WHITLEY CITY — Ever wished you could experience what life was like in the 1950s and even earlier?
There’s a place in McCreary County where that’s quite possible, and it doesn’t even require much imagination.
A fixture along US 27 in Whitley City, the Dairy Bar, complete with carhops, is little changed from the business started by the George P. Andersons in 1933.
With its brightly lit neon sign, colorful menu offerings drawn on the windows, and smell of fresh ground beef cooking on the grill, this has been “the place” to hang out for longer than most people can remember.
Despite being damaged by fire on two different occasions, it has risen from the ashes, serving up menu items basically unchanged for over 75 years.
Ironically, the last fire was in 1966, the same year the establishment’s present owner was born.
Mark Sewell and wife Sherry, both McCreary County natives, took over operations just two months ago.
A banker in the county for more than 23 years and pastor of the Lower Hickory Grove Baptist Church for 20, Mark says running the restaurant is a pleasant break from the corporate world.
“I still feel like I’m on vacation,” he says, noting he had “grown tired of the corporate mindset and stress.”
He credits Sherry with being “the driving force behind this business. She has always had an interest in doing this, and enjoys the atmosphere and waiting on people.”
Customers come from near and far, including Somerset, Lexington, and Knoxville.
“We even have one guy who makes the drive up from Oneida, Tennessee, on a regular basis,” says Mark.
Prior to buying the business, the Sewells were regulars also, dining at the Dairy Bar as often as three times per week.
Mark began coming to the restaurant as a child and estimates he has eaten “hundreds” of Dixie Whoppers, a double-decker burger with a special secret sauce “that has been the main menu item forever.”
The sauce recipe isn’t written down, but has been passed down from owner to owner through the years.
For many years, the business was operated by the Andersons’ son and daughter-in-law, the late Shoff and Pauline.
Pauline was a stickler for cleanliness, a tradition very much in evidence today with mirror-like floors, a soda fountain so shiny it gleams, and green vinyl-covered booths recently added along the front windows to compliment the old-time bar stools.
Mark is convinced there are few people in McCreary County who haven’t worked at the eatery in their youth.
The longest tenured employee, Shelby Genoe, a grill cook, has been here for 24 years, and her teenage daughter Brittany is a carhop.
As good as business is today, there was a period in 2003-2004 when things really boomed following publication of a blurb in Southern Living magazine.
The writer noted:
“A throwback to the fifties, this establishment serves the most amazing burgers around.
“Try the Dixie Whooper for $2.50; then opt for the broccoli poppers. Slurp it all down with a strawberry shake.
“Lunch time doesn’t get much better than this.”
You can’t get a king-sized Dixie Whooper for $2.50 anymore; it’s gone up a buck.
But Mark points out the price of a heaping helping of down-home southern hospitality remains the same.
“I like working where I know most of my customers on a first-name basis and providing a place where we can serve them at a reasonable cost.
“There’s more to life than making money.”
Now there’s advice worth taking to the bank.
•••
The author and award-winning columnist, Don White, is a Somerset native whose career path has taken him from his hometown daily to the Lexington Herald-Leader and two weeklies in Casey and Anderson counties.
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