one of the most unbelievably rich chocolate concoctions I’ve ever had—making it a superb choice for chocolate lovers!

The Swanson has a rich atmosphere and good food making it an inviting place to dine for those who are willing to compromise green service for extraordinary fried green tomatoes. ¨