Blue Ridge Parkway Chooses Restaurant Operator

The National Park Service has chosen a company with restaurants in Winston-Salem and Sparta to reopen a historic restaurant on the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Muddy Creek Enterprises, owners of the Muddy Creek Café & Music Hall, will operate The Bluffs Restaurant under an agreement with the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation. The restaurant, at Parkway Milepost 241 in Doughton Park, is slated to reopen this summer, the Foundation says.

The Bluffs originally opened in 1949 and was the first of what would be only four restaurants ever opened on the Parkway. The former coffee shop closed in 2010.

“For 60 years, Bluffs Coffee Shop remained a favorite destination for travelers as well as community members, who came for the pan-fried chicken, ham biscuits and friendly service,” the Foundation said in an earlier statement. “The restaurant served as an economic engine for Alleghany County and nearby towns, including Sparta.”

Doughton Park is at MP 239-245, about 20 minutes south of Sparta, N.C.

Additional restaurants currently operating on the Parkway in North Carolina are Sally Mae’s in the Northwest Trading Post building at MP 258.7 near Glendale Springs and the restaurant at the Pisgah Inn, south of Asheville at MP 408.8

When the concessionaire operating Bluffs Coffee Shop declined to renew its contract, others declined because of the cost of repairs the facility required.

Renovations have included replacement of the roof, new kitchen equipment, HVAC, plumbing and electrical systems, and remediation of mold that developed while the structure was unoccupied.

Interior fixtures and design upgrades were selected to replicate the original look and feel of the restaurant, the Foundation says.

Muddy Creek Cafe offers sandwiches, salads, soups and sides at its location in Old Salem, and adds burgers, dinner entrees and desserts to the menu in Sparta. The Muddy Creek location in Sparta gets an average of 4.5 stars out of five from 10 reviews on Yelp. Muddy Creek in Winston-Salem gets an average of 3.5 stars from 28 reviews on Yelp.

Doughton Park also offers a visitor center and book store (adjacent to the restaurant), campground, picnic area, hiking and bridle trails, and an interpretive site at Brinegar Cabin. Bluffs Lodge at the park remains closed.