Mountaintop Meal Stop

WINSLOW — Resist the temptation to head straight for the table full of pies.

Hit the pie first, and you’ll miss some of the best - and highest-altitude - cooking in the Ozarks.

The motto at Grandma’s House Cafe is simple. Made from scratch, good simple cooking. You know it’s the truth when Elaine Bowline, who co-owns the restaurant with husband Jerry, sits down to talk still covered in flour after a Friday lunch rush.

“We’ve owned the place six years, and other than adding on to the building, not a lot has ever changed,” Bowline says. “We just want to serve good food, and the customers appreciate that. I really think if it wasn’t for the homemade pies and rolls, we wouldn’t still be in business.”

The restaurant is bigger than it first appears, with seating for about 100 folks inside. A back deck can seat about 30 more, but it still needs repair after a spring storm. A quick tip, as the leaves are falling: If you can’t get out on the deck, grab your plate from the buffet and try for a table in back. The views off the mountain are spectacular.

Grandma’s House is open only four days a week, offering breakfast and lunch, both buffet style and off the menu, Thursday through Saturday, and a buffet-only lunch on Sunday.

With a location on U.S. 71, Bowline figured the customer base would be mostly local.

Grandma’s House opened in 2004, several years after I-540 diverted most traffic off the old highway. It was a different scenario than the one Ernestine Shepherd, Bowline’s mother, dealt with when she owned the restaurant, then named the Bluebird House Cafe.

“It turns out probably 75 percent of people aren’t from this area. We were amazed by that,” Bowline says. “One of the things we did change was based on some of the utility workers, road department guys and other workers who came in. They seemed intimidated eating on the white linen tablecloths, so we took them off some of the tables.”

There’s every reason to fill up at the buffet, but do save some room for the pies. You name a flavor, chances are Bowline can make it, and the daily selection is always diverse, from chocolate to cherry to key lime.