Review of Aspen’s Mountain Grill in Pine Mountain, GA

Aspen’s Mountain Grill

5700 Hwy 354

Pine Mountain,GA 31822

(706) 663-2001

Aspen's Mountain Grill

One of the friendliest little towns that I have experienced, (in recent memory) is the small village of Pine Mountain, Georgia. While driving through I had the need for a good clean room and a meal. So, I put down my passenger window and asked a gentleman walking up to a local art gallery a couple of questions. First question was if he was either from the area or at least familiar with the town. He said yes…we are off to a good start. The next question was for a room for the night, maybe a bed and breakfast or something that is not a chain. When traveling I am trying to help the ‘little man’ if I can. This nice man started telling me the best options for me to stay and oh by the way, he wanted to make sure that he introduced himself to me and shake my hand so as not to be speaking to a stranger. We ought not talk to strangers ya know. After he directs me to the inn that I decide upon, he asks me if I am hungry. In his words ‘Have ya had a meal tonight?’, If not the place you should go to is just down the street on the corner named Aspen’s Mountain Grill. He also lets me know of the gallery opening as other events and things to do, but I am ready for a meal and a bed.

Cozy Fire

After I go and check into the country style motel a couple of miles out of town I make the drive back to Aspen’s Mountain Grill which is very close to the entrance to Callaway Gardens. This brings much tourism to the area, yet Pine Mountain is not a typical tourist town. There are no souvenir traps, Ripley’s, or trolley rides, just a good country town. As soon as I walk up the steps and into Aspen’s Mountain Grill I am greeted by a sweet young Georgia girl with the southern drawl that is slowly disappearing from the south. She grabs a menu and sits me next to the fireplace which is warm, inviting, and comforting for this rather cold December night. With the flames warming my back I look over the diverse menu. The menu is not too extensive but if you can’t find something to eat at Aspen’s Mountain Gill, I question your pickiness. With appetizers covering everything from chili, nachos, onion rings, sweet potato fries and the item I decided to try in the strange sounding but good collard greens, smoked turkey, and cream cheese dip. This is a creative item that Aspen’s Mountain Grill claims as their own. It is served in a large side dish with thick chunks of turkey, strips of collard greens, and cream cheese melted over it. Using the freshly made wonton chips to eat this I realize that this is the strangest combo but really good. For only $6.95 I was already impressed.

The rest of the menu will take you from salads that have either chicken, steak, or even lobster. All of the salads are over eight bucks each but look fantastic. Fearing that this could be a very expensive place I looked on into the menu and saw burgers and flat breads in the seven dollar range. This particular night I was more interested in a main course item or as the menu says Aspen’s Mountain Specialties. Under Aspen’s Specialties the options include steak tips, rib eye, pork chops, chicken fingers, trout, and the meal that peaked my interest is the seared shrimp and white cheddar grits. My meal was one of the more expensive items on the menu but with the range of items from $9.95 to $18.95 on the specialties menu, you do have a good list of options to satisfy most any palate. 

Shrimp Grits Meal

My server let me know that she was going to put my main order in just a little bit later so I was not sitting there with both my appetizer and my meal at the same time. This is a gift that few servers understand. So Nicole gets bonus points for that. It was almost the exact same time that I was finished with my last bite of the creative and flavorful dip that my meal was ready. If you have been to the low country of South Carolina then eating shrimp and grits is nothing new to you. However, this was a different dish than the shrimp and grits that you find in SC. According to the menu at Aspen’s the meal is served in a Cajun cream sauce. To me Cajun means a little bit of kick. Sort of a spice or something, but not in this meal. The shrimp and grits in S.C. feature a Tasso sauce that is fantastic but the Cajun sauce here does not match up. Now that I have totally degraded the meal I must let you know that it was good. I would recommend it to anyone and would order it again the next time I am there. It was just not what I expected from the description on the menu. My sides that I ordered were an extra side of the white cheddar grits and the sautéed mushrooms. The mushrooms were great and I actually put them in my shrimp and grits bowl. The side of grits I ate separately and did enjoy them very much with some salt and butter.

Store Front Window

Nicole was very good and kept my water filled and checked on me regularly. But, even though she was sweet and kind and attentive and all the wonderful things you look for in a server. There is an issue that I need to point out. After I had placed my order I overheard another server telling the table near me of the special of the night. I was not given this info or told about the homemade soup that was available. Also I decided to order a hot chocolate to go for my dessert. Nicole forgot to tell me that there was the option for desserts as well. Don’t get me wrong, she was great and knows how to wait on tables but there are a few things to tweak. All of the servers there were sweet and went out of their way to help everyone, even when a family that was ignoring the fact that the toddler that they had under the table was screaming and making things uncomfortable for everyone in there. One of the servers saw this as her way to make things better and went to pick up the little one. The family said ‘oh just let her carry on cause she does that’. This server knew that something had to be done, thank you oh random waitress. I do look forward to the next time that I am in the Pine Mountain, Georgia area and will stop into Aspen’s Mountain Grill again.

Review by Pie, email:  pie@piesplate.com