Built in an old mill first used as a flour mill, the restaurant features American cuisine with a Southern flair in a warm, cozy atmosphere of brick and open beams.
The menu features beautifully presented dishes of seafood, pasta and steak. The starters are intriguing with items such as grit puffs stuffed with Montrachet cheese served with sweet chili, roasted red pepper sauce and marinara.
Daily dishes such as crab cakes made fresh lump crabmeat, Pan Seared Trout with a lemon caper butter sauce and steaks grilled to perfection are always reliable.
Besides delicious fare, history and unsubstantiated lore of the supernatural is available for consumption at the Old Mill. Built by John Cowan, he left the community with a group of friends known as the Four Georgians to prospect for gold in Helena, Mont., during the Civil War.
Although discouraged during their excavations, Cowan and the group finally struck gold at the Last Chance Gulch which took its name when Cowan told his men, "This gulch is our last chance."
"It goes on to be the biggest gold find in all of history," noted restaurant co-owner Mayor Tommy Allegood who explained that over a period of 25 years about $1 billion worth of gold was mined.
Cowan returned home to Acworth with his money and built the Old Mill circa 1870 on the Western Atlantic Railroad line. A philanderer, Cowan never married and died at the turn of the century with no heirs and no explanation of where his money went.
"After we got the Old Mill opened, a lot of strange things happened that no one can explain," Allegood said. Ghostly visitations occur in the form of knocks on doors, windows left open, noises in the kitchen and voices heard by servers, Allegood said.
"We've always said, 'That's John Cowan,'" he said.
"He (Cowan) only speaks to women," said Allegood, who said he personally doesn't believe in ghosts. "But there are enough people at the restaurant that have had enough things happen we like to talk about the ghost of John Cowan."
The Georgia Ghost Society has even expressed an interest in investigating the phenomena, added Allegood who speculated that perhaps Cowan dislikes the restaurant.
"I kind of thought he (Cowan) hid the gold in the Old Mill basement where the two wells are located," said Allegood, who says the oddest hauntings occur in the basement where many servers refuse to go, at least by themselves.
Whatever the case may be, ghosts or overactive imaginations, unusual and sometimes curious things occur at The Old Mill Restaurant.
"Funny stuff. There's always something going on," he said.
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