Mrs. Rowe’s Family Restaurant

Review by: Michael Stern

Vintage Roadfood

Opened over in the tiny town of Goshen by the late Mildred Rowe in 1947 as a mom and pop barbecue café called Perk’s, this once-homey eatery has become a sprawling roadside enterprise. Its long-lasting fame and its location at the end of exit ramp #222 off I-81 attract crowds on busy travel weekends and customers often have to wait for a table. It’s well worth the wait if you seek southern comfort classics.

Even back in the 1970s, when we came across it while researching early Roadfood, it had grown into something more than a tucked-away little gem. But Mrs. Rowe was still in charge and the place glowed with her personality. Several years later, in 1998, reviewing it for Gourmet magazine, we wrote, “Mrs. Rowe’s is a reminder that the word restaurant refers to restoring one’s self, body and spirit… A visit with Mrs. Rowe is an encounter with a culinary life-force that makes the world go round.”

Still In The Family

Mildred Rowe passed away in 2003. Her restaurant remains in the family (now run by grandkids); and just because it has become a beacon for traveling hordes does not mean we’ve expunged it from the roster of good eats. For one thing, it really is convenient if one needs breakfast, lunch, or dinner just yards from the interstate. More important, it’s hard not to like the kitchen’s freshly-baked biscuits and sticky buns, crunchy fried chicken with mashed potatoes and/or mac ‘n’ cheese on the side, the pork chop and stewed apple plate, and pies of every stripe, including mince in the autumn.

At Mrs. Rowe’s, you eat a repertoire of dishes like you find in Cracker Barrel, but more genuinely country. A few forkfuls into Mrs. Rowe’s southern comfort classics and it becomes easy to drop any prejudice engendered by Mrs. Rowe’s conspicuous success.

Despite its tourist-attraction ambience, Mrs. Rowe’s maintains a staff who are sincere and never less than courteous.

What To Eat

Pork Chops

DISH
Mince Pie

DISH
Fried Chicken

DISH
Fried Apples

DISH
Sticky Bun

DISH
Hash Brown Casserole

DISH
Ham Biscuit

DISH
Banana Pudding

DISH

Mrs. Rowe’s Family Restaurant Recipes

Discuss

What do you think of Mrs. Rowe’s Family Restaurant?

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