Do you have a favorite vacation spot? Do you have a favorite restaurant at that vacation spot? When the mountains are calling, we enjoy visiting the Gatlinburg / Pigeon Forge area. One of our recent restaurant finds is Elvira Cafe’s in Wears Valley. I say recent, but we’ve been there 3 or 4 times already. I’m not sure exactly how we located this restaurant, whether it was Yelp or a helpful Gatlinburg area Facebook page. However we found it we are thankful that we did.
Our first trip was on a Sunday morning. Upon arriving at opening time we realized that there were people already in the restaurant. What we found out was that they hold a bible study service there before opening on Sunday. It is open to anyone and led by a local pastor. He actually greeted us on his way out on our first visit.
See the mayo? That is what I got caught checking out. LOL!!
During that first visit, I noticed that there was a bottle of mayonnaise sitting out on the table and decided to inspect it a little closer. My mind was thinking shouldn’t this be in the refrigerator? After looking it over and finding a statement on the bottle that said “no refrigeration needed”, and being busted by the owner who caught me scrutinizing it, I found out from her that she uses all local ingredients, and organic where she can. She told me that she knows where all of her ingredients come from. She said that on the table is a bowl of standard butter, but if you want “real” butter you can ask your waitress and they’ll bring you some. She said that it is too expensive to leave on the table and take the risk of kids playing with it.
We have been to the restaurant several times for breakfast and it never disappoints. (These photos are from different visits.) I’m sure that their other meals are just as good. You won’t be disappointed if you pay them a visit. Just be sure if you are visiting during the off season that they are open before you make the visit into the valley. We stayed in Wears Valley the end of February and thankfully they had just reopened.