Harvest House

From the highway, Harvest House looks like a roadside cafe/diner. Inside, that’s the way it’s configured. But once you look at the menu, then when you eat what comes from the kitchen, you realize that this restaurant answers to a higher calling.

Nothing is quite what you expect it to be. Shrimp & grits are unusually sweet; fried green tomatoes come as a giant tower blanketed with pimento cheese; smoky ham has a Coca-Cola glaze.

Hamburgers are grand. They are half-pound, hand-pattied Angus beef available topped with pimento cheese, bacon, and caramelized onions or as a “South by Southwest” variation that includes tobacco onion rings and chipotle BBQ sauce. Beef-frowners can have a blackened turkey burger with roasted garlic mayonnaise, onions, and provolone on a sweet potato roll.

A long roster of lunchtime sandwiches includes Reubens, thick-sliced bologna on a sweet potato bun, Cubans, French dips, catfish po boys, and chicken salad that includes cranberries and goat cheese.

Friends of the earth will likely be happy with Harvest House, where meals are described as eco-friendly. That means they are composed of “the freshest and least traveled (local) vegetables, proteins, and other ingredients.”