The Greater Good Barbecue struggles to live up to the high expectations set forth by owner’s other franchises Fellini’s Pizza and La Fonda Cantina.
The restaurant opened earlier this year on the street corner of Hosea Williams Dr. and 2nd Ave in the East Lake neighborhood of Atlanta. Because the street corners adjacent to the restaurant have yet to be developed, the barbeque spot may be a little ahead of it’s time. However, East Lake is a rapidly growing spot for recent real estate.
Walking up to the restaurant, a homey patio lined with string lights and spacious restaurant seating area are available inside. There is also a counter for takeout orders, which was a hot topic on a Monday night. It was not particularly crowded — considering it was Monday night — and we were seated immediately, ready to dive into the menus our server handed us.
When I looked at the menu, it had lots of options organized by appetizers, smoked chicken wings, salads, sandwiches, a kids menu, meats, plates, and sides. A menu of this length can be daunting to some customers, but I jumped right in. Each table on the patio had baskets of barbecue sauce, a staple for a good barbecue restaurant. There were four choices: Hot, Carolina, Sweet, and Mild. First, I ordered the special, fried okra. Arriving in a generous and steaming portion, I dug into the dish. For someone who loves fried okra, I thoroughly enjoyed how they prepared it. This was one of the best things I ate.
Next, I ordered two meals off of the menu, one being the pulled pork sandwich with a salad on the side. The sandwich cost $8.95 and came with the side salad at an additional one dollar charge. The sandwich was also one of the winners of the night as it had a yummy bun and good pickles. But the side-salad was subpar at best with basically some iceberg lettuce and cheddar cheese on top. Since two out of three of the items I had ordered were quite delicious, I decided to order another entree. The plate of a half rack of baby back ribs, served with two sides and Texas toast was $15.95. I ordered mac and cheese and baked beans as sides. The ribs were very smoky and a little on the tougher side, but still overall pretty tasty. The mac and cheese didn’t have very much flavor, and the baked beans could have used some salt.
Overall, the Greater Good Barbecue is hit or miss. The owner’s other franchises La Fonda and Fellini’s are some of my favorite restaurants so I ranked this one at those standards. The Greater Good was not as good as those other two restaurants but definitely a contender in my book compared to other restaurants. The service was amazing and I believe this place will grow as the neighborhood around it continues to develop. But of you do go to the Greater Good, maybe skip the mac and cheese and go for the pulled pork sandwich with some fried okra on the side!