Song & Hearth: A Southern Eatery

FOOD

Song & Hearth divides its offerings neatly between two meals. Breakfast is a broad Southern buffet with enough made-to-order activity to keep it from feeling like a hotel spread assembled only for convenience. The chef station builds omelets from bacon, ham, sausage, spinach, peppers, onions, tomatoes, cheeses and more, while the pancake station moves from buttermilk to chocolate chip and birthday-cake pancakes, with pearl-sugar waffles alongside them.

The rest of breakfast stays close to familiar Smoky Mountain comfort: scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage links, chicken-apple sausage, Southern breakfast potatoes, shredded hash browns, stone-ground grits, biscuits with sausage gravy, oatmeal, seasonal fruit, breads and pastries. It is the kind of selection that can serve two very different vacation mornings equally well – either a quick plate before the parks or a full sit-down breakfast that makes lunch optional.

Dinner has a stronger house identity. Dolly’s Stone Soup is the recurring starting point, tying the meal directly to the Parton family story and the way Dolly remembered her mother, Avie Lee, using a simple pot of soup to make a child feel special. Roasted garlic-and-cheddar biscuits arrive for the table, while the buffet keeps dependable anchors in rotation: DreamMore’s fried chicken, macaroni and cheese with cracker-crumb topping, vegetables and potatoes, homemade desserts, the famous donut wall, and a garden-and-seafood bar that regularly includes peel-and-eat shrimp.

The reason to check the calendar is that dinner changes meaningfully by day. Sunday leans deeply into Sunday-supper territory with slow-cooked pot roast, fried chicken with hot honey, smothered pork loin, fried catfish and brown-sugar-glazed ham. Monday brings shepherd’s pie, salmon with creamed spinach, barbecue pork loin and carved beef tri-tip. Tuesday shifts toward Nashville-hot fried chicken, apple-cider drumsticks, pan-seared salmon and sage-buttered turkey.

Midweek keeps the rotation from flattening out. Wednesday is especially Southern, pairing chicken and dumplings with pecan-crusted trout, beef stew and a sassafras-barbecue pork loin at the carving station. Thursday moves toward barbecue country: 12-hour smoked beef brisket is the carving centerpiece, backed by fried chicken with hot honey, Tuscan-style salmon and orzo, herb-crusted pork loin, broccoli casserole, succotash, collard greens and loaded grits with andouille sausage.

Friday is the premium Land and Sea buffet and the most seafood-forward night. New England clam chowder, fried cod, shrimp grillades over cheddar grits and seafood paella lead into a build-your-own seafood boil with mussels, clams, shrimp, andouille sausage, red potatoes and corn. Snow crab legs and peel-and-eat shrimp expand the chilled seafood side, while smoked Santa Maria steak and sage-roasted turkey keep the carving station substantial.

Saturday changes the emphasis again with the Prime Rib Family Buffet. Slow-roasted prime rib with au jus and horseradish cream is the obvious focus, joined by butter-roasted turkey, fried chicken, cornbread-and-pancetta-stuffed pork loin, pulled-pork sliders and salmon with lemon-dill sauce. Made-to-order dessert crepes with fruit, whipped cream, berries and chocolate-hazelnut drizzle give the night a more celebratory finish.

The rotation is the point: Song & Hearth is not one fixed Southern buffet repeated seven nights a week. Breakfast offers a consistent home-cooking foundation, while dinner gives visitors a reason to choose the night that best matches the craving – pot roast and catfish, brisket, seafood, or prime rib – without losing the restaurant’s through-line of biscuits, fried chicken, Stone Soup and generous Southern sides.