Creekside at the Old Mill

A big, airy dining room in a vintage, stone-wall mill building, Creekside exudes country charm in the Columbia suburb of Lexington. I sought it out because I was told that the kitchen makes liver pudding and corned beef hash — two dishes that all too often are pretty bad but at their best can be heavenly. My tip was wrong. The kitchen does offer these things, but does not make them. Having little desire to eat canned hash or pudding; I decided to order more typical southern breakfast fare.

A sampler plate gets you three kinds of breakfast meat: bacon and a sausage patty that are standard-issue and country ham that may indeed be standard issue, but nonetheless delivers the rank satisfaction of this most aristocratic of pig meats. The ham would be especially good in concert with a warm, creamy buttermilk biscuit, but, alas, Creekside’s biscuits are a desiccated yawn.

Side dishes to accompany eggs include grits (merely functional), chunky hash browns that deliver good potato flavor and are especially tasty when woven with a measure of still-crisp onions, and warm, sweet skillet apples (great with ham).

I won’t be rushing back to Creekside for breakfast (there are better morning meals in and around Lexington), but I do want to return for a promising meat-and-three lunch of country fried steak, pork chops, flounder, or ham with a choice from a roster of well over a dozen Dixie side dishes.