Restaurant guide

Seven years ago today (which was most definitely a snow day), Ron had to enlist Jennifer’s help in the kitchen. 😂

Merry Christmas from all of us! May this amazing baby always be your focus!

***NEW SUPPLY*** "Remembering The Mountain Lodge Restaurant." These are replicas of their dry erase marker cups that were on the tables for folks to draw with. I have added the start and end years to their logo which is hand drawn on the side. Available in the Lodges favorite cobalt blue color. $22 each plus $8 per cup for shipping. Ordering info: http://www.buiepottery.com/item/Mountain-Lodge-Commemorative-Mug-229

Thank you to everyone who came out to our Souper Fundraiser last Sunday. Thank you also to everyone that helped. We were blessed to raise $14,000 for the First Baptist Youth Building! If you didn't get a chance to donate and you would like to, you can send your donation directly to the church.

TODAY! 11:30-1:30 at First Baptist Church of Gatlinburg. You can get Ron's cream of chicken soup or vegetable soup, and a grilled cheese. Donations will be accepted for a new youth building. We're looking forward to seeing everyone!

Only a few more days. Who is coming???

Are you ready for SOUPER BOWL SUNDAY February 5th??? Come on over any time between 11:30-1:30 to First Baptist Church Gatlinburg (bottom entrance) for Ron's Famous Cream of Chicken Soup or Vegetable Soup, Grilled Cheese, and his homemade Banana Pudding for dessert. We will be accepting donations for the First Baptist Youth building that was destroyed in the Gatlinburg fire. The only thing you need to do is text how many people are in your party to 8656074362 to help us know how many to prepare for. We are looking forward to serving you and your family and enjoying all the great fellowship!

We've had several inquiries from customers that are craving the Country Ham that we served for years at the Mountain Lodge and we want to make sure that you know that we PROUDLY served Benton's famous Country Ham. Just give Allen Benton a call and tell them you want the same Ham that Mountain Lodge served for 28 years. Also if you haven't tried their world famous bacon it is a MUST to add to your order!

The ONLY items that survived the fire were a few of these pottery pieces. Buie has graciously agreed to make some and sell them for $22 with a portion of the proceeds going to relief efforts. Stop by her store or contact her through her website (www.BuiePottery.com). #SmokiesStrong #MountainTough

Dear Friends, It’s taken several weeks for us to absorb all that’s happened since the fires on Monday, November 28. In the midst of crisis and chaos, we have been keenly aware of your care and concern, even when we were unable to respond personally or publicly. We hope you know how much we appreciate your cards, emails, phone calls, prayers, and personal conversations. We have been overwhelmed with love and kindness and have struggled to formulate an appropriate answer. Sometimes we have been unable to respond and our daughters have stepped in to speak for us. We are so grateful for their eloquence on facebook and in other social media outlets and for the stories they have shared about growing up at The Mountain Lodge. Although it’s hard for many of you to comprehend, we had already begun planning for our retirement, seeking the best way to end our professional life through the Mountain Lodge. Ending in such a tragic and unexpected way was not our plan, but we nevertheless feel that this is the right time for us to complete our work and begin a new chapter in our lives. There is no way to tell you how much it has meant to us to live and work in Gatlinburg, to know the locals and serve them on a daily basis, to meet visitors from around the country and around the world as they came to see our beautiful Smoky Mountains and taste the local “cuisine.” We loved hiring local kids to work in our restaurant and we came to love each of them and their families, watching them grow into adulthood alongside our own four daughters. The Mountain Lodge was more than a business for us and we know that it was for you, as well. We want to share with all of you how miraculous the last four weeks have been even in the midst of grief and loss. The outpouring of generosity from friends, family, and customers has enabled us to provide ongoing support for our wonderful employees. Like us, their lives were turned upside down with the loss of the restaurant, and after our initial shock they were our primary concern. As already noted, we were preparing to retire—they were not! Your generosity has provided some breathing room for each one of them in the form of a couple of months’ salary as they seek new employment. Thanks to friends and colleagues of our daughters Natasha and Whitney, each employee was adopted in our own “angel tree” project so that Christmas gift lists have been fulfilled and delivered. Thanks to the generosity of Steve Payne at MainStay Suites in Pigeon Forge and the generosity of long time customers Mark and Sandy McCown, we were able to have our annual Mountain Lodge Christmas party for our employees and their families. This year was especially emotional for a variety of reasons—while we experienced deep grief and loss, we were incredibly blessed to see each employee receive so much kindness and support. All of this was evidence again that the most important things in life cannot be destroyed by fire and flames. Blessings beyond measure have been showered upon us in these last few weeks and we are so grateful that many of you were the answers to our prayers. We have watched our friends and family, especially our own exceptional daughters and their spouses and children, rise to meet challenge after challenge with grace and dignity. We are so proud to part of this mountain strong community where we have been loved so sweetly. Even though the Mountain Lodge is gone, nothing can erase the precious memories we have of our years ministering through our restaurant. Some of you dined with us every day that we were open, others weekly, and others whenever you visited Gatlinburg each season or each year. We watched our kids and grandkids grow up in the Lodge right alongside your kids and grandkids. We laughed and cried with you, celebrated your accomplishments and joys, grieved your losses and disappointments. Nothing made us happier than for a customer to say, “I feel like I’m home when I sit down to eat at the Lodge.” Nothing brought a tear to our eyes quicker than to hear someone taste our food and say, “That tastes just like my mom used to make” (or grandmother or wife—you get the picture). We were especially humbled when one of you would tell us, “I love coming to the Mountain Lodge, I always feel God here.” We have spent our lives praying that we would be able to glorify God in all that we do and we have tried to live by the challenge of Colossians 3:17 “Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” In the days following the fire, when we were finally allowed to return to the restaurant, we walked through the ashes to begin to wrap our minds around what had happened. Many of you experienced that same need for reorientation as you were allowed back into our city, seeing the devastation for the first time in person. Many of you, like us, looked for some signs of the life we had known in that place. Not much remains in many of the burned out homes and businesses, but we were able to find beauty in the ashes. We found many pieces of the Buie pottery that had been on each table in the Mountain Lodge. We rescued as many pieces as we could, knowing that our family and our employees would want these bowls that held the dry erase makers so many children enjoyed as they waited for their food to be served. Buie has graciously agreed to make more as needed. Please keep looking on our facebook page for information on how you can have a commemorative piece of her pottery as a tangible reminder of the Mountain Lodge. If you know our family, you may know that Natasha uses the hashtag “beyondblessed” on all her facebook posts. We can’t think of a better way to summarize all that has happened in our twenty-eight years at the Mountain Lodge and especially in the last three weeks. We have experienced blessing after blessing and we have been reminded again and again that life is a gift to be treasured. Are we grieving the loss of the place we loved and the people we served for so much of our lives? Of course we are, but given the choice of experiencing this terrible loss or never having had those wonderful years together with all of you, we would take the loss again and again. We have been beyond blessed in living with you all and loving our life here. So, what’s next? Christmas is only a few days away and we will celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ with our family and our church family. After the holidays, we will take some time for travel and rest. Then, we will make some choices about where to focus our energies but our primary concerns will continue to be our children, our grandchildren, and our church. We look forward to a new year with new possibilities and new adventures. Ron and Jennifer

❤❤❤

It was a bit emotional but super fun to see everyone

We are in the process right now of setting up a Gofundme account for our employees. Thank you for your continued support and prayers.

Watch the Weather Channel at 8:10 this morning for an interview about our amazing story!

We love you Jon Roebuck!

Heart breaking

Ron and Jennifer are safe and they would like everyone to know how grateful that they are for your loyal support of the Mountain Lodge for all these years. The Mountain Lodge might not physically be standing but it will live on forever in our wonderful memories that you have all made possible. Many people are asking how they can help. Ron and Jennifer are requesting Prayer for all of their employees to find the right job for each of them. They also are asking for you to pray all of the emergency crews who have worked all night and are still working hard this morning. The road before us might be long, but We know God is in control and He will guide us every step of the way.

We're a family business so when their mommy got called in to work in the kitchen this morning, the grandkids went straight to work too :)

We are in the process right now of setting up a Gofundme account for our employees. Thank you for your continued support and prayers.