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It’s midday on the eve of Thanksgiving, and The Rosebriar should be hopping. Except that the parking lot looks empty, the lights are off, and the front door is locked.

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It’s midday on the eve of Thanksgiving, and The Rosebriar should be hopping. Except that the parking lot looks empty, the lights are off, and the front door is locked.

It’s midday on the eve of Thanksgiving, and The Rosebriar should be hopping. Except that the parking lot looks empty, the lights are off, and the front door is locked. Instead of its regular lunch service, the Albemarle restaurant is serving the community today by preparing seasonal, carryout sides.

Around back, the service door opens onto a different scene, where staff members maneuver between the 1930s walk-in cooler, the stainless-steel counter, and the stovetop crowded with soup pots of simmering white potatoes and green beans. Quiches rest on eye-level cooling racks, and sweet potato casseroles await their sugary pecan topping.

In The Rosebriar’s spacious dining room, pudding pies are getting a swirly whipped cream topping, and tables stripped of their burgundy tablecloths are already covered with pans of sourdough rolls and containers of herbed stuffing.

Wes and Melissa Eudy at The Rosebriar

Wes and Melissa Eudy photograph by Stacey Van Berkel

Rosebriar co-owner Wes Eudy is at his station next to the register, tearing chunks of biscuits into an oblong pan. Next comes fried, crumbled breakfast sausage, more biscuits, more sausage, and a generous blanket of gravy. “I cook the way I like to eat,” Wes says. “It’s all the carbs and fat everybody loves.”

The former tax consultant finds himself perfectly at home in the kitchen. His wife, Melissa, is a full-time people person who greets every patron warmly. Together, they’ve embraced their new roles as small-town restaurant owners.

“I grew up coming to ‘The Briar’ with my mama. It was the fancy place with tablecloths,” says Melissa, who’s added her own fancy touch — floral porcelain plates. The modest, circa-1925 brick building on Wiscassett Street is surrounded by textile mill houses. It served the neighborhood first as a grocery store, then, beginning in 1987, as a restaurant made famous by the former owner’s signature pies.

The coconut custard pie from The Rosebriar

The Rosebriar has long been known for its pies, including coconut custard: a vanilla custard pie layered with coconut flakes, whipped cream, and more coconut. photograph by Stacey Van Berkel

“Now, Wes and I want to make life easier for our customers, especially at Thanksgiving and Christmas,” Melissa says. Her mother, Debbie Hinson, inspired the idea to help holiday hosts. “Mama always said the meat was the easy part, so instead of turkeys, we’re offering a smorgasbord of sides for take-home orders, plus several breakfast entrées for customers with overnight guests.”

“When we had young children, Mama always wanted my sister and me to enjoy the holidays,” Melissa says. “She did all the cooking as a gift, an act of love.” The Rosebriar’s take-home holiday help is Melissa’s way of extending that love in honor of her mother, who died last year.

That’s why side dishes like macaroni and cheese, along with Wes’s breakfast trays full of biscuits and gravy, French toast casseroles, and savory quiches, wait to be claimed by customers lined up at the register.

The Eudys may still be finding their footing in the restaurant world, but in less than two years, they’ve shown an insatiable appetite for loving their Stanly County neighbors with more than food, no matter the season.

The Rosebriar Restaurant
528 Wiscassett Street
Albemarle, NC 28001
(704) 983-1001
rosebriaralbemarle.com

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This story was published on Oct 29, 2024