Sometimes things work out just right.

For example, during one camping trip, we raced to get to a Greeneville restaurant before closing time.  Along the way, we drove by the Whistle Stop restaurant near Tusculum.  My husband commented that he’d always wanted to try it, so we turned the car around and stopped!  Because that’s just what you do when your husband wants to try a new place, right?

A lovely little diner from the outside, this establishment was quite surprising inside.  It looks like the type of place that would serve pimiento cheese sandwiches and hand-scooped ice cream.  We were taken aback by the menu which featured fine cuts of steak, salmon, and other delights.

As an interesting and relevant note, many courses in the meal were included in the price of dinner.  My husband thought this was great!  I would have preferred lower prices and the choice of having soup or salad.

A basket of crackers accompanied a house-made cheese dip.  It tasted like a sour cream base.  I really liked it!  The dip would have been even better if served with buttery crackers instead of saltines.

Each person at our table was also given an bowl of broccoli cheese soup.  Although it’s one of my favorite types of soup, this version fell short for me.  Large chunks of unmelted cheese floated around, and the soup base was more watery than I expected.  Mine went mostly untouched.

Our meals also came with salad.  This was a pretty typical blend of iceberg lettuce; however, the additional toppings were fresh and delicious.  I’m pretty sure the dressing on mine was a raspberry vinaigrette.

The rolls were absolutely the star of the show for me.  I would go back JUST FOR THESE!   It’s hard to tell in this picture, but these are clover rolls that unfurl into the most heavenly bites of bread.  YUM.

Our food arrived a little later than it would in most restaurants.  It was obvious that the meals had been prepared to order; nothing looked like it had been sitting on the counter waiting to be delivered to a table.   Definitely a step above other restaurants!

My husband ordered the ground tenderloin, pictured above. He said it was  very good and was ground from a high-quality meat.  He especially liked the steak fries.

My daughter surprised me by ordering a cheeseburger.  Normally at a restaurant like Whistle Stop, she would order a steak, but she wasn’t as hungry as usual on this night.

She said the burger was one of the best she’s ever eaten. She ordered it medium well and said that it was perfectly cooked.

My son and I both ordered salmon with a baked potato.  Instead of our favorite teriyaki glaze, this one came with a lemon pepper seasoning.  It was well flavored and perfectly prepared.  I still prefer it with a glaze, though this was delicious.

I didn’t get to snap a picture of my son’s dessert, but the waitress gave him a dish of ice cream to enjoy at the end of his meal.  It was gone before I could take a photo! 

Our family enjoys finding local restaurants like Whistle Stop. I’m so glad it worked out that we could try it!  I’d definitely like to go back and see if they offer a lighter lunch menu.

While we enjoyed our visit, it would have been nice to see a menu outside the restaurant so we would have been prepared for the higher price point.  It was much more expensive than we’d planned for the evening.  We could have left and found something easier on the budget, but I would have missed out on those rolls.  It was worth making my husband happy, too!

Don’t miss taking a few pictures of beautiful Tusculum College campus when you visit Whistle Stop!

What would you like to try on the Whistle Stop menu?