Folsom Grill: It only looks like a prison.

  

Look for the sign on Monroe Street.
It's on the opposite side of the building from the Folsom Grill.


Deep in The Gump, in a state office building opened in 1958, on the back side of Goat Hill, state employees and the occasional outsider all cherish The Grill in the Folsom Administrative Building. Why do they cherish it? It's convenient, the staff is pleasant, and you can get something to eat.

It is a place to find sustenance. It has rules ("Crackers are free with salad. $.10 per pack otherwise"). It has specials ("Tuesday Breakfast Special. 1 sausage. 1 biscuit. $1.10). It has two salad bars side by side (No explanation). It has styrofoam boxes and plastic cutlery. It was redone in 1990, after existing for 32 years in its original condition (formica tables, plastic booths). It was flooded in the last few years. It endures. At age 52, it ranks up there with Chris's Hot Dogs and the Farmers' Market Cafe for longevity in The Gump.

Monday through Friday, one can enter The Grill on the first floor of the Folsom Building and get breakfast or lunch. A "breakfast special" will bless one with eggs, sausage or bacon, grits, a biscuit, all in a pristine styrofoam box, with coffee, for less than $4. The box will be heavy in your hand, laden with carbohydrates, some protein, and some grease. Or, one can order a la carte, and get eggs with crispy sausage patties you can eat like a cookie, cheap.


Breakfast from the Folsom Grill.
$2.35.
(Did that sausage just wink at me??)

 For lunch, one can make a salad or visit one of the three serving stations for meats (something fried is always available), overcooked vegetables, and bread of some type. During breaks (which seem to last all day for some), one can find coffee, tea, and conversation in the seating area.

This is just basic Gump home cookin', folks. You will find something you like, or at least something you can tolerate, satisfy a rumbling stomach, and suffer little damage to your wallet. I ate there about 3 times a week for 17.5 years, and I survived.

I drank much coffee, listened to many stories, suffered much cigarette smoke, and watched the people go by, every weekday afternoon from 1972 to 1989. I went back last week to get some breakfast (see above).

The Folsom Grill is a non-profit cooperative, operated by an anonymous group of state employees. It keeps on going.

Lunch in the Gump: The Farmer’s Market Cafe—Taxidermy and Jalapeno Corn Bread!!

You're not eating the venison are you?

With the choice for the spot of the week bearing down on all of us, Shadow Pup suggested a Montgomery standard. If you are still shaking off a hangover from a weekend of big football and you need a solid, no-frills workman’s lunch, you got to go with the Farmer’s Market Cafe. Shadow Pup and I arrived separately and in true community style, we were both offered seats by folks we knew and some we didn’t. Shadow Pup remarked “It’s sort of like the bar in Cheers, somebody knows your name so you never eat alone (even when you really want to).” Local celebrity sightings included Rep. Alvin Holmes “legisloitering” by the counter as per usual hoping some lobbyist would pick up his tab.

As our fellow Gumpers trickled in, each made the rounds in the dining room back slapping and hand grabbing until we all came to rest at a centrally located table, amidst lawyers, brick layers, law enforcement and secretaries. This proud cross section of the Gump’s best folks came together for a respectable assortment of baked chicken, veggies, slaw, cornbread and tea. Just the thing you need to ground you after a high flying weekend of fancy tailgate food and beer. The one that has no nickname especially liked the Jalapeno Corn Bread, which he says has the consistency of Twinkies. (Discerning palate indeed.) We all agree the fried okra is superb especially when combined with the smoky baked chicken.

As a bonus, you dine while being eyeballed by some pretty good taxidermy and photos of decades old football players like Buddy McClinton leaping, Charlie Trotman with a buster brown haircut, Zeke Smith with his Outland Trophy, and, of course, the Bear when he could personally kick ass.

As a side note, LITG determined that although LSU intercepted the ball, it would not have mattered, and that 50 year old refs don’t have 4.4 speed. SEC refs made for good lunch conversation among the Aubie/Bammers except for Tojo who doesn’t understand “armored wankerball”.



Tojo had just returned from a battle royal with the dentist’s drill and it was highly entertaining to watch him on Novocain try to chew his chicken and not his tongue. “Tojo have tongue for lunch. Unfortunately tongue belong to Tojo. Also have inside of cheek for dessert. Docartie very good to Tojo, only drill one bad spot. Feel like Tojo stick tongue in light socket.”

Frugal Gumpers also got drilled when ordering the traditional ice milk that used to be included in the price of a lunch, but now costs $.50. Leaving alone the ice milk brings the total to a workmanlike $9.00, and for the portions, it’s a sweet deal.

All in all we give it four out of five stuffed turkeys and a deer rack.

Farmers Market Cafe
315 N. McDonough Street
334.262.1970 or 262-9163
Fax 334.262.1970

Plenty of Free Parking or Take the Lunch Trolley Express
"FRIED GREEN TOMATOES EVERY DAY"