July 16, 2011 One of the restaurants at The Homestead, the Casino Club is one of the more casual restaurants on the property. You won't find the jacket and tie formality here that the Main Dining Room or 1766 offer. You will find a fun, casual place to have a meal.

This will be different than our usual reviews. Think of this review as a mini-review. We were with other folks, and the camera seemed a little out of place for the occasion.

We arrived and looked over the menu. Someone stumped the server with a question about the fish soup on the menu. Rather than sling some story, he admitted he did not know much about the soup, and ran off to get us more information. He came back with the best kind of information: little cups of soup for everyone at the table to sample. We tried the soup and all I can say is this: the soup sold itself. I decided that soup would be my appetizer after that delicious taste. I then settled on the turkey pot pie for dinner.

I'll skip over the soup and get right to the turkey pot pie. I am not much of a turkey pot pie guy, but this meal might have changed my mind. It was creamy, with a great mix of vegetables and turkey. The pastry was a perfect compliment to the entire dish.

We finished the meal off with a piece of cheesecake. I would suggest you try one of the other deserts instead as the cheesecake is just average.

We found this to be a great place for a casual meal at The Homestead.

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July 14, 2011 We have read about Mrs. Rowe's in several different publications, and decided it was a must try while we were on vacation. They are famous for their breakfasts, so we decided to stop in and give an early morning meal a try.

The first thing we noticed when we stopped in is how unassuming the place is. One would think that a place called "One of the Best Breakfasts in the South" would be a little more pretentious, but Mrs. Rowe's looks like many other restaurant's one drives by on vacation.

We sat down and took a look at the menu. It was a traditional, straightforward kind of menu. Daily egg specials, omelets, that sort of fare. Mrs. Alphageek settled on the Two Eggs with Country Ham (the special that day), while I decided on the He Man breakfast, which is an omelet with steak and potatoes inside.

We ordered some coffee, and we need a quick word about the coffee. The Alphageek likes his coffee. It has to be good coffee. They serve Mawell House coffee here, which just does not get it done for the Alphageek. If you don't really care about your coffee, you will be fine. If you do care about your coffee, stick with the iced tea, which I overheard another table raving about.

Our food arrived quickly, Mrs. Alphageek's dish was dwarfed by the ham steak that was on it, as you can see below. I tried a little of the ham, and it was great southern cured ham. Mrs. Alphageek seemed to like it, even though she likes a thinner slice of ham for breakfast.

Ham steak, and eggs (click to enlarge)

My meal, pictured below, was a study of simple but great food. While you can't see it, the omelet was stuffed with perfectly cooked potatoes, steak and cheese. It was as good an omelet as I have ever had, and I may make Mrs. Alphageek go back sometime, so I can get another one. The apples made for a great side dish and were not too sweet, like one often finds these days.

He Man Omelet (click to enlarge)

We left with the question, is this one of the best breakfasts I have ever had? This is a tough question to answer. I can say this: I thought the omelet was exceptional, so I can't contradict those who rank this as one of the best breakfast places in the South. I would just get the iced tea next time.

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Casino Club Restaurant

Mrs. Rowe's Family Restaurant