Wandering and Dining

…continuing with Laurie’s sister Bonnie and Bonnie’s husband Bill’s visit to our home in East Tennessee in early March. 

We headed out to Tellico Plains for lunch at Tellico Grains Bakery.  We arrived at about 12:45 PM but they were still packed with customers.  We wanted a place to sit down and eat…so we decided to do a bit more sightseeing before having a late lunch.  So we headed on into the 650,000 acre Cherokee National Forest to visit one of our favorite places in East Tennessee.

Yes, I am well aware that I’ve posted Bald River Falls on the blog site on several occasions.  Still, this time it had recently rained and the falls were even more spectacular than usual… Handicapped?  Hard to get around?  Then Bald River Falls are just for you!  Parking is right next to the falls and the walk down to the bridge for viewing is basically across flat ground.

Even though we’d visited Bald River Falls many times over the 13 + years that we’ve lived in East Tennessee, we’d never seen kayakers on the Tellico River just below Bald River Falls.  There was plenty of water for them to have a good time as they blew through the rapids along one side of the bridge over the Bald River, just below the falls.

Then of course, we just ‘had to’ take yet another photo of Bill and Bonnie with Bald River Falls in the background.  It’s tradition!

…so after our little side trip, we headed back to Tellico Plains for lunch.

I have written about Tellico Grains Bakery (and café) many times over the past 10 years or so.  We love this successfully repurposed building in this quaint little town.  The family owned business not only provides jobs for local folks but they offer a wide variety of quality baked goods and brunch/lunch items that are hard to beat.  I borrowed this photo of the Bakery from their website.

The four of us ordered a combination of items.  I didn’t take a picture of the two sandwiches, “Joe’s Italian” and the “Bald River Beef” primarily because I’d done it so many times before.  As you can see, I did take photos of our thin crust pizzas…one with sausage and pepperoni and the other with mushrooms and sausage.  Laurie and I believe that Tellico Grains’ pizzas are the best anywhere in East Tennessee.  Bill and Bonnie thought that they were excellent!

I bought lunch for our group…but then Bonnie went up to the bakery counter with Laurie and they loaded up on baked goods.  Bonnie bought this time.  I didn’t take photos of the great cookies or scones but this nutty caramel cinnamon roll deserved a photo all by itself!  It was amazing!

Tellico Grains Bakery’s website is at https://tellico-grains-bakery.com/.

…now, onto another familiar dining destination!

 Thai Bistro… I have posted about this restaurant many times over the last few years.  Why?  The Thai food is genuine and the quality is always there.  In this case, I skipped photos of the Spring Rolls, Crab Rangoon, Fresh Rolls, Laurie’s Lomein Noodles with chicken or my Pad Thai.  As it turned out, both Bonnie and Bill ordered something that we’d never had or featured in one of my blog posts.  

Actually, Bonnie’s entrée included the Lomein Noodles with chicken, but thanks to a fortunate error in the kitchen, they also piled some pork on her plate as well.  The combination worked well! ($13.00) She went for a spice heat index of 2…and it was just right for her taste.  Laurie went for a 3 this time…and perhaps will step it down in the future.  I of course had my Pad Thai with Chicken at a heat index of 4.  Yum! ($15.00)

As Bill’s entrees are fairly predictable, (he loves seafood and we could almost order for him), we weren’t surprised that he ordered the Andaman Seafood with Jasmine rice. ($26.00) Bill was very pleased with his choice.  It was loaded with stir fried shrimp, squid, scallops, mussels and crab meat, seasoned with scallions, bell pepper, onion, other vegetables and basil leaves…all in a spicy, but not too spicy, house sauce.

Thai Bistro is located in Loudon Tennessee near Tellico Village.  Their website is found at Thai Bistro | Tellico Village (thaibistrotellico.net).

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave