Georgia’s Oldest Restaurant Has Been Serving Southern Food Since 1916

Fried chicken and Greek classics share the same menu under a roof that has been standing since 1916. I had driven through this Georgia town before, but pulling over for lunch turned into one of the best decisions of the trip.

Dark wood, framed photographs, white cloth napkins, and the smell of something good coming out of the kitchen. I ordered too much and regretted none of it.

What surprised me most was the menu, mixing Southern comfort plates with Greek dishes and Italian classics all under one roof. The restaurant holds the title of oldest continuously operating in the state, and the walls carry that weight without making a fuss.

Floors creak underfoot, and servers move with the ease of people who have been doing this for years. Portions are generous, prices fair, and the atmosphere warm enough to make you linger.

Places with stories built into the wood are worth seeking out, and this one belongs on any traveler’s list.

A Century of Business on Broad Street

My first thought pulling up was that the building looks like it belongs to the town rather than to a business. The Plaza opened back in 1916 at 115 North Broad Street, and it started out tiny.

Only 26 people could sit down at the original white marble tables, which is smaller than most coffee shops today.

Word is it grew steadily over the decades, adding space as Thomasville itself grew around it. In the late 1970s the restaurant moved to its current corner spot where South Broad Street meets Smith Avenue, and it has stayed there ever since.

That unbroken run is what earns it the title of Georgia’s oldest continuously operating restaurant.

I find that genuinely impressive when you think about everything that has happened since 1916. Wars, recessions, changing food trends, and this place kept its doors open through all of it.

Standing outside looking at the sign, you get the sense that generations of families have taken the exact same photo you are about to take.

Practical tip for visitors: parking downtown is easy and free in most spots, and the restaurant sits within a short walk of Thomasville’s main shopping blocks.

Greek Owners Who Shaped the Kitchen

Here is the part of the story I did not expect to love so much. The Plaza’s kitchen has been guided by Greek families for most of its life, starting in 1942 when Chris Blaine took over the operation.

By 1955 the reins passed to brothers Louie and Tom Matthysse, known around town as Mathes.

Their nephew, Andrew Pace, came over from Greece as a teenager and learned the kitchen from the ground up before eventually becoming an owner himself. That is a long apprenticeship by anyone’s standards.

In 2007 chef and restaurateur Michael Regina, originally from Manhattan, bought the restaurant and set about restoring it with new carpeting and updated kitchen equipment while keeping the traditions in place.

What I appreciate is that none of those changes erased the older layers. The Greek influence still shows up clearly on the plates, and the Southern side never got pushed aside to make room for it.

Restaurants that change hands often lose their identity somewhere along the way. This one seems to have collected identities instead, stacking them one on top of another until the menu reads like a family tree.

Old Wood, Vintage Photos, and Candlelight

The lighting inside is low and golden, the kind that makes everyone at your table look a little better than they did in the car. Warm wood covers much of the interior, and old photographs hang along the walls showing Thomasville in earlier decades.

Some people call the look dated. I call it earned.

White tablecloths and cloth napkins sit on the tables even at lunch, which feels charmingly formal for a place where you might be eating fried fish and black eyed peas. At night the candles come out and the whole mood shifts toward something romantic.

Couples celebrating anniversaries have figured this out already.

One thing worth knowing is that the layout sprawls. There is a cafe section, more formal dining rooms, and quiet corners you would never guess existed from the sidewalk.

If you want a specific vibe, it helps to say so when you arrive, since the rooms feel noticeably different from one another.

My favorite detail was how the noise level stayed comfortable even on a busy afternoon. Thick walls and separate rooms do wonders for conversation, something modern open-plan restaurants often forget entirely.

The Weekday Lunch Buffet Locals Swear By

Ask anyone in Thomasville about The Plaza and the lunch buffet comes up fast. It runs on weekdays from around 11 in the morning until 2 in the afternoon, and it draws a steady crowd of regulars who clearly have the schedule memorized.

Fried chicken seems to be the headliner, along with fried fish, macaroni and cheese, and black eyed peas with snaps.

There is also a Quick Lunch menu during the week for people who prefer ordering off a plate rather than serving themselves. It works like a classic meat-and-three, giving you one entree plus a salad and two sides.

Honest advice from my own experience: arrive closer to noon than to 1:45 if you want the full spread.

Even late in the service the trays still had plenty going on, but the earlier you show up the more choices you get. Prices feel reasonable, which is part of why the room fills with office workers and retirees alike.

The buffet also solves the biggest problem here, which is a menu so long you could stare at it for ten minutes. Sometimes it is easier to just go look at everything.

Hand-Shucked Oysters and Steaks Cut In-House

Oysters are the thing people mention most often here, and after one order I understood why. They arrive hand-shucked, which is not something every inland restaurant bothers with, and the Oyster Bar half of the name is clearly not decoration.

Oysters Rockefeller shows up on the menu too, for anyone who prefers them warm and dressed up.

On the meat side, the kitchen butchers its own steaks in-house using aged Angus beef. That detail matters more than it sounds, because it means the cuts are trimmed to their own standards rather than arriving pre-portioned in a box.

Bacon wrapped filet mignon has a loyal following, as does bacon wrapped shrimp.

Prime rib turns up in conversation constantly among people who eat here regularly. If you are visiting on a weekend evening, that is probably the order to consider.

The seafood leans fresh and the portions feel generous without being silly. For a town this size, roughly 45 minutes from the Florida line, the range on offer is genuinely surprising.

Save room, though. The dessert situation deserves its own attention entirely.

Pies Made From 50-Year-Old Recipes

Fifty years is a long time to make the same pie. Chef Andrew has been using the same recipes for more than half a century, and the pies are still made in house rather than shipped in frozen.

Key lime, chocolate, coconut, and lemon meringue rotate through the dessert list.

There is also crème brûlée and New York style cheesecake, which tells you something about how many culinary influences have found a home in this kitchen. A Greek-rooted Southern restaurant serving New York cheesecake should not work as well as it does.

My suggestion is to decide on dessert before you order dinner, because portions upstream will absolutely talk you out of it.

What makes these desserts feel special is not fancy technique. It is the fact that the recipes have not been tinkered with, updated, or reinvented for the sake of looking modern.

Somebody figured out the right proportions decades ago and everyone since has had the sense to leave them alone.

If you are only stopping in for a slice and a coffee, that is a perfectly respectable reason to visit Georgia’s oldest restaurant.

Private Rooms, Big Tables, and Small-Town Gatherings

Something I did not realize until I wandered a bit is how much event space hides inside this building. Six private dining rooms sit tucked away, sized for everything from small business meetings to rehearsal dinners of fifty people.

The Garden Room comes up often among locals planning celebrations.

Civic groups like Rotary and Kiwanis have used The Plaza as a meeting place for generations, which explains why the staff handles big groups so calmly. Large parties do not seem to rattle anyone here.

Owner Mike is known for answering event questions quickly and in detail, a real relief if you are planning from out of town.

Hours are worth checking before you go. The restaurant opens at 11 in the morning Monday through Saturday, closing at 9 in the evening early in the week and staying open much later Thursday through Saturday.

Sundays it is closed, so plan accordingly.

Thursday through Saturday nights also bring live music and karaoke into the mix, which shifts the energy from quiet supper to something livelier. Reservations are smart during graduation weekends and holidays, when Thomasville fills up fast with visiting families.

Address: 217 S Broad St, Thomasville, Georgia