Rubes Creek Rube Restaurant Reviews

Fire & Stone Italian Pizza Kitchen to open at the Woodstock train depot

Fire & Stone Italian Pizza Kitchen will celebrate its grand opening at the Woodstock train depot on Dec. 16, according to a banner on its website, which said to check its website for more details! Except that’s where I saw this brief notice, and I see no other information on the website. Hmm! Someone somewhere dropped the ball.

A location of Fire & Stone is open in Peachtree Corners, where it has an overall rating of 4 stars on Yelp. It’s not certain if this is the same Fire & Stone that used to be on Chambers, where the high-dollar steak place is now. (Young Adult Son and I like to visit the entrance to this steak restaurant, look at the menu posted, marvel at the high prices and then leave.)

It’s joining a handful of restaurants serving pizza downtown, including Partners 2 Pizza (which is really mostly a takeaway place), Ipp’s (which has more than just pizza), and Vingenzo’s (ditto).

Anyway, it’s good to see that depot being used. It’s been a while since Freight rolled out of town, haunted by a failing health inspection and overpriced food that really wasn’t worth it. It was quite busy the times I went, but that was before the pandemic.

Not sure when I’ll visit this pizza place. It may be a while since it’s likely to be a bit on the pricy side since, of course, it’s downtown Woodstock!

JD’s on Main opens in building that’s been a revolving door of concepts

Actually, JD’s on Main, a barbecue restaurant sibling to JD’s on the Lake, has been open for over a month now, but still it’s been on my mind just because of the ill fortune of this particular location on Main.

When I first moved here, it was an pit under construction that slowly took form as a two-story building with a basement. As I recall, the original concept included a speak-easy in that basement. The executive chef was some prodigy from Atlanta who got write-ups in magazines.

But then the pandemic hit and the grand opening was delayed. And delayed. And then after it finally opened, it closed in short order.

Next Public opened, and it was a fast-casual sort of Panera Bread-type place, a good place to grab a sandwich and a bottle of water. It was paired with Main & Mill, which I believed was on the top floor and was some sort of Americana type restaurant. Never went to Main & Mill.

It is possible that Public/Main & Mill was that original concept that was the reason that the location was built. The timeline is a bit confusing at this point. [Editor’s note: Yes, Public and Main & Mill was the original concept that was delayed by the pandemic. This Scoop OTP article must’ve been what I was remembering. It’s an interview with chef Justin Balmes dated March 2020. The timing was kind of heartbreaking.}

Public/Main & Mill was followed by Jekyll Brewing, briefly bringing a second brewery to downtown. The company went out of business and closed all locations earlier this year.

Hopefully, this particular concept sticks around for longer. I’m not sure if I will ever darken the door of this establishment because it doesn’t really appeal to me. I’m rarely in the mood for barbecue, and I tend to favor Lockdown BBQ. But we’ll see.