ARDMORE, Tenn. – It’s a Southern delicacy about which novels are written and now it’s the name of a restaurant in Ardmore that does a thriving business serving not only green tomatoes but other hardy comfort foods that keep folks coming back.

A recent lunchtime found almost all Fried Green Tomato tables filled, but customers say it was a light crowd. Pulaski, Tenn., electric linemen Charles McElroy, Tony Claud, Chris Helton and Deeroma Reynolds say they swing by for lunch whenever they’re in Ardmore.

McElroy said he comes for the fried chicken and peach cobbler, while Claud likes catfish filets. Helton said the catfish is fine, but he’s also into the hamburger steak. Reynolds said he just loves “the buffet for the price. Y’all get enough to eat.”

The Fried Green Tomato on Highway 53 on the Tennessee side of this town that straddles the state line between Alabama and Tennessee, says good eating from the front porch on in. The long, covered front porch is a like a wide boardwalk. Inside, knotty pine paneling and checkerboard floors continue the homey atmosphere.

Waitresses bustle about clad in bright green T-shirts.

“The girls in here are just amazing,” said Ken “Hot Rod” Robinson, who with his wife Wanda, is a Wednesday and Sunday lunch regular. “They keep the tea glasses filled and just about run over themselves making sure everyone is taken care of.”

Robinson, who retired from Delphi after 29 years in industrial machine maintenance, operates a machine shop at Lock’s Crossroads.

“Every Wednesday my wife and I pick up her aunt up here at Ardmore and come here for lunch,” said Robinson. “After we eat, we go up to Pulaski and do a Bible study for the Hewitt House assisted living. We also come here on Sunday. I just love that peach pie and ice cream.”

It’s the simple fare well prepared that’s the drawing card. Mac & cheese, beans, mashed potatoes and gravy, fried chicken, hamburger steak, peach cobbler and apple dumpling are fitting accompaniments to the batter-fried green tomatoes that kitchen workers keep heaped up and fresh.