Blue Plate Cafe

We opened in September 2003 but our story began long before that. Back when the only food sources were simple grains, dried beans, chicken, pork and summer vegetables women learned to season and flavor these with the things they had available, usually salt, pork and a few spices. These recipes were passed down through the generations to us. Our goal is to make every visit feel like coming home to your Mother’s or Grandmother’s kitchen. That’s a bold statment since everybody knows these are the best cooks that will ever be. We want everything, the food and especially the way you are served, to remind you of being home at Mama’s kitchen table. Even our name comes from growing up with blue plates on our table at home. Those plates were filled with the freshest vegetables from our garden. A big plate piled high with juicy red ripe tomatoes fresh from the garden. I still remember my arms stinging from walking the rows of okra while gathering enough for supper. Remembering all that dirt under my fingernails from digging red potatoes, then watching Mama peel them to fry or make mashed potatoes. The memories sometimes flood my thoughts and always make me smile and certainly always makes me hungry! We do much the same, using the freshest available ingredients. Fresh turnips greens, real potatoes, and fruit like it was picked today. Using name brand ingredients we grew up seeing at home . . . Purity, Dairy, Heinz, Tropicana, Campbells, Hormel, Ocean Spray, Nabisco and Land of Lakes. We use the good stuff. Something else that was always at our table was hospitality and a simple feeling of warmth and caring. When I’m asked to explain “southern cooking” of course we talk about the food and the way it’s prepared. But it’s more than the food, it’s the smiles, the laughter, talk about the weather, and talk’n football, politics or religion. Don’t forget the gossip - that’s a very southern thing. Southern cooking and southern hospitality is what we serve at Blue Plate Cafe. All because Mama would want it that way.