Southern Country Cafe
If drivers took time to slow down going through Waldo, they might notice a small hole-in-the-wall café that opened Feb. 5.
Waldo, once known nationwide for speed traps, is a rural town with broken-down buildings, abandoned automobiles, decrepit motels, a flea market and several gas stations. But attached to the Pilot Travel Center at 17276 NE US Highway 301 is the Southern Country Café. Kelley Wilson, owner of new restaurant, says, “I wanted to make sure before my time is up that I am able to leave some form of a legacy behind for my children. I have been battling stomach cancer since 2008.” With two sons and a stepson, her goal is to open one restaurant for each son. She is not sure where she will open the other two cafes. Wilson lives in Starke but used to work as manager for Best Western Waldo Inn and Suites, right beside the Pilot Travel Center and what used to be Arby’s. She was close friends with the person who owned the building before her. When Arby’s shut down, and the attached building was put up for sale, Wilson decided it was time to open Southern Country Café. Many of the complaints she heard from hotel guests and travelers were that there weren't enough options for food in Waldo. |
The Southern Country Cafe opened Feb. 5 and is open from 6 a.m. until noon on Mondays and Tuesdays. The rest of the week, the cafe is open from 6 a.m. until 9 p.m.
Wilson wanted a southern-style cafe because of the style of food she likes to prepare, and to create a comfortable environment where customers can sit down, watch T.V., eat a good meal and talk, she said. Lynn Plemmers, cook at Southern Country Cafe, said, “Kelley has really made me fall in love with food again.” Plemmers has known Wilson since she was a child. They grew up in nearby Starke together. Plemmers has been a cook for 15 years and started working at the cafe the day it opened. All food is delivered from Florida Food Services, Inc., and Sysco food service. It is never frozen; but instead everything is fresh and made to order, Plemmers said, which causes some issues with customers seeking quicker service. Retiree Claude Hardee, 76, has been eating at the Southern Country Cafe every day since it opened. Each morning he orders either biscuits and gravy, two eggs, sausage patties and coffee or French toast, two eggs and bacon with coffee. The quality of the food is worth the wait, he says, but the cafe would do better if it advertised more. “Their advertising stinks,” he said. “They should have a sign, posters out by the highway, in front of the restaurant and on the side road by the Best Western. Then people would know they are here. It is a nice, clean restaurant; they just need more advertisement.”
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