The venue for today’s lunch was determined when I remembered I had a remaining balance on a Buckhead Life gift card and we were heading toward Lenox.  That narrowed the choice to either Corner Cafe / Buckhead Bread Company or the Buckhead Diner.  As I didn’t recall ever having eaten at the former, the dye was cast.  Walking in, being confronted with a cornucopia of bread was a good start.We stepped up to the hostess stand and were quickly seated at a banquette, where we remained until the server showed up and we asked for a table, instead.  (The banquette was like sitting in a pit, putting the table at chest height). 

The decor looks very much like the turn of the last century and not in a retro-hip way.  Much more in a “desperately needs a makeover” way.  Things didn’t start off well when we asked for a couple of Diet Cokes and were asked if a bottle was okay, as their fountain was broken.  We had suddenly gone from a refillable glass to this $0.28 per ounce midget…The brunch menu was mostly breakfast, with a few lunch items thrown in.  I was looking for lunch, so I started with the shrimp and gritswhich arrived at the table looking good, but as cold as a stone.  A stone that hadn’t been anywhere near a fire.  At anytime in its past.  There are some things that I enjoy eating cold (pizza, fried chicken, bacon – which turned out to be a GOOD thing).  Grits are not one of them.  They had promise, as they were chock full of chorizo, but I couldn’t eat them.  And I was surprised that the shrimp and the sauce were cold as well – I had thought that maybe cooking them had been the reason the grits were cold.  Apparently, that was not the case.  The side of baconwas cold also, but that was, at least, edible.  Jo ordered a vegetarian omelette, with broccoli, peppers, onions, tomatoes, shitake mushrooms and cheese, whichon the other hand, was steaming when she cut it open.  I think my meal sat while they were making her omelette (which she declared very good).  And the pan fried potatoes, served with her omelette) with onions and peppers, were cooked perfectly crisp.

One of the issues that seemed to commonly appear in their UrbanSpoon review was a lack of attentive service. While it took a while to find our server, every time that I looked for her, I caught another server’s attention and she found ours.  I explained the issue with the shrimp and grits and she immediately offered to bring me something else.  I chose the hot pressed breakfast sandwich (hot being the word that most caught my eye), with ham, apples and brie on pressed “Mama’s” bread.  It arrived quickly and was definitely hot.  I’m not sure what “Mama’s” bread is, although it was thin and wasn’t wheat.  It was a good sandwich, although I don’t know that brie makes for a great sandwich cheese – a cheddar or colby would have made for a better sandwich, in my opinion.

Overall, it was fine, although it was pricey for a brunch that wasn’t remarkable.