Cafe Jubilee and Chef Barry

Cafe Jubilee is the name of the place where I lunched. It's located in the country in Rogersville, Tenn, just off of 11W on Carters Valley Loop in Hawkins County. While there I met three great people: Chef Barry Reitenga, Ed Smith and Cailin Smith. What is even more wild is these three know a good friend of mine in Texas, Sherry Heffner... who I roomed with when we both were in the Navy at the Presidio of Monterey in Cal. This truly is a small world. And now I know who Ed is.

Ed and Cailin are servers at Barry's restaurant, Cafe Jubilee. The restaurant has been open for more than two years... I just hadn't gotten around to going there until yesterday. And boy am I glad I did. The daily specials were hard to choose from. Yes, there's more than one.

Cailin recommended  the Roast Beef Panini. The onions are caramelized, the cheddar cheese is melted to perfection and the croissant is grilled. The roast beef is well done and juicy, the way I like it. And a horseradish dip is also served with the scrumptious sandwich.

I also had some of the best pumpkin pie for dessert. This was even better than my own homemade pumpkin pie. Barry's mom bakes these from scratch.

I plan to return with my daughter Page and some friends. I feel like I'm eating lunch back on my grandma's side porch. Her's is on a farmhouse too.

This place is definitely worth checking out. The food's good, the price reasonable and the atmosphere is just great. The restaurant is housed inside of the Jubilee Gallery which carries arts and crafts items like wind spoon chimes and quilts along with jewelry items... but that's for another blog post.