Restaurants

Meals Cooked on a Wood Stove

Updated at October 28, 2006 10:19

By Diana West

The aroma of home-cooked meals, baked bread, and pies will lure you back to a simpler time when food was slowcooked and savored. The Briar Patch old store near Anderson serves made-from-scratch meals cooked on a wood stove.

Tina Keel, the owner, cooks supper every Friday and Saturday on an 1864 Home Comfort wood-burning stove. Since she can only cook one entrée on the wood stove, the first person to call for a reservation for fourteen or more people picks the menu and time. “I want the food to be hot and fresh when it’s served,” Tina says. “That’s why the first reservation picks the time.”

One of the desserts is chocolate surprise pie, a recipe developed by Tina’s mother, Evelyn Nims, which uses coffee and peanut butter. “You won’t find it served anywhere else,” Tina says.

The atmosphere adds to the experience. A tin-roofed porch that spans the front invites visitors to sit a spell. Old-time mountain music plays inside. Two gravity flow gas pumps flank the walkway. The wood floors squeak and groan. A potbelly stove adds warmth. A separate meeting room for groups is lighted with kerosene lamps.

An antique baker’s case showcases canned jams, butters, relishes, stone-ground flour and cornmeal, Depression-era cookbooks, gifts, penny candy, and locally made crafts.

“You can buy a large dill pickle, homemade lye soap, or even a stick horse,” Tina says. Purchases are rung up on a big brass cash register, wrapped in brown paper, and tied with twine.

For a donation, you can hear live bluegrass or gospel music next door at the Ozark Outback Theater from April to November on Saturday nights.

The Briar Patch is four miles west of Anderson on Route 76. Open Fridays and Saturdays 5 PM to PM. Reservations required. Call 417-845-3925.

April 2006

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