I had seen a Peruvian chicken place in Pigeon Forge called B5 Chicken. Since I first spotted it I have eaten there, and it was excellent, but before that, I learned there was one in Johnson City and since I'm there much more often so I decided to go to it. It was called Brassa 51, and this is no lie. It closed the very day I was going to eat there.
Now the first place that I did get to sample was one that I discovered had closed by accident in Georgia, it was called Guy's Biscuit Barn. The place was in an old gas station and was a North Georgia treasure. It served what it says, biscuits. But not ordinary ones but Cathead Biscuits and they are called this because they are the size of a cat's head. This was one of those local spots that are being pushed out by cook-cutter corporate places. Damn, those biscuits were good!
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| Guy's Biscuit Barn & the Cathead Biscuit. |
Anyway, the next two places are pizza establishments. The first closed six months ago place and in some ways signaled the end of the Old Strip on Cumberland Avenue near the University of Tennessee, Stefano's Pizza. This location was special as it was where we would gather before heading over to the Knoxville Civic Coliseum for hockey. It was part of a Thanksgiving Weekend Tradition for over two decades. Because the Ice Bears moved the Thanksgiving game and the pandemic my last time eating, there was 2018. It was a sad day when it was closing at the end of 2022.
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| Hockey games will never be the same. |
Next is another pizza place, and it's called Scratch Brick Oven. It was one of those local Johnson City places, the type I love. I first ate here before the pandemic it was a small place with a great build and tasty pizza. However, during the pandemic, I worried about Scratch making it. I went there a couple of times, but recently I looked at the restaurant, and what I feared might happen did. However, I did read that it might become a food truck, but I will miss the old place.
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| It was a cool place & excellent pizza. |
The next restaurant was also kind of there and then gone, and that was the Lynn Garden Restaurant. This dinner-style restaurant's claim to fame was chicken...great fried chicken (their motto was "seven days without our chicken makes one weak"). Lynn Garden is one of Kingsport's oldest restaurants opening in 1946 and has been run by Mike Kerney for over three decades. But, from what I gather, he has been ill, so it hasn't been officially closed. However, it is looking that way as of now.
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| Even Johnny Cash needed the chicken. |
The final one, an East Tennessee icon, was the toughest to take, and that was Bob's Dairyland in Roan Mountain. My history with it goes all the way back to my university days over three decades ago. However, for the citizens of Roan Mountain, it went back to 1956. It was such an institution to me that when I thought of Roan Mountain, I thought of the balds, the state park, and Bob's. After a pause, because I was living in Georgia, I rekindled my romance with this restaurant when I moved back to Tennessee. I would go here when returning from a visit to the Roan Highlands. To this day one of the five best burgers (Boss Burger: two patties, bacon, and a slice of ham) I have ever had was here after an overnight of the Appalachian Trail Section from Carvers Gap to 19E. Saying that I was gutted when I got the news it was closing was an understatement! So, goodbye to the Dairyland and the rest...you will be missed!
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| (T) The Roan Mountain Institution (B) A goodbye photo. |
