How Newnan eats: barbecue, Brunswick stew and breakfast on the square

Newnan's food has always followed its courthouse square and the roads leading out of it. The dishes people here are proudest of are not complicated: barbecue with a good sauce, a bowl of Brunswick stew, a plate of field peas and collards, a biscuit-and-coffee breakfast before work. What makes them Newnan's is where they are served and how long some of these kitchens have been at it.

Barbecue and Brunswick stew

If the city has a signature meal, it is barbecue with a side of stew, and the story starts at Sprayberry's Barbecue on Jackson Street. It began as Houston Sprayberry's filling station on Highway 29, just north of downtown, where barbecue sandwiches sold out of the back eventually mattered more than gasoline; by 1926 it was a restaurant. Two recipes carried it: his barbecue sauce and the Brunswick stew made by his wife, Mattie Lou. Four generations of Sprayberrys kept it going until 2021, when the family handed the restaurant to Jay Rogers, who had worked there since he was 15, and his family has kept the old recipes. The menu still carries the Lewis Grizzard Special, the humorist's regular order of a barbecue sandwich, Brunswick stew and onion rings, and the restaurant counts Alan Jackson, one of its waiters back in his high school days, among the regulars who return on visits home.

About a mile down the same street, closer to the square, Dunc's Kitchen represents a newer generation of Newnan smokehouse. It smokes its brisket, ribs, pork and turkey low and slow over pecan wood and bills its Brunswick stew as award-winning. The sides read like a Southern Sunday table, with collards, field peas, fried okra, mac and cheese and hushpuppies, and there is a BLT stacked with fried green tomatoes and Alabama white sauce. Inside, the dining room is rustic; outside, there is a patio and a drive-thru for the lunch rush.

What grows nearby

The most direct line from Coweta County farms to Newnan kitchens runs through the courthouse square. Main Street Newnan's Market Day sets up around the square on the first Saturday of every month from March through December, with more than 50 booths. Among the regular offerings are locally grown produce, honey, jams and jellies, salsa, baked goods, plants and flowers, sold alongside pottery and crafts. Musicians bring their instruments for Pickin' on the Square on the courthouse lawn at the same time, so it is easy to make a morning of it. December's market, on the first Saturday of the month, is the last of the year, and the stalls return in March.

In summer the Coweta County Farmers Market sets up on Saturday mornings at the Asa M. Powell Sr. Expo Center on Temple Avenue, and the county's University of Georgia Extension office posts its updates. It is a summer market, so watch the county calendar for next year's dates.

Around the square, morning to night

The square itself is where Newnan eats out most often. Redneck Gourmet has been there since 1991, when Mike and Cile Smith opened it on North Court Square; their son Casey and his wife Melissa took over in 1999. It serves breakfast, lunch and dinner every day but Sunday in a building of about 1890 that began as a bank, and the basement, once braced to hold the bank's vault, is now its bar, Below the Neck. Outside, a mural celebrates Alan Jackson.

Across the square on West Court Square, Leaf & Bean starts the day with coffee, tea, espresso drinks and pastries, then serves breakfast and lunch. Late in the week it stays open into the evening, and its lounge gives the square a place to sit after dinner.

Just off the square, behind Jackson Street at the corner of Wesley and Brown streets, Brown Street Bodega pours its own Camino Coffee, roasted locally, and runs a scratch kitchen: breakfast biscuits, sandwiches built on house-roasted turkey and roast beef, cakes by the slice, and provisions to take home for supper.

Two spots handle the evening crowd. On Jefferson Street, Meat N Greet forms its burger patties by hand from a blend of chuck, brisket and short rib, makes its own pimento cheese and keeps a long bourbon list; on busy nights it texts you when your table is ready, so you can walk the square while you wait. On Perry Street, just behind the square, Knife and Stone is an American steakhouse led by chef Jarrod Reeder, open for dinner and taking reservations.

The newest arrival is Deano's, which renovated a building on Temple Avenue and opened this year with gourmet hot dogs, smash burgers and crisp fries. It also runs a food truck around town and caters, which suits a city that likes to eat at ballgames and church suppers as much as in dining rooms.

Something sweet

For dessert, Georgia Chocolate Factory on North Court Square makes chocolates by hand and sells fudge, brittle, gourmet caramel apples and the kind of old-fashioned candy grandparents like to buy, with hand-dipped ice cream at the counter. It takes custom orders for parties and holidays.

That is how Newnan eats: stew from a recipe that predates the interstate, smoke from pecan wood, tomatoes and honey from a Saturday market, coffee, burgers and chocolate on the square. Come hungry, and plan to come back.