Lance's Grocery and Grill - What a Hidden Jewel!

The drive to find Lance's Grocery and Grill in Stokes County is one of the prettiest I've taken in a long time. The diner is part of the brick store building out in the country between Danbury and Mt. Airy on NC Hwy. 89. Thank goodness for the sign or we would have missed the best biscuits this side of my grandmother's kitchen!

The directions from Rural Hall up to Danbury near Hanging Rock State Park on Mapquest were very accurate (http://www.mapquest.com/maps?1cRural+Hall:NC::US:36.240299:-80.293602:city:Forsyth+County:1:::/l::3528+Nc+89+Hwy+W:Danbury:NC:27016-7316:US:36.445608:-80.27815:address::1:::/io:1:::::f:no:en_US:M::/bl:/e) 

Once we found the diner, we opened our windows and could smell the food. Shirley Greenwood runs the diner and does all the cooking. When we arrived at 8:30 am she was just taking out some fresh biscuits from the oven. It was all I could do to keep myself from grabbing the whole pan full. She welcomed us, took our order, and kept on cooking the whole time. As you can see, the biscuits are the size of you hand.

We sat down at one of the tables in the small dining area and dug into our two-fisted biscuits and grits. I had a country ham and egg biscuit with a bowl of grits, and Beth enjoyed an egg and cheese biscuit with grits and sweet tea. I actually think if you look up southern breakfast in Webster's there would be a picture of our food at Lance's. 

Once we had cleaned our plates, we talked with Shirley for a bit until she got busy with new patrons and their orders. If our thirty minutes there are any indication, Shirley stays busy every second of everyday at Lance's. The biscuits were light and moist and delicious. My ham and egg was cooked perfectly, and the grits had just the right consistency. Lance's might be off my beaten path, but I promise I will find a way to get back up in the hills to enjoy another one of those biscuits sometime real soon!

Shirley Greenwood behind the counter at Lance's Grill