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Grundy County Savage Gulf – One of the Top 3 Most Beautiful Places in Tennessee

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The Coolest & Most Unique Concert Venues In The World – Boss Hunting

photo by Michael Weintrob

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Visit The Caverns Website – CLICK HERE

Natural Wonders, Outdoors at Buggy Top Cave Trail and Sewanee Natural Bridge – Jackson Magazine, May 2019 Outdoors

by Elizabeth Law, Jackson Monthly

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Mountain Getaway, Jim Oliver’s Smoke House Cabins – Jackson Magazine, May 2019 Travel

by Elizabeth Law, Jackson Monthly

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An Ultimate Music Destination, Monteagle Mountain Music and The Caverns – Jackson Magazine, September 2018 Travel

by Elizabeth Law, Jackson Monthly

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Jim Oliver’s SmokeHouse featured in Bleu Magazine – New York

by Ebony Allison from South East Tennessee Tourism District

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Jim Oliver’s SmokeHouse featured in Blue Ridge Country Magazine

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TRAVEL & CULTURE
MONTEAGLE MOUNTAIN, Tennessee

As seen in Southern Living Magazine, December 2017

MONTEAGLE MOUNTAIN
Mountain towns and Christmas make a perfect pair. That’s especially true of Tennessee’s Monteagle Mountain and its tiny towns of Monteagle, Sewanee, Tracy City, and Cowan. Each year, people flock to this spot on the Cumberland Plateau, home of the University of The South, aka Sewanee. Take this winter pilgrimage to relax and breathe in the season’s beauty.

CELEBRATE TRADITIONS
If you are lucky enough to get tickets, take in the spectacular annual Festival of Lessons and Carols held at Sewanee’s gorgeous All Saints Chapel on December 2 at 5 & 8 pm, and on December 3 at 5 pm. The service is modeled after the one first sung at Kings College in Cambridge England, in 1918 (sewanee.edu).

ENJOY THE PARADE
Christmas on the mountain is all about community and the parade thru Monteagle represents small town charm at its best. Admire hometown holiday floats of all sizes and themes.

GO SHOPPING
Check out The Lemon Fair in Sewanee (thelemonfair.com). Monteagle’s Amish Hippie (facebook.com/theamishhippie) and Jim Oliver’s Smoke House Trading Post (thesmokehouse.com). In Sewanee Mooney’s Market & Emporium, with Organic Crescent Juice Bar at Mooney’s, located out back (mooneysmarketandemporium.com).

EAT & DRINK
Tracy City’s Henry Flury & Sons Grocery is a general store/thrift shop/lunch stand (facebook.com/fluryandsons). Don’t miss the authentic regional food at Jim Oliver’s Smoke House Restaurant in Monteagle (thesmokehouse.com). For upscale fare, head to the iconic High Point Restaurant (highpointrestaurant.net).

STAY THE NIGHT
The 43 guest rooms at the Sewanee Inn feature comfy beds and spa like baths, while exterior architectural flourishes mimic those of The University of the South (sewanee-inn.com). The Smoke House Lodge & Cabins offers a mountain lodge with 80 standard rooms and 23 vacation cabins for couples, families, and groups. Many of the 152 homes on the grounds of the Monteagle Sunday School Assembly are available for rent during the off season. This woodland reserve was founded in 1882 (mssa1882.net).

You might say Jim Oliver’s Smoke House in Monteagle, Tenn., is the quintessential American Dream.

“My dad [jim] started in the restaurant industry in 1060 when he began operating a drive-in called The Beehive,” says James David “J.D.” Oliver, president of Jim Oliver’s Smoke House Restaurant & Lodge.

“He had worked in the steel industry in Ohio and wanted to come back home. He couldn’t find a job, and he knew he could cook, so he borrowed some money for the Beehive. He almost starved to death his first six months in business, but then it started to take off.”

Jim dreamed of creating a country-themed restaurant, and in 1975, he completed construction of the Smoke House. Using his mother’s recipes such as country ham, pit barbecue, fruit cobblers and buttermilk biscuits, he gained a substantial regional following.

Today, the Smoke House is still drawing hungry crowds for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and offers much more than dining. Situated on 20 acres, the Smoke House has become a cozy mountain retreat. It includes a lodge with 85 motel rooms, a large conference room, 20 fully equipped cabins and a 10,000-square-foot gift shop filled to the brim with antiques, crafts, handmade fudge, old-fashioned candy, 20 flavors of barbecue sauce, jams and jellies, and an old 1920 player piano that’s a big hit with guests.

“We brand our own barbecue sauces and make fresh fudge every day,” Oliver says. “The fudge has been really popular – We sold 18,000 pounds last year.”

Jim died in 2007, and now Oliver owns the business with his two sisters, Betsy and Nancy. “Betsy runs the restaurant and has a lot of fun incorporating her own recipes with our old family recipes,” Oliver says. “We’re still serving dad’s pulled barbecue and ribs along with country ham, homemade biscuits, fried chicken, smoked roast beef, turkey and brisket. Betsy’s collard grits are always a hit, too.”

And save room for desert – the Smoke House serves up six flavors of fried pies, including peach, apple, cherry, chocolate, pineapple and strawberry, topped with a scoop of homemade ice cream. “We make 10 flavors of ice cream and we make some of these from melting the 16 flavors of homemade fudge we sell in the gift shop,” Oliver says. We also make floats with our homemade ice cream, and we serve 39 different flavors of old-fashioned sodas in glass bottles.”
Guests often compare the restaurant’s atmosphere to the Cracker Barrel, with its crackling fireplace, old pictures and mismatched decor. “People always tell me, “Cracker Barrel stole your idea,” Oliver says with a chuckle.

Every Friday and Saturday night, the Smoke House hosts a family – friendly singer/songwriter live music event featuring local and Nashville talent, no admission charged. Stella Parton, sister of Dolly Parton and Oliver family friend, has preformed several tmes.

The Smoke House gift shop sells a cookbook of Oliver family recipes and arranges a gift baskets stuffed with smoked meats, jams and jellies, and pickles and success. More than 350 food products are for sale in the Smoke House online store, http://store.thesmokehouse.com.
Oliver says he loves carrying on his father’s tradition and the opportunity it gives him to meet passers-through. “Seeing people come back year after year makes them feel like friends,” he says. “It’s like inviting people into our own house – only bigger. The Smoke House offers a genuine and unique experience in food, shopping and lodging that just can’t be found anywhere else.”

If You Go: The Smoke House is open every day of the year from 6:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. (Until 10:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday). Call (800) 489-2091 or visit http://thesmokehous13.wpengine.com for more details.

The Smoke House is located 80 miles east of Nashville, 45 miles west of Chattanooga at interstate 24, Exit 134 for Monteagle/Sewanee on old U.S. 41A.

FALL 2013 TNCONNECTIONS.com