The GOOD NURSE and the 'Shed (Part II)

Click here for The GOOD NURSE and the 'Shed (Part I)

So, my brother and I met the Good Nurse at the Watershed.

And like I said, that had to be THE best southern cooked comfort food I've ever had.

And when I say "Comfort food", I'm talking comfort food to the tenth degree!

Maybe I was just hungry.

Nah, that ain't it. That food was GOOD.

Now, the Watershed is a restaurant located in downtown Decatur, a city on the East side of Atlanta, about 10 minutes from downtown Atlanta. It is located in a converted gas station.

Yeah, that's right, a gas station. You can tell it was an old gas station by the windows and the garage doors and the painted cement floor. Interesting concept. I would have never thought of it, but interesting indeed.

We went in, had a seat, and chit-chatted for awhile. Even got a chance to meet the executive chef, Scott Peacock.

Okay, the Good Nurse knew chef. And she knew the menu VERY well. Obviously she'd been there MANY many times. She described each and every dish with GREAT enthusiasm.

Heck, I joked with her that if The Watershed ever started running commercials, she would be a prime candidate for spokesperson

I could see her standing there grinning down and doing the running man, yelling "Come to the 'shed! Come to the 'shed!"

Yeah, she knew the place all too well. When the chef comes out to talk to you and give you a hug? Yeah, you are a regular!

He even sent us a complimentary appetizer of stone ground shrimp grits and toast.

Damn, those grits were GOOD. Wish I could make grits like THAT. I think there was some cheese in them, too. Goodness gracious.

Well, we perused the menu for awhile. There was much southern fare. The Good Nurse was very vocal about what she liked. VERY vocal! She liked everything. And that's always a good thing. She said something quite interesting, that truly caught my attention:

The Macaroni-n-Cheese was made by God. It is straight from the throne room.

I was thinking to myself, don't no macaroni and cheese taste THAT good.

My brother was wide-eyed and staring. I think he believed her, because he sure did order it!

We placed our orders. I ordered a fried oyster appetizer. I ordered the fresh fish of the day (sea bass, grilled), mashed sweet potatoes, collard greens, and cornbread for my entree. My brother and the Good Nurse ordered the fried catfish with collard greens and macaroni-n-cheese.

First of all, all I gotta say is that they need to remove those "foo-foo" pretty pics from their website and put up some REAL pictures. They give you A LOT of food. A whole lot of food. The pictures on the website would not steer me towards the place. Not at all!

I'm not sure what's up with the pretty pictures, but they need to kill that noise!!!!

I watched as my brother took a bite of his macaroni and cheese, which supposedly came, as the Good Nurse said, straight from the throne room. My brother melted in his chair, in reverence to the macaroni and cheese. I could have knocked him over with a feather. I stabbed my fork into his bowl and grabbed a fork full.

"I told you," the Good Nurse whispered. "I told you it was straight from the throne room."

All I gotta say is that the Good Nurse was right... the macaroni and cheese was GOOD, straight from the throne room, made by God.

We sat there for an hour, eating and savoring our dinner. I gotta say, I've never had food so good. For dessert we ordered chocolate cake (named "Very Good chocolate cake" on the menu, and it was "very good" indeed) and a pecan tart. The pecan tart did not have a regular pastry crust, but had some type of shortbread cookie crust. Now that was different, something I would have never thought of. The chocolate cake was very dark, very rich, and had a strong coffee-like taste...

Ooooooh... they were both sooooo doggone good.

Needless to say, after all of that food, we all had the "Itis" something terrible. Just couldn't move. My poor brother didn't even finish his food. He needed a take-home box.

Now we got there at around 5 pm. We were still sitting there at 8 pm.

We were kicked out asked to leave around that time.

The manager, or whoever the dude was, came by our table and removed our extra trash. Then he came back, knelt down, and said, with a wonderful colgate smile...

"Could you please move your conversations to the lobby, because we have reservations to fill."

In other words... "Ya'll need to raise up outta here!"

Humph.

We left. It would have been funny if we would have just sat there a little while longer. That would have been oh so ghetto. And, we probably would've been locked up by now, LOL!

I talked to LadyTee about it later that night.

"Crazy girl, that's what you get. You are not suppose to sit there that long. Ya'll were in the wrong."

(Shut up, LadyTee.)

But um... that food was good. The website didn't do it justice. They could have beat us down, and thrown us out on our heads, and I would STILL go back. That's just how good it was.

Now the executive chef of The Watershed, Scott Peacock, co-authored a book with another chef, the late Edna Lewis, a few years ago, entitled The gift of Southern Cooking: Recipes and Revelations from Two Great American Chefs. I made sure to go pick up the cookbook because I just HAD to know how he made that doggone macaroni and cheese. The recipe is long, with more ingredients than I would have ever thought to put in macaroni and cheese, but it looks doable. I may make it for my next family gathering. But for now, if I want some, I'll just stop by there and pick up some. It is VERY very rich. No need in having too much of it around, LOL.

Now, I spent a couple of hours reading the cookbook, as it was full of wonderful stories behind all the food. That's what I like in a cookbook. And the recipes were simple, made with ingredients readily available at any grocery store. I definitely don't regret buying it, and I hope to use it to prepare something for a family gathering or one of my book club meetings...

Now, back to The Good Nurse. She has to be one of the funniest, wittiest, smartest people I've ever met. She had me in stitches. I think that's the real reason we were asked to leave. We were sitting there watching people and talking about them and cracking on them. I think management was watching us. That's probably what really happened, LOL!!!

But Nurse Cook, it was good to meet you and to share a meal with someone who reads my blog!

Now after meeting you, I'm looking sideways at Tayari.... Yeah Tayari, I bet you got CRAZY side to you! To be hanging with the Good Nurse? I know you do, LOL!!!

You know we gotta hook up again!!

And next time...

Let's not get thrown up out the place.