By Gray Chapman
If you’re looking for The Social House, you might miss it the first time you drive down Howell Mill Road. The little restaurant has a hard time standing out amidst all the construction and traffic that West Midtown’s recent rise in popularity has brought the area. But once you do find it, or if you’re lucky enough to stumble upon it, you’ll likely be so beguiled that you’ll soon forget the noisy activity outside.
Just stepping inside The Social House is enough to lift one’s spirits — the sunny interior is charming, without an overload of homey kitsch. Hardwood floors, turquoise walls and vintage framed newspaper clippings (from the Atlanta Journal, of course) all make it feel as though you’re stepping into someone’s cottage.
But décor alone can’t save a restaurant that can’t get its menu right. Luckily for The Social House (and its customers), the breakfast menu, served all day, is a great example of variety and creativity. With both sweet and savory breakfast dishes, The Social House serves up hearty, well-crafted meals that cater to a wide range of tastes. The “Eggcellent Choice” omelettes can include anything from sun-dried tomatoes to turkey pastrami. I tried the andouille and cream cheese omelette. Andouille is a traditionally French sausage – known for its spicy kick – that was brought to New Orleans and is often implemented in Cajun cooking. Using the andouille in an omelette was something I had never seen nor had the pleasure of tasting, but Social House’s version with sun-dried tomatoes made me want to come back for more!
For the traditionalist, there’s The Social — a plate stacked with the best breakfast standbys, including farm-fresh eggs, thick-cut bacon, sausage patties, grits or hash browns and a biscuit. There is, of course, always a “sweet tooth” breakfast moment, and when that happens, shoot for the top part of the menu that features their “now legendary” pancakes and French toast. The apple cinnamon pancakes and the cinnamon raisin French toast are a major sugar kick, but well worth the calories (swimsuit season is months away, so have at it).
Social House is particularly packed for Sunday brunch, so unless you’re planning on getting there around 8 a.m., you may want to try it on a weekday. Luckily, the breakfast is served all day, but the restaurant closes in the afternoon at 3 p.m. The now-burgeoning neighborhood of West Midtown (or “Midtown West,” as the developers have coined it) has seen a rise in fun neighborhood establishments like Social House over the past few years. Once an area known mostly for its fabric stores, West Midtown has a delightful offering of great places to hang out and grab a bite. The Social House is just one of these places, so be sure to have a look around the neighborhood while you’re there.
