Cuisine With Character
campbell station country store, killion’s coffee and creamery, marcy jo’s, papa boudreaux’s cajun café, square market & café,
From Columbia’s downtown square to places way out in the country, local restaurants are serving up cuisine that can’t be found anywhere else.
And diners are trekking from miles around to get in on the action.
Carlene Landers opened her restaurant, Campbell Station Country Store, five years ago in a 100-year-old grocery store. She runs the restaurant and prepares all the food with the help of her two daughters, 16-year-old Carly and 14-year-old Precinda.
“I didn’t know if people would drive way out in the boonies, but I’ve found people will drive anywhere for good food,” Landers says. “We get them from Chattanooga, Bell Buckle … all over.”
Campbell Station’s forté is Southern home-cooking, which includes hand-cut rib-eyes, fried chicken, meatloaf, cornbread, turnip greens, soups and mouthwatering desserts such as peach cobbler, fudge pie and fried pies.
“The most popular thing is our hand-cut rib-eyes. I marinate them in my own marinade,” Landers says. “People come all the way from Alabama just for a rib-eye.”
The general store-turned-restaurant is a throwback to an earlier era, with the original ceiling, floor, countertops and gas pumps. Authentic old pictures and signs decorate the walls.
“People love the atmosphere because it lets them relive their childhood, when you could get a soda for a nickel,” Landers says. “And we still sell gas and candy bars.”
Papa Boudreaux’s Cajun Café in Santa Fe (just 15 minutes north of Columbia) serves authentic Cajun cuisine in a modest yellow building that’s big on atmosphere.
Gumbo, crawfish etoufeé, red beans and rice, shrimp creole, chicken and Andouille jambalaya – it’s all here and much more, along with made-from-scratch desserts such as Louisiana chocolate bread pudding and flourless Cajun chocolate cake. Diners can enjoy live music Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights.
The square in downtown Columbia is home to restaurants with a more modern feel. Killions Coffee & Creamery is a great spot to have lunch with prices that are hard to beat. A meal of made-from-scratch sandwich, chips and a cookie is just $4.99.
“Our most popular items are our homemade chicken salad – with grapes and pecans or without – and our slow-cooked ham sandwiches,” says Chuck Killion, who owns and operates Killion’s Coffee & Creamery with his wife, Terri. “We cook our hams for 10 to 12 hours and then pull the meat like barbecue to retain the flavor and moisture. We serve the ham on a bun, and we recommend you don’t put anything on it until you try it just like that. It tastes so good, most people don’t even want mayonnaise or mustard.”
Killion’s also specializes in freshly made soups like chili, tomato basil and loaded potato soup, as well as salads, barbecue and roast beef.
“We make everything ourselves,” Killion says. “Our roast beef isn’t Arby’s. It’s real, like what Grandma used to make.”
Killion’s Coffee and Creamery also serves hot and cold coffee drinks, fruit smoothies, gourmet hot chocolate, ice cream and its own homemade soft-serve vanilla made with 14 percent butterfat.
Also on the square is the popular Square Market & Café, famous for steaks, fresh fish, pasta and Tennessee Hot Browns, a rich concoction of sliced ham, turkey and bacon on white toast, smothered with white sauce and cheddar cheese.
In the small community of Pottsville, between Chapel Hill and Columbia, is Marcy Jo’s Mealhouse & Bakery – a country café that draws crowds from miles around.
Owned by husband-and-wife team Rory Feek and Joey Martin, and Rory’s younger sister Marcy, Marcy Jo’s is a charming eatery housed in a refurbished 1890s mercantile store. And if the owners’ names sound familiar, they should. The couple performed as a duo on CMT’s series “Can You Duet” in 2008, and Rory is a successful songwriter with hits like Blake Shelton’s “Some Beach” and Clay Walker’s “The Chain of Love.”
Marcy Jo’s, however, is famous for its food – fresh breads and bakery items emerge from the ovens each morning, and the menu features homey favorites such as meatloaf, pork chops with mushroom gravy, deviled eggs, buttered mashed potatoes and honey-glazed carrots.
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Story by Jessica Mozo
Photo by Antony Boshier
