Tommy’s Grill on Grove – Loudon TN

We are always looking for new places to dine within an hour or so of our home here in East Tennessee.  We like eating out and we like new discoveries involving restaurants or other attractions.  Consequently, when we heard about a new restaurant located about 15 minutes from home, it was just a matter of about 2 weeks before we paid them a visit.

But first…a little very local late fall scenery.

Laurie took these photos of the late fall foliage and the views in our back yard.  Time for bundling up and a nice cup of hot soup!

As a side note, we recently had a Ring 2 Doorbell installed.  Fittingly, the first time it signaled something was at our front door, it turned out to be a herd of deer passing across the lawn… 

This is Tommy’s Grill on Grove Street in Loudon Tennessee.  In the 10 years since we’ve lived in the area, there have been several attempts to duplicate the success enjoyed by the restaurant that was here when we moved to East Tennessee.  Will Tommy’s succeed where others haven’t?

The space is just off of busy US Hwy. 11 in the center of Loudon and there is plenty of on street parking as well as lots of county government employees and customers on weekdays.  It’s situated right next to a local favorite, the Tic Toc Ice Cream Parlor.

With the black and white flooring, black ceiling tiles plus matching chairs and tables, the interior has that typical small town diner look.  The view out the front window looks on the town square and fountain and toward the bridge over the Tennessee River.   

The Breakfast Menu isn’t huge but it certainly covers the basics and the prices are quite reasonable.  For example, 2 eggs plus either sausage or bacon and either a biscuit or toast plus an order of hash brown potatoes would cost only $6.99. 

The Lunch Menu, which is almost exclusively focused on sandwiches of one type or another, currently also serves as the dinner menu… However our waitress told us that about 4 ‘special’ additional items are available for dinner.  The lady who owns the restaurant plans to roll out a dinner menu once the kitchen and the staff have mastered the current menus…  

I’d heard that the soup at Tommy’s was quite tasty so Laurie and I both ordered a cup of broccoli cheese soup.  Unlike most broccoli cheese soup where the broccoli is chopped up and blended in with the soup, this version had small pieces or florets of broccoli in the broth.  We enjoyed our soup…

Laurie thought about it…looked at her options…and then ordered her usual luncheon sandwich.  This was her Patty Melt…a quarter pound of ground beef, grilled/sautéed onions and Swiss cheese on grilled rye bread. ($8.29) She skipped the French fries or ‘Tots’ that come with the sandwich.  Laurie thought that this was a very nice version of her favorite sandwich. 

Her only problem with the menu was the verbiage used for the word sandwich.  The slang terms Sammich/samich, tater (potato) and mater (tomato) all drive her a little crazy. 

FYI, as per the Urban Dictionary, all three of these 3 food slang terms have other meanings.  In North Carolina, ‘mater’ is slang for crack cocaine.  A ‘tater’ can refer to a Clemson University fan or a sucker that believes fake news on the Internet.  Another meaning for ‘samich’ or ‘sammich’ is actually “R” or “X” rated so I’ll let the reader look it up.   

After perusing the menu, I decided to go for LeeEllen’s Club (sandwich). ($9.75) Per the menu, this sandwich is “For the seriously hungry”!  It included ham, turkey, bacon, both American and Swiss cheese with mayonnaise, lettuce and tomato.  I also skipped the ‘potato’ side dish.  This was really a very good club sandwich.

Sadly, Tommy’s doesn’t stock Tabasco, a true failing but not a deal killer…

We concluded that Tommy’s Grill on Grove shows promise.  It will be interesting to see it evolve.  There is a chance that we’ll manage to find a day to have breakfast at Tommy’s as they serve it until 11:30 AM.  We’ll also have our eyes open for a dinner menu…

Tommy’s Grill on Grove is located at 502 Grove Street diagonally across the street from the old Loudon County Court House.  Phone: 865-657-6544.  I couldn’t find a Facebook page or website for Tommy’s but then again, they haven’t been open for very many weeks.

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave