‘I want The Local to be around a long time, even after I am gone’- Carla Bolton, owner.

TOP PHOTO: Come for the home cooking at The Local and stay for the desserts!

LAFOLLETTE, TN (SPECIAL TO WLAF) – LaFollette restaurant The Local will be featured on America’s Best Restaurants (ABR) in late January. The ABR Road Show will be heading to Campbell County to spend a couple of hours at the eatery and focus on showcasing popular dishes.

Campbell County native and owner Carla Bolton said she is “excited and nervous” about the visit, but hopes to showcase some of her restaurant’s signature dishes for the national audience to check out.

Bolton serves up home cooked meals and local favorites like the Monster Burger, Chicken and Waffles, meatloaf and mashed potatoes and more, but when it comes to picking the top three to showcase on America’s Best Restaurants, she’s still trying to decide. 

America’s Best Restaurants  is a national media and marketing company “focusing on bringing attention to local, independently-owned restaurants.” It will bring its ABR Roadshow to the restaurant on January 31st. During the visit, “popular dishes will be highlighted, along with an extensive on-camera interview with owner Carla Bolton about the restaurant’s special place in the community. The episode will be aired extensively on social media channels at a later date,” according to an ABR press release.

Enjoy the large selection of delicious food at The Local.

The Local was opened in September 2017 by a friend of Bolton’s who also owned a restaurant in Knoxville. Bolton helped with the process and then three months later, Bolton purchased the business.

“It basically fell into my lap and with a lot of trial and error, I’m still here and so glad to be serving the community the past six years,” Bolton said.

Bolton said she reached out to ABR about being featured after someone tagged her on Facebook about them. After she did several interviews with representatives at ABR, someone involved with the Kentucky-based show realized he had visited Campbell County and Norris Lake and had, in fact, actually eaten at The Local while he visited. 

Bolton said she was interested in being “showcased on the show to increase her overall sales by bringing more attention to the restaurant and that she values longevity in the community.” 

Gravy, considered a beverage in Tennessee, is the best around at The Local.

“I want The Local to be around a long time, even after I am gone, I want it to still be a place for the community to come and eat and gather,” Bolton said.

Bolton has been in the restaurant business and retail management her whole life. She grew up in Stinking Creek and her parents had a little country store on the side of the road when she was a teenager.

“I was up at 5 am cooking biscuits for the guys going to work in the coal mines, you could say it’s in my blood,” Bolton said.

Bolton said she and her employees want to give back to the community that they are a part of and often participate in local fundraisers like ‘Tip A Cop’  which helped bring the Special Olympics back to Campbell County. She also tries to donate to area schools and even held a Feed the Teachers event on the first day back to school.

The Local features a variety of scrumptious hamburgers.

“This is our home, and we want to be community minded. If it wasn’t for the customers and the community, we wouldn’t be here,” Bolton said, adding that she wanted to say a big thank you to all of her customers for their support over the years.

According to Bolton, popular menu items that might be featured on the episode include, sandwiches such as the turkey melt or Sweet Heat chicken sandwich, and the Monster Burger, with two patties, bacon and cheese. The Local also offers daily specials through the week, with Bolton doing all the home cooked specials herself.

America’s Best Restaurants will be filming on location on Wednesday, January 31st. The restaurant’s finished episode premiere date will be announced on their Facebook page and will be featured on America’s Best Restaurants’ website. 

Restaurants featured on the ABR Roadshow are found through customer nominations or by a restaurant applying to be featured at at this website. 

About The Local: Open Monday through Saturday, The Local is located at 2303 Jacksboro Pike, LaFollette TN 37766. Telephone is (423) 377-3330. For more information visit HERE. You can also check them out on Facebook! (WLAF NEWS PUBLISHED – 01/22/2024-6AM-PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE LOCAL)

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