We headed back up north 45 miles, even though it had snowed overnight, to visit the Jack Daniel's distillery and to eat lunch at a place called Miss BoBo's Boarding House. Jack read about this place on the Internet. The restaurant was really once a boarding house ran by Miss Mary BoBo. She had one tenant ,who worked at the distillery, and lived at her boarding house for more than 40 years. Miss BoBo passed away in 1983 at the age of 102. Jack read that it usually takes months in advance to get a "seating" but fortunately we were able to be seated for lunch without reservations. They happened to have two available seats. The meal was served family style everything being passed to your left. There were two sitting rooms with beautiful fireplaces and overstuffed furniture to sit while waiting for the dinner bell to be rang. Seriously. They ring the dinner bell at their three different servings; the first meal served at 11:00, the second at 1:00 and the third seating is at 3:00. They only have the third serving during the busy months, which of course would be the summer months. Anyhow, when the bell rings you are escorted to your own private dining room (with the 10 strangers). They probably have 5 or 6 dining rooms. At first I did not like the idea of sitting with 10 total strangers but once seated and the food was served, the conversations began. The most interesting couple to me was the young couple sitting directly across from us. He is a cruise ship entertainment director from Holland and she is an author. Another man at the table also retired in December. I asked his wife how she was enjoying "his" retirement; she told us that she was thinking about returning to work full-time. Miss BoBo's was a very enjoyable experience. The food, while good, was nothing spectacular. Sliced pork, chicken pastry (chicken with pastry wrapped around it in gravy), white beans with red relish (sounds yukky but it was very good), collard greens, corn bread and macaroni and cheese. For dessert we had a pie called "Chess Pie". Now there are two different versions to the story behind this pie. The one being a husband came in from the fields one day and smelled the sweet smell of a pie baking. "What are you baking?" he asked the wife. "Chess pie," she answered in her Southern drawl. Translation was "Just Pie". Another version, according to our hostess goes like this: In the "olden days" women would store their pies in a pie chest. And so goes the "chest pie". Whatever or however the name came about it is an extremely sweet pie that I noticed very few finished. Southern cooking is made with tons of butter and salt. The drinks offered were sweet tea (I'd rather drink whiskey) or regular tea. Two or three of us asked for water. Below are some pics of that experience.
I loved the experience. I especially enjoyed the conversation.
Our next stop was the Jack Daniel's distillery. It was one of the best tours of any industry I've ever done and it was absolutely free. Our tour guide, Jon, was born and raised right there in Lynchburg, TN with a population, I'm guessing, of a couple thousand people. Cute little town though. BUT Jon had a language all his own (we call it Lynchburg English). Often it was difficult to understand him but when we did he was a real hoot. However, it's getting late (Jack and I did a bike ride today and another tour of the town) so time's been short. The furry ones are getting restless for their last walk of the night so we need to take care of them and head to bed for some much needed R & R. Until tomorrow when I will tell more about the Jack Daniel's distillery tour and post some neat pictures we took.
