With the recent opening of Aunt Dyann’s restaurant at the corner of Hwy. 9 and Hwy. 53 in Dawsonville, hungry folks now have a new lunch or dinner time option to choose from when they head out looking for a hearty meal.

Building their restaurant from the idea that good food should be tasty, fresh and plentiful, Aunt Dyann’s owner Barbara Buckner and her daughter Melanie Brookins say they are delighted to be bringing good old-fashioned country cooking to the city of Dawsonville.

According to Brookins, the idea for Aunt Dyann’s restaurant came from decades of delicious cooking from her mom and her great-aunt Dyann. Though their family is originally from the Columbus area, Brookins said, they’ve been in Dawson County for many years and always thought the red building on Hwy. 9 would make a good spot for a restaurant.

"We saw the building and we always just had the idea that we wanted to do my mom's country cooking and some of Dyann's recipes," Brookins said. "We wanted to make this an option for Dawsonville, because they don't really have anything like this." 

Brookins said that Aunt Dyann’s operates like many country food restaurants, offering a rotating menu of classic entrees, like chicken and dressing, meatloaf and chicken fingers; daily sides like mashed potatoes, mac and cheese and collard greens, and specials like pork chops and chicken pot pie which can change from day to day and week to week.

"We try to keep our options open," she said. "But everything we make in-house is totally fresh. We try really hard to get vegetables from local vendors. We don't really try to outsource too much on that, especially the produce.”

And if you come and try their lunch special - a choice of entrées, two sides and a drink - you’ll score a free dessert at the end of your meal too, all for about $9.

"My mom makes the best banana pudding," Brookins said "Our peach cobbler is really good too. it's heavenly."  

With each day they are open, they are learning something new and getting better at what they make, Brookins and Buckner said. Even though they got off to a rocky start, getting more business in the first day than they could handle, things are picking up and running a lot smoother.

"Owning your own restaurant is different than working in the industry, of course," Brookins said. "So we've had to work out some issues, but we are getting better every day, service is getting better, our cooks are getting better."

Breakfast options and other desserts like freshly baked cakes and pies are also in the works as soon as they can ramp up production.

"When folks come see us, they should expect good service. They should expect friendly smiling faces and really good country cooking," Brookins said. "And they should expect not to walk away hungry."

Aunt Dyann’s is open from 11 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. on weekdays and 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekends. Their hours may change with the seasons.

The restaurant is located at 104 Hwy. 9 N in Dawsonville and can be found on Facebook at Aunt Dyann’s Dawsonville.