Harpin’s: Fast Lunch Doesn’t Have To Mean Fast Food
In a perfect world, we would all be able to sit down and enjoy a luxurious lunch with no silly watch-checking or worries about how many millions of emails were sent in our absence that needed to be replied to ten minutes ago, and yet magically still be able to get all of our work done. I know, I know… Dream Life. Fortunately, we have a number of options in Macon that can still give us the best of both worlds – fast service and great taste. Counted among these magical dining unicorns is Harpin’s.
Harpin’s is known for its lunch service, though a few times a month they do a special dinner that is worth keeping an eye out for. The lunch is run semi-counter service style: order at the counter from a small but comprehensive menu and the food is delivered to your table fast. And I mean fast. I was waffling over which iced tea to get – sweet, unsweet, or a brew-of-the-day called Mango Breeze (Pro-tip: get the Mango Breeze. It is unsweetened but the fruit flavor is so delicious that even the most dedicated of tooth-achingly sweet tea lovers will enjoy it.) – and by the time I sat down at our table, the food had arrived.
The menu has an assortment of sandwiches with the usual deli options: chicken salad, tuna salad, turkey, etc. They also have two daily types of quiche, several tasty soups, and some meal-sized salads judging by the ones I saw on the neighboring table. I opted for the brie and asparagus quiche, which came with either soup or salad. The quiche was a very generous slice and not overwhelming in one flavor or the other, with a good and delightfully not soggy crust.
The salad was a nice portion of romaine with some sliced cucumber and baby tomatoes on the same plate, and was lightly dressed in a mustard-based dressing with some very tasty dried herbs (thyme and something else I couldn’t quite get). It was very reminiscent of the traditional side salads you automatically get in France with a lunch dish, though there was less mustardy bite to the dressing. I skipped dessert myself, but our Editor-in-Chief unabashedly downed a slice of very chocolaty cake solo. I will say, I was somewhat filled with regret when I noticed half of a German chocolate cake on the counter only when we were actually headed out the door. Blast! Next time…
Lunch start to finish, including some good post-meal conversation, was only 40 minutes because of the impressive speed of service. And if that’s still not fast enough for you, they also have a cooler full of their quiches and sandwich “salads” to-go. You’ll definitely join the Clean Plates Club when you go to Harpin’s. Its location off Vineville makes it an easy spot for those who work Downtown to venture farther out and still make it back before someone notices you’re missing. You can very quickly tell that Harpin’s is a place filled with regulars, ones who have been coming for years and years. Don’t be afraid to make yourself one of their newest!
