Fayetteville, Tennessee, established in 1809, is the county seat of Lincoln County. It’s home to about 7,000 people, but don’t let the small size fool you. What it lacks in numbers, it more than makes up for in personality. One of those personalities is Fayetteville Main Street director, Aimee Byrd. The young mother of three small children is a whirling dervish of energy and enthusiasm and she is channeling every bit of it into making her downtown the best it can be. Aimee can be seen all over town, greeting shop owners, planning events and figuring out ways to promote her town. Every town needs an Aimee Byrd.
The last time Three Friends and a Fork visited Fayetteville, in 2013, we were simply three friends visiting a little cafe called Okra, and there wasn’t much more to see besides a lot of empty historic buildings, a few shops and offices, and Sir’s Fabrics. Sitting in that cafe, eating lunch, we decided a blog would be a good way to make sure we scheduled time to spend with each other, since we had recently retired from teaching together. We had no illusions that anyone would read our blog besides the three of us. It was just for fun.
So imagine our surprise when six (not three) of us drove into town last Thursday. Now, nearly ten years later, Okra was gone, and so was Sir’s, but in their place was a downtown, bustling with activity. The same historic buildings lined the streets, but now they were filled with shops, restaurants and art installations.
A little pocket garden, The Garden of LOVE, along with a food pantry, operated on the honor system, invites visitors to take what they need and leave something behind to share with others. Fayetteville was alive with activity and everyone was so friendly. You could tell they were proud of their sweet town.
We started our visit with a beautiful and delicious charcuterie grazing table from Misty at Sweet Feed Company in Aimee’s office at Fayetteville Main Street. It was fabulous! We just kept going back and discovering some tasty nugget we hadn’t seen the first time.
Then Aimee introduced us to the fascinating, Joe Edmonson, owner of our accommodations for the night, Enchanting Castle Hall, just upstairs from Aimee’s Main Street office in the historic Pythian building. Joe was knowledgeable about the building, the secret Pythian Society, (similar to Masons) and Fayetteville, in general.
We couldn’t wait to get started exploring downtown Fayetteville, so we hit our first two shops, Anna Phillips Designs and Ivy Wreath Florist and Gifts. We found all sorts of things we simply couldn’t live without. I’m afraid Mr. Anna Phillips wasn’t prepared for the giggling tribe that came through the door, but he sure was a good sport!
Next, Aimee took us to The Market at Buckley Farm and, oh my goodness! We immediately began making plans to come back again the next day to load up our coolers. They had everything from locally grown meat, pastured eggs, seasonal vegetables, spreads and breads to hand-crafted bath and beauty products, fresh cut flowers, candles and handmade wooden spoons.
When we headed back to town we had time to rest a bit and get ready for dinner at Cahoots, where all the food was delicious, but the onion rings were phenomenal! I would go back just for a plate of onion rings.
After dinner we walked around town a bit, enjoying the beautiful murals, before heading back to our loft. Fayetteville is fortunate to have wide streets and lots of sidewalks, giving the town an A+ in walkability. And it has an old theater. They get double bonus points for that! The Lincoln Theater adds so much to Fayetteville’s downtown ambiance.
Then we hit the shops! We met the charming Lance Bonin at Bonin Bazaar and discovered haute couture, and sweet Pam Howell at The Book Inn where we found the last three Robert Bailey books on her shelf. She said the books are so popular, she can’t keep them in stock. She’s really hoping the author will do a book signing in her store. We were thrilled to see art by our very own Nancy Bradford hanging on the wall at Dragonfly Gallery and Design. Bumblebee Baby and Kids has the most darling clothes and gifts for little ones and West Side Antiques has something for everyone. West Side owners, Jack and Tami Miller, gave us all the cutest tea towels.
All that shopping left us ready to sample Fayetteville’s most famous food invention, Honey’s SlawBurger, created by The Godfather of Slaw, Lee McAllister. We not only got to meet Lee, we all got SlawBurgers (and loved them, courtesy of Dragonfly Gallery owner, Carl Gleghorn) and our own Honey’s T-shirts, thanks to Lee McAllister. For the uninitiated, the slaw on a SlawBurger is a sweet and tangy mustard slaw. Delicious!
