Rubes Creek Rube Restaurant Reviews

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Restaurant Review: LaBella’s Pizza

by Rubes Creek Rube 03/03/2026

Food truck review: Taqueria Molina

by Rubes Creek Rube 02/24/2026

Restaurant review: Smitty’s Lockdown BBQ

by Rubes Creek Rube 02/21/2026

- 2635 Sandy Plains Road, Marietta
- Latest health score: 90
This place is a hole in the wall with a New York accent. Literally, nearly all the workers and the people who buy their slices here have what people where I grew up in Mobile, Alabama, would snootily call “a Yankified accent.”

Our first foray to this small pizza place came after a shopping trip at Town Center Mall, where the Young Adult Son and I marveled at the blown-out lights, vacant shops and overall decrepitude of our closest mall. Last year, the mall closed briefly after the mall owner failed to pay the power bill. The property is currently being managed by JLL, according to the mall website. The future seems more than a little bleak judging from the evidence.

Blown-out lights aren’t being replaced at Town Center Mall.

Vacancies are piling up.

Macy’s at Town Center Mall

Rough looking shrubbery fertilized with rubbish

The overhang to one of the entrances to Town Center Mall, looking up. What is going on here?

But I digress. After wandering the mall, we were hungry and started driving somewhat aimlessly in the general direction of East Cobb. I was on the verge of hangry. Luckily, the Young Adult Son was able to find a pizza place off of Sandy Plains: LaBella’s. Because of our bad timing, driving during the 5 p.m. hour, it took a friggin’ eternity to make it from the left turn from Piedmont to Sandy Plains. I would recommend avoiding that area, or driving at all, particularly in that intersection.

Though the address of LaBella’s says it’s on Sandy Plains, you have to turn left onto Kinjack Road to get there. The location is roughly across Sandy Plains from where that old Bruno’s and decrepit shopping center used to be. It has since been torn down and redeveloped into housing.

Labella’s is in a small, old and unimpressive little shopping center. The Labella’s mural on one of the inside walls — showing a pizza going into a brick over — gives it a small touch of class the rest of the establishment doesn’t possess. It’s like all the class of the place was used up in the creation of the mural, leaving the rest of the place feeling more like a Greyhound station in a medium-sized Southern town.

The place feels like it hasn’t changed since possibly the Carter administration. It could fit right in with the “Barney Miller” extended universe, somehow. Don’t expect digital screens or even TV screens here. You’ll be giving your order to a human with a New York accent, who will write it down on a piece of paper, old-school style. I’m not sure what they do with the paper, because then someone will need to be told what you ordered, and then you’ll be asked a couple of times whether you want to eat here or take your food to go.

The establishment is quite cluttered, pizza boxes in towers, various other items. It’s very homey if you have the sort of home where you also don’t have room for all your stuff and have to stack things in various places. It’s fine.

The Young Adult Son warned the pies were somewhat expensive, so we opted to try other items on the menu. I chose a calzone with pepperoni. The Young Adult Son decided on a Italian sandwich.

Because this restaurant is New York style, the service is very business-like. Don’t expect chit-chat or anyone asking how you’re doing here.

While we waited, we sat at a table. Basically the seating area is eight tables, four tables on each side that have been pushed together into one long table. Thus, you are forced to be among people and perhaps listen to their conversations. An older couple came in after us, and the dude was a bit upset they weren’t going to make a slice exactly the way he wanted, but he ended up buying some other kind of slice. The couple then sat at the other end of our table talking about the bone spurs of someone they knew and generic medicines not being as good. The Young Adult Son said he felt like he was in New York, even though it’s a state he has never really visited, so he doesn’t even know what it’s like there.

At some point during our stay there, a regular came in and started chatting with the workers about donating plasma. If humanity makes you squirm, you can always order ahead and get your pizza to go.

Don’t expect your food fast. It’s not that kind of place, not for the sandwiches and calzones at least. But what we got was good. The Young Adult Son devoured his sandwich and said it was delicious.

The calzone was also very tasty, piping hot and fresh with two kinds of cheese and marinara dipping sauce, rather than sauce on the inside like some other places. I ate a bit of it there since I was very hungry and took the rest to go to enjoy later. Calzone is a great value for me since it took me more than one sitting to finish it. The marinara tastes homemade and a little on the sweet side for my liking.

Because it is a pizza place, I ended up returning by myself the very next week to get pizza. For sciene.

When I asked the older gentleman about the possibility of buying a small pizza, he shook his head “no” and told me to buy a slice. So that’s what I did, but instead of taking my pizza and walking down the sidewalk like John Travolta’s character in “Saturday Night Fever,” (he gets his pizza at @1:54 in the video below), I had to just drive home because we are in the suburbs. 😦

The pizza is OK, (the calzone is much better, to me) but I would not recommend ordering mushrooms on your pizza since the topping seems like it came straight from the can, which is a sin that is borderline unforgiveable. Slice some fresh mushrooms, FFS!

The rest of the pizza was pretty decent, though. The proper cheese to sauce combo was maintained, the crust was the proper thickness and yummy, and they didn’t skimp on the pepperonis. The garlic knots rocked, though I like my garlic knots to be more imbued with a garlic oil, though there’s the marinara sauce for dipping.

The Young Adult Son lauds the knots, which he says tastes more authentic than most. Despite the lack of oil, he has a point!

LaBella’s Pizza mural

Don’t order your slice with mushrooms!

Garlic knots

LaBella’s Pizza, with its stack of pizza boxes.

The calzone is better than the pizza slice, IMHO
3190 Canton Rd, Marietta

I was so pleased when I first spotted a welcoming little food truck on my way home from work. The lit-up “Open” sign beckoned. The food truck mural included Mexican and American flags, announcing that within holds the possibilities of yummy, hearty Mexican fare. My heart leapt.

Eventually, after another disheartening day of overwork, just another one among many, of being treated like a fool, in a cesspool devoid of feeling, a murky place of creeping shadows and torment, I finally stopped and smelled what the food truck was cooking.

The food truck is a beacon of hope on the long drive home at night (they close at 11 p.m.), a sign of comfort and welcome in a cruel world. For just $12, I can have tacos made to order – asada, pastor, lengua and more! Birria tacos are $15, but they come with the lovely dipping sauce. I may try that on a return visit. So much yum. They have birria grilled cheese and tacos birria. Burritos. Sopas. Even a birria ramen?

I chose tacos al pastor. Tacos al pastor, according to several sources, was created by Lebanese immigrants to Mexico, bringing a shawarma cooking technique to Mexican foodways. Read more about Lebanese immigration to Mexico. It’s yet another example of how immigration enriches countries culturally. If only the hate-filled demons who run and ruin our country understood this.

The people working there were very friendly and brought the tacos out to my car when it was done, in about 10 minutes. This is not warmed over fare. This is made to order, so you must be patient!

I only ate one taco because I try not to eat so much before bed. What I had was delicious, tender. There were no big, juicy chunks of pineapple, though. I have mixed feelings about the pineapple anyway.

The tacos come garnished with radishes, cilantro, onions, lime and lemon wedges. The package included the green salsa as well. The tacos are made with two hearty corn tortillas that hold up well to manipulation.

Young Adult Son ate what I didn’t and found them tasty as well.

I will be back! And probably will swing for some birria tacos. Or maybe asada.
- 2900 Canton Road, Marietta, GA 30066
- Last Inspection Score: 99, June 2025
I’ve eaten food from Smitty’s Lockdown BBQ throughout the years, but have never actually stopped at the restaurant before. I encountered their food first via a food truck that used to visit the office building where I used to work in the Cumberland area of Cobb. I also ordered them via delivery during the pandemic as a tasty respite from my home cooking, which usually consists of throwing things in a microwave or slapping meat and cheese on a sandwich.

I pass by this restaurant on the way to and from work. On one of my off days a couple of weeks ago, on a cold, cloudy day, I finally stopped in.

I felt like I needed a little meaty treat, feeling exhausted and having gotten over a bad cold after a very busy January that prevented me from working on this blog as much as I’d like!

The restaurant is located off of Canton Road in the same shopping center as Book Exchange and Big Lots, kind of an older area. The building sits closer to the road than the main shopping center. Probably it was a bank at some point, repurposed into a BBQ joint to apparently great success.

Its exterior is painted in a fresh and homespun way on the theme of law enforcement and pigs, but the pigs included in the artwork aren’t exclusively members of law enforcement (one is included in a robber’s mask), a nice way of defusing that particular dated insult for police, which probably no one younger than 50 remembers.

It’s just fun artwork, a more urban feel that the typical decorating style of many barbecue places. Humanizing the critters you’re about to eat has a long Southern tradition, from what I can tell, from all the barbecue restaurants I’ve been to with cute piggies with curly tails gracing the places where people go to eat charred pork. What’s up with that?

Anyway, the restaurant’s interior includes a sort of jail cell with bars, perhaps where the safe deposit boxes used to be, and that is where I sat. It’s very cavey and isolated, dark with gray walls and silver accents.

And even if you sit elsewhere in the restaurant, there’s not a lot of light because of few windows. They do have a patio area for those who want more sunlight with their meal. Honestly, it seems most were there to take their food and run. Why not stay and bask in the heady barbecue odor?

The service was prompt and friendly, with the order out in a reasonable amount of time and brought to my jail cell. I ordered a pulled pork sandwich and fried okra, and ordered for the Young Adult Son a takeout order of chopped chicken with mac and cheese.

The fried okra was cooked perfectly, the right level of doneness, not too mushy and not too crunchy. It may have been a little bit too salty, but still it was a tasty treat. When I cook okra at home, I never go through the trouble of breading. So it was a nice change of pace.

The pulled pork was also well-cooked and yummy. Each table includes three different barbecue sauces, one spicy, one sweet and one more mustardy. I liked and used all three, dipping the end of the sandwich into a puddle of sauce.

They have sauces for sale, and you can even refill your bottle.

One unfortunate side effect: I had plans before I stopped at Lockdown, but because I got too full on good, heavy food, I didn’t have the energy to see them through.

As far as the Young Adult Son’s chopped chicken, he said it was meh. He said he would’ve preferred a pulled pork sandwich instead. Oh well. You snooze, you lose!

In addition to pulled pork and chicken, they have wings, ribs, and a variety of premium sides, including corn nuggets (a Young Adult Son favorite).

I tend to stick with pulled pork sandwiches when I go to barbecue joints because ribs are so messy and I feel like a Neanderthal gnawing on bones in public.

Smitty’s Lockdown BBQ is a definite winner. Don’t pass it up!

So, my friends, I’m going to try to do a restaurant review a week, depending on my work schedule. I may not be setting the world on fire with my niche interests, but whatever. To hell with it, I’m having fun.
Lockdown BBQ, Marietta, Ga.
Lockdown BBQ, Marietta, Ga.
A mock jail cell is seen in this restaurant, on the back wall of which is a pig in a mask.
Lockdown BBQ, Marietta, Ga.
Lockdown BBQ, Marietta, Ga.
AKA, the restaurant I keep forgetting about, according to Young Adult Son
- 915 Ridgewalk Pkwy, Ste 290, Woodstock, GA 30188
- Health Score: 91
OK, apparently my memory isn’t what it used to be. The Young Adult Son said that every time I go to The Outlets, I see this restaurant and proclaim, “We should try this restaurant next time.” Next time never comes, because I keep forgetting.

What can I say? I have a lot going on in my brain. I can’t be relied upon to remember it all.

So we ended up making a special trip to satisfy our curiosity. We hit the place kind of after lunch but not before the lunch special ended, on a sunny, chilly day after the holidays, when the Outlets aren’t overly busy. I found parking easily and was in a good mood for a late lunch.

I was immediately struck by the relative smallness of the place, only a little bit larger than Campestre Taqueria, but Ricky makes up for it by having some outdoor seating options, sheltered with some sort of yellow covering with plastic windows and warmed with standing heaters. We didn’t need to sit outside, though, because the place wasn’t too busy at about 2 p.m.

The service was competent but not overly friendly, which was fine. At least we weren’t left waiting too long for anything, including chips, salsa and drink refills.

Because of the smallness of the seating area, only a couple of televisions are needed for those who can’t eat without the TV.

The lunch menu wasn’t that extensive, and most everything comes covered with cheese. But everything came cooked adequately with sufficient sauce. The tamale came bursting with chicken and covered with the same sauce they used on the enchilada, and not a bad sauce either, some sort of chipotle ragu. Usually, though, tamales and enchiladas have different sauces. The tortilla of the enchilada was cooked just right, tender enough to cut through without too much effort.

Young Adult Son enjoyed his quesadilla, which he ordered without bell pepper and onion, as is his custom. He said the quesadilla was crisp and delicious.

The beans and rice also came out hot and fresh. And the price was right. Young Adult Son and I walked out of there with a bill less than $25 before tip.

As far as the decor, I enjoyed it, particularly the bright green wall with six decorative fish and the mural of a smoking man, which I presume is Ricky. It’s not a place that’s “too cool for school,” you know, one of those places that’s kind of cold and modern. You can also tell the place has been around a while he paint is starting to peel in the corners of the hallway where people have passed by over the years.

The bathrooms are one-seaters, which is fine if you’re not dealing with people’s happy hour bladders full of tequila.

All in all, I wouldn’t mind coming back and trying a dish from the dinner menu in the future, something a little more Cancun-y, perhaps with seafood or tropical fruits. Maybe something with pico de gallo covering it instead of cheese.
- 12152 Hwy 92, Woodstock
- Health Score: 100
In a dismal, cramped corner of a BP gas station, tucked between the video gambling machines and a row of unused coffee machines that have blocked by blankets for packing, is a taqueria, El Serranito.

When you consider how little of the gas station footprint they actually occupy, it’s amazing they’re able to produce food. That kitchen must be tiny.

The storefront for this place is hand-painted, which helps bring to life this particular vibe of homemade, made-to-order food.

(They have another location in Marietta, presumably larger.)

The gas station itself seems to be kind of quietly crumbling, at least on the inside. A corner of a facade is drooping. It is crowded to overflowing, a claustrophobic place. Since there is no seating area, El Serranito is obviously not right for a good sit-down meal, unless you enjoy trying to eat taquitos standing in an aisle or at a gambling machine. (Don’t gamble, really.)

The menu consisted of a dude telling me what they have, and the lady sitting next to him would bark out our order to the kitchen. You could hear the sizzles of them, unseen, cooking your order fresh.

Four bottles of hot sauce are available to squirt into take-home plastic sauce containers.

I enjoyed my two carne asada tacos in corn tortillas, tasty and succulent. The Young Adult Son, who ordered a quesadilla that came with fries, really wished they would’ve used a different sort of cheese for his dish.

Note that no complementary tortilla chips are offered.

Altogether, not a bad location to dip in and pick up a little lunch. It’s located conveniently close to the Wal-Mart right on the corner of Highway 92 and Trickum Road, across the street from the Publix.

I will post the price of what I ordered when I find my receipt, #%@#%!