The Dillard House

The year 1917 was an eventful one in the history of food and drink in the South. As I mentioned in a previous edition, it was around that time when Earl Mitchell was told by a group of coal miners in an Eastern Kentucky country store that they would love a graham cookie with marshmallow and chocolate in their lunch pails. Earl took the idea back to the Chattanooga Bakery, and in 1917 the MoonPie was born.

In Salisbury, North Carolina, L.D. Peeler gave up trying to compete with Coca-Cola and discontinued his Mint Cola in favor of a cherry-flavored soft drink he would call Cheerwine.

And in 1917, Eugenia Duke served up the first sandwich slathered with her homemade mayonnaise, to soldiers coming into Camp Sevier in Greenville, South Carolina, as the U.S. prepared to enter World War I. Like MoonPies and Cheerwine, Duke’s Mayonnaise is still on the market today.

In the Little Tennessee River Valley of North Georgia in 1917, Carrie and Arthur Dillard served their first meal at The Dillard House to a circuit-riding minister. Known for her skill in putting up jams and jellies, Carrie decided to share her culinary talents with the larger world that year, serving up boardinghouse meals on a stunningly beautiful plateau with views of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

The Dillard family has a long history in this picturesque part of Georgia. In 1794, Captain John Dillard was awarded a land grant of 1,000 acres in that river valley, as compensation for his service during the American Revolution.

Over the years, the Dillards have developed a reputation as some of the region’s best ambassadors for Southern Appalachian cuisine, a style of cooking the family describes as “honest,” with its foundations in the love of the land and its seasonal bounty.

The influence of Carrie Dillard is still felt at today’s Dillard House, located in the town named for the family. Near the restaurant, flowers still grow in the gardens Carrie laid out. Sit down for a feast at The Dillard House and one of the first dishes you see on the table, in addition to apple butter and green tomato relish, is Calico Salad, made according to Carrie’s original recipe when tomatoes are in season. Cucumbers, onions, and tomatoes are bathed in a simple dressing of white vinegar and water, with a little salt, pepper and sugar.

It’s not uncommon for diners to drive several hours for the sole purpose of enjoying a meal at The Dillard House. No ordering is required. You take a seat, and the food comes. And comes. Seconds are a given, and thirds often follow.

Many of the vegetables are grown within sight of the restaurant, or at best a short drive away. Mashed potatoes, corn on the cob, green beans, fried okra, and a sweet potato “soufflé” filled our table alongside yeast rolls and cornbread, chicken dipped in milk and buttermilk, country-fried steak and gravy, and pickle-topped barbecued ribs.

And then there is the country ham. The Dillard House has its own USDA-approved ham-curing plant. That country ham launched The Food Network’s Alton Brown into a flurry of adjectives when he covered it in one of his “Best Things I Ever Ate” segments. In his “tasting notes,” Brown says that after the saltiness, “butter comes out and then a nuttiness comes out, and then you start getting spices. I could swear there’s pineapple there. And then a deeper sweetness, a very kind of almost primal sweetness that comes out at the end. It makes you very glad you’re a carnivore. So fruity, nutty, buttery, meaty, and heck yes, salty.”

In the restaurant’s shop for the return trip home are jars of apple butter and green tomato relish, the latter a surprisingly good topping for hot dogs. Another option that will last long after the jars are empty is The Dillard House Cookbook and Mountain Guide. I have the fifth edition. The book is a rich compendium of mountain cookery. Not only do its recipes reflect the Dillards’ long-standing love of their homeland, so do the many additions you would rarely find in a cookbook, such as a map of area wineries, a list of suggested day trips, and a directory of hiking trails.

For those who would rather follow up their repast with a good nap, The Dillard House continues its 100-year tradition of hospitality by offering guest rooms, suites, cottages, and chalets. 

But the best meal-ending ritual of all is taking a seat on the restaurant’s front porch, surrounded by the glory of the North Georgia mountains.

768 Franklin Street, Dillard, Georgia

800.541.0671 or dillardhouse.com

About the author: Fred Sauceman’s latest book is The Proffitts of Ridgewood: An Appalachian Family’s Life in Barbecue.