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That’s Some G-O-O-O-D Eatin’, Clark!

Growing up in southern Virginia, one of our very favorite family outings was to drive the winding country roads out to Catawba to eat at The Home Place — a picturesque farmhouse situated among the rolling hills of the Virginia countryside that serves traditional southern fried chicken, gravy, mashed potatoes (the real thing, y’all, no instant taters here), green beans, pinto beans, and of course homemade buttermilk biscuits family style in a comfortable, homey atmosphere.

While waiting to be seated, you can relax on one of the large wooden swings suspended from the ceiling of the generous wrap-around porch, or you can hang out on the lawn and enjoy the view of the Blue Ridge Mountains.  It is THE quintessential down home country dinner.  And y’all.  It don’t git no better than that.

It’s been years since we’ve been out to The Home Place, but ever since we made plans to come to Virginia this summer, my husband has been planning that we would make the trek.  And today was the day.

When we arrived, it was just as I remembered.  I hoped the food wouldn’t be disappointing (you know how sometimes your memory can play tricks on you) and it wasn’t.  Only the biscuits were lacking, and judging from the way the rest of our clan was devouring them, that could just be my own issues at play.

When the waitress came to the table with our food, my husband immediately started snapping pictures.

dinner

She was a good sport and held the tray until he was finished while I remarked, “We’re not from around here, can you tell?” as if it wasn’t totally obvious from the way my husband was obsessively snapping photos.

We dove in, and let’s just say we made the most of the price-fixed, all-you-can-eat pricing.  At least, most of us did.  I have to be careful, lest I find myself pulling my car over on the way home to the side of that twisty country road to play Down Home Country Meal on rewind.  But the rest of the fam made up for my meager appetite, and they didn’t look any the worse for the wear.

kids1

That, my friends, is a vacation.

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16 Responses

  1. Love your comment “We’re not from around here”!

    Looks just my sort of place – great local food and a wrap around porch 🙂

    Now, STOP blogging and get back to your holiday 🙂

  2. I’m hungry just looking at that. Can you bring some of that good home cookin home?

    Enjoy the rest of your vacation.

    PS: It feels weird not having a website address to put with my comment. I wacked the blog last week and while I didn’t have the time to keep it up, I do miss it.

  3. Too funny…I live so close, and could easily go there anytime I wanted. Yet, we NEVER do. I think it’s b/c we once went there on a Sunday or holiday and it was totally crowded. We waited for HOURS, and Glenn was miserable. He is SO not patient. I don’t think he’ll ever go back, lol.

    It is really beautiful though.

  4. Mmmm,..I’m not much on the gravy and fried chicken, but I love to make real mashed potatoes and buttermilk biscuits from scratch. 🙂 From the sound of it though, I want to go there just to swing on the porch and enjoy the all around atmosphere…sounds wonderful!

  5. That looks so good! Makes me want to head to the Dillard House in North Georgia, for a similar meal. Really, I’m thinking about throwing the kids in the car and heading there right now!

  6. Ha! I feel so much better knowing that we are not the only ones who take pictures of our food! That does look great though.

  7. Did I notice a copyright watermark on your kid-picture? Wow, you can barely see it. You should make it more obvious, so we can’t see *anything* in the picture. 🙂

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