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The "Hillbilly Hide-a-way" draws them in from miles around

The long-standing Walnut Cove institution has cornered the market on family style country cooking.

WALNUT COVE, N.C. — Ask anyone in Walnut Cove or Stokes County where the best home-cooked meal is and they will all point to this place. The Hillbilly Hide-a-way was founded in the late 1970s by the Bray family and their story is incredible.

"Momma and Daddy started this with no restaurant experience at all," said owner Rosanna Jarvis, "Most weekends Daddy would play bluegrass and country with his band in the yard and momma would cook for nearly 100 people. Eventually, they said maybe we can make a living at this."

The Brays literally built the restaurant themselves and thanks to loyal patrons and a little ingenuity they survived for decades. Some of that early success was due to Mrs. Bray's ideas.

"Mom heard that the men that worked the late shift at the new Duke Energy plant had no place to eat dinner at 2 in the morning. So we started working 7 days a week and served 4 meals a day. One of those was a 2 am dinner for nearly 200 of the power plant workers. It worked," continued Jarvis.

And today they are only open Friday through Sunday but are still serving thousands a week.

"We still use my grandma's North Carolina southern recipes and we still serve it family style. You come into our restaurant and we bring out huge bowls of food for your table and everyone just spoons it out and when you're done we'll cart out more," laughed Jarvis.

She also said that when her customers leave she wants them to feel like they just left a relative's house for some "down-home cookin'"

The Hillbilly Hide-A-Way is located at 4375 Pine Hall Road in Walnut Cove.

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