Gatlinburg Food and Beverage

One of my favorite parts of any vacation is the food.  We made a point not to eat at any chain restaurants while we were in Gatlinburg, so everywhere we ate were places original to the area.

On our first night, we ate at a restaurant called the Old Mill which is technically in Pigeon Forge.  It boasts old fashioned southern cooking with family-style sides.  I'd have to say this was one of my favorite places to eat.  Between the atmosphere and the food, you really get a feel for the area.  You better come hungry because every meal includes soup, salad, corn fritters, and desert in addition to your main course and sides.

Here we are at the Old Mill.

 

Another highlight in the Gatlinburg food world was the variety of pancake places.  In case you haven't heard, I love pancakes.  With a pancake joint on nearly every corner, Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge is where I belong.  

 



 

At the Log Cabin Pancake House, we had a pretty basic breakfast.  Eggs, bacon, and traditional buttermilk pancakes.  It was nothing too exciting. 

 

Here is Rylie on their front porch.  She slept right through breakfast.

 

On our  second morning, we visited Flapjack's Pancake Cabin. 

 Now, these pancakes were something special.  I think they called them cinnamon bun pancakes.  I don't really care what they were called because they tasted like a slice of cinnamon heaven. 

 

On our second night, we ate at the Applewood Farmhouse restaurant in Pigeon Forge.  The cuisine was similar to the Old Mill.  It was another Southern-style restaurant.  The highlight of the meal was the complementary serving of apple fritters and apple butter...yummy.

 

 

I will quickly mention the Alamo Steakhouse and Bennett's Barbeque. We ate at both places due to some great reviews. The food was good overall, but when it comes to steak and barbeque, we've had better.

 

You can tell Rylie shared our excitement as she slept through both meals.

 

My favorite meal was our last meal in Gatlinburg, and it was at the Smoky Mountain Brewery.  This microbrewery and restaurant offered a variety of locally brewed beer, traditional pub foods such as wings, pizza, and burgers, and also some delicious-sounding steaks.  We didn't opt to try the steak since we had just had a steak the night before.  I had a delicious calzone which tasted like it had been cooked in a brick oven.  Ryan had a massive burger and loved it.

 

 

We each tried a beer.  I had the Mountain Light which was an American-style light beer, and Ryan had a darker beer.  I think it was the Black Bear Ale .  Both were a great change from the usual mainstream commercial beers.

 

While on the subject of beverages. Rylie didn't like the idea of moonshine tasting.

 

 

We visited two wineries.  We are by no means wine connoisseurs, but we did find a few good wines at at both the Mountain Valley winery and the Apple Barn Winery.

 

The Apple Barn had apples as big as my daughter's head.

 

And caramel apples big enough for my appetite...and sweet tooth.

 



This is only a quick overview of our food and beverage experience.  I wish we could have had a few more days to try more places, but either way, I left Gatlinburg full and satisfied overall. 

 

Be sure to scroll down to see the fun we had in the snow yesterday!