I’ve heard people talking about it before. “If you’re in the Boone area, you have to try this place.” “Have you ever been to Daniel Boone Inn? They serve a family-style meal. It’s so delicious. Right up your alley. You have to go there!” Well, it occurred to me while I was evaluating different places to visit for snow tubing in North Carolina, that two of the 3 places I had narrowed down to were very close to the Boone area, and it may finally be the right opportunity for me to take advantage of visiting such a highly praised restaurant. It also made sense to me since I was traveling with two guys (The Handsome One and the kid) who can both put it away. Oh, yes; family style made a lot of sense. I’ll admit, it all came together at the last minute.
I was interested in their breakfast meal, but we slept late and ended up getting to the Boone area after they starting serving lunch. Instead of stuffing ourselves silly before snow tubing, I made the suggestion that we wait until afterward and go somewhere else instead. [You can read about our breakfast alternative here.] It was an early lunch; a linner, as they say, or dunch, whatever your preference is. And we still had to wait for a table (not too long, though). I was prepared for its popularity – based on its established reputation – but I don’t think I was expecting to have to actually wait for a table so early in the afternoon on a random Sunday. Lesson learned. Be prepared. Once we were at the table, there was hardly a wait at all for the food to be served. Almost immediately, a thick vegetable soup was placed on the table. It was hardy and homey, and definitely thawed me through and through after spending the afternoon sliding on snow. Shortly after, the dinner spread followed: fried chicken, country fried steak, green beans, corn, mashed potatoes and gravy, biscuits with cherry preserves, ham biscuits, coleslaw and stewed apples. Holy buckets! I wondered how we were ever going to do the food on our table justice.

Our waitress mentioned that we were welcome to seconds of anything (were they prepared to roll us out of there, I wondered) and that we could take home whatever could be wrapped up. She motioned to the extra stash of napkins she had tucked into her apron. Everything was included in the price per meal. Additional servings* too. *Only thing not included would be extra ham biscuits. If we wanted more, there would be a small extra charge. But they were very generous with the first serving: 2 biscuits per person. We did the best we could. And even ordered chocolate cake and strawberry shortcake for dessert. It was a valiant effort. The kid, who is usually opposed to meals that don’t offer french fries or Hawaiian pizza, was enthusiastic over the fried chicken and corn. And even took seconds. And at the end, I was looking at too many leftovers to count – certainly too much food to leave behind. (I grew up in a family where food did not go to waste.) I told our waitress that I would happily take her up on the offer for extra napkins. I was planning to target the chicken, biscuits and ham biscuits, since those were the items that would be easily wrappable. While handing over the napkins she mentioned, “By the way, you can stick those slices of leftover country fried steak into a biscuit or two, have yourself a steak biscuit for breakfast this coming week.” Brilliant! Our leftovers from Daniel Boone Inn all wrapped up and ready to go.I ended up having 4 lumpy, awkward napkin roll-ups, and was wondering how in the world I was going to transport them out without losing something. And I didn’t want to stick them in my bag without some sort of added protection or insurance, beacuse, ah, ew. And that’s when it came to me. My super lovely, $1 scarf that I keep tied to my handbag. A recent Goodwill acquisition that comes in handy for all sorts of things. And that afternoon, it debuted as one of the most beautiful doogie bags ever. If you visit the Boone, NC area and have an insatiable appreciate – or a football team that needs feeding – visit Daniel Boone Inn. Soak up the Southern history and wipe the gravy off your plate with a fresh-made biscuit. And consider stashing a pastic zip bag or two in your back pocket for a graceful exit.