Feature article
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Putting a new twist on tearoom fare
By Fred Sauceman
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| Robin Norris |
There’s no bologna sandwich on the menu at The Mustard Seed Café. But that doesn’t mean you can’t have one. Owner Robin Norris has built an extensive menu, but she’s not bound to it.
“I cook off the cuff,” she says.
Anchored amid some of the oldest businesses in Gate City, Virginia — Scott’s Jewelers, Hackney’s Furniture, Chris’ Department Store — The Mustard Seed Café is the talk of downtown.
June Presley, who retired after 40 years with the Kingsport Public Library, says she eats there three times a week, at least when she can find a parking place on Jackson Street.
“We’re all tickled to death that Robin has opened this,” June tells me over a Mustard Seed Sampler.
In a dining room painted the color of butterscotch pie, guests line up 10 to 12 deep at times, anticipating tearoom-style fare and lots of it.
Members of the Kingsport Kiwanis Club directed me to the Reuben sandwich, and I know of none better. The bread is a marble rye from New York, and it’s grilled. The corned beef is lean and thinly sliced. And Robin’s crowning touch is the addition of chipotle seasoning to the dressing.
Half a sandwich, salad, soup, and your choice of quiche or casserole or fruit make up the popular Mustard Seed Sampler. Soup choices include broccoli cheese, a thick potato, tomato Florentine, chili and even a chicken and dumpling soup, Robin’s playful creation with fresh dumplings, carrots, and celery.
Robin creates a free-form salad, often with surprises like fresh blackberries and cranberries. The Mustard Seed house salad dressing is a thick vinaigrette with poppy seeds, often augmented with blackberries or strawberries. June Presley gave me a sample of the lavender-colored blackberry, and it’ll be my dressing choice on the next visit.
At The Mustard Seed, there are no leftovers. All the dishes are prepared fresh every day.
“Our quiches are not heated in the microwave; they’re fresh out of the oven,” says Robin. “I can’t stand a piece of wet quiche.”
Robin applies the same inventiveness to her quiches as she does to her soups and salads. The chicken cranberry is a staple, and she also offers spinach, chicken fajita quiche, chicken and salsa, bacon cheddar, broccoli chicken and apple walnut.
And then there’s dessert. I’ve always believed that Scott County is the buckle of the caramel cake belt, and that’s the specialty of baker Jean Sloan, who’s been making them for 45 years. Originally from Kingsport, she even popularized caramel cake in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. After I polished off a sampler, Jean served me a multi-story slice of her coconut cake, the plate decorated with more blackberries. The cake, and the not-too-sweet icing, were so light I finished the serving easily.
Jean crafts country-style, skillet-fried apple and peach pies, too, her technique inherited from her mother, Lou Phillips.
A former residential counselor for the mentally ill, Robin opened The Mustard Seed Café in December 2005, alongside an antique shop once operated by her friend, the late Kathy Ervin. There’s an extra dining table among the antiques and alongside it a table you can sign with a Crayola marker, a tradition begun by the local National Guard unit.
“The way you’re treated in a restaurant means more than anything,” asserts Robin. “We’re good to people when they come in here. I enjoy sitting down with people and eating with them, sharing a bit of their lives. I’ve even been known to make a delivery on my way home.”
Mustard Seed Café
LOCATION: 136 East Jackson Street, Gate City, Virginia
PHONE: 276-386-3431
HOURS: Open Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
MISCELLANY: Checks, MasterCard, and Visa accepted
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Food writer Fred Sauceman, author of the book “The Place Setting: Timeless Tastes of the Mountain South — from Bright Hope to Frog Level,” is senior writer and executive assistant to the president for public affairs at East Tennessee State University. E-mail him at sauceman@etsu.edu
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