The Old CookStove Restaurant

A restaurant may be in a prime location, but without excellent food and service it's not going to enjoy booming business. Conversely a restaurant can have an inconvenient location, but lure plenty of patrons to its locale with the exceptional fare and staff. The latter is the case with The Old CookStove restaurant in Danville, Alabama. Owned and operated by a community of Mennonites, the restaurant is bursting at the seams during its limited business hours despite the fact that its location is not advertised. The Old CookStove relies solely on word-of-mouth advertising and doesn't even boast a website!

Seating is family-style and if you arrived during peak time you might find yourself seated at a table with strangers. Don't worry though, they have custom-built, wooden dividers that attach to the tabletops so you don't have to make conversation or watch others eat. Hubs was grateful since he's not a people-person, but my dad would have been happy to chat it up throughout the meal. :)

Each buffet-style entree is homemade including the freshly baked bread and churned ice cream.

I'm writing this post while our experience is fresh in my mind (and the food is fresh in my tummy) so let me see if I can remember everything they served:

Main Dishes:
Meatloaf
Chicken and Dressing
Fried Chicken
Spicy Sausage
Carving board Ham and Turkey
Fried Chicken Livers
Chicken Casserole


Sides (in addition to a full salad bar):
Hashbrown casserole
Mashed Potatoes and Gravy
Carrots
Lima Beans
Peas
Macaroni and Cheese
Green Beans
Pinto Beans
Black-eyed Peas
Brussel Sprouts
Home-baked bread
Biscuits with homemade jams and jellys
Cranberry sauce
Fried Corn
Fried Okra

Desserts:
German Chocolate Cake
Coconut Cake
Carrot Cake
Chocolate Cobbler
Various Fruit Cobblers
Banana Pudding
Churned Ice Cream

The staff was friendly and efficient despite the crowd, and their traditional Mennonite dress added to the atmosphere. Cost for this all-you-can-eat buffet is $9.99 per adult so you really get your money's worth! If you're ever in north Alabama on a Friday night or Saturday and would like to be completely ruined for eating at chain "country" cooking restaurants, shoot me an email and I'll give you directions to The Old CookStove!

Izzy comes to visit

Izzy the Shih-tzu stopped by to visit and brought her people with her. She fell asleep with her eyes open at one point.

Trudy was happy to see Jake! For some reason she never has to warm up to him. Maybe because he shares the same build and coloring as her daddy? I dunno, but whatever it is she loves her Jakie and wants to know when he's coming back!

Hanging with the Spellmans

Trudy and I spent the afternoon and evening with Jeremy, Julie, Noah, Nate, and Madeline while Dave was putting up siding on our house...actually just prepping it for siding. Who knows when the old neighborhood eyesore will actually have siding on it, but there will be much rejoicing from our neighbors when it happens. Anyway, we had fun snacking, playing, and catching up. I hadn't seen Maddie since she was a newborn and enjoyed feeding her baby food (since Trudy pretty much refused to eat the stuff) and watching in wonder as she mellowed out with her dad for TV time. Where do you order a baby like this?

First Carousel Ride

Mom, Trudy, and I enjoyed a girl's day out at the mall (ie I shopped while mom played with Trudy) where she enjoyed her first carousel ride. She liked it so much that Gigi let her right several more times.

Trick-or-Treat!

Since Trudy' been having such teething/crankiness issues, trick-or-treating consisted of visiting our neighbor’s house then putting her to bed! She still looked cute in her Minnie Mouse outfit though even if she wouldn't leave the ears on.

She did not want Grandma T to hold her…

but was happy to enjoy all the goodies she sent her home with including apples,

Where's my rolling pin?

Teething...

is so difficult. Thanks goodness for Eeyore and his cuddly ears!

Playtime

I can't take a decent picture indoors or when the sun is shining, but give me a cloudy day and a camera and I'm a happy camper. Today was overcast so I took Trudy to the park and captured some playtime moments without having to worry about lighting.