Last week, I headed out to lunch with the rest of the company’s creative team members. We headed to R. Thomas Deluxe Grill, which I had driven by many, many (MANY) times before on Peachtree Road, but never gone to and until now, knew nothing about.

It turns out that R. Thomas is a funky family-owned business started in 1985, open 24 hours a day, serving up “a broad variety from fresh to order juices and smoothies, free-range meats and organics, vegetarian and vegan, macrobiotic, gluten free, and raw food items as well breakfast anytime.”

I was vaguely aware of it as vegetation-covered funky-looking place with unconventional decor outside. What I didn’t know is that there are also tropical birds: mostly parrots, but also a toucan. Weird!

The inside was just a funky, with red and green tarps as the walls and ceiling, posters, wind chimes, multicolored fluorescent lighting, and spinning light displays like one might find at a Spencer’s. We sat in the corner, which was a bit damp, since it had been raining pretty steadily all morning.

I also got dripped on a bit throughout the meal, but I actually think it was the air conditioning unit above my head, since it was no longer raining.

After perusing the decently-sized menu, I settled on the magic quesadilla, with the promise of swapping bites with coworker Mark, who ordered the ginger tamari bowl (13.50), a quinoa veggie dish.

I enjoyed both the quesadilla and the quinoa bowl. I have been on board with quinoa in spirit for many years, but not at all in practice. Not sure why, it just hasn’t happened. Oh, there was a really bad experience with some quinoa pasta once. But anyway, this quinoa bowl at R. Thomas was inspiring, so I think I’ll have to try making something sometime soon.

I also ordered a PBJ Plus shake, which is not listed on their online menu. I don’t recall all the ingredients, but it clearly involved peanut butter, which I am a huge sucker for. Also, some apples, flax oil, and other things. I believe the cost was around $7.50, so the two items together made for a fairly pricey lunch!

A fair number of our party had the ginger tamari quinoa bowl, but we also had an order of spicy fish tacos ($12.50) and penne pasta ($13.25) at the table. I nearly got those tacos; and they looked so good!

I don’t know much about those dishes, except that Kerry – the one who ordered the penne – wasn’t very pleased with the pasta at the price she paid. Nothing really wrong with it per se, just not $13.50 pasta, y’know?

As for myself, I enjoyed my PBJ shake and was gratified that it was fairly large. I had every bit of it, signed my $26.00 receipt (my wallet cried a little, I think) and we headed out.

On the way out, I swung by the birds again, and found one sweetie pie who just had to have her (it’s a pastel-colored bird, so I’m thinking her by default) neck scratched repeatedly and looked mournfully after me when I left. Having never really run across a lot of birds who cared to interact with me, that was pretty neat, though I really wasn’t expecting to run into a parrot on my lunch break!

Unfortunately, the food did not sit very well with me, which made me pretty sad. I’m not sure what I think about R. Thomas at this point. It was pricey, but I appreciate people doing what they believe in, and I support local, organic, and all that and I know those come at a real market price for those who use them as ingredients. Still, it’s out of my typical price range and I didn’t feel well afterward.

Let’s just say 3 stars and call it even ’til next time, R. Thomas Deluxe Grill.

R. Thomas Deluxe Grill
1812 Peachtree St
Atlanta, GA 30309