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Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Three Friends and a Fork Take a Hike Up the Pike!

Sign on the wall of Pikeville Store-N-Deli pretty accurately describes Three Friends and a Fork!

Our Three Friends outing last week was just a hike away...literally!  We really didn't have time to go very far, so we chose a local favorite.  Let me set this up for you. 

                            

Say you are sitting on your living room sofa watching The Today Show, or Good Morning America or Oprah or reading the Wall Street Journal and you just happen to see/read a segment/article about lost airline luggage and the fact that it is probably going to end up in Scottsboro, Alabama at the Unclaimed Baggage Center.  And let's just say you decide right then and there you must plan a road trip to go through Scottsboro to see all that lost luggage for yourself, because you might find something you lost, or you might snag a deal or you are just plain nosy.  So, you gather your buddies, pack the car and head out for your own personal road trip adventure and you find yourself in the tiny hamlet of Scottsboro which is nestled in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, on the banks of the Tennessee River, in the upper northeast corner of the state.  As you pull into the Unclaimed Baggage parking lot, you notice the car tags of the 
cars in the lot and realize they are from all over the United States.  Seriously, all over! Hmmmm, looks like you weren't the only one who decided to add Scottsboro to your travel itinerary after hearing some Unclaimed Baggage news from a national news source.  You head on into Unclaimed Baggage and score some deals and suddenly realize all that shopping has made you ravenous!  What are you going to do?  Well, you might choose to grab a chicken salad sandwich right there in Unclaimed Baggage's own cafe, Cups, and, trust me, that would not be a bad decision.  Cups has wonderful chicken salad as well as other soups, sandwiches and salads.  But, just for the sake of argument, let's say you really want a burger and not a fast food burger, but a for real, hand-patted, juicy, old-fashioned burger.  What are you going to do?  Well, if you ask one of the locals, you 
are going to do just what Three Friends did and Take a Hike Up the Pike...Tupelo Pike, that is, because Tupelo Pike is your road to burger bliss.  Tupelo Pike leads to Pikeville Store-N-Deli or simply Pikeville or Pikeville Store to the locals.  And it looks like just what it is...an old country store and gas station.  The building has been rebuilt and remodeled over the years, but there has been a store in this location for more than 100 years. 

This picture of the original Pikeville Store hangs on the wall of the current incarnation.
Luanne gets behind the register with owner, Dwayne.
View of the interior of the store.  You can see the grocery shelves in the foreground.

 And it has grown from just a country store to a store and restaurant.  A restaurant that grills some of the juiciest, fattest burgers you will ever see, anywhere. 

One of the menu boards at Pikeville.

The Three Friends hiked up the Pike and met three more friends.  Now, in the interest of giving a complete report, I will tell you that I TRIED to get everyone to order something different so that we could show you the variety of offerings at Pikeville. 


But, those juicy burgers were just too much for all the friends, so we ended up with five burger baskets and one chicken finger sandwich basket.  Yes, I, alone, made the supreme sacrifice! However, I will also say, it was really not that much of a sacrifice, because I love Pikeville's chicken finger sandwich.

All the sandwich baskets at Pikeville come with a pile of crinkle-cut fries or potato wedges.  The burgers come in two sizes...big and bigger...and the big one is, in my opinion,  enough for two people.  

The other menu board showing breakfast, desserts and children's choices.
I don't know how we managed it, because we were completely stuffed when we finished our burgers, but we forced ourselves to share a couple of desserts, just so we could report on the Pikeville dessert situation.  The desserts offerings the day of our visit were Moon Pie banana pudding and peanut butter pie. I have a disclaimer here:  I am not a huge banana pudding fan and I am no fan at all of Moon Pies.  

Moon Pies, for the uninitiated, are round marshmallow and graham cracker filled cakes covered in chocolate.  Moon Pies were born in Chattanooga, Tennessee (just up the road a bit from Scottsboro) in 1917, as an easy hand held snack for miners to take into the mines with them.  

You can still hear old-timers talk about enjoying an RC Cola and a Moon Pie and there was even a song written about the sweet snack combo called, "Give Me 
an RC and a Moon Pie"...original, I know! And, there is a festival and 5K in Bell Buckle, Tennessee (also just a bit north of Scottsboro) called, are you ready...RC Cola and Moon Pie Festival and 5K! Along with Goo-Goo Clusters, which were also born just up the road a bit further in Nashville, Tennessee, and boiled peanuts, 

(I'm going to be run out of town here for admitting not only do I not like Moon Pies, I never liked these two classic southern favorites or the RC Cola, either),  RC Colas and Moon Pies are as much a part of the local culture as "Hey, y'all" and "bless her heart".  I tell you all this so you will know why, with my unusual (unusual to this part of the country at least) aversion to Moon Pies,  I was just a little skeptical of the Moon Pie banana pudding combo. Over the years, different flavors of Moon Pies were developed and I am guessing the banana flavored Moon Pie was used in the banana pudding.  It has the same filling as the original Moon Pie, but has a banana flavored coating instead of the traditional chocolate covering.  



When the desserts arrived we asked for a few extra forks (you know we usually only have one!) and we all dove in.  


The peanut butter pie was cold and creamy and dreamy! Topped with a chocolate sauce and simply devine!  


The banana pudding was, believe it or not,  absolutely wonderful.  It was, quite simply, the best banana pudding I have ever tasted and I would actually take a hike back up the Pike just to order it again.  The bananas were not mushy and it was not overly sweet.  We were there too early to sample the homemade ice cream, which is only available after 4:00 p.m., but I have heard it is amazing.  My family has raved about the pina colada and peanut butter flavors.  All in all our hike was a complete success and we enjoyed getting to spend time with our friends.  So, if you are traveling through or near Scottsboro, forget about your diet and take time to stop by Pikeville Store.  You will be very happy you did!
Keep on keepin' on,
Richi, Luanne, and Sherri
Sherri makes a new friend outside Pikeville Store.
Three Friends x 2!

                           Three Friends and a Fork give Pikeville Store Three Yums Up!



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Three Friends and a Fork

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