Foothills Milling Café brings chef's touch to lunchtime offshoot | Grub Scout

If a restaurant’s name starts with the words “Foothills” and “Milling,” I probably won’t pass up a chance to try it. I reviewed Foothills Milling Company at its original Wears Valley location and its current downtown Maryville site. I also visited the two incarnations of the on-and-off Foothills Milling Bakery, which had a standalone presence in Maryville’s Five Points area and later operated as a pop-up at the main restaurant during the pandemic.

The newest iteration of the brand, Foothills Milling Café, was — like its bakery predecessors — designed for lunch service. Last week, The Grub Spouse and I set our navigation for the café’s advertised location, in a standalone building just a half-block from Foothills Milling Company. However, when we arrived, the place was deserted, despite the fact that my Google search indicated that it was open.

We walked up the hill to the main restaurant to learn that the new building hasn’t been occupied yet; for now, all meals are carryout only and prepared in the Foothills Milling Company kitchen. That left us no choice, really, but to place our orders via website and hang around until they were ready.

The menu is built around salads, soups and sandwiches, but perusing the menu left us hopeful about how a restaurant that has historically excelled at dinner might treat more conventional midday fare. Salads include a Caesar as well as mixed greens with fried okra. Chicken noodle and whiskey chili are among the soups. I decided to order the gluten-free she crab soup ($6).

Sandwiches account for most of the menu’s options. We spotted items like bologna and truffle cheese, Benton’s bacon pimento cheese, the Foothills Muffuletta, a prosciutto grilled cheese and the “HBC” Sandwich: shaved black forest ham, Benton’s bacon, sharp white cheddar cheese, a farm egg over easy, arugula, house-made poblano cream sauce and Duke’s mayo on a grilled Kaiser bun.

I got the Southwest turkey ($12), made with turkey breast, pepper jack cheese and Benton’s bacon and topped with cilantro pesto, roasted tomatoes and chili aioli — all on sweet sourdough bread. It’s panini-pressed and served with mustard slaw and a pickle spear. The Spouse got the Italian ham ($11). That’s made with honey-cured ham, provolone cheese, roasted tomatoes, basil pesto, Calabrian peppers, mayo and arugula. It’s also served on sourdough and accompanied by slaw and pickle.

The menu presents several vegan and gluten-free options as well as sourdough and focaccia breads to go. For dessert, we saw a molasses cookie, chocolate meringue cookie and buttermilk pie, but we ordered the blackberry streusel cobbler ($8).

I ordered around 11:20, and the website indicated my pickup time would be around 12:15. The Spouse and I killed some time walking the nearby Maryville Greenway, but the restaurant called us at 11:55 to tell us our food was ready. Despite the misunderstanding regarding the café’s current location and other ordering-related hiccups, the staff went out of their way to accommodate us. They offered to make the call when our order was ready for pickup, and when an on-duty employee overheard us talking of taking our food to a nearby park, she offered to let us dine (unsanctioned) on the front patio. She even wiped pollen from the tables and served us beverages.

Back to the food. No surprises here, but everything was excellent. The she crab soup was rich and dense, brimming with crab flavor and accented with a splash of sherry. Both sandwiches were fantastic: The breads were fresh, the meats were thickly layered and flavorful, and ingredients like the pesto and tomato really elevated these creations from pedestrian to stellar. They were generous in portion as well, so much so that a half-sandwich plus the small side of slaw and pickle spear made a sufficient meal for us both.

Going halvsies also left room for our dessert, which was packaged in multiple containers — one for the hot blackberries and streusel, one for the scoop of vanilla ice cream and one for the caramel sauce that topped it all. By the way, the cobbler was out of this world.

Honestly, given how pricey the dinner menu is at Foothills Milling Company, I was surprised at what a great value this meal was. The prices are on par with or perhaps even a little lower than what many restaurants are currently charging for sandwiches of much lesser quality.

Naturally, I’m going to recommend Foothills Milling Bakery as a lunchtime option. Is it worth the drive from Knoxville? Perhaps. But I think it’s a must-try for Blount County residents, although they should be aware that this business is not yet in its permanent location. Until then — and certainly at that point — guests are in for a sandwich experience that’s anything but run of the mill.

Foothills Milling Cafe

Food: 4.5

Service: 4.25

Atmosphere: NA

Overall: 4.5

Address: Currently, 315 S. Washington St., Maryville; eventually, 612 Sevierville Road, Maryville

Phone: Currently, 865-977-8434; eventually, 865-980-8013

No alcohol service

Hours: 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday

This lunch-service offshoot of a well-respected Maryville restaurant serves soups, salads, sandwiches and more with a chef’s touch.

This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Foothills Milling Cafe in Maryville brings chef's touch to lunchtime