Foodie’s Paradise

When you look for somewhere to eat while visiting the Great Smoky Mountains region, you’re gonna notice a few trends.

First, you’ll find lots of restaurants offering Southern Cooking. Which is to be expected, after all, you are visiting the South. Some will even call it Appalachian Cooking. Yes, we are in the southern Appalachia’s; however, Southern food and Appalachian food are not necessarily the same thing, but we can get into that in another discussion.

Secondly, you should brace yourself for an enormous stack of pancakes! Pancake houses abound and pancakes are on every menu of any restaurant open by 9am. And it's not just that we like breakfast here, clearly, we do, it’s something about fluffy stacks dripping with sweet golden nectar and topped with whatever you can imagine, that makes us want them taking center stage in the most important meal of the day.

And rounding out the Top 3 you will find Barbeque. Now that’s not to be confused with just some BBQ sauce you dip a chicken tender into. The act of barbequing is to cook meat low and slow, giving the meat a smoky flavor while creating a tender piece of meat that just melts in your mouth. See why we like barbeque? Now adding sauce to that is just icing on the cake. Sometimes the flavor comes from a dry rub, or sometimes a sauce, but it’s always a house secret. It may also just come at the end, by you at the table, so you get the amount that you want. Many sauces contain a fair amount of molasses or brown sugar, which when left over a flame will just simply burn, so adding at the end holds it all together.  

So barbequing is really a method of cooking, and that’s not the same as grilling, though it’s similar. You’ll know when you get close to a good barbeque joint because you can smell it before you hit the parking lot. At least you better, or it may not be that good! And, you want it to hit your nose and kinda curl your brain cells up a little too. It needs to hurt just a bit when you get that first whiff, but in a good way. Done right, and you may not need any sauce at all. But, if you don’t end up with a few red spots on your white shirt, did you really enjoy some barbeque?

Now, go change that white shirt, cause things are about to get smoky and sticky. Oh, and don’t forget the coupons too! These are in no certain order, but as you roll up and down the parkway, put your nose in the air and set your eyes a’lookin’ for a sign.

Buddy’s Bar-B-Q started over 50 years ago as a family business with Buddy supporting his wife in opening her first restaurant. The business did well, and they decided to hone in on a specialty, and that was barbeque. The first Buddy’s sign went up and now you can find them all over the area serving up pork, chicken, and ham along with traditional sides like slaw, baked beans, and hushpuppies. So, eating at a Buddy’s Bar-B-Q is to enjoy some East Tennessee goodness that you just can’t get back home.

There are only two Bennett’s Pit Bar-B-Que locations in the world, and luckily, they’re in Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg. It can take up to 14 hours to enjoy their house specialty, Jumbo Baby Back Ribs, but you won’t have to wait that long ‘cause they knew you were comin’. Their brisket and chicken are pretty tasty too, and since they went to the trouble for you, go ahead and order a full rack and try their Deep Fried Deviled Eggs while you wait. And, you might want to add on some Deep Fried Corn to go with your slaw and baked beans too.

Now if you’re hungry some barbeque, but some of the other’s in the car aren’t, you can still find a great meat-and-two at the Local Goat New American Restaurant and start with some BBQ Shrimp or BBQ Chicken Nachos before moving on to a variety of mouth-watering wings or their Bhaahhby Back Ribs. Yes, they have fried deviled eggs too, and trust me, they are worth every bite.