Just a few minutes up the road from Pigeon Forge, Applewood Farmhouse holds the title as the oldest restaurant in Sevierville, and you’ll feel the history as you drive up to the homey, farmhouse-style buildings. Once a working farm with Revolutionary War roots, Applewood now boasts two restaurants. The original Applewood Farmhouse Restaurant occupies the old farmhouse on the property (renovated many times over since its first days, of course), and Applewood Farmhouse Grill was built just up the road to accommodate even more guests as Farmhouse popularity grew.
Images courtesy of Applewood Farmhouse Restaurant
You’ll also find the Apple Barn Cider House on the same property, where you can sample various delicious apple hard cider varieties brewed on site, and explore a carefully curated gift shop. The Restaurant or the Grill will make just as many memories, though, from the moment servers place a steaming basket of apple fritters on your plate – which is right before you even get started.
Those homemade apple fritters come standard with breakfast, lunch, or dinner, served up as frequently as most places serve bread. Many visitors say they’d come back just for those perfectly spiced, crispy balls of apple goodness, but the rest of the menu can hold its own, and then some.
Farmhouse Restaurant menu favorites run the gamut of Southern-style staples. Come for breakfast, lunch, dinner, or Sunday brunch, and expect excellence, whether you choose Biscuits Benedict or fried catfish. The pot pie, old-fashioned chicken and dumplings, and country fried chicken with gravy are all favorites that keep locals and visitors coming back again and again, but you’ll also find lighter options like Cajun grilled catfish, roast turkey, as well as excellent soups and salads.
The sides might be the best part of each meal. Rich, hearty homemade soups, salads, sweet potato casserole, and fried okra top the list of favorites. Each meal also comes with Applewood julep, cinnamon muffins or fritters, and homemade apple butter. If you need a hearty plate of comfort food in your life, this is the spot.
Save room for dessert, for sure. Try the homemade apple pie with house-made, homemade vanilla ice cream. If you’re a fan of apple pie, you’ll love this home-grown iteration. The banana pudding and peanut butter chocolate chip pie are also powerful contenders.
The Farmhouse Grill a couple of blocks away serves up many of the same favorites as the original restaurant. The menu is a lighter selection with a few unique tastes of its own, and it offers up an impressive array of options. It’s often a bit faster to get in and out of this place to if you’re in a hurry to get out the door for a day of exploring Sevierville, or to see all the things available in this Apple Valley grouping.
You’ll find Applewood Farmhouse Restaurant nestled on (surprise!) Apple Valley Road, just beside a bend in the Little Pigeon River. It’s easy to access either from Pigeon Forge down the road, or from the heart of Sevierville, just south of the Sevierville Tangier Outlets center. There’s plenty of parking even during the busiest seasons, and the whole Applewood conglomeration is worth a stroll through..
Insider tip: in the Restaurant, ask to sit in the sun porch room when you arrive. The atmosphere is a bit quieter and more intimate, and expansive windows offer lovely natural light and views of the trees outside.
Useful Information
Applewood Farmhouse Restaurant
240 Apple Valley Rd, Sevierville, TN 37862
Tel: (865) 428.1222
Web: applewoodfarmhouserestaurant.com
Applewood Farmhouse Grill
220 Apple Valley Rd., Sevierville, TN 37862
Tel: (865) 429.8644
All the Apple Valley Establishments
The Apple Valley riverside enclave contains several places to know about. As the map below shows, in strolling distance between the Restaurant and the Grill are a number of establishments. Connected in one sprawling building are the Apple Barn Cider House, with its Cider Bar next door for sampling on site, as well as the General Store with all good things to purchase.
Included here too is the Candy Shop, where the kids can go crazy watching hundreds of different confections being made. And the Apple Valley Creamery is here too, which we include in our short list of the Best Ice Cream in the area. Lots of reasons to linger here.
Next door to this is the Apple Barn Winery, part of the Wine Trail in the area (as well as the Cider House, by the way), and vintner of some unique apple and berry wines, including the famous Southern sweet wines, and others from the region. Right next door to this is the Christmas and Candle Shop.
So it’s quite the exploration to visit here – be prepared to browse, to sample, to shop – and to refuel at either of the fine restaurants flanking the spread. And then maybe take a stroll along the riverbank and admire the lovely view.
