The Shelby Cafe, Shelby, North Carolina

I mentioned in my post on my breakfast at Mooresville Family House my infatuation with biscuit sandwiches, especially in North Carolina where I can get the fillings that are hard to find around Washington. It’s a virtual biscuit desert. So on this trip, I made a point of spending the night in Shelby, which is at the epicenter of Western North Carolina biscuit specialties. And no place has biscuit sandwiches like the Shelby Cafe.

It sits at 220 South Lafayette Street, just off the courthouse square. I walked in to a warm greeting from Beth, my server for the meal, who offered me my choice of seats, and handed me a menu, then sped off for coffee. The Shelby Cafe has a wonderful diner atmosphere. Bluegrass music from a local boy

and Old Time country play softly in the background with an occasional cousin like Otis Redding’s Dock of the Bay.

Beth came back with a smile and some coffee. Good coffee, as a matter of fact. I was, of course, hell-bent on breakfast biscuits, and Shelby is deep in the heart of livermush country.

Shelby has a livermush festival in October, on the 18th this year. Natalie Ramsey of Red Bridges will be one of the judges. Am I doing anything that weekend? Marion, just over a couple of mountains, also has a festival in June. Hmmm. I was excited to have a livermush biscuit in Shelby and, of course, a country ham biscuit. Here they are.

Beth looked like she was thinking, “The customer is always right, but that one … I don’t know,” as she set down my order. In Eastern North Carolina they talk about cat head biscuits, biscuits as large as a cat’s head, at places like Flo’s and Oak Level Cafe. The biscuits at the Shelby Cafe are somewhere past a Golden Retriever biscuit. And the amount of meat! I was stunned.

I stared at the platter a minute and thought, “He that hath no stomach for this fight/Let him depart.” I took a peek inside, girded my abdomen, and dug in.

First, the biscuits. They were light and fluffy and crumbly, delicious biscuits. I think they may have needed a little lard for structural integrity with all that meat, but they were fine, fine biscuits. Biscuit maven David Sanders would like one with butter, and maybe another with bacon, but I don’t know that he would finish them.

The ham was honest country ham, salty and rich as Croesus. Superb. And the livermush. Wow! The slab must have been a full inch thick. It had a magnificent crust and an almost silky interior. I repeat, Wow! It was so flavorful that I asked, for the first time anywhere, what brand it was. I’m not going to buy bulk livermush. I only eat breakfast occasionally, and Nancy doesn’t seem to want it around. But I’ve eaten enough to start asking about brands, just as I ventured on a Delaware Scrapple Tour to study different brands of scrapple. Also, this was so, so good, the best I’ve tasted. This particular livermush was a product of Frank C Corriher. So was the ham.

I finished all of the ham and livermush, but left some of the biscuit. Beth seemed impressed, and told me I’d done well. It was, indeed, a labor of love. I waddled out to my car and returned to the hotel, where Nancy was just finishing up at the gym.

I stress that you don’t need to like livermush or even country ham to love the Shelby Cafe. I saw a lot of good looking biscuits and gravy, bacon, sausage, and fluffy pancakes. They have it all, and every aspect of the place adds to your enjoyment of the meal. The music, Beth, the other customers, all sots of people being friends. It’s all good. If you get near Shelby, and Red Bridges is a great reason for an overnight trip, you really and truly want to go to the Shelby Cafe. Then walk around the courthouse square a few times. And remember to be on the lookout for Frank C. Corriher products.

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