Blue Ridge Country - November/December 2016 - 49

Creative energy

Left: Peerless has been run by the Kalogeros family since 1938.
Above: Pal's Sudden Service is a Malcolm Baldrige National
Quality Award winner.

He creates a redeye mayonnaise,
spreads it on a toasted baguette
with scallions, and tops it with
Tennessee prosciutto, the meat
cured by fabled pork entrepreneur
Allan Benton in Madisonville,
Tennessee.
Down the hill from the Barter and around the corner from
St. Thomas Episcopal and Sinking
Springs Presbyterian churches is
one of Abingdon's newest restaurants, 128 Pecan-its name an indication of the street where it's located. The menu ranges from burgers
and fried egg sandwiches to grilled
grouper from the Gulf to crackercrusted trout, served with succotash. 128 Pecan makes its own pimento cheese and, at lunchtime,
serves it on grilled sourdough with
fried green tomatoes.
In an old house on a back
street, 128 Pecan is quickly building a reputation among bicycle
riders on the Virginia Creeper
Trail for its tomato bisque and
black bean cakes.
Senator Henry Clay and President Andrew Jackson were once

hosted at The Tavern, built in
Abingdon in 1779. The first post
office on the western slopes of the
Blue Ridge Mountains was located
in the east wing of The Tavern.
Like The Martha Washington Inn
up the street, it served as a hospital
during the Civil War.
Today, The Tavern, under the
ownership of Max Hermann, a native of Germany, stays true to its
original purpose, serving up food
and drink to travelers and natives
in one of the oldest buildings west
of the Blue Ridge. Among the German offerings there is Jägerschnitzel, or "hunter's cutlet," made with
pork tenderloin and served with
Spätzle (short German noodles)
and Rotkohl (red cabbage).
Finally, in Abingdon, Chick-NLittle offers up home-style cooking-grilled pork tenderloin and
cheese grits for breakfast, chickenfried steak, fried okra, scalloped
potatoes, green beans, and homemade desserts. The fried chicken is
cooked to order, with a 20-25-minute wait time, "as it should be,"
one of our friends pointed out.

Johnson City, Tennessee

One of the region's oldest restaurants
is The Peerless in Johnson City, operated by the Kalogeros family since
1938. John Kalogeros opened it as a
barbecue joint. In 1939, the University of Tennessee Volunteer football
team went undefeated and unscored
upon. So John felt fairly safe in betting with his friends that UT would
win the Rose Bowl of 1940. But the
Volunteers were shut out by the University of Southern California Trojans, and John had to feed his buddies steak dinners. From that point
on, The Peerless built its reputation
on steaks.
Jim Kalogeros, John's son, who
ran the restaurant for decades, died
in May 2016 at the age of 97, but
it remains in the hands of his sons.
A vestige of the early days is the
1938 recipe for barbecue sauce, now
served with grilled chicken.
A Grecian salad with buttered saltine crackers, a baked potato, and a
large filet has been the celebratory
meal for Johnson Citians ever since
that fateful wager.
For over 27 years, Johnson City's
November/December 2016 49

Blue Ridge Country - November/December 2016

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