After a good friend got a bad review from a restaurant critic a few years ago, we decided to do our part to balance the scales by writing a “good news” food column for BereaOnline. Our plates have been a bit too full the past two years, with the births of our two “buns in the oven,” and we had to put this column on the back burner, but now we’re back in the groove! We plan to write a regular column highlighting one nearby restaurant and one restaurant we’ve enjoyed in our travels for each issue of the new BereaOnline. We hope you enjoy the stories, and welcome your suggestions of new places to try!

There’s no rating scale, since we’re determined to only write about the good experiences we’ve had, but we decided to rate the cost of our meals (not including gratuity) in the following manner:

= Under $15
= From $15 - $30
= From $31 - $50
= Over $50
(Costs are based on the entire purchase price of the meal including every item in the summary.)

Lunch is a Snap in Andy Griffith Land

It’s hard to find a restaurant that has been continuously open in the same location for 80 years, unless you’re in Mount Airy, North Carolina. Mentioned in an early episode of “The Andy Griffith Show,” and in Griffith’s version of the song, “Silhouettes,” The Snappy Lunch and its signature Pork Chop Sandwich have become icons of the Mayberry we all wish we lived in.

Upon our arrival we were greeted with a pleasant smile from a man flipping pork tenderloins on a grill next to the front window. We were ushered to a booth behind the kitchen, stashed our stroller nearby and settled in for the complete Mount Airy experience. My parents had joined us for this little afternoon jaunt and the six of us sat comfortably, listening to chatter of all sorts and dialects around us. There were locals at the window table who joked amicably with our server, Leann, and tourists behind us who saw our stroller against the wall and stashed theirs beside it. Fortunately for us, November is not a busy tourist month for Mount Airy and we got a table right away – Leann told us that, in peak season, folks are lined up out the door and all the way down the street waiting for a taste of that Pork Chop Sandwich, and the chance to soak in a little of that Mayberry feeling.

Imagine our delight when we opened our menus and saw a picture of the nice man who was flipping the pork chops by the door – he’s Charles Dowell, owner of the Snappy since 1951! He’s been working there for 60 years, another anomaly in a day full of them, and is the creator of that sought-after Pork Chop Sandwich. Dad and Alfredo ordered Mr. Dowell’s specialty sandwich, and Mom tackled the all-meat hamburger, dressed with slaw and mayonnaise. I settled for the BLT, since I was carrying Isabel in the front carrier and I thought I’d better eat something that wouldn’t fall apart all over her! None of us were disappointed. Lydia even ate a little bit of the plain hot dog Leann brought her, although she enjoyed the potato chips a lot more. The sweet tea was definitely Southern sweet, with enough citrus and sugar to make even Alfredo happy.

There were no desserts on the menu, but at a place that feeds you like the Snappy Lunch, dessert would be overkill. The Snappy closes at 2:00 pm most days, so it’s not the place to linger over a cup of coffee and a piece of cream pie anyway. It is just what it says it is… a snappy lunch!

I just have to mention a couple of other things about our visit to Mount Airy, a destination I would highly recommend, even for marginal Andy Griffith Show watchers like me. Next door to the Snappy is “Floyd’s City Barber Shop,” where the real Floyd the barber has been working for 57 years! His name is Russell Hiatt, and he is an absolute delight. Alfredo couldn’t resist the urge to get a haircut, and it was everything it should have been. Oh, yes, we took pictures!

Amazingly, in a town that boasts such famous connections, services are very inexpensive. Alfredo’s haircut was $8, and our lunch, for five people, came to just $15.41! What a great afternoon diversion this turned out to be!

SUMMARY:
Snappy Lunch
125 North Main Street / Mount Airy, NC 27030
Jennifer’s Entrée: BLT
Alfredo’s Entrée: Famous Pork Chop Sandwich
Drinks: Sweet Tea
Price:

The Dinner Bell’s Ringing!

If there’s any one place in Berea where we’ve eaten more meals than at any other, it has to be Dinner Bell Restaurant, near the southern I-75 exit. Although our habit seems to be to go there for breakfast, we can often be found there at supper as well, especially on a night when I forget to take out meat to thaw! Eating at Dinner Bell is always a sure bet, and we have our favorites just like hundreds of other Bereans. Sitting at our regular table in the back near the saloon-style doors to the kitchen, we feel like we’re among family.

Tonight we had the ultimate Dinner Bell experience – family dining in its purest form. With both girls in high chairs, Alfredo and I sat diagonally across from each other (divide and conquer is our new strategy for eating meals) and tended to the different needs of our assigned child. My duties consisted mostly of saying, “lalalalala” and putting the pacifier back in Isabel’s mouth. Alfredo “helped” color the placemat, gathered the fragments of straw wrapper that floated past, and reminded Lydia that she didn’t need to tip the cup in order to get milk out of the straw. All that while we were still looking at the menu!

We were happy to see Tanya serving tonight, and Lydia was eager to tell her what she’d like to eat – pancakes and bacon. Alfredo deviated from his usual fish sandwich platter and ordered a hamburger with fries, and I tried the breaded pork chops, one of the only menu items I had never ordered before. None of us were disappointed. The burger was thick and juicy without being the least bit greasy and the “fixin’s” were fresh and crisp. Dinner Bell fries are always served hot, with just the right combination of crunchy outside and squishy inside, and we seldom leave any on our plates. Lydia polished off her bacon and most of her two pancakes – a rare feat for her two-year-old appetite. As the nursing mommy in the family, my appetite is always raring to go, and I made pretty short work of my two pork chops, mashed potatoes with brown gravy, and home-cooked green beans. The breading on the pork chop was described in the menu as “Dinner Bell’s own special breading,” and it certainly was special. The combination of herbs and spices in the breading gave it a festive look and a slightly spicy taste that pleased the eye as well as the palate.

Oh, were we full after those dinners, but for the sake of the Travelbites column, we ordered dessert! Dinner Bell has served warm cobblers as long as I can remember, and I can still recite them from memory after being a server there for the four years I was in college… “Cherry, peach and blackberry, warmed and served with ice cream if you’d like!” I had my favorite – cherry, and Alfredo opted for the blackberry. And we ate it all up.

Tanya took Lydia sightseeing around the dining room, store and kitchen while we enjoyed a rare moment of peace to nibble our cobblers and sip a cup of hot coffee. One of the reasons we keep coming back to Dinner Bell is the way the staff takes such good care of us. It’s not enough to say it’s like family – it’s like the kind of family everybody wishes they had, where there is laughter, kindness, support, and, perhaps most importantly, food!

SUMMARY:
Dinner Bell Restaurant
Plaza Drive, Berea
859 986 2777
Jennifer’s Entrée: Breaded Pork Chops with mashed potatoes, green beans and cornbread
Alfredo’s Entrée: Hamburger and fries
Drinks: Coke, water, coffee
Alfredo’s Dessert: Blackberry cobbler a la mode (that’s menu talk for “with ice cream”)
Jennifer’s Dessert: Cherry Cobbler a la mode
Price:

Alfredo Escobar is a native of Chile, and a professional artist, and Jennifer Rose is a professional folk musician and dance educator.