![]() |
The Cherokee Grill
(Photo: Mike Jones) |
There are no restaurants inside the park, so grill for yourself at one of eleven designated picnic areas. Pick up hot dogs and two-liters at Parkway Market (1127 Parkway; 865-436-9368), a mom-and-pop 200 yards from the park border, and drive to the large Chimney's picnic area off New Found Gap Road. There, you can eat atop a boulder overlooking the Little Pigeon River. Thinner crowds and tubing and swimming opportunities are only a few miles away at Metcalf Bottoms.
Pancake houses are everywhere, but the Log Cabin (4235 Parkway; Pigeon Forge; 865-453-5748) stands out for its quick turnaround and extra-fluffy stacks served with sides of country ham and lard-baked biscuits. Arrive before 8 a.m. to avoid the crowds.
Meat reigns in the Smokies, so give in to a ten-ounce Grand Champion Angus cheeseburger with applewood-smoked bacon at Bullfish Grill (2441 Parkway, Pigeon Forge; 865-868-1000), a strapping, cabin-style restaurant that douses even its salads in bacon and cheese.
Cherokee Grill (1002 Parkway, Gatlinburg; 865-436-4287) serves inventive comfort food inside a vast and dark chalet-style dining room. Order the perfectly breaded mountain trout with a side of tangy blue-cheese grits, and be sure to try one of the robust seven-malts from the Smoky Mountain Brewery microbrewery around the corner.


Email
Print
Behind Tim Burton's MoMA Retrospective
How Nicholas Coppola Became Nicholas Cage
Brooklyn's Wild, Prospering Music Scene
Zach Gilford on Leaving Friday Night Lights
Nine Winter Fashion Trends 
Fake Buyers Are Back at Open Houses
Look Book: The Mixed Martial Arts Fighters
Elevated, Reinvented Italian Basics at A Voce

The Times Journalist Too Big To Fail
Can NBC Be Saved?
Bloomberg's New Political Challengers