If you go
› Where: Wooden’s Apple Farm, 6351 New Harmony Road, Pikeville, Tenn.› Hours: 8 a.m.-7 p.m. Monday-Saturday, 1-6 p.m. Sunday. Wooden’s will close one hour earlier starting in November until the end of the season.› Prices: $7.49- $9.49. Only cash or checks accepted. There is an ATM on-site.› For more information: 423-447-6376› Online: http://woodensapplehouse.com
EDITOR'S NOTE: This is one in a series of reviews featuring our staff's favorite places to dine. They are either go-to spots we frequent for good service and conversation, the favorite dishes we order over and over or the one-of-a-kind Chattanooga dives that make us love our Scenic City that much more.
Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays solely because it's a license to eat rich, stick-to-your-ribs harvest food. And one of the first signs that fall (and more forgiving clothes) is here are local apple harvests.
I can hardly wait each year for apple farms to start bringing in bushels of different varieties. While I make several trips for bags of freshly picked fruit, I have to indulge in desserts. Wooden's Apple Farm, in Bledsoe County on top of Dayton Mountain, serves some of the best apple pie, cider and fritters in the area.
THE MENU
My wife is quick to remind me that apple pie is not an entrée, and Wooden's pumpkin pie doesn't technically meet the definition of a vegetable.
So before we hit Wooden's Apple House's Pie Shop, we visited the cafe. Oren's Orchard Cafe, the newest addition to Wooden's Apple House, offers a hot line with choice of either fried chicken, hamburger steak or a daily special, plus side veggies. A meat-and-two plate is $8.49, and a meat-and-three costs $9.49. A four-choice veggie plate runs $8.29.
Oren's also offers soup, sandwiches and salads. Despite my lunch date's insistence, we're here for the sweet stuff.
Over at the Pie Shop, Wooden's dishes out slices of apple pie, plain or fried, for $2.89. For a mere 50 cents, a scoop of vanilla will be added.
Apple fritters are $1.50, or a slice of apple cake will set you back $3.50. And to show that Thanksgiving is just around the corner, Wooden's is serving a piece of pumpkin pie for $2.79.
My lunch date opted for the apple pie a la mode, and I gave the Carrigan Roll a shot. The Carrigan is a cinnamon roll topped with spiced cream cheese and baked apples. Both choices took us to a warm, happy place. They were sweet without being cloyingly so, and the apples were the stars of both dishes. The baked apple topping and filling were buttery and took us back to our childhoods.
THE SPACE
The first things customers see when they enter Wooden's Apple House are bushels of apples, and there were six varieties out when we visited. Wooden's offers samples to help customers choose the right one.
Just off the store is the Pie Shop (my wife didn't think this was a sign to skip lunch and go straight to the pie, but I know better), which shares self-serve tables with the cafe. On the second story is a craft shop to complete the experience and give diners something to do between apple desserts.
THE SERVICE
The staff was friendly and quick to answer questions and make suggestions. Despite having a decent crowd for a weekday lunch, we got our food quickly.
THE VERDICT
Wooden's Apple House is a short drive from Dayton, Tenn., and the cafeteria-style cafe makes it easy to fit in a trip during our lunch hour. We will be back, and I will have an all-pie lunch before the season is over.
Contact Gilbert Strode at gpstrode@earthlink.net.