“Pure Country Cookin’”

Late in January of 1951 the Greater Nashville Area was pounded by snow and freezing rain for 4 days. In it’s wake, the storm left middle Tennessee under 8” of snow and ice, grinding it to a stand still. Roads were closed or otherwise impassable. Trees were downed taking power lines with them. Thousands were without power, heat, telephones and ultimately food for days.

One of the few businesses to remain open during the storm, Dotson’s Restaurant in Franklin became an oasis.  The little restaurant kept the locals fed with the “Stick to your ribs” food that keeps you warm on a winter’s day. They also went above and beyond the call, making home deliveries to those unable to get out. For many of Franklin’s old timers, the “Great Blizzard of ‘51” and Dotson’s are forever linked in their memories.

Opened by Clara and Chester Dotson in 1949 serving home cooked meals (They’ve since relocated to the banks of the Harpeth River; 1978) the now 63 year old restaurant is an institution for the locals. The building and it’s wood paneling and creaky floors is pretty typical of a meat n 3 place in appearance.  In other words, with most of them, the money is in the steak, not the sizzle. Decorated with autographed pictures (mostly country music stars) and memorabilia it’s almost a hall of fame. Perhaps the biggest stamp of approval is the framed face of Martha Stewart. 
Rumour is, another move is in the works as the city tries to redevelop around the river.

So let’s get to the food.

I had the meatloaf, mac and cheese, mashed potatoes with gravy and cream corn. Mrs. Sippi went with chicken and dumplin’s with white beans and sweet potato casserole. We also sampled a piece for fried chicken.

The meatloaf, oft thought of as the best in Franklin was excellent. Nicely dense yet tender covered with a tomato sauce that tasted very much like salsa. A bit of an odd choice that seemed to compliment very well. The mashed potatoes were very good, simply seasoned and the gravy was excellent. I like my gravy a little on the salty side and this was perfect. I opted for the dinner roll to sop up any gravy or other goodness that may have been left on the plate.

The fried chicken was very tasty but not the earth moving experience I’d convinced myself it would be. Supposedly a perennial winner of best fried chicken it was simply seasoned and fried crispy but not VERY juicy.  The cream corn is cut fresh off the cob in the kitchen and it shows. It had a nice bright, fresh corn taste and was easily the best part of my meal.

Mrs. Sippi’s chicken and dumplin’s hit the spot as she said. A rich chicken broth with dumplin’s, topped with shredded chicken. As down home southern as it gets. The casserole was tasty and not as cloyingly sweet as I’d expected with marshmallows as part of the recipe. The white beans were very nice with a simple seasoning to highlight the earthy flavour of the beans. She also very much liked the corn bread. Straight ahead southern.

The famous cream pies were fantastic. The meringue was nice and thick and the fillings were very creamy. The crust also had a very nice flavour.

Mrs. Sippi had the coconut.
I had the chocolate.



All in all, Dotson's doesn't measure up to the standards set by Stan's and Bell Buckle Cafe but it's still good solid food, worthy of praise.

You can find Dotson’s beside the Harpeth River in at 99 E. Main St. in Franklin, Tn.

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You can also “Like” them on Facebook
 

Well that’s all for now. See you again in the food court.
Davwud

Y'all Eat Yet?

About an hour drive south east of Nashville is the small artist community of Bell Buckle, Tennessee. The old railroad town, listed in the National Register of Historic Places was once left for dead but has been resurrected. Restored into a beautiful and quaint little burg numbering less than 500 residents. It's also the home of the RC Cola and Moon Pie Festival.

Celebrating the quintessential southern staples, RC Cola and Moon Pies. For those not from the south, a Moon Pie is a layered graham cracker and marshmallow treat that's (originally) covered in chocolate. They come in over a half dozen flavours now.

Arriving in town from the west, Railroad Square is somewhat obscured. You're almost on the tracks before you get a good view. One good look though will let you know that you're in for something special. Among the single story store fronts sits Bell Buckle Cafe. A good ole down home "Meat and 3" with live country music on Friday and Saturday night.





While not the only restaurant in town, Bell Buckle Cafe is certainly the busiest. The parking lot was full to over flowing when we arrived on Sunday just before noon. We were lucky we only had a 10 minute wait. Church lets out at noon and it quickly became obvious that for locals, the Sunday morning ritual is church then lunch at the Cafe.

Waiting in line Mrs. Sippi interrogated a local on the food options. Asked to pick a favourite he couldn't. He did suggest the smothered chops that were one of the specials of the day. He went on to offer about a half dozen more things before declaring everything "Great." Seated beside us were two older couples. "Every Sunday" one told me of how often they patronize the Cafe. In her pantheon of Meat and 3's Mrs. Sippi has declared Bell Buckle Cafe one of the triumvirate. Along with Stan's and Dixie Freeze. Pretty select company. I'll go one further. It's the best I've been to.
A Meat and Three for the uninitiated is a restaurant offering a meat option with a choice of three sides. Most places give you your choice of anywhere from 3 to 6 main options. Bell Buckle has over a dozen on their menu and another half dozen on the specials board. Your sides choices number between 6 and 10. Bell Buckle has at least a dozen. There's also a half dozen desert options. More if you consider that I'm counting "Pie" and "Cobbler" as one item each. They have several options in both category.

So it's about time we got to the food.

Smothered chops with turnip greens, mac and cheese and squash casserole for me and chicken fried steak with white beans, fried corn and fried okra for Mrs. Sippi. Both came with a johnny cake.

Smothered chops are pork chops that are simmered in gravy. They were fall apart tender and very tasty. They gravy was very good and not too salty. I'd actually have liked just a bit more on mine.

The turnip greens were quite good. Not the best I've had but there was the exact right amount of pot likker. It was the perfect amount for sopping with the corn cake.

The squash casserole was fantastic although not as good as Puckett's. Not "Squashy" at all if you know what I mean. It had a nice balance of flavours.

I really liked the mac and cheese. This was a great "Side" mac and cheese. It didn't have a stand out personality but a nice creamy, cheesy taste that would play well in the sandbox with anything.

Mrs. Sippi's chicken fried steak was unbelievable. It had a well seasoned breading that the Colonel and his 11 herbs and spices would be impressed with. Again, the gravy wasn't too salty which can be a problem. This milk or sawmill gravy was excellent.

Fried corn is corn that's cut from the cob and fried in butter (or bacon grease) until it has the consistency of cream corn. I hadn't had it done right before. Now I have. Mrs. Sippi proclaimed it perfect.

The white beans had all the earmarks of being southern style. Slow simmered with hunks of pig for hours. So good.

The fried okra was also spectacular. Very crispy and delicious. Their breading is fantastic.

The desert menu is on the napkin dispenser and it says "Save room for desert." Who am I to argue??

Since I was in Bell Buckle I had to have a moon pie. One of the desert offerings was a moon pie sundae. So why not? A banana moon pie with vanilla ice cream and hot fudge sauce. It was very good however predictable.

Mrs. Sippi couldn't get her mind off the peach cobbler. It was excellent. A nice buttery crust and warm sweet peach filling with the ice cream melting all over it. It was a text book southern cobbler.

With all the desert options we just couldn't narrow it down to two. I polled the people around our table and kept coming up with one thing. It was calling me. It was fate. I had to have it. I'd never heard of it. It sounded interesting. It said "Covered in caramel sauce." I like caramel sauce. I give you, the oatmeal cake.

It's rare that I order a desert that doesn't have chocolate in it. If I do, I generally try to figure out where to add chocolate. This desert is more proof that god wants us to be happy. It was like a moist 2" thick oatmeal cookie smothered in caramel sauce. It's impossible for me to impress upon you how much this desert impressed me. I was almost reduced to tears.

I also couldn't pass up the opportunity to have and RC Cola as well.

You can find Bell Buckle Cafe on Railroad Square in Bell Buckle, Tennessee.


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You can find them on the web or become a Facebook fan.  
 

Well that's all for now. 'Til next time.

Davwud

Yes, It Really is a 62 Year Old Ham

The sign says so!! Actually, I once asked if the ham was as old as they claim and was told that it indeed was. The magic of salt curing.
Although they say it's safe to eat, don't worry if you order the country ham at Stan's Restaurant and Country Store in Columbia, Tn. it won't be that old.

Located just off exit 46 west on I-65 about a half hour south of Nashville is Stan's. One part Citgo station, one part country store and one part restaurant. If the "Restaurant and Country Store" motif seems familiar then you've been to Cracker Barrel. As I once read in a review "Cracker Barrel don't have a lick on this place" and it's true. About all the two places have in common is they both sell food and trinkets. While the menus may look the same, don't kid yourself, Stan's outshines in every way in the kitchen.
I’ve been trying for the last few years to confirm this but Dan Evins who founded Cracker Barrel may very well have modeled the chain after Stan’s. He modeled CB on a restaurant he knew from when he was a boy. There are a lot of similarities to with which to support such a rumour but as yet, I can’t substantiate this.
Although I've had breakfast and lunch in the past today's visit was for dinner. Even with frogs legs on the specials board both Mrs. Sippi and I opted for the chicken fried steak. As with Cracker Barrel (and many of the great Southern joints) it's a Meat 'n' 3 format. For the uninitiated, it's your choice of entree and 3 sides. I opted for mashed potatoes, (collard) greens and black eyed peas (note the nice chunk of country ham in the peas). Mrs. Sippi opted for white beans, fried okra and greens. Your entree also comes with dinner roll or cornbread. I chose the dinner roll and she chose the "Cracklin'" cornbread.

The greens and peas were absolutely fantastic. Very typical Southern style which is to say, cooked to death. It works though, trust me. Mrs. Sippi said that the white beans reminded her of the ones her grandmother made when she was a kid. So much so, she got the recipe and brought back 8 pounds of dried beans so she could make them at home. Other sides include mac and cheese, spiced apples and kernel corn.
The dinner roll was just that, a dinner roll. I got it simply to use as a sponge to soak up all the "Pot licker" from my greens. So all in all, it was perfect.
The corn bread was very good too with it's crunchy, porky goodness.

I do love mashed potatoes but less so when they're whipped. Some will tell you that you have to get the lumps out of your potatoes. Not me, I like them with some nice chunks of potato left in them so these were perfect. The only draw back is they don't come with gravy so I always ask for some extra on the side. The best part is, they give you sausage gravy so you get these little chunks of country sausage as well.

The steak was quite simply the best I'd had. We both agreed that it was better than the last time we had it. It's even better than the ones I've made at home. A nice ladle of the gravy over top of the steak makes it perfect. The sausage isn't enough to obscure the taste of the steak but give it a nice meaty, creamy compliment.

If you’re like me and like a big breakfast the Hillbilly Breakfast is a feast. Two “aigs” with grits, home made biscuits, hash browns, red eye gravy and of course country ham. The grits are pretty much just basic but that’s simply so they can marry with anything. The hash browns (not shown) are also good and basic. Both work well with the red eye gravy. Red eye gravy, believe it or not is made from coffee. The pan that ham is fried up in gets deglazed with the coffee. When I make it at home I simmer the ham in the liquid for a bit as well as a hunk of onion. It’s got a unique taste but the boldness really stands up well against the saltiness of the ham. After it’s all gone the leftover goodness on your plate can be sopped up with the biscuits. As for the ham, well, it’s just fabulous. Made by Harpers in Clinton Kentucky it really is, as their saying goes, “Hamtastic.”



So next time you're south of Nashville and hungry for some good down home country cookin', take exit 46 and ignore the Cracker Barrel just down the street. Stop off at the Citgo station and visit Stan's. A true gem along one of America's busier interstates.
There's plenty of parking in the back for those in trucks or large RV and trailers.


That's all for now folks. The food court is now closed.

Davwud