Leigh Ivey, Charger Staff
A few miles away from Cookeville there is a charming little restaurant called
Spring Creek Pie Company. It’s hidden along a long curvy road that isn’t
even named Spring Creek...that was the first problem for us on our never-ending
quest to find the perfect restaurant.
There is a road called Spring Creek, so naturally that’s where we turned to find the restaurant. Meg Ivey, Natalie Shutov, Rachel Coonce, and I were in the lead car, followed by Molly Risely and Yamini Rao. We drove slowly down a road full of potholes, only to come out in the same place we entered.
Meg, who was driving our car, was annoyed with the rest of us. Natalie was complaining about how hot it was in the car, and Rachel and laughing at her for that. Irritated and lost, Meg started yelling at the rest of us for being so loud. Not one to take insults well, Natalie snapped back, and in the background REM was singing “Everybody hurts sometimes.” It was not a good start to our excursion.
Finally Molly called someone for directions, and we finally found Spring Creek
Pie Company. I still can’t understand why they didn’t put in on Spring
Creek, but oh well.
The restaurant was tiny, with only four small tables in a back room. Of course
it would have been too easy for the tables to be empty. After waiting a few
minutes, we decided it would be easier and faster if we just ate outside on
the grass. And that’s exactly what we did.
We got a blanket and a sleeping bag out of Meg’s car (and Molly got out a little piece of carpet...I’m still not sure why she had that in her car) and ate outside in the cold. A dog wandered around, begging for food, which Rachel gladly gave it, leading it to continue to stay near our food.
Maybe it was just because after our long search for the restaurant we were extremely hungry, but the food was delicious. Although there wasn’t much to choose between (basically the menu consisted of a chicken sandwiches, hamburgers, soup, and salads), what food they did have was great. The chicken sandwich I had was good but a little dry, but everyone who got hamburgers said they were perfect. The potato soup Molly and Yamini ordered was excellent, and following her tradition, Yamini ate a little food off of everyone’s plate.
And, of course, being mostly a dessert restaurant, we had to try some of the pie. We all split a piece of turtle cheesecake that was wonderful. Naturally while we were eating it Natalie had to bring up the question of what the “turtle” part actually was...good thing we were done with the cake by then.
Despite the fact that the place is far away on a street called Netherland Drive, we gave the “Spring Creek Pie Company experience” three stars. The ride home, however, was a different story.
Article prepared for web by Erica Nation.
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