My wife, our friend Barbara, and I enjoyed a fine dinner at Leon’s Full Service last night. This newly-opened restaurant is owned by the same folks who run the wonderful Brick Store Pub. Leon’s full service is located in a former Sinclair gasoline station at the corner of Ponce de Leon and Church Street in Decatur.
The new owners have completely renovated the old gas station, but have kept many of its finer touches, such as the red tiled roof that was a hallmark of many Spanish-revival buildings built along Ponce de Leon Avenue in the 1920s and 1930s. The architects also kept the large sliding garage doors, one of which serves to ventilate the bar area when the outside temperature allows.
To accommodate more seating, the owners also enclosed the covered area under which cars used to drive up to refuel at the gas tanks.
The food and beverages at Leon’s Full Service are unlike anything I have seen before. All three of us remarked about the menu and how so many of the items combine ingredients we have never seen mixed together quite like that.
We tried the "hummus", which does not include any chickpeas but instead consists of pureed carrots and pine nuts, with a small amount of oil and spices. It was fantastic. We also sampled the rabbit tenders (good, but not great,) the calamari (served with a barbecue sauce instead of the usual marinara,) and the scallops. The scallops were served with fresh fennel and onions, as well as smoked bacon from a small smokehouse in Tennessee. The scallops were the best-tasting item that we tried.
The menu also includes things like curried vegetables, salads, burgers, sandwiches, and French fries that come with a choice of three sauces from a list of ten (horseradish mayo, etc.)
Everything at Leon’s focuses on special-ness. The bar features at least 14 beers on tap, many of them from Belgium and all of them from relatively small breweries. They have at least 100 more beers in bottles, plus a decent wine list. All of the whisky and bourbon at Leon’s are small-batch varieties. The list of specialty cocktails includes a drink made with rye, spiced ginger ale and orange zest.
The atmosphere is casual and very far removed from white tablecloth, and the bar area is large and inviting.
All in all: highly recommended, and we will definitely go back!
Leon’s Full Service
(404) 687-0500
131 E. Ponce de Leon Avenue [click here for map]
Decatur, GA 30030
