EDITOR’S NOTE: This story was published in January 2011. Since its publication, Knight’s On Main in Watauga County has closed. 

“When you find a place that will carry livermush or cook an egg to order, you hang on to it,” says Tracy Brown, executive director of the Blowing Rock Tourism Development Authority. That place is Knight’s on Main. “It’s a local favorite that serves a good helping of comfort food with a strong dash of Southern hospitality.”

And Neese’s livermush. “Mr. and Mrs. Tom Neese have a home here,” Brown says. The staff members have shirts that say “peace, love and livermush.”

“It’s a versatile thing, that livermush,” says Brown, who’s originally from Burlington. “You can have it on a club biscuit; add some lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, and mayonnaise, and you’ve got a perfect breakfast that will fit in your hand.”

But it’s owner Tim Knight who makes Knight’s on Main what it is, Brown says. “He’s been working in the business since he was 12 years old, and now that he’s 43, that’s a long time. He has a keen sense of people, and that helps him to put in place really good, fun, and ‘real’ people.”