Miller’s Bread Basket

The best-known feature of America’s Anabaptist cuisine is its bakery repertoire, and on that score, Miller’s Bread Basket, which bills itself as a restaurant serving “Pennsylvania Dutch with a southern touch,” earns high marks. Rolls and breads are outstanding, their fresh-baked aroma permeating the Main Street storefront bakery/cafe. Fine fresh loaves, bags of buns, and whole pies are available for the take-home trade, but what will bring me back is meat-and-three lunch.

Getting one’s food is an interesting proposition. Towards the back of the airy restaurant is an area that looks like a buffet. But service is more cafeteria-style. In other words, customers do not help themselves. They peruse what’s available — it’s a beautiful array — and the server piles the food on plates. Entrees are classic hot-lunch fare: fried fish, meat balls, lasciviously moist fried chicken, and even moister meat loaf that is absolutely magnificent when topped with sweet stewed tomatoes. Side dishes have a more distinctly southern accent: fried okra, braised cabbage, plush mac ‘n’ cheese, broccoli-rice casserole (a must-eat!). Ice tea and lemonade are dispensed at a separate station in the dining room. Tote your own food to a table.

Choose dessert from a wide selection of pies and cakes that reflect both Amish and Dixie taste, from shoofly pie and coconut cream pie to apple crisp and cheesecake with cherry topping.

Miller’s is a welcoming place. Operating-room clean and staffed with guys and gals who are genuinely helpful and always polite, it is an unexpected treasure in South Carolina’s Barnwell County.