Ross Bridge’s newest restaurant isn’t a hard concept to decipher. A Ross Bridge resident himself, Shelby Adams simply wants it serve the food his family and their neighbors want, their hometown fare if you will. By August he’s planning to open up for breakfast, lunch and pick-up dinners Tuesday to Saturday, with plans to potential add more days and hours later. The original concept was to have a dine-in option for breakfast and lunch, but that will likely start as pick-up only due to COVID-19. We chatted with him about the menu and more as he was preparing for opening day.
Can you tell us about your background in food and where the idea for Hometown Fare came from?
I have been in the restaurant business for over 20 years. When I was newly married, I wanted to not work nights, so we opened Icing on the Cookie in Homewood. We had one child, and then when my wife got pregnant with twins five years ago, we moved to Ross Bridge for more space. We love being here and living here and wanted to open something to benefit us as well as community.
What will y’all offer?
We will be a fast casual place for breakfast and lunch with afternoons focused on take-home dinners. We’ll have dinner items in the fridge: staples like lasagna and chicken pot pies, and our weekly menu will have four or five entrees that will be seasonally created. They will be composed dishes with braised meats and vegetables and sauces—cleaner and healthier foods. For example, I had some neighbors try a braised lamb with summer veggies and Israeli couscous and herb yogurt, and they loved it.
What’s on the breakfast menu?
We’ll have quick service with homemade biscuits with seasonal preserves as well as an assortment of scones, yogurt parfait with yogurt and fruit, and sous vide egg bites. We’ll also have shakshuka. It’s an egg dish with a tomato sauce with spice and smoke to it; you poach the eggs in it and serve with feta cheese and lime juice and cilantro. It’s a healthy way to start the day that I don’t know that you can get anywhere else in town.
What should we order for lunch?
Lunch will be soups, salads and sandwiches. Everything will change seasonally. The salads will be clean with good lettuces and vegetables and textures and vinaigrettes. Our peach salad has grilled peaches, candied pecans, goat cheese, grilled red onions, arugula and molasses vinaigrette. A cobb salad will stick around. In the summer we will have the best BLT I can have with heirloom tomatoes and our own basil aioli. Our pimento cheese will be sold in pints and on a sandwich that can be grilled. We will make our own aioli for it and use half olive oil and half rendered bacon fat, and we roast our own bell peppers and use the best cheddar and cream cheese. It is really good.
What else should people know about Hometown Fare?
In the evenings the space can be used for private gatherings and cooking classes. We have a chef’s counter with eight seats. We plan on doing Sunday suppers once a month family-style where you have one set menu and everyone gets the same thing.
