Farm to Fork is a popular restaurant in Ringgold, Georgia that serves fresh, homemade, Southern-style food in a friendly environment.
Every once in a while, I will actually go to a new restaurant and decide not to blog about them, for no reason other than it just doesn’t fit into my schedule at the moment. This was the case when I first tried Farm to Fork in 2014. I was getting ready to start a new job, car shopping (the kind of car shopping that involves watching YouTube videos, reading Consumer Reports, and generally doing everything you can to make sure you choose the right car), and kind of losing my mind. I really liked the food but just couldn’t quite get myself in the mindset to write about them. I think I even took pictures! I definitely did not intend to take three years to get back down there.
Philip and I drove down to exit 348 this past Saturday to give it another go. The current location of Farm to Fork is in a strip mall behind the Ringgold Cracker Barrel. They have two parcels of the strip, between Rock Bridge Church and the Rock Bridge offices. The space is warmly decorated, with wood tables and country-style decor on the walls. A bar serving beer and wine is in one space with tin (or faux tin, I didn’t get close enough to tell) tiles on the wall. We arrived at around 1:00 and while it was still fairly crowded from the lunch rush, we were seated in a booth immediately.
Usually I am really good about getting our servers’ names, and if I forget, the name is usually on the receipt. This time, I didn’t, and it wasn’t. Our server was a sweet girl with curly dark hair. It took her a few minutes to get to us, since it was so busy, but she was very apologetic and we were not in a rush. She got our waters and took our appetizer order. We decided to try some fried green tomatoes ($7.00); they also have fried pickles, an appetizer portion of onion rings, and pimento cheese with pita points, along with a few other apps. The fried green tomatoes were served with a dressing on the side. The menu didn’t indicate what it was but I think it was a Russian/Thousand Island sort of deal – creamy and a little orange/pink, a little tangy and sweet. The fried green tomatoes were coated with a panko crumb coating and crisply fried, well seasoned. They were very good; my only suggestion would be that they could have been blotted a little bit before plating – there was a lot of oil on the plate.
The menu includes appetizers, soups and salads, entrees, burgers, baskets, and sandwiches. For my entree, I vacillated back and forth between the pulled pork tacos (2 tacos and fries for $7.95, or another side for an additional $1) and the loaded chicken breast ($11). I ended up deciding on the chicken, which was an 8-ounce grilled chicken breast topped with barbecue sauce, bacon, and cheddar cheese, served with a choice of 2 sides. I decided to go for the hand-cut fries and a side salad (which is an additional $1.50). The salad was made with mixed greens, bacon, and shredded cheddar cheese, served with Farm to Fork’s homemade dressing; I decided on ranch. The salad was excellent – very fresh, with real bacon (not bits) – and the dressing was delicious. My salad actually got to the table before the fried green tomatoes, so I ended up dipping some bites of my fried green tomatoes into the ranch dressing.??
The chicken breast was well grilled, with a great grilled flavor but still juicy. It had enough sauce and toppings to give it good flavor without overwhelming the flavor of the chicken itself. The fries were very thick cuts – I would almost call them potato planks – and I was honestly a little concerned that they would not be done all the way through. I needn’t have worried. They were perfectly soft in the middle, just a little crispy around the edges, and perfectly hot and well seasoned. They were excellent dipped in the smoked mayo that Philip got for his onion rings.
Philip contemplated getting the hamburger steak entree ($11) but decided instead to get the jalapeño, bacon, and cheddar burger. This burger is a gigantic (half pound!) burger grilled and served on a bakery bun with cheddar cheese, bacon, and fried jalapeños ($12.25). The grilled flavor was excellent, and the portion of fried jalapeños was very generous (I had to dodge them to take a bite). He ordered onion rings as his side; the onion rings come with a side of jalapeño ketchup or smoked mayo, but we paid and additional 25 cents to get both. The jalapeño ketchup was fairly standard – ketchup with a little bit of a jalapeño flavor/bite – but the smoked mayo was fantastic – mayo with a smoky hit. Philip didn’t care for the batter-dipped onion rings and ended up eating quite a few of my fries, but I really liked them. I love light, battered onion rings, and these were well cooked and well-seasoned. I think that Philip might have just been on fried food overload.
I regret that I didn’t pay any attention to the dessert menu, because I would have loved to take some of their Hawaiian cake or coconut cake home (they also have banana pudding, brownies, and floats). But, alas, I didn’t, so I will have to make it a point to go back sooner than three years from now…even more so because they will be moving into a new space soon. Sometime hopefully in July, they will be moving a little farther north into a much larger, free-standing location off of exit 350, where they will be able to have patio seating, space for large groups, opportunities for live music, and a full bar.
Our total, pre-tip, was 34.24. Our server was very friendly and much more apologetic than needed for a little bit of a wait for our food. The food was very good and everything was very fresh – nothing frozen or packaged. No matter where they are located, Farm to Fork is worth the drive to North Georgia for some great food!
Farm to Fork is located at 118 Remco Shops Lane, Ringgold, GA 30736. They are open Monday – Thursday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., Friday – Saturday, 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. (they serve breakfast these days), and Sunday 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. You can call Farm to Fork at (706) 937-3675. You can find out more about Farm to Fork on their website, FarmToForkGA.com, and you can also follow Farm to Fork on Facebook.
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