Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2018 - 58
FLAVORS
The Cheese Chipper at The
Little Top owes much of its
flavor to a decades-old
slicing technique.
courtesy of the little top
courtesy of the little top
The Chipburger:
An Edible Reminder of a Town's History
"One of the finest sandwiches of the South" lives on as a son
presents his take on an East Tennessee favorite.
Story and photo by Fred Sauceman
I grew up between The Igloo and The Camelot
Room. A turn right out of our driveway led
to frozen custard. A turn left led to flamegrilled steaks.
The Greeneville, Tennessee, of my childhood years was a fascinating crossroads. The
Magnavox Company employed over 5,000 people then, and the city hosted one of the largest tobacco
markets in the world. There were no vacant storefronts
downtown, and parking spots, even on Saturdays, were
at a premium.
Burley tobacco and televisions fueled the economy
in this Northeast Tennessee town in the 1960s, where
my love for locally-owned restaurants began. It was the
Chuckwagon Steak Epoch. Every road-hugging restaurant in town had one on the menu, served with a sprig
of parsley-likely the only herb in the house. In the late
fall, when tobacco buyers flocked to town from all over
the South, those restaurants were packed.
58 BlueRidgeCountry.com
The Greene Villa, The Suburban, The Star and The
S&S all served chuckwagon steak, and all of them did it
about the same way, which was gravyless.
Meanwhile, downtown, Linton Boswell was stretching hamburger meat with milk-soaked bread, peppering it heavily, and frying it on a grill with an exhaust
fan that blew the aromas up and down Depot Street. A
few buildings away, Romie Britt was mixing beef stew
into soup beans, adding chopped onions, and calling it
Beans All the Way.
In this lost world, The Blue Circle served hundreds of
sliders a day. Ham's Drive-In accompanied every sandwich order with "free" fries, served on paper plates that
looked like wood grain. The Brumley Hotel downtown
served ethereal rolls and chicken gravy. The Friday night
fish fry at the local Holiday Inn was a social event.
When tobacco and televisions died away in Greeneville, so did most of those restaurants. But not all. Linton Boswell's hamburger technique survives at today's
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Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2018
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2018
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2018 - Intro
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2018 - Cover1
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2018 - Cover2
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2018 - 3
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2018 - 4
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2018 - 5
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2018 - 6
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2018 - 7
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2018 - 8
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2018 - 9
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2018 - 10
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2018 - 11
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2018 - 12
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2018 - 13
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2018 - 14
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2018 - 15
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2018 - 16
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2018 - 17
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2018 - 18
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2018 - 19
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2018 - 20
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2018 - 21
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2018 - 22
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2018 - 23
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2018 - 24
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2018 - 25
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2018 - 26
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2018 - 27
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2018 - 28
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2018 - 29
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2018 - 30
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2018 - 31
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2018 - 32
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2018 - 33
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2018 - 34
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2018 - 35
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2018 - 36
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2018 - 37
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2018 - 38
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2018 - 39
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2018 - 40
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2018 - 41
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2018 - 42
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2018 - 43
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Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2018 - 45
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Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2018 - 47
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2018 - 48
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2018 - 49
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2018 - 50
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2018 - 51
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2018 - 52
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2018 - 53
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2018 - 54
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2018 - 55
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2018 - 56
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2018 - 57
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2018 - 58
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2018 - 59
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2018 - 60
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2018 - 61
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2018 - 62
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2018 - 63
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2018 - 64
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2018 - 65
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2018 - 66
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2018 - Cover3
Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2018 - Cover4
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