Our Neighbors
Preferred Local Businesses
When you move into a new place, the first week is all small questions. Where do I get a fitting at seven in the morning? Where is the food actually good? Who will not run me around?
This is our answer list. These are the places we use ourselves and the places we point guests toward when they ask. Rhea County is small, and the people running these counters remember you.
Nobody pays to be on this page. These are our own picks, and we take them off just as easily as we put them on. If one of them ever lets you down, tell us.
Hardware and Supplies
Potters Ace Hardware
The closest real hardware store, and the one we drive to first. Ten minutes down Rhea County Highway toward Dayton. Open at seven every weekday, which matters when something breaks before work instead of after. They stock RV and plumbing fittings, propane, and the odd adapter you did not know you needed, and somebody will actually walk you to the aisle.
Food and Drink
Most of this section came from guests, not from us. When somebody parked out back tells us where they actually ate twice, it goes on the list.
Long Hollow Grill
The closest sit down meal to the park, and the only one on this list with our own zip code on it. It is out at the golf club on Payne Lane, about eleven minutes. Wings are what people order and what they come back for, and the burgers and ribeyes are real Black Angus. A guest tells us Wednesday is the wing night, so call and ask if that is what you are driving out for. Closed Sunday and Monday, so plan around that.
Delia’s Mexican Restaurant
The closest sit down Mexican food to the park and the one our guests keep going back to. Straight down Rhea County Highway, sit down or carry out, and open late enough that a long shift does not mean cereal for dinner. Portions are honest and the salsa is not an afterthought. The menu runs wider than the usual combo plates too, so order something you have not had before.
Tacos Ramirez
A food truck out on Watts Bar Highway toward Wolf Creek, ten minutes from the pads. Street tacos, tortas, gorditas, tamales, the whole board, and a Mexican Coke to go with it. It runs seasonally and the schedule shifts, so look at their page first. When they are open, this is the food guests bring back and tell us about.
Nick’s Lakeside Grill
Down on the water at the marina in Spring City, about fifteen minutes. Wings, burgers, brisket bowls, shrimp, and a place to sit and look at Watts Bar while you eat them. This is where you take somebody who drove out to visit you, or where a Saturday ends when nobody wants to cook in the rig.
Hearty Hog BBQ
Veteran owned barbecue over in Decatur, about fifteen minutes. Brisket is what people talk about, and the pulled pork and the pepper jack mac hold their own. Weekends only and short hours, so go early rather than ten minutes before close, and call ahead if you need a lot of it.
Angie’s Decatur Diner
Open at six in the morning, which is the entire point if you are working a schedule. Country cooking and daily specials, meatloaf, country fried steak, real breakfast, and reasonable for what lands on the plate. It is the longer of the two Decatur drives at a little over twenty minutes, and it is the kind of place where the coffee keeps coming.
The Restaurant at Cottonport Marina
Out at the end of Cottonport Ferry Road on Watts Bar, with a dock if you would rather arrive by boat than by truck. Casual lake food, catfish on the menu, inside and outside seating. If you are already out on the water it is the easy stop, which is exactly why it is on this list. It is the longest drive on this page at about half an hour, so treat it as a lake day rather than a weeknight dinner. Call before you go.
Know a Place We Missed?
If you stayed with us and found somebody worth sending the next guest to, tell us. Half of this list came from people parked in the four sites out back.
Hours and details change, especially around holidays. Call ahead if you are making a trip for something specific.
Gryptid RV Park, 1702 Pleasant Rd, Evensville, TN 37332. Phone 423-602-3085. Email kurt@gryptidrvpark.com.