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Nostalgia alert: Longtime visitors to the Blue Ridge Parkway are once again able to stop for a meal again at what was once The Bluffs Coffee Shop. Closed for the last decade after a long decline, the beloved institution has reopened as The Bluffs Restaurant at North Carolina’s Doughton Park—milepost 241—following a $1 million restoration funded by a coalition of public and private supporters.
The Bluffs Coffee Shop operated for 61 years serving home-cooked goodness to generations of travelers. Perched on the windswept heights near Air Bellows Gap, The Bluffs opened in 1949 and closed in 2010. One staff member, Ellen Woodruff Smith, was there the whole time; she greeted generations of diners from opening day to closing day.
Says Sharon Pinney, half of the partnership that manages the restaurant and the kitchen, “We are prepared for people to come here and tell us their memories of coming here with their grandparents. There will be tears.”
Today The Bluffs looks just the same as it did more than 70 years ago, from the green-and-white checked floor to the comfy gold-upholstered rotating bar stools to the soaring roof beams. Mold remediation alone cost more than a quarter million dollars. Only then could work begin on updating all mechanical systems, re-creating the cabinetry and furnishings, and making the facility ADA-compliant. It takes money to make new look old.
Hours at the new Bluffs are 8 a.m.-8 p.m., seven days a week. The season lasts from late May to early November. Breakfast and lunch feature hearty Appalachian fare, including still-warm donuts…perfect when hiking nearby. Dinner goes upscale with mountain trout and local vegetables, beer and wine. Picnic boxes available.
Reservations for leaf season were already pouring in during the summer, according to Pinney.
bluffsrestaurant.org; 336-372-7875
The story above first appeared in our September / October 2021 issue.
