Dining in Jefferson

Eating always rates high on our list of fun things to do. We made a list of the eating establishments in Jefferson and decided where we would eat and which meal. I think we managed to eat ate at all of restaurants in the historic area except three. We choose not to eat at Lamanache's Italian Restaurant, it was really expensive. We saw the menu and beginning prices were at $12.99. We didn't eat in Auntie Skinner's Riverboat Club, which was a bar. That was just not our style. And there was the Ambrosia's Tea House we missed, actually forgot about it. It was on the outer edge of the historical area.

• Our first eating experience on Thursday at noon was at Kitt’s Kornbread Sandwich and Pie Bar home of the famous cornbread sandwiches.

I had a turkey on broccoli cornbread with all the trimmings. And Judith had a fried bologna on broccoli cornbread with the trimmings.

Wow, what a wonderful sandwich.  They were out of this world wonderful. The cornbread was not only moist but it held together as a sandwich. Yum!!

• For dinner that night we ate at Joseph’s Riverport Bar-b-cue. Great barbecue pork sandwich and wonderful fries.

• For breakfast on the two mornings we went to The Bakery Restaurant and ate some delicious pastries. I had a cherry cream cheese Danish on the first morning and an apple strudel on the second.

The building the Bakery is in was the Old Livery Stable built around 1900 and housed horses and buggies for public hire until the auto age.

• Lunch on Friday we went to the Austin Street Bistro.

Again superb food. I had a chicken salad sandwich served on oatmeal molasses bread and the most wonderful roasted garlic potatoes.

• That afternoon we were hot, it was in the 90’s while we were there, so we made our way to Jefferson’s General Store for an ice cream cone at their soda fountain. Blue Bunny Ice cream but it was really good. The building, built in the 1870's, started out as a hardware store and later a functioning general store to serve the Jefferson area. By the way, in case your interested, you can still get a 5-cent cup of coffee there.

• Dinner Friday night was at Glory Dayz a 50’s style diner. The special that night was a fish dinner, with fries and hush puppies.

Don't you just love the colors of the chairs!!

 Constructed in the 1920’s, the building has functioned in several roles. Its original purpose was as a blacksmith shop, twice automobile dealerships and then later became the school district’s bus barn, a welding shop and finally assuming the role of warehouse for Torrans Manufacturing. They manufacture 1950’s style metal lawn furniture. I actually have some metal lawn chairs that were my husband's Grandfathers. Mine are about 50 years old! They last a long time!

Across the top of this wall you can see seats from the metal chairs in all the available colors.

• Lunch on Saturday was at Diana’s, The Sandwich Shop.

Where we had a BLT. I haven’t had one of those in a long time

and it was delicious.

 The Sandwich Shop building has been lots of things. Built during the early 1860s, this structure served as a boarding house and as a mercantile before opening as the Kahn Saloon about 1900. The popular gathering place was closed after local prohibitionists won a 1907 election. Since that time, the building has been used for a variety of purposes, including a newspaper office, lodge building, furniture store, and funeral home. This building is listed on the national registry as the 8th most haunted building in Texas! and 25th Nationwide. The ghost of a women killed upstairs in what was a brothel is said to haunt the bathroom downstairs. Guess what, we need to use it and well, no ghost!!

As we were leaving, we saw this sign. At first we though it meant you could compliment your meal with wine, but then it dawned on Judith that this refers to the ghosts we were supposedly dining with.

On Saturday afternoon before we left town we went to Jefferson Old Fashioned Hamburger Store where we had a chocolate cobbler. It is a warm chocolate fudge filled brownie served with ice cream. Wish I had a picture, but it looked so good, I dived right in and forgot to take a picture!

The walls are papered with dollar bills left by previous patrons. This all started in 2005, after the owners served up more than two thousand free meals to Katrina evacuees, grateful visitors started leaving the bills as a love offering and the papering has continued.

• Our last meal was on our way home Saturday. We ate at Arkadelphia, Arkansas at Express Chicken. You know that was some mighty fine chicken!!

We had such fun and ate some wonderful food!!