Ye Old Colonial Cafeteria

108 East Washington St., Madison, GA - (707) 342-2211

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Posted By Michael Stern on June 23, 2002 3:07 AM

There is not a big choice when you move through the short cafeteria line at Ye Old Colonial Restaurant. At lunch or supper, entrées will be limited to a short list of fried chicken, barbecued pork, bone-in ham steak, and country-fried steak. The vegetable roster will include sweet potatoes, macaroni and cheese, greens, squash, and butter beans. There will be cornbread and dinner rolls, and hot fruit cobbler for dessert. At breakfast, there are pancakes, eggs, country ham, and biscuits.

It’s a simple menu, and a reassuring one. Here you will eat a meal that is about as close to home cooking, Southern-style, as any restaurant we know. It is basic food, made from scratch, as is evidenced by the boxes and bushels of sweet potatoes and other root vegetables stacked up behind the cash register, waiting to go back to the kitchen to be cleaned and cooked.

At supper time, a member of the staff will carry your tray to a table; but at breakfast and lunch, carry your own to either the front room (for smokers) or the side room (non-smoking), which is located in what used to be a bank. Here the floor still has the old beautiful tiny-tile pattern, and you can see the vault in back. And as in any good small-town bank, the room tone is hushed, respectful, and law-abiding. That’s the way it is at Ye Old Colonial: a taste of honest Americana unspoiled by time and fashion.

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