Macon Magazine

Yollah Social Kitchen & Garden YOLLAH SOCIAL KITCHEN & GARDEN, on College Street, opened in March 2021 after construction on the bridge in front of their building made it impossible for them to meet their original fall 2020 opening date. By that time, the pandemic was in full swing, so co-owners Dawn McCullar and Brooke Woods had to think innovatively. Brooke, who met Dawn in Athens during college, said it was natural for them to own a restaurant. "Dawn grew up cooking with her dad at barbecue shows across the state. She loves to cook and entertain, so it just made sense to her to open a restaurant because you can cook and you can entertain," Brooke said. They threw around different concepts for a while, but kept coming back to the same idea of Latin cuisine. They chose their favorites and built a menu around them. Many diners have a difficult time describing Yollah's fare. Brooke lovingly describes it as, "Latin food. Not Mexican food. We wanted to be more than just tacos. We have some Spanish things and some Brazilian things. I guess it's more of a 'culinary feast' across Latin America with a Southern twist." One of their most popular menu items is the Cuban cigars. "They have nothing to do with Cuba and no, they are not cigars. They are almost like an eggroll. They're fried wontons with collards in them, which is very much Southern, and pork, which is very much Southern, so that's where the Southern twist comes in," Brooke said. With the pandemic going strong, Yollah first opened with curbside service, which turned out to be a real benefit for them. "I don't think we even thought about curbside and online much in the planning of the restaurant, but that first month when we opened curbside, it not only gave patrons an opportunity to try some of our food, but it gave our kitchen staff an opportunity to work in the kitchen and know what it was going to be like once we had people inside the doors," Brooke said. The downside to operating in a pandemic has been getting items they need, like ingredients for recipes or the soft drinks from Mexico that they carry. "Every week it seems like there's something different that we can't get, and it seems like we have to go out and find it somewhere else rather than our usual suppliers," she said. Brooke also said people are still reluctant even now to go out, so outside space has become more important. "We've spent a lot of time and effort on our back patio space, what we call our garden, because we knew people were going to want to be outside, so we spent a lot of time on that," she said. Despite the ongoing pandemic, Yollah continues to expand. Coming this spring, a stationary food truck will take up residence in the garden. "We're going to have food that you can get really quick — grab a taco, grab some nachos, a very simple menu. If you're in a hurry and need to grab something really quick, if you've got the kids and don't want to go inside, or even if you just don't want to be indoors because of the virus, you'll be able to just walk into our garden and grab an order," Brooke said. "Some of our favorites we'll have, but also just some things that you can pick up with your hand like Mexican street corn. We'll have lots of the dips, and we'll have some beer out there, too. As much as we can capitalize on our outdoor space, that's what we're trying to do. This gives us a chance to really use that back garden and bring in more people to just relax and have fun back there." DAWN MCCULLAR AND BROOKE WOODS 62 maconmagazine.com | FEBRUARY/MARCH 2022

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