Dining at a Mill | Millhouse Kitchen + Bar

Room with a View: Exposed brick walls and Edison-style bulbs give the dining room character, while large windows let in plenty of light. Photo credit: Contributed

Drive around the historic district of the second largest city in Georgia, and you will see plenty of brick buildings and former mills that are repurposed into condominiums, hotels and offices. Columbus was in fact one of the most industrial cities in the state, with access to a prominent river and a train track.

Southern Classic: The friend green tomato and crab stack comes with a house made remoulade. Photo credit: Contributed

One of the recent redevelopments includes the City Mills Hotel housed in a former grist mill, with the adjacent Millhouse Kitchen and Bar, which opened in 2022.

At the entrance to the industrial-looking building, you can still see the original millstones, calipers and shafts. One of the last remaining intact frames of its kind sits right in the middle of the restaurant. Parts of the machinery flow through the dining space and you can walk right up to the gear. Original wood beams, tabletops, and a wooden wall, constructed using salvaged wood from the mill, tell stories of its historic past. There’s a clock from First National Bank above the focal bar. The exposed brick walls, soft, muted colors of the interior and Edison-style bulbs also offer a sense of place. The mill was designed over 150 years ago by accomplished master builder Horace King, who was born into slavery. The building, developed by Ken Henson and the Historic Columbus Foundation and run by Valley Hospitality, operated as a grist mill until the 1980s and was said to be the first location in Columbus to generate electricity from the Chattahoochee River.

The Georgia quail is roasted in an Asian-inspired sauce on top of rainbow crunch carrots and bok choy with fried parsnip straws, below. Photo credit: Contributed

Step outside on to the back patio and you can still visualize the heavy operations on the riverfront. Rustic remnants of the mill’s cast-iron turbines offer a time traveling backdrop to visitors who are apt to grab a seat with an Old Fashioned in hand. The restaurant seats approximately 295 guests across its dining rooms, private dining basement and outdoor patio, making it popular for rehearsal dinners, anniversaries and receptions. Make sure to take a look around for original drawings and photographs of the mill from over the years.

General Manager Mike Patterson has spent over 32 years in the restaurant industry, beginning in high school, and says his great-grandfather operated one of the streetcars in Columbus.

Upscale Offerings: The bar, above, is well stocked. Photo credit: Contributed

The dining room offers Southern classics with an upscale twist. The scratch kitchen turns out a generous bread tray that is perfect for sharing with a group. An assortment of homemade jalapeno cornbread, sundried tomato focaccia, wheat bread with oats, along with apple butter, whipped honey with cinnamon, and fig jam, will remind you that you are, after all, in a mill.

The warm, sweet dates stuffed with goat cheese, wrapped with prosciutto and drizzled with balsamic, are a crowd pleaser. Stacks of corn flour-dusted fried green tomatoes layered with sweet jumbo lump crab meat pair well with spicy remoulade.

Appetizers include the Korean pork belly garnished with cucumbers, cilantro sprouts, kimchi butter and dark soy. Photo credit: Contributed

Try the Korean pork belly with sour-spicy kimchi and cooling sliced cucumbers, or Georgia quail with bok choy, parsnip straws and an Asian inspired sauce.

Columbus is a multinational city serving a diverse population of people, so it is important that dishes unite the palates of its patrons.

Other popular dishes include the cornmeal-encrusted catfish dusted with seasoning, served on top of creamy Logan Turnpike Mill stone ground grits and Cajun crawfish sauce. There’s also handmade pappardelle pasta with crawfish tails and baby shrimp. Carnivores might enjoy tender lamb shank with pearl onions braised in Marsala wine.

Mouthwatering Delights: Dessert options include strawberry shortcake topped with whipped cream. Photo credit: Contributed

Millhouse really shines with its side dishes that feature locally sourced ingredients and Southern staples. Each served in a wrought iron pan – creamy spinach souffle with onions and pecorino cheese, charred thin sliced okra, and the fluffy scalloped potatoes – are fresh and flavorful.

The White Marble Farms pork chop is grilled with peach barbecue glaze and served with garlic grilled baby romaine and blistered shishito peppers. Photo credit: Contributed

For dessert, the banana pudding is light, and the torched meringue on top feels like a spoonful of cloud. Patterson takes pride in the restaurant’s decadent moist and chewy chocolate chip skillet cookie with butter pecan ice cream. The strawberry shortcake made with fresh strawberries and vanilla cake is also a fair choice.

The restaurant offers a good variety of international wines from far-reaching vineyards of Uruguay, Chile and South Africa, including White Bordeaux, Pinot Blanc and Carménère.

Appealing to all ages, Millhouse seems to seamlessly blend tradition with innovation, offering a delightful Southern flair in a nostalgic setting that pays homage to Columbus’ industrial history.