No Place like Home

The Homeplace. I really don't think it gets much better. It's delicious southern comfort food and hospitality in a beautiful location. My family has been going to The Homeplace for 25 years, and the quality has remained the same all those years.

Welcome home...

Everything about this restaurant is the epitome of southwest Virginia and the Blue Ridge Mountains. It's located in an old southern plantation style home at the foot of the Appalachian Trail and the Blue Ridge Mountains and it's surrounded by farms and horse pastures. It feels like you're having a meal in someone's home. They have porch swings, benches, and gazebos for waiting outside, or there's a lobby where they occasionally have live bluegrass music being played. The tables are set in different rooms of the house and the decor is nice, but there's nothing too fancy about it. It's the type of atmosphere that is comfortable for people who have been hiking on the trail, or people who are celebrating a special occasion.

You're greeted by the same two men who have been working the front table & cash register for the last 20 years and you usually have to put your name on the list to be seated. Lately, I've noticed that when they say it'll take 30-40 minutes, it usually means more like 10-15. And I can't help but smile when he comes on the loud speaker and calls your last name and number in your party with that slow southern twang.

I assume the waitresses are treated well because many of them have worked there for years. When I was little, I remember my family going to The Homeplace every Sunday for lunch after church and the waitresses learned all our names and treated us like we were family. They take care of you and make sure your drinks stay refilled and that you get plenty of food - and if you leave hungry, it's your own fault.

Free refills!

The menu isn't complicated and your choices are pretty simple. You get to choose two meats out of a selection of fried chicken, roast beef, and country ham. Pork bbq is also a selection only available on Thursday nights. We usually pick the fried chicken and roast beef. Along with the meats, they bring an assortment of southern style vegetables: green beans, macaroni & cheese, mashed potatoes and gravy, pinto beans, coleslaw, and homemade biscuits. I think I forgot to mention that everything is all-you-can-eat. It's served family style, so they just refill your bowl when you finish something off until you ask them not to bring any more food, and then you move on to dessert. For dessert, they serve homemade cobbler (the flavor depends on when you go, but they seem to rotate between peach, cherry, & different types of berry) and homemade ice cream. Dessert is also all-you-can-eat but I've never seen someone have more than one. I believe they offer Pepsi products as a drink, but they have pitchers of lemonade and sweet tea on the table, perfect for this type of meal.

Cobbler & Ice Cream? Yes please!

If I were writing a "Best Thing I Ever Ate" post, I think The Homeplace would win in at least four categories: fried chicken, green beans, biscuits, & cobbler (coleslaw makes a push for the 5th category). My preference with fried chicken is for it to be darker and crispy, and The Homeplace has this down. It has beautiful color and crunch and I think it tastes amazing. I also don't think you can find green beans that taste any better. The beans are sweet and tender and are with cooked pieces of ham, which creates more delicious juice and flavor. The biscuits are fluffy and not too dense and sop up all the juices from the other food perfectly - it helps me completely clean my plate. And the peach cobbler with the homemade vanilla ice cream...heavenly. The way the glass bowl is hot on the bottom with the hot cobbler and then cold on top with the ice cream is just magical.

I could go on and on about The Homeplace. At $14 per person, it's a very good value for all the food you get. I think the food is some of the best in the area and the service is excellent, and it just has southern charm. Whenever we have guests from out of town, we always make it a point to take them to dinner there because I don't think you can beat the experience. I have shared many great memories with family and friends at The Homeplace and I hope to be able to do so for many years to come.