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Dining and Shopping

commissary

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Harrow Road Cafe

Several young Englishman started a cafe on Rugby’s Harrow Road in 1882.  According to the village newpaper, “a capital Welsh Rarebit” could be had.  Visitors and lodgers today can still enjoy Welsh Rarebit, one of many choices on a daily lunch menu which features Cumberland Plateau home cooking and British Isles specialities.  Shepherd’s Pie, Fish & Chips and Bangers & Mash compete for your attention with daily specials such as meatloaf, grilled chicken and deepfried catfish.  Other fare includes homemade soups and desserts, sandwiches and salads, and our much loved Harrow CafeRoad Spoon Rolls.   Delicious full breakfasts are available daily; dinner by lamplight is served on Friday and Saturday evenings.

Today’s Harrow Road Cafe was built in 1985 to conform to Rugby’s historic architecture.  Each woodbeamed dining room has woodburning fireplaces for winter and plenty of working windows to let in the Plateau breezes in warmer seasons.  The cafe seats 80 and is a favorite spot for special group meals. The four-course meals served during Christmas At Rugby and the New Year’s Day Brunch have become regional traditions.

HARROW ROAD CAFE HOURS:

8:00 a.m. to 6:00 Sunday - Thursday
8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Friday & Saturday
(9:00 - 4:00 Daily in January and February)
EASTERN TIME

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Harrow Road Spoon Rolls
(Makes Approximately 2 dozen)
4 cups self-rising flour, sifted 2 tablespoons cornmeal
1/4 cup sugar 1 egg, beaten
2 1/4 cups lukewarm water 1 T. dried yeast
2/3 cup melted margarine or butter

Add yeast to lukewarm water and stir. Mix together beaten eggs, sugar and melted margarine. Add yeast mixture. Then add self-rising flour and cornmeal and mix by hand with wire whisk until well-blended. DO NOT BEAT WITH ELECTRIC MIXER. Spoon into greased muffin tins. Bake at 400 degrees for 10-15 minutes. Dough can be kept covered with foil in refrigerator - it gets better with age.

Rugby Commissary

Rugby’s original Commissary was built in 1881 and operated on a cooperative basis in the early years, as Thomas Hughes had hoped. Here both colonists and commpost.jpg (24330 bytes)visitors found many of the wares needed to “begin life anew” in the Tennessee wilderness. Commissary ads such as this one from an early Rugby newspaper touted “merchandise of nearly every description at lowest market prices - dry & fancy goods, boots & shoes of all grades, crockery and glassware, woodware, tinware, farming implements and a full line of groceries.” The Commissary was torn down in the 1930’s.commisint.jpg (20096 bytes)

Today, the historically reconstructed Commissary holds a treasure trove of traditional handcrafts made by dozens of area artisans; British Isles foods, games and prints; Rugby and area history and travel books; Victoriana of every description and much more.

Board of Aid to Land Ownership

Next door to the Commissary, Historic Rugby has reconstructed the Board of BofAsm.jpg (14787 bytes)Aid to Land Ownership building.  It's now home to Spirit of Red Hill Nature & Oddiments on the first floor and the Rugby Archive & Research Centre on the second. Red Hill proprietor Donna Heffner specializes in beautiful nature paintings on paper and on home grown gourds.

The original Board of Aid was the first destination for incoming colonists.  Here they could buy or lease land and find temporary homes and agricultural training opportunities.  It burned in 1976 and was historically reconstructed in 1987.