Dollywoods Aunt Granny’s Restaurant Serves Good Eats

Dollywoods Aunt Granny’s Restaurant Serves Good Eats! Dollywoods Aunt Granny’s Restaurant partners with Lodge Manufacturing Company and announces new menu.

Dollywood’s Aunt Granny’s Restaurant has forged a new alliance and spruced up its menu. The popular Dollywood eatery and Tennessee-based Lodge Manufacturing Company, which crafts nostalgic cast-iron cookware, has teamed up to offer a buffet of mouth-watering ”vittles” served up home-style in the iconic cast iron cookware
Aunt Granny’s, which was recently awarded Amusement Today’s 2017 Golden Ticket Award for Best Theme Park Food, has revamped and expanded its menu to offer new favorites.

One addition, Stone Soup, harkens back to Dolly’s childhood when times were hard and food often scarce. In her cookbook, Dixie Fixins’, Dolly said “Sometimes I like to call this ‘rock consommé, but that’s just a fancy name for the soup Mama used to make out of what seemed like nothing.” Based on the fable of “Stone Soup” Dolly’s mom used what ever was on hand to make the soup. “We always had tomatoes put up, and of course, hocks from the pigs Daddy butchered, so they always went into the soup,” said Dolly. Other ingredients were supplied by the family garden and the hand-picked stone was added by one child “who needed special attention” recalled Dolly. Dolly also shared that her nieces and nephews gave her the special nickname “Aunt Granny.”

Dollywood Vice-President Phil Bernard has high praise for the restaurant’s new menu. “Dollywood is known for its quality southern food offerings, and a visit to the buffet at Aunty Granny’s certainly should be on the list for any foodie,” Bernard said.
Enhancing the focus on great Southern food and partnering with Lodge made good sense, said Mike Otterman, president of Lodge Manufacturing Company, “We are extremely excited about the collaboration between these two great Tennessee companies.”

Aunt Granny’s Restaurant, constructed in 1986 and located in Dollywood’s Rivertown Junction, in Pigeon Forge, has proved a favorite dining spot for guest. Its all-you-can-eat format offers a delightful selection of Southern favorites. Whether you grew up enjoying this type “vittles” or you are just a Johnny-come-lately to these regional gastronomic delights, you are sure to enjoy a visit to Aunt Granny’s.

The following recipe is courtesy of Aunt Granny’s.

Mama’s Stone Soup

2 quarts chicken stock (or canned broth)
1 lb. potatoes (peeled and diced)
1 14 oz. can diced tomatoes
1 small head of cabbage (chopped)
1 lb. turnips (peeled and diced)
2 large carrots (diced)
1 small onion (chopped)
4 garlic cloves (minced)
Ham hock
One very clean stone (optional)
Salt and Pepper to taste

Combine stock, potatoes, tomatoes, cabbage, turnips, carrots, onion garlic and ham hock in a large soup pot. Add stone and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally until soup is thick and vegetables are fork-tender (about 2 hours). Remove ham hock. Cut meat from bone and chop into half-inch pieces and return to soup. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Hey Dolly, soup’s on!

NOTE: The HeySmokies “culinary crew” likes this served with hot buttermilk cornbread, cooked, of course, in a Lodge cast-iron skillet.

Bonus Tip: Remember to remove the soup stone before consumption or you may become your dentists new best friend!