The menu at this Erwin, Tennessee, eatery has changed little since 1960.
Photo Above: The Dari Ace occupies a prominent spot on Jackson-Love Highway in Erwin, Tennessee.
Photos Courtesy of Fred Sauceman.
The horseshoe-shaped counter seats 12 people. There are no tables. There is no such thing as a reservation. It has worked that way since 1960 at The Dari Ace in Erwin, Tennessee.
“That counter gets people to talking,” says owner Junior Garland. And he is right. Before you finish your cheeseburger or pork tenderloin platter for breakfast or some homemade hot fudge cake any time of day, you have new friends along that counter. There, you learn life stories. You appreciate the chance to slow down and reflect on things that matter.
On our last visit to The Dari Ace, there was talk of the Memphis family who came to Erwin for the annual Apple Festival one October and never went back to West Tennessee. There were memories shared of the Price brothers. All three of them died at Pearl Harbor. Births and burials all over Unicoi County were recollected as we ate that day. And soup beans were analyzed in detail.
Soup beans have been a defining part of our lives, in Tennessee and Virginia. We ate them at home. We ate them in restaurants. But never had we been served a bowl of soup beans with a pat of butter on top. That changed when we ordered the quintessential Appalachian dish at The Dari Ace. Dressing the beans with butter here is as common as a topping of chopped onions.
“Butter brings out the flavor of the beans,” says customer David Morris. “When I eat them at home, I put butter on them.”
A few feet down the counter, Cordell Varney chimes in. “I like mayonnaise in my beans, and it’s got to be Duke’s,” he exclaims, adding that you cannot find any better service anywhere than at The Dari Ace.
Malissa Harris and her sister Susan Adkins run the place. Sometimes they will walk across the street for jars of chow-chow, both spicy and mild, so that customers can stir the mountain relishes into their beans. And when the Clinchfield Senior Adult Center in Erwin has made a fresh batch of apple relish from local apples, the sisters will offer up some of that as a soup bean condiment, too. Prepared in a slow cooker, Dari Ace soup beans are always seasoned with pork, either fatback or slices of country ham.
And the accompanying cornbread contains no sugar, as most people here in the Valley Beautiful prefer it.
Bologna sandwiches have been on the Dari Ace menu from the beginning. But having been raised in Unicoi County, sisters Malissa and Susan know that there are a number of ways to serve those sandwiches.
“We slice the bologna however thick or thin you want,” Malissa tells us. “It comes on either toast or a bun. Most people go with toast. And the bologna is either fried or served cold on white bread, depending on if it’s hot outside or not.”
Breakfast is served until 11 a.m. at The Dari Ace, and some customers, like Charles Harris of the Flag Pond community, eat there twice a day.
Unicoi Countians have always been loyal to locally owned eateries. Clarence’s, which survived a 2017 fire and relocated from the town of Unicoi to Erwin, dates to 1969. It is still operating. So is Engle’s Roadside, which has been serving burgers on Temple Hill Road for about 70 years. Common offerings at both these restaurants, and at The Dari Ace, are buttered and grilled dinner rolls. For us, they are a direct link to the restaurant dining of our childhood.
On the sweet side, The Dari Ace serves 26 different kinds of milkshakes, even one flavored with the Italian hazelnut spread Nutella. Malissa says Reese’s Cup milkshakes are the most popular. In addition to hot fudge cake made with devil’s food baked at the restaurant, The Dari Ace offers a variation on the apple dumpling called an apple blossom, consisting of apples enrobed in pastry and served with ice cream and a caramel drizzle.
The Dari Ace has always been known for its cleanliness. Its white walls and countertop gleam.
“Junior Garland, who ran the restaurant for many years with his family, took great pride in keeping it clean and welcoming,” Malissa says. “He had a little saying, ‘If you have time to lean, you have time to clean.’”
Garland’s in-laws, Bill and Margie Seagroves, started the business and chose the odd spelling Dari to differentiate it from another restaurant in town. Garland has owned The Dari Ace since 1979. Now in his 80s, he still stops by to fry bacon in the morning. Says Shirley Whaley, a former competitor in the food business in Erwin, “Junior Garland is the hardest-working person I know.”
Certainly Unicoi County has its share of chain restaurants, but as much as any area we know, it has cherished and protected the local ones. At spots like The Dari Ace, the food is as real and genuine as the people who gather around that counter to talk of buttery soup beans.
Fred and Jill Sauceman study and celebrate the foodways of Appalachia and the South from their home base in Johnson City, Tennessee.
The story above first appeared in our January / February 2024 issue.
