Hunter’s Cafe

If your diet is kosher, halal, vegetarian, or vegan, move along. There is nothing for you to eat here. Other than string beans, most of what’s available even on a conceivably meatless four-vegetable plate is cooked with ham hocks. On the other hand, if you enjoy the taste of pork — the many, many tastes of pork — Hunter’s Cafe is heaven.

Breakfast is especially blessed. Yes, there are eggs, grits, Tater Tots, and biscuits, and they are fine; but the pigmeat choices are sensational. Most impressive of all is patty sausage, a slab of coarsely ground pork that radiates pepper flavor and perfumes the air with fetching spicy fragrance. Red links, which are hotter than country links, pack pepper punch, too; and the sausage gravy that tops biscuits will set your lips aglow. Country ham is rank and salty and needs a sharp knife — all of which makes it something wonderful in my book of breakfast favorites. How great are these meats? By comparison, the very good bacon that also is available seems staid.

There’s pork for lunch, as well, in the form of chops, neckbones (Thursday only), ribs and BBQ on Friday, and baked ham on Sunday. No-pig lunches include fried chicken, baked chicken, meat loaf, roast beef, lasagna, and Sunday turkey & dressing. Favorite desserts are banana pudding and peach cobbler that lolls in a pool of sweet syrup.

Hunter’s Cafe, which opened back in 1976, has moved a few times over the years but remains in the family of Doris Hunter. Service is cafeteria-style, and accommodations include booths and tables in a large, airy dining room. If you are looking for Southern Cooking Done Right (the house motto), this is where to find it.