By DON NAPIER, Crossville Life Publisher

After just one trip to the Cardinal Smokehouse, I may very well have a “new” favorite restaurant.

I love eating in new restaurants nearly as much as I like playing a new golf course, and next to eating, I love writing about about my experience. From the days when I published The Glade Vista and dedicated so much space to “where to go, what to do,” I stll enjoy telling my readers about a new eating establishment.

Cardinal Smokehouse is located at the junction of Highway 101 and 285, about 25 minutes from downtown Crossville. Highway 101 is the same road as Lantana and the restaurant is on your right, at the end of that road. Their address, if using a GPS, is 117 Bellview Road, Pikeville, TN 37367.

Owner Bobby Worthington, an accomplished outdoor photographer and writer (click HERE for more on that), built the new 4900 square-foot building and decorated it with over 40 of he and his sons’ world class cardinal photographs, along with words of wisdom, poems, etc.

My wife Natalie and daughters Laura and Lyndi went with me to the restaurant and everything about our experience was first class, from the homemade yeast rolls to the decadent Mountain Berry cobbler and everything in between.

Mr. Worthington and his family run the restaurant and they obviously know what they are doing even though they have never been in the restaurant business before. Bobby gave me a tour of the restaurant that included a commercial smoker out back, where he smokes his brisket, ribs, pulled pork and other meats.

I have to say they have one of the most diverse menus I have seen. Our appetizer was fried green beans, which were served very hot and spicy. They came with Ranch dressing for dipping and despite my doubts were delicious. Every one was eaten! Each dinner comes with your choice of two of their daily vegetables or one veggie and a baked potato. I had steak fries and a house salad as my two choices and a regular cut ribeye, which was cooked exactly as I ordered it.

My wife ordered the catfish (3 pieces), Lyndi had the hot wings dinner and Laura the wood smoked pulled pork sandwich. We also got a sampling of their Calabash style fried shrimp (awesome), froglegs saddle (2 legs connected) and a chicken leg, cooked in their pressure cooker/frier (very good, not greasy and very juicy inside).

The Cardinal’s Friday night menu…

features their seafood specials. They served some of the best catfish our family ever had –beautiful, large whole filets, which were very mild and tasty. The menu gave the choice of either a two-piece or three-piece dinner. Also on the Friday night menu were the succulent frog leg dinners, one offering four frog leg “saddles” or pairs of legs, and one with six saddles. I love frog legs and after tasting these, I love them a whole lot more. Perfectly cooked and a lot of taste. Even my daughter Laura liked them (tasted a little like chicken, she said). And the Calabash-style shrimp are also available in 6 or 12 piece dinners.

I really liked the Combo Dinners — four to choose from, offering catfish and frog legs; shrimp and catfish; shrimp and frog legs; or catfish, frog legs and shrimp. Their house speciality on Friday night is their tender fried or wood roasted chicken dinner (a breast and two drumsticks). Friday night dinners are served with your choice of hush puppies or their homemade yeast rolls. Your choice of two veggies comes from a list of slaw, white beans, green beans, steak fries or baked potato.

Their Saturday night dinner entrees…

are served with your choice of a dinner salad and one veggie, or two veggies and fresh baked rolls. The Saturday night menu features fresh, hand-cut USDA Choice steaks, New York strip, Angus ribeye or Angus prime rib, a regular and large cut. They also feature their wood roasted pork dinners of double-glazed baby back ribs, half and full rack; pork ribeye and boneless ribs, half and whole rack; or their signature wood-smoked Hereford brisket dinner, two serving sizes to choose from (4 oz. and 6 oz.) and their wood smoked pulled pork sandwich or plate. You also get your choice of two veggies and cooked cabbage is one of the options.

The regular evening menu…

available on nights other than Friday and Saturday, features a delicious ribeye steak (with their own special steak seasoning), hamburgers steak dinners, chicken tenders, char-broiled lemon chicken dinner, fried chicken dinner, hot wings dinner, and many of their entrees from their wood-smoked weekend menu. They also have hamburgers, sandwiches, salads, kids dinners, and “drum roll please,” –their homemade desserts!

Depending on which night you are there, perhaps you will be lucky enough to get some of their Mountain Berry Cobbler, which I am on a crusade to make “world famous.”

Consisting of blueberries, blackberries, strawberries and raspberries, this cobbler (also availble with vanilla ice cream) will likely put them on the map. It’s that good! They also have banana pudding, chocolate Zebra cake, key lime cheesecake with white chocolate and walnut and berry bread pudding.

The restaurant is handsomely decorated and features arched doorways lined with stone and tile floors with Cardinal center stones. We all enjoy a comfortable setting – clean, well lit, with a friendly wait staff, all of which the Cardinal is – but what keeps bringing us back is the food.

Folks, I can honestly say, this food is outstanding quality and cooked to perfection. As the son of a butcher, I love their menu. Smoked beef, pork and chicken, along with catfish, frog legs and Calabash-style shrimp, just happens to “ring my bell.” Bobby, like all good restaurateurs, mentioned several times they use a marinade on their meats and a special soak for their seafood, but he never said exactly what it was. Oh, they also make their own BBQ sauce and homemade chow-chow.

Yeast rolls and honey butter

My wife rates restaurants on the quality of their bread and/or rolls, and the Cardinal’s homemade yeast rolls are like those you get at Old Charley’s, but they are better.

Located in a triangle that is about 30 minutes from Pikeville, Crossville and Spencer, the Cardinal Smokehouse is strategically located near Fall Creek Falls State Park.

None of us think anything about driving to Cookeville or Knoxville for dinner — and Bobby’s restaurant is a lot closer than either one of those. We called ahead, but was told that reservations were not necessary. Should you have a large crowd – 20 to 25 – do call ahead and they will put you in their private dining room.

Bobby enjoys meeting his customers and can be seen talking and visiting at tables. Take a minute to talk to him and let him tell you about his photography. Tell him you read about him in Crossville Life, and don’t forget to ask about that Mountain Berry Cobbler. It’s worth making a fuss over!

Hours of Operation

Cardinal Smokehouse Restaurant is open for lunch every day. They are open for  dinner everyday but Sunday and Monday. They close early (2 p.m. on Sundays) and 1:30 on Mondays. They are open until 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and until 9 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. Call them at 423-881-3626.