I heard a terrible rumor last week.
It was that Hotel Talisi in Tallassee, Alabama had closed their restaurant. So I emailed them – it’s true.
Hotel Talisi is one of the last small-town downtown hotels around. And while the hotel is still functioning, it was such a treat to walk into the lobby (which is not your usual hotel lobby, and used to have a grand piano in the middle of it, where people would sometimes play) and really have the run of the hotel – even the opportunity to go upstairs and see the…well, I’m not sure ‘ornate’ is the right word for the hallway in an eccentric-grandmother-kind-of-way, but…oh! and it even had a phone booth up there, because there are no phones in the rooms. Each room is different, and the unoccupied rooms have their doors left open so you can peek inside to decide which one you want to stay in next time. Each room has its own *real* key – no key-cards. There’s supposedly a ghost up there too. Oh, but that’s all about how the hotel is different and in its way, wonderful.
What’s missing now is the restaurant. It was a big deal to have Sunday dinner there, and we were always tickled to be in that part of the state and sit down for fried chicken, which Av puts in his top 5. Their buffet was also mentioned as one of the original “100 dishes to eat in Alabama before you die“. Here’s our “last supper” there: broccoli casserole, blackeyed peas, squash casserole, dressing…and fried chicken:
