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New Southern Cuisine
Written By: Donna Rhodes | Issue: September - 2022
Local celebrity chef Sean Ruddy brings his all his culinary skills and creative instincts to his new Panthertown Café, 16614 Rosman Highway in Lake Toxaway. For more information, visit panthertowncafe.com.
Over the past couple years Lake Toxaway’s restaurantscene has been undergoing a gradual metamorphosis.A relatively recent arrival is the Panthertown Cafe,an inviting breakfast and lunch spot on Highway 64, handilylocated just one mile west of the Falls, close to the Panthertownwilderness area and Gorges State Park.With its log siding and welcoming front and side porchesthe quintessential mountain structure settles seamlessly intoits surroundings. Formerly known as The Grill at the Barn,the popular daytime eatery, had closed at the outset of thePandemic in March 2020. Shortly thereafter the idea of buyingthe spot took root with long time Lake Toxaway resident ChefSean Ruddy. It was, as it turned out, the perfect spot for Ruddyto “do his own thing.”Ruddy got his start in the restaurant business in Florida atage 15 working front of the house jobs at restaurants close tohome. With aspirations to ascend to management, he decidedto learn “back of the house” skills and fell in love with the artof cooking. After graduation from culinary school, he workedhis way through some of the better-known high-end kitchens,and fine dining restaurants in Florida and the Cayman Islandsbefore landing on the Plateau in 1997.Lured here by a summer job at a local country club, heinitially worked on the Plateau only seasonally, returningwinters to Florida. A few years later, as he explained, “Idecided to plant my roots here, I loved the area and the people,it was a good fit.” In the years since he’s held Executive Chefpositions at the Library Club, twice at The Greystone Inn, atHigh Hampton from 2011-2016 and again from 2017 till theyclosed for renovations in 2020.Now at Panthertown Café, Ruddy is cooking up the “newSouthern cuisine” that is his passion.Justifiably famous is his fried chicken – the preparation of whichis so exacting that its only cooked in the brief period betweenlunch and dinner when the restaurant closes. At lunch locals,hikers on a break and visitors all flock to the café for Southernspecialties – collard greens, special catfish preparations,homemade soups, and barbecue pulled pork doused in Ruddy’ssignature sauce (available for sale). In the mornings hungrydiners dig into house made biscuits with country gravy andscrumptious French Toast and Eggs Benedict and so much more.Panthertown Café is open for breakfast and lunch Tuesdaythrough Saturday. Visit panthertowncafe.com.
by Donna Rhodes
