We have never watched “Vampire Diaries” and all we know about it is it’s filmed in Covington, GA. (So was the TV series, “In the Heat of the Night”.) Mystic Grill is apparently a place where characters in the series hang out. Or it might be where the actors hang out or both. At any rate, it’s not only a restaurant on the town square, it also has an unenclosed rooftop area. Being open air does mean you’re subject to the weather, but it is a lovely view. The indoor space is fun, too, and this is a case where you focus on ambience rather than food. That’s not to say the food isn’t good, merely that it isn’t the proverbial “star of the show”. I’m fine with that and while I have no difficulty in recommending the place, I personally wouldn’t spend a long time waiting to get in.

RL Off the Square was also an interesting find. The RL is for Real Louisiana, complete with gold fleur-de-lis on the sign. Now, they did not have Abita beer which is not precisely a requirement, but it does give pause for thought. On the other hand, the distributors in that area may not carry Abita and RL’s did have some excellent regional craft beers. The menu had appropriate dishes and the crawfish I tried and Hubby’s jambalaya were both quite good. I have no reason to think everything else wouldn’t have been equal. I would be torn if we could only dine in one place and we haven’t yet been to what is supposed to be a nice Italian spot. There are worse things in life than having too many restaurants to choose from.