Crossroads Cafe

It looks like a rag-tag truck stop (90% of vehicles in the parking lot are pickup trucks), but Crossroads Cafe is all about hospitality. Not that there’s anything frilly or foppish about the experience of eating here — it is a proletarian place and proud to be. It feels so welcoming thanks to the downhome warmth of proprietors Sarah and Paul Sharpton and their helpmade Sharon. Sarah plates the food; Paul tends the cash register; Sharon does some of everything. All of them are easy to chat with. The meals they offer are comfort food with a distinct southern accent.

Service is cafeteria-style. Grab a tray and tell Sarah what you’d like on your unbreakable partitioned plate. Among the several entrees offered every day, expect fried as well as barbecued chicken, hamburger steak, pork chops, salmon patties, or chicken and dumplings. The lunchtime line is especially long on Friday because that is whole-catfish day. Side-dish highlights include rich and chewy mac ‘n’ cheese, mashed potatoes and gravy, collard greens, snap beans, boiled okra, deviled eggs, etc. Being a vegetarian, Sarah cooks her vegetables without pork. Thus, greens lack their more typical oinky luxury; but they deliver delicious tonic punch that Popeye would have loved. Baby lima beans are smooth and earthy without a jot of fattiness.

Clientele appear to be mostly locals, a mix of blue collar ladies and gents along with more scientific types from the nearby SRS nuclear reservation. If you are just passing through, Crossroads Cafe is a propitious opportunity to have an unpretentious taste of the area in the single-digit dollar range, including tea and dessert.

Note that Crossroads Cafe is open only Monday through Friday.