Housed in the former location of the Keys Piano Bar (good riddance, I say), is now Sweet Tea’s. They did not do much to the interior, which works, as the decor was good already. They even left the raised platform that formerly housed the piano (now it houses a few tables). The columns are painted with chalkboard paint and are used to display the specials.
We arrived for lunch with friends and were seated and offered beverages. As the name implies, they seem to serve a lot of sweet tea. When I inquired as to the availability of unsweetened tea, I was told that was not available. The waitress offered to water down the sweet tea for me. Um, no thanks. I opted for the lemonade, which was delicious and refilled often, but did not help with the no-calorie rule I have for non-alcoholic beverages. Plus, given that this place is Southern, I really needed all the help I could get in the calorie limiting.
One of the specials was fish and chips, which was good, if not a little overly breaded. The curly fries were quite good and for
$10.99, it came with two sides. Fish, chips (well, curly fries) and two sides. One of the side dishes they offer is pickled green tomatoes. I know that most people think I am nuts for this, and mainly people in their 80’s eat them, but I happen to LOVE a good pickled tomato. It is not every day you see them in a restaurant. They were sour, briney and crunchy. I really can’t say enough about how good these tomatoes were. You’ll just have to go and try them for yourself. Let me know what you think.
Our friend had the chicken salad sandwich, which was served correctly on the second try, and was apparently quite good. The mac and cheese side was also good, if very heavy. It needed a little crunch on top – maybe some toasted bread crumbs and a minute under the broiler? Nonetheless, it was tasty.
Overall, the lunch at Sweet Tea’s was good. The menu is a little heavy on the fried foods for me to go back too often, but I would certainly return. They do have a salad bar (tucked away in the back – a basic array of salad vegetables and dressings) if you are trying to be good.
