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Feature article
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Steak not Longbranch’s only claim to fame
By Fred Sauceman
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| Lynda Milam displays a selection of Longbranch steaks |
During drives on Highway 11-E between Johnson City and Greeneville, I watched The Longbranch evolve from convenience store to steakhouse.
Something told me this would be a good place to eat, an unassuming, locally-owned, roadside restaurant that promised steaks.
My optimism was soon grounded in the reality of ribeye, reinforced by filet, bolstered by breakfast and secured with sirloin.
The Longbranch is exactly the kind of working-class steakhouse this area has needed. But to label it a steakhouse is to ignore a Sunday slab of meatloaf. Or a bowl of soup beans on Wednesdays. Or a breakfast plate of eggs, grits, toast and tenderloin cooked by Mary Pavan and Teresa Williford.
Steve and Lynda Milam opened The Longbranch on April 25 of this year. They’ve operated Southeastern Contracting for 15 years, and when they first bought a former convenience store just below Jonesborough, they intended to make it an office for their company, but it was too much space.
“When we started working we had no idea about making it a restaurant,” says Lynda. “But the more we did, the better it looked.” They tinted a set of walls the color of paprika and painted another in a tone of molasses.
The Milams kept the name of the convenience store and then went about finding cowboy boot ash receptacles for the porch, horseshoes, and even the pelt of a Brindle Longhorn cow to create a Western theme.
“Everybody who comes in has to touch it,” says Lynda of the cowhide. “One guy thought it was a bear. Someone even asked if it was a groundhog.”
Foster Signs and Tri-City Glass teamed up to create the restaurant’s mural. It depicts a church and a neighboring jailhouse.
Behind the mural is a real-life bar, discreetly sealed off by itself — and indicative of the Milams’ effective use of space.
“One Sunday, we were so crowded, we fed 14 from a church back in the bar, but they didn’t seem to mind,” says the ever-smiling Lynda.
Longbranch Black Angus steaks and hamburgers are cooked expertly on a charcoal grill by James Goodrich, who mixes his own seasoning. He honed his skills at a chain steakhouse in Bristol.
Salads are made fresh, with real crumbled bacon and homemade ranch dressing. Sides range from the classic baked potato to a baked sweet potato with a brown sugar and cinnamon mix on the side to rice and seasoned French fries.
Scratch-made desserts include banana pudding, blackberry cobbler on Sundays, peanut butter pie, key lime pie, and peach cobbler.
The Longbranch serves three meals a day, seven days a week.
Before I knew the background, when I first spotted Steve in 10-gallon hat and cowboy boots, I wondered if the Milams were transplanted Texans. Then I learned that Lynda is from Sulphur Springs and Steve from Carter County.
Together they’ve built a first-rate steakhouse — in our book the top Tri-Cities area restaurant opening in 2007. We knew it from our first 16-ounce ribeye and our first cube of strawberry cake.
The Longbranch
LOCATION: 1976 Highway 11-E, Jonesborough, Tennessee
PHONE: (423) 788-0034
HOURS: Open 7 a.m.-11 p.m., Monday through Saturday;
7 a.m.-6 p.m., Sundays
--------GoTriCities--------
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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