Food + Drink

WHOLESOME and DELICIOUS

PHOTO: APPLEWOOD FARMHOUSE RESTAURANT & GRILL

Applewood Farmhouse restaurants, Apple Barn complex share flavors in Sevierville, Tennessee By David Hoekman

Anchored by Applewood Farmhouse Restaurant and Applewood Farmhouse Grill, the Apple Barn complex in Sevierville, Tennessee, is all about excellence in food and drink — and apples.

In addition to the restaurants, the 65-acre complex includes the Apple Barn Cider Mill & General Store, Apple Barn Cider House (for hard cider), Apple Barn Winery, The Apple Valley Creamery, Candy Factory and the Christmas & Candle Shop.

With all that and with a peaceful location — alongside the Little Pigeon River and flanked by 7,000 dwarf apple trees — group tours flock to the complex. Applewood restaurants

Traditional Southern favorites are served for breakfast, lunch and dinner at the restaurants. For every meal, servers bring out Applewood’s warm Apple Fritters and fresh apple butter (made next door at the Apple Barn Cider Mill) along with an Applewood Julep — a mix of apple juice, orange juice, pineapple juice and lemon juice.

Applewood Famous Southern Fried Chicken is the most popular menu item, with Old-Fashioned Chicken and Dumplings coming in second.

Roman Campbell, executive chef, constantly experiments with the restaurants’ menus. He adds an entrée or two every year and subtracts something. Applewood Signature Dishes remain.

Think of Applewood as Comfort Food Central. In addition to the fried chicken, there’s Sugar Cured Ham, Momma’s Country Meatloaf, mashed potatoes, Grandma’s Vegetable Soup, desserts like Double Chocolate Cake or Apple Cobbler and both with vanilla ice cream (made at The Creamery).

Scott King, director of sales for Stokely Hospitality Enterprises, the restaurants’ parent company, worked with Campbell to develop gold, blue and purple ribbon menus for groups.

“The Applewood Farmhouse Restaurant has welcomed groups since our

opening 35 years ago,” King said. “We cater to the group tour market, and we have developed several different group menus so our group tours have different options when dining with us. We are one of the few restaurants in the Smoky Mountain area that still accept groups and with that, we strive to cater to our groups.”

Groups can relax over a leisurely country meal at the restaurants. And the experienced staff also takes care of those on a tight schedule.

Apples and a barn

Kevin Kilpatrick, owner of the Apple Barn Cider Mill & General Store, grew up in the farmhouse that became Applewood Farmhouse Restaurant. His father, a pharmacist in Sevierville, bought the property in the early 1970s and transformed the former cattle and tobacco farm into an apple orchard.

“We needed a place to sell the apples, so we cleaned the barn and installed a floor,” Kilpatrick said. “We slowly added other products but kept them centered around apples.”

First came the Cider Bar. A kitchen was added in the 1980s, and it continues to make the popular fried apple pies (served with ice cream made at The Creamery), apple butter and apple fritters.

The Creamery, which opened in 1991, makes and sells traditional homemade ice cream and scratch-made baked goods and desserts. The Candy Factory makes sweets on-site. The Christmas and Candle Store opened in 1999. Apple-scented candles? Of course.

“The complex works well for motorcoach groups,” Kilpatrick said. “Passengers can disperse and there’s a lot of things to do. It’s small enough so you don’t get lost but it’s big enough to accommodate several buses.”

Liquid apples

Apple Barn Winery and Apple Barn Cider House transform locally grown apples into wine and hard cider. J.B. Ball, manager of the operations, said the winery produces dry, semisweet and sweet wines and most of them are apple-based.

“The Apple-Peach sweet wine is the best thing to have with fried chicken,” Ball said.

Apple Barn Cider House works to keep as much of the fresh apple cider taste as possible in its hard ciders, which are sold in cans and growlers. New flavors are always coming out. Past flavors have included Cider House Blues, sweet hard apple cider blended with blueberries; Berry Patch, a sweet-tart combo of hard apple cider and boysenberries; and C’N Red, hard apple cider blended with red Tennessee muscadines.

Free tastings are available at the winery and cider house. n

Applewood Farmhouse Restaurant & Farmhouse Grill applewoodfarmhouserestaurant.com

Apple Barn Cider Mill & General Store applebarncidermill.com

Rest easy

While separate from the Apple Barn complex, Comfort Inn Apple Valley is just steps away. Comfortable rooms, friendly staff and a prime location on the parkway make the property a favorite. comfortinnapplevalley.com

KEVIN KILPATRICK, OWNER OF APPLE BARN CIDER MILL & GENERAL STORE

PHOTO: GTM/DAVID HOEKMAN

Applewood Farmhouse FUN FACTS

• Over 1 million people visit Applewood restaurants every year.

• 2.7 million apple fritters are served each year.

• Applewood visitors eat over 500,000 pounds of chicken a year.

• Applewood uses over 125,000 apples every year to make its apple fritters and apple signature dishes.

• More than 200 Applewood Farmhouse employees have more than 20 years of experience with the company.