Every now and then the high and mighty Atlanta newspaper ventures out to Marietta to eat with the “little people”. When they showed up at Gabriel’s a few weeks ago, I noticed that the restaurant is less than two miles from Date Night headquarters and we have never eaten there. Now, that has changed, and I have a feeling we will be back here soon.

Gabriel’s is located in one of the endless shopping centers on Whitlock Avenue. It’s less than two miles from us and we could walk here, but we happened to be out and about in the car the day we visited. The restaurant is only open for lunch, but the bakery is open until 6PM. There are a few tables outside (because of Covid we are still not eating inside), so if it’s a warm day, this is a good, safe area.

If you want to eat inside, the ceilings are high and the tables are far apart. We’re still a long way from that.

Did someone mention a bakery?

When you walk in, you are blown away with a dazzling display of cakes, pie, and other baked wonders. Talk about eye candy. How do you decide? It is impossible. Stay tuned to see what we picked.

The menu is sandwiches, salads and southern comfort food like fried chicken and meat loaf. Evidently, Gabriel’s is famous for their casseroles, which you can order in advance. The comfort food looks amazing, but you have to be in the mood for it. We order a couple of sandwiches and split them.

The reuben is piled high with corned beef, sauerkraut, swiss and 1000 Island dressing. It’s a yummy, hot mess. Don’t get any on your purple fingernail polish.

The Southern BLT was supposed to be made with fried green tomatoes, but they were out of those. I guess that just made it a BLT. The bacon is nice and crispy and that marble rye makes a great sandwich. Next time, I’m going to try the grilled pimiento cheese sandwich. Now that’s southern decadence.

The house chips cost a dollar extra and you should order them. You are worth it. So are these chips.

Remember that bakery case from earlier? Sometimes you just have to keep it simple.

The chocolate chip cookie slice came from one of those giant cookies. It’s hard to find places that will sell you a slice as opposed to having to buy the whole cookie. Of course, this cookie was so good that you may as well go ahead and buy the giant one and freeze the part you don’t eat. Then you can have it whenever you get a cookie craving.