Little Dutch Restaurant in Morristown

Last week Tom and I ate at Little Dutch Restaurant in Morristown. It was our new place of the week. We only have a short time left at Cumberland Gap National Historical Park. As usual when you don’t know when you will get back to a place, we are trying to hit up the highlights. We went for a last visit to White Pine Books (I wish I could transport that to Columbus!). And, on the way, Tom needed to stop by Home Depot in Morristown. Because of that, we decided to try a new restaurant in Morristown.

Little Dutch Restaurant has been located in downtown Morristown since 1939. It was opened by Frank and Mattie Lorino and run as the place for home-cooking in Morristown. Although Morristown has grown a lot since 1939, the restaurant has remained as a mainstay in downtown. George and Nina Angelos took over in 1973. Jamie and Kim Lambert bought the restaurant in 2019 and are continuing the traditions established long ago. They are proud to serve tasty, wholesome, home-cooked meals at a reasonable price.

Tom and I had a hard time finding a parking place in the lot next to the restaurant. The spaces were small and there were lots of cars already in it. The difficulty parking made us wonder how busy the restaurant was. Would we be able to get a table? As soon as we walked in, however, we could see it wouldn’t be a problem. The restaurant was busy, but there was plenty of open seating. Little Dutch Restaurant is a lot bigger inside than it looks from the outside. There were at least three large rooms with lots of tables in each.

Tom and I were seated in the middle room and took time to check out the fresh salad bar. It looked good, but Tom had already decided what he wanted. I had just had a chef salad the night before and was ready for something different. When our waitress came, Tom ordered a tuna salad sandwich with fries and I got the spaghetti with meat sauce. Our food came quickly and the service was excellent – our waitress struck just the right balance of attentive. She neither hovered nor ignored.

It took me a minute to get used to the sauce on my spaghetti. I was expecting something more tomato based, but this sauce had a base of beef broth. Once I adjusted, the spaghetti and the meat sauce were very good. Tom really liked his tuna salad sandwich. He felt it ranked in the top ten of tuna salad sandwiches.

One of the things they say to advertise the restaurant is “where the locals eat.” We saw that played out with a couple at a table in the room where we ate. I’m not sure who the man was, but he knew everyone who came in. He greeted them, chatted with them, and asked about their families. I think we were the only ones he didn’t talk to.

After our meal, Tom and I took a short drive to Panther Springs State Park to check it out. We had gorgeous views of Cherokee Lake from the overlooks. We had planned to take a hike but it was still really hot. The only trails we could find seemed steep and sunny. Instead, we enjoyed the view and put it on the list for another day.