New Fountain of Juice location, dinner menu leave us wanting more
Fountain of Juice has been a lunch-time fixture in Macon for many years now, expanding from its original location near Chichester’s into Mercer Village, and now moving its Vineville location to a much larger venue that also serves dinner.
The first thing that struck me as we entered the new location at the Prado is the cleverness of the design. At the front door, a counter is filled with chicken salad, pimento cheese and hummus, plus dinner-to-go like bourbon glazed salmon, creamy poblano chicken and rice, and salsa verde chicken enchiladas, all for people heading home from work who don’t want to cook. Walk in, choose, pay, go home and have a delicious dinner.
To the left on the entrance is the hostess stand and the door to the kitchen; to the right is a private room for events that doubles as overflow at lunch. Along the back wall is a long banquette, perfect for accommodating large groups and singles equally well. At the register, there are lots of goodies like orange sea salt chocolate cookies, homemade oatmeal pies, and whatever else that was made fresh that day.
The items we tried on a Tuesday night were of varying quality. We started with the candied bacon skewers, which were deliciously chewy, sweet and salty, and the basket of shoestring Idaho and sweet potato fries served with ancho aioli, which lacked seasoning. The crab-stuffed hush puppies with green goddess dressing sounded wonderful but had an off taste that I couldn’t quite place.
Other delicious-sounding appetizers include Asian tartare nachos with avocado and fried wantons, a fried green tomato and goat cheese Napoleon, chicken pesto egg rolls with marinara, and Mexican pickled shrimp cocktail, most of them priced about $6-$7.
Our guest who chose the classic turkey, apple and Brie wrap for $9 was a bit disappointed with the flavor but enjoyed her Caesar salad with kalamata olives. While she ate her salad, the rest of us had fresh bread with herbed butter. Our diner who chose the Grown Up Mac and Cheese for $9 thought it was just OK.
Our dinner entrees fared best overall. My feta, jack and spinach stuffed chicken breast with pesto cream sauce for $18 came with mashed potatoes and squash casserole. While the sides were rather ordinary for that price, the chicken was tender and juicy. The petite filet with candied bacon, fried green tomato and jalapeño béarnaise for $22 was gobbled up even though it was a very generous serving. The seasonal asparagus on one plate was much too salty but was fine on the other.
For dessert we had a creamy, wonderfully messy tiramisu, a too-rich chocolate mousse, and an OK chocolate espresso brownie that might have been better if we had not asked to leave off the ice cream.
FOJ holds lots of promise and I look forward to going again.
FOJ an Eatery
Address: 4123 Forsyth Road, Macon
Phone: 478-755-5000
Website: www.fountainofjuice.it
Hours: 10:30 a.m.-8:30 p.m. Monday-Saturday
Payment: Cash, credit
Smoking: No
Alcohol: Yes
Kids Menu: Yes
Noise Level: Low
Health Rating: 87
Price range: $4.50-$22
Rating: 3 stars
This story was originally published March 13, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "New Fountain of Juice location, dinner menu leave us wanting more."