Blacksburg, Virginia

The Homeplace, at 4968 Catawba Valley Drive in Catawba, is the legendary all-you-can-eat, family-style farmhouse restaurant set in a white 1907 farmhouse in the Catawba Valley, directly below McAfee Knob, the most photographed view on the entire Appalachian Trail. You sit down and they bring bowls of fried chicken, country ham, roast beef, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, biscuits, and cobbler, and they keep refilling them until you say stop, the way Sunday dinner works at a grandmother's table. Opened to the public as a restaurant in 1982, it became a beloved post-hike reward for Appalachian Trail thru-hikers coming off the knob. It went quiet during the pandemic, closing in 2020 and officially in 2021, then reopened under new ownership on April 22, 2026. Seating is first come, first served. Open Wednesday through Friday 4 to 8 pm, Saturday and Sunday 11 am to 8 pm. (Sources: WSLS; WDBJ7; The Trek; AppalachianTrail.com.)