Out and About in East Tennessee

…once again, I’m taking a break from our July road trip to Nebraska and Missouri.  This little home territory outing happened just a couple days ago.

Our friends Bev and Larry were heading out to check out a KOA campsite near Sweetwater Tennessee.  They asked if we’d like to join them for the drive and an early lunch/brunch. 

This is the restaurant that we chose for lunch.  Bradley’s Pit Bar-B-Que and Grill was one of the first restaurants that Laurie and I ate in when we first came to East Tennessee… At that point in time, I recall that I had been asked to sign a liability release when I ordered a medium rare cheeseburger.  We’ve been back since then but it had been quite a while ago.

When we entered Bradley’s we encountered the first of several changes.  The website still states that this is a full service restaurant but now customers order at the counter.  Why the change is anyone’s guess but perhaps it’s because of Covid-19, the number of folks doing takeout, an attempt to hold costs down, or the difficulty in finding people to work…  Those order boards now serve as the menu.

While we waited for someone to take our order, I snapped this photo of the dining room.  The restaurant has been reconfigured and we recalled that even the entrance had been relocated. 

We weren’t happy that we had to wait quite a while to place our order…despite the fact that there weren’t any other customers in the restaurant.  The cashier/counter attendant was tied up on the phone with a continuously changing take out or catering order.  She could have put the customer on hold or alternatively, she could have had whomever was in the office, come out to help her serve us…

In any case, she did comp us for our beverages because of our wait.

Once we placed our orders, we grabbed a table and then I took this photo of Larry and Bev.  We’ve known them for many years now, having met them shortly after we moved to East Tennessee.

Larry order the “Sample 3” from the Order Board. ($18.00) He chose the smoked sausage, brisket and pulled pork with green beans and coleslaw.  His choice of ‘bread’ were the hush puppies.  Larry is a BBQ maven in my mind and he declared that the smoked meats were pretty good and the hush puppies were excellent.

Bev decided to order the “Sample 2”. ($16.00) In her case, she went for the brisket and pulled pork.  She also picked the hush puppies with her sides being the coleslaw and ‘smothered’ French fries.  There was no charge for ‘smothering’ the fries… She was happy with her meal!

Laurie didn’t feel like BBQ so she ordered a Bacon Cheeseburger. ($10.00) She didn’t want the homemade potato chips that come with the burger and ordered potato salad instead. (+ 79 cents) She was very happy with her burger…it was grilled just right and was nice and moist.

As for yours truly, I ordered a Half Rack of Baby Back Ribs sided with a few of the homemade potato chips and coleslaw. ($14.00) My choice of bread was the Texas toast and I requested extra spicy BBQ sauce.  The ribs were meaty and moist with a nice flavor although I do prefer having to ‘work’ the meat from the ribs while the pork just peeled off the bone in this instance.  The sauce was pretty good…although not very ‘hot’, while the coleslaw and homemade potato chips were pretty average.

Did you notice anything else about service at this ‘full service’ restaurant?  No, we didn’t have to go up to the counter to pick up our orders and the counter gal also came around with beverage refills.  But Bradley’s needs to update their website… Full service restaurants not only have wait staff who take orders, but they don’t serve their meals in take-out containers with wrapped plastic ‘silverware’.  Just saying…writing it off to Covid-19 for the time being.

Bradley’s Pit Bar-B-Que is located at 517 New Highway 68 in Sweetwater Tennessee not far from US I-75.  Phone: 423-351-7190.  Their website is at https://bradleypitbbq.com/.

This is the bakery at Grain Bin Commodities.  After lunch, Larry checked out that KOA campground for a future RV rally, deeming in satisfactory for the event.  Then Laurie mentioned this relatively new entrepreneurial business, Grain Bin Commodities that opened at a dairy farm on a side road not too far from Sweetwater.  Laurie and I had been there together back in May and afterwards I’d posted about our visit.  Laurie has been back since then but Bev and Larry had never been there.  Larry liked the idea as he needed to find activities and places to visit for his future RV/KOA rally so off we went.

Since my last visit, among other improvements, this new pizza oven/pizza patio has been completed.  Using the top from an old silo as the roof covering the patio was very creative and quite eye-catching too.  Those paver stone walkways are new as well.

After Larry and Bev dropped us off back at our house, Laurie assembled the goodies that we’d ‘scored’ at Grain Bin Commodities.  I bought 3 bags of “Fire Crackers”, (saltines baked with cracked red peppers), 2 peanut butter and 2 oatmeal/sea salt cookies, a bag of caramel ‘crack’ and 2 new hot pads for the kitchen.  Those "Fire Crackers" are great with cheese!

Grain Bin Commodities is located at 5215 Holt Road near Sweetwater Tennessee.  Phone: 865-599-9001.  Their website can be found at https://www.grainbincommodities.com/. 

It was great seeing Bev and Larry again.  Larry, aka “Big Dude” is a fellow blogger too.  Check him out at http://bigdudesramblings.blogspot.com/.

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave