Gloria Jean’s Fine Southern Provisions!

Yes, I know… My postings recently have been all about restaurants and food. What can I say!?  Eating is what I do best…

So, continuing with the theme, we recently drove over to Kingston Tennessee to check out a restaurant that we’d heard good things about.

This is Gloria Jean’s Fine Southern Provisions.  It’s in the Ladd Landing shopping center near Kingston’s City Hall.  We’d seen a segment about it on Knoxville’s WBIR television station and we read a positive article about Gloria Jean’s in the Food Section of the Knoxville News Sentinel.  We had to check it out for ourselves! 

It was a Tuesday at about 6 PM when we arrived.  The restaurant was busy the entire time we were there.  With the brick walls and wood accents, the dining room was warm and comfortable.  The staff was attentive but our waitress didn’t know enough yet about the menu items.  Time and training should cure that problem.

We didn’t come to a restaurant touting ‘southern cooking’ looking for the health food.  Its a good thing because if this order of Fried Green Tomatoes is ‘health food’, it would be based on the ‘Paula Deen School of Cooking’.

Chef Robert DeBinder’s version of cornmeal breaded fried green tomatoes are deep fried and served with country ham gravy. ($4.00) It was a nice twist on the usual which we quite enjoyed! 

The owner/chef has been in the restaurant business for over 15 years.  He’s a graduate of Le Cordon Bleu College for the Culinary Arts.  Previously, he worked in the kitchens of such East Tennessee Restaurants as The Orangery, Bistro By the Tracks and Chez Liberty.

From that ‘light’ version of fried green tomatoes, and staying with our healthy theme, we moved on to another appetizer.  These are the Summer Sausage Corn Dogs served with bacon-honey mustard. ($6.00) Wow!  All of our taste buds were ‘a poppin’ with this special treat… Winner, Winner!

I stayed with the ‘fried’ theme for my entrée.  This is the Fried Chicken which came with a buttermilk biscuit and 2 sides. ($9.00) (Now that I think about it, I never got a biscuit!) For my sides, I chose the pan-fried corn and, as a nod to healthier food, the turnip greens.  I’d been tempted to order the macaroni and cheese as one side… 

The fried chicken and the turnip greens were good, if not the best I’ve had.  The fried corn was somewhat unremarkable… For the best fried chicken and turnip greens we’ve had in recent years, just go to http://bigdaddydavesbitsandpieces.blogspot.com/2012/03/great-southern-dining-wildwood-florida.html. 

   

Laurie tried to opt for a ‘healthier’ entrée to offset our appetizers… This is Gloria Jean’s Grilled Salmon glazed with bacon honey mustard. ($12.00) Well…it is salmon and bacon makes everything better!  

For her sides, Laurie went with the baked apples and the hashbrown potato casserole.  Her salmon entrée was excellent…and when she gave me a taste, I completely concurred!  She also really liked her sides. 

We were very full after such an expansive dinner but we talked ourselves into sharing a piece of Chocolate Pie. ($4.00) I forgot to take a photo until after I stuck a fork in it… For us northerners, the pie was a bit of ‘overkill’, a little too sweet and heavy for our tastes…

The chef/owner, Robert DeBinder, stopped by the table to see what we thought about our meal.  We gave him two thumbs up and we assured him that we’d be back.  I’m going with the Cat Fish dinner the next time.  One positive other than the quality of the food was the price… We were served a lot of good food for only $34.00!

Gloria Jean’s Fine Southern Provisions is definitely worth the drive from Farragut, Lenoir City, Loudon, Oak Ridge or Knoxville.  It is located at 1000 Ladd Landing Boulevard in Kingston Tennessee…just north of exit 35.  Phone: 865-850-6324.  Website: http://www.gloriajeansrestaurant.com/.

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by and checking out another restaurant with us!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave