Maybe it’s the creaking boards beneath your feet or the delicate butter yellow walls, but walking through the doors of The Big Table feels like coming home.
Co-owner Karen Loveless is behind the counter, waiting to take your order. As a lone woman walks in one midafternoon, the motherly way Karen talks her through the menu and takes her order is comforting and relaxing. She’ll ask you what you like, suggest something, and before you’ve had time to think about it-your meal is on the table. It’s a mom and pop café without vinyl and fluorescents. There are daily specials and standards to make anyone hungry. There’s a dusty chalkboard about upcoming brunch specials below the counter, and flowers and trinkets everywhere.
The Big Table was opened after both Karen and her husband David’s mothers passed away, nine years ago. It was never the plan to have a restaurant, but it’s something that the Loveless’ enjoy every day. The little house is full of memories and love, emanating from the kitchen like the sweet smell of mom’s cooking wafting through the house. On the menu today: Mom’s barbecue-style meatloaf and pineapple coconut pie, topped with homemade whipped cream. Karen plates them up in a jiffy and lets the dish slide onto the table in that satisfying sound. “It’s truly dedicated to our mothers,” she says. “Most everything I serve comes from my mother’s recipes, from the soups to the pies. And really, my love of cooking comes from my mom.”
The story of The Big Table starts way before that, when Karen was just a little girl. As the eighth of nine children, Karen’s spot at the kids table was closest to the kitchen. Not only did she get to peer into the kitchen, but she was called to help out in the kitchen, watching her mother time after time as she cooked for her family. She longed to sit at the “big table” with the rest of the family, she said. Instead, she caught a love of food and its connecting power between family and friends.
“I first made banana pudding, because that was daddy’s favorite,” she says. “Then it just all started from there. My mother read Southern Living front to back every month, so I got a lot of that too.” And it was in that kitchen where she started, with the help of her mother, her own catering company as a teenager. Ambitious and passionate about food and the comfort it brings, Karen worked hard with a little help to get her business off the ground.