Wednesday, August 15, 2001

A family affair

Mom, sisters feed hungry Fayette folks at Right on Thyme

Right on Thyme, located at 375 East Lanier Avenue in what is commonly referred to as "the little blue house," has been serving up hot meals for Fayetteville diners for more than three years.

Owner Gail Downing, along with co-owners Gayla Whitestone (her twin sister) and Martha Foster (their mother), serve breakfast and lunch each weekday at the restaurant while simultaneously operating a thriving catering company.

With its focus on daytime meals, the restaurant has built a solid base of regular customers from the surrounding business community. "My customers are very loyal," Downing said. "They're very consistent."

The busiest days are usually Thursday and Friday. "Thursday is chicken day and Friday is fish," she said.

That's partly because the lunch crowd knows what it's going to get at Right on Thyme. Using a basic menu that includes a good supply of meats and vegetables, with everything fresh and nothing canned, folks come here to get what's often called "home cooking" "Grandma's house," as Downing put it.

On the catering side, Right on Thyme handles corporate events throughout the metro Atlanta area all during the week along with a large number of weddings in Fayette and surrounding counties, as well as special events such as 50th and 75th anniversaries.

A large part of the catering operation consists of food deliveries to homebound customers in the area. Many elderly couples rely on these meals, Downing said, because one spouse is ill and the other is heavily involved in caring for the sick one. Some area residents receive meals five days a week from Right on Thyme, or while recovering from surgery or going through a bereavement period.

The company is a family operation, as Downing stressed during a recent interview with her four-month-old daughter, Amber Nicole, in her lap as eight-year-old John played nearby and Gayla's husband worked in the kitchen.

Amber Nicole's birth slowed Downing a little bit, but she was catering an event two weeks after the blessed event before returning to the kitchen full-time at the six-week mark. In true family style, her substitute during maternity leave was her husband, who is the pastor at Glenhaven United Methodist Church in Decatur.

"He was 'Gail' for a month," Downing said with a laugh. "You should have seen it."

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