The Search Continues – Plus a Milestone

Recently we’d driven down to North Georgia to visit an old friend and her husband that we hadn’t seen in more than 50 years.  We took the backroads home, heading north on TN Hwy 68.  By the time we arrived in Tellico Plains Tennessee, it was time for dinner and our effort to update our list of favorite area restaurants continued. 

Three or four years earlier, we had enjoyed a nice meal in Tellico Plains at Tellicafe, a restaurant that has been in business in Tellico Plains for several years.  I decided that we’d stop here for dinner.  From the restaurant, we only had about a 40 minute drive to our home in Loudon County.

The interior of Tellicafe is pleasant and it was clean.  Despite the time, about 7 PM on a weeknight, the restaurant still had quite a few patrons and others came in after we had ordered our dinners.

The owner of Tellicafe also owns the nearby Bear’s Den, a casual restaurant offering pizza and hoagies.  Both locations cater to the motorcyclists who come to or through Tellico Plains via the scenic Cherohala Skyway.  See https://cherohala.com/. 

Our pleasant and helpful waitress started us out with a nice basket of rolls and quality biscuits with butter.  The menu for Tellicafe was developed by a Certified Executive Chef who was a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America.

Laurie and I decided to stick with the basics from the “Country Cooking” portion of the menu.  I ordered the Country Fried Chicken with white gravy and 2 sides.  The prices have gone up a bit in the last 2 weeks. ($10.99/now $12.99) We had 18 sides to choose from and, as you can see, I went for the corn and the Mac ‘n Cheese.  My meal was OK but the Mac ‘n Cheese was just to congealed for my taste.

Laurie ordered the fried Cornmeal Crusted Catfish. ($11.99/now $12.99) The deep fried catfish was fine as were the hushpuppies, but she didn’t like either the coleslaw or the rice pilaf.  I tasted both sides and I agreed with her.

Perhaps we would have been better off if we’d sampled the BBQ menu or the Dinner entrees.  The latter features steaks, stuffed trout, turkey and dressing, beef tips and much more.

Tellicafe is located at 128 Bank Street in Tellico Plains Tennessee.  They are open 7 days a week for lunch and dinner.  Phone: 423-253-2880.  Website: https://www.tellicafe.com/.

When we left the restaurant, I had to take a picture of this old Ford Falcon.  For a Falcon, it looked pretty ‘racy’.  It turned out that it was owned by one of Tellicafe’s servers.  I think that this Falcon is from the 1964 model year.  Ah, memories.  For my ‘hot car’ back in the day, I was not able to ‘impress the ladies’ with my mother’s decidedly less racy looking baby blue 1961 or 1962 Falcon, a truly plain and unattractive car.  It was not a ‘chick magnet’!

…and now for the family milestone!

About 3 or 4 weeks ago, our youngest grandson, Emmett Lee, began his college career as a freshman at the University of Nebraska’s Jeffrey S. Raikes School of Computer Science and Management.  He looks pretty happy!

A couple of weeks later, David III began his senior year at New York University.  He’s also majoring in Computer Science.  He took this selfie in New York City with his dad, David II and his mom, Amy.

So what was the family milestone?  Check out the parents.  Now, after 22 years or so, they are officially ‘empty nesters’.  This is both a happy and a sad time for most parents… As per David II, neither of their sons encouraged their parents to hang around for a while once they had moved into their new college ‘homes’.  See ‘ya’ later alligator!

Of course, for Laurie and me, it’s hard to believe that we have grandsons that are this old.  Time flies!

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave