Artisan Foods Bakery & Cafe

"When you wake up in the morning, Pooh," said Piglet at last, "what's the first thing you say to yourself?"
"What's for breakfast?" said Pooh. "What do you say, Piglet?"
"I say, I wonder what's going to happen exciting today?" said Piglet.
Pooh nodded thoughtfully. "It's the same thing," he said."
― A.A. Milne

I will admit that I often start my day with the same question. I have started driving Highway 9 from Alpharetta to my office in Atlanta, and this gives me many opportunities to answer this most important question.

Artisan Foods Bakery & Cafe is always a strong consideration. This shop offers consistently good food and service in a pleasant, casual atmosphere. Their beignets are terrific, french toast is fantastic, and every plate seems to be a touch above ordinary.

I wonder what's going to happen exciting today?

Best beignets outside of New Orleans. Yep, you can pretty much just stop reading this review here, because that's all you should need to know to get over to Artisan ASAP. Well, and the fact that they have one of the biggest, adjacent and free parking lots in downtown Roswell. Yes, fresh, hot beignets and free parking, what more could you need?

Well, if you need more, you'll find a robust and reasonably priced brunch menu, with all your favorites done just slightly differently. For example, their kids plate (which they had no problem letting this adult order) doesn't come with a basic flapjack, but a lemon ricotta pancake with real maple syrup. Yum!

Though brunch and breakfast are what Artisan is most well known for, they're not for early risers alone. On Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights, they're open for dinner, offering a limited menu of burgers. While you're out of luck if you want anything other than a burger, the variety of burgers they offer is impressive. Shrimp, lamb, beef, veggie - all sound delicious and come with unique toppings. I loved my perfectly medium lamb burger, and I stole as many fries and onion rings off of my friends' plates as possible. For dinner, it's also BYOB, though you'll need to bring your own corkscrew (and maybe your own cups, too).

First timers might find this place difficult to find, as it is hidden behind (and attached to) the Raiford Gallery.

This is a very family run business, meaning that it will probably be an adorable little child running your food to you after you order at the counter. It's hard to get mad at an adorable child, but the service is really the only thing holding me back from delivering that elusive fifth star. On both visits, we've had to repeatedly remind servers about missing orders, ask for refills, additional silverware for shared orders, etc. If you come in a group, there's also a high chance that your food will come out in a very staggered fashion. Even when ordering en masse and sharing a number, there was about a 20 minutes spread between the first person being served and the last in our group (of six). The food is sooo good that it's hard to remain annoyed for long by the wait and poor service, but it's certainly something they could improve on.

The first trick to this place is finding it. If you are coming from Crabapple as soon as you pass Woodstock Road look for Chateau de Nails on your left and turn left. It is directly behind it. Look for a little sign that sits inside a door.

Once inside you place your order at the counter and take a seat. The inside of this place has exposed wood beams, outdoor patio furniture inside, with an array of sell-ables swathed in decorative burlap. Or put more succinctly: a cafe created by the same people who brought you the Easy Bake Oven. Kitsch.

As for the food, I ordered a Beignet with some coffee ($5) and then an omelet with wheat toast. Let's start with the beignet. Three are served fresh and warm with enough powdered sugar on them to allow me to reenact the climatic scene in Scarface, except this time, my little friend would be diabetes if I had eaten all of it. Thankfully I had about 1 1/2 and it was delicious. In the future I would only order this if I was with someone. The omelet ($8) allows for three items, I went with red onion, cheddar cheese and bacon. It was solid, I enjoyed, but it wasn't something I would say you have to get if you go. The wheat toast was nice and thick and clearly made onsite, a nice touch.

To Recap:

The Good: A nice quiet little spot to enjoy breakfast. If you are craving beignets and fresh coffee, this place is a must.

The Bad: Is there such thing as a speakeasy bakery? Even the woman behind the counter was surprised I found this place.

The Band This Restaurant Most Resembles: Birdy. Light and whimsical. If you are in the mood for it, it is the only thing that will do.

This is absolutely my favorite breakfast spot in Roswell. It's always warm and welcoming and I cannot resist the aroma of the morning quiche ($9). The country bacon is to die for... and there is a fantastic 'country quiche' that is difficult to resist. They have homemade bread (Multigrain ($5.50), sour dough, etc.) served with breakfast. This place is small, but homey, a nice spot to start off your day.

You can even take a loaf of bread home with you.

Be sure to try the Beignets... absolutely fantastic.

It's a locally owned spot, they work hard to take care of their customers, service is great and the food is well worth the wait.

Very cute! Super hard to find. I live in Roswell and eat off of Canton Street often, and had no idea it was here!

Cute cute cute on the inside. Smallish, but there is seating outside for when it's not sweltering. Interesting, yet super good, sandwich choices. I went with a largeish group and everyone loved what they had. They offer beignets but they are huge and don't serve just one, so I will have to try them another day.

Service was okay. Our waitress seemed a little spacey and was slow at times, I had to ask for a side of blue cheese twice. This was after our food was here and there were no new customers. And I could see what she was *not* doing. However, I am not letting that knock down my rating, everything else was just that good.

Set back from the road, I doubt that you'd stumble across this place unless you were actually looking for it. My friend suggested is, and even then I wasn't entirely sure of where I was going. Turn on the gravel drive just before south of the intersection of Woodstock and Canton and head about 100 yards off the road. It's in the back of the log-cabin-styled building.

The space has a neighborhood bakery feel with assorted tables and chairs - some wicker, some metal, all small. You order your items at the counter and they give you a seed packet to mark you order number. The vibe is Japanese take on French bakery, so there are traditional french favorites with some Asian inspiration, such as the yuzu-basil-orange juice and a variety of imported Japanese and French sweets for sale.

I opted for the hot turkey with brie and raspberry panini on wheat with the berries & cream as my side. The food arrived at our table fast enough. The sandwich was good sized, heavy on the turkey and cheese, light on the raspberry jam/compote to the point that I could barely taste it. The berries & cream was tasty by tiny - I believe 4, maybe 5 berries, in all... should have gone for the homemade applesauce that my friend got - it looked chunky and delicious. Overall, was good and had that hand-crafted feel, but I think I prefer Fickle Pickle down the street.

Excellent brunch. Loved the beinets but had to dust off some of the sugar. Great regardless. Belgian waffles were soft and fluffy. Crispy bacons, just how i like it. Yuzu orange juice was great. Sweet and a little tart with a hint of basil. Now im on a hunt to find yuzu orange from the market.

Service was excellent, although it was more so to kick me out faster to accommodate the line of folks who were starting to pile up by the door. I will definitely come back for brunch and anytime im craving beinets. :)

I love this place. Great food all the time. Nice brunch, nice lunch and great drinks. Good coffee, good bread. One of the best spots in Roswell!

I give this a 5 because the food is fantastic. We ordered the beignet, eggs sardou, and roasted lamb sandwich with a side of berries and cream. All three items were sooo delicious. The lamb portion in the sandwich was quite generous! The eggs sardou has a lemoney taste to it..it just tasted very fresh and unique. We drove 30 miles to get to this place but the food made it worth it!

Like most of the reviews say, the service isn't incredibly friendly. When we first walked in, they just looked at us and didn't say anything. And there were a lot of flies outside in the patio where people ate..i mean A LOT. We eneded up just moving inside. And the green tea i ordered was actually powdered green tea. I was hoping it would be made our of tea leaves. oh well.

But again, this place is a 5 for the food and no place is perfect. :)

I've experienced this place for brunch and also tried their new dinner hours. Overall, I say they are a solid bakery, and as a café are decent with flashes of brilliance. Watch the signage carefully on Canton St, as this place can be a little hard to spot behind Raiford Gallery.

So far, there has always been sufficient parking on my visits. There are a couple of entrances on a decent sized dining room, with a counter from which you order. Here is my only real complaint about this place. The service is good, and the employees are nice, but my lord some people take WAY too long to order. We're talking I'm only 4 people back and it takes twenty freaking minutes. People, the menu is not over complicated, so pick out what you want and order it!

The reason that brings many people to this place in particular, I believe, is the availability of beignets. If you don't know, these are a New Orleans staple of fried bread with powdered sugar. Now, I'm a freak who is not much for powdered sugar, so I scrape mine off and still find these to be a treat. In the realm of bread, I also recommend the muffins. I had a berry muffin and was very satisfied, if carb overloaded.

Now anyone who knows me can tell you that I am a pancake fanatic. I love pancakes. I love them sweet, I love them buttermilk, I love them with bacon or fruit or nuts or anything else you want to stuff in there. So this is going to be how I judge any breakfast spot. Here at Artisan, at least on my day of visit, I tried two different sorts of pancakes, a standard fare and a lemon infused. And they were ok. Unfortunately just ok. As in better than not having pancakes but there are big chains that are better, and absolutely do not bother with the lemon. After eating all of this, I was thinking 3 stars...

...when suddenly they open for dinner, advertising 'Burgers and Beignets.' Now I am a burger fanatic more than a pancake fanatic, so Artisan gets another shot at that 4th star. And oh did they deliver! I had a short rib burger, very flavorful, with avocado(!) and bacon. (Yeah, I throw avocado in so it seems I'm eating healthier.) If you take away only one thing from this review, let it be this: pay. the. extra. for. the. bacon. Also, surprisingly this place serves up some fine fries, and then of course you have to finish with beignets.

So in the end I like Artisan. They have good muffins, burgers, beignets, and a number of items I have yet to try. Friends seemed satisfied with their dishes, so I suppose in the future I will branch out from pancakes and try some of their other breakfast food. If they do half the job they did on the bacon, it should be truly satisfying. If I were you, I'd give it a try. I've been recommending it to people in my neighborhood and they've been very happy.

Oh, and to the previous reviewer who complained about them not having a corkscrew: They have one now, and I overheard the owner saying she ALWAYS keeps one in her car.