Grazing: First look: Leon’s Full Service

If you heart Decatur, you will heart Leon’s Full Service

Every time I go to Decatur, I feel like I’m an extra in a movie set in a small town. Friendly people pace the sidewalks with their friendly dogs or head to friendly coffee shops like Java Monkey, where a poetry reading was underway Sunday night when we passed by. Really, in Decatur, I feel like Mr. Rogers.

Please, won’t you be my neighbor? I’ll buy you big mugs of draft beer at Leon’s Full Service (131 E. Ponce de Leon Ave., 404-687-0500) and feed you slightly strange food. It’s a beautiful night to get wasted in this neighborhood.

Actually, I don’t drink, but Wayne makes up for that. And he had plenty of company during our Sunday night visit. Leon’s, open about 10 days, was packed with a 30-minute wait for a table.

This new gastropub has been opened by the same folks who own the nearby Brick Store Pub. The name derives from its original use as a gas station. Although at least two retail businesses preceded this latest use, there’s still a faint ambiance of the filling station, mainly in the large windowed garage door. But most gas stations don’t have a boules court right outside the door, as Leon’s does.