Snappy Lunch

125 N. Main St., Mount Airy, NC - (336) 786-4931

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Posted By Michael Stern on 1/27/2003 5:44:00 AM

A pork chop sandwich at Snappy Lunch is one of the great meals of the South. A boneless, tenderized loin chop is dipped in sweet-milk batter and fried in a shallow pool of oil until golden crisp. The finished cutlet has an irresistibly luscious character, moist and porky in some areas, crunchy in other areas where the pork is thin but the batter is thick. As created at Snappy Lunch, this lovely piece of food is far too broad for bread or bun, but it is sandwiched in a bun nonetheless, along with a battery of condiments that include a slice of tomato, chopped onion, mustard, cole slaw, and proprietor Charles Dowell’s special chili sauce.

The chili is extraordinary, a sweet, tomato paste that, along with homemade slaw, perfectly haloes the creamy richness of the pork chop. One sandwich is such a substantial meal that even cut in half it is virtually impossible to lift to one’s mouth without major spillage. At the counter and booths of this old diner, it is served wrapped in wax paper without a plate; and the beverage of choice to accompany it is pre-sweetened ice tea.

Another item on the menu that adventurous eaters will want to try is the “breaded hamburger” – an economical item left over from depression days when precious beef was stretched by adding breadcrumbs as a filler. Some old-time customers got to liking it that way and still order it today. For us, it’s a curiosity … but no match for the truly superb pork chop.

Much as we adore the pork chop sandwich for lunch, we also treasure breakfast time at Snappy Lunch, for that is when pans of big hot biscuits come out of the back oven, perfuming the whole place with their bready steam, and when the little restaurant is occupied almost exclusively by locals, engaged in classic café repartee concerning issues of great import to early-morning diner denizens everywhere: weather, sports scores, and politicians' foibles.

Scorecard

Overall: Legendary - Worth driving from anyplace

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Reviewers Photos [Upload Your Photos]

"Main Street, Mount Airy: home of the pork chop sandwich "
Michael Stern

"This is the front of a Snappy Lunch souvenir note card."
Michael Stern

"Next door to Snappy Lunch, you can get a trim and a shave in the shop that inspired the "Floyd's" in TV's Andy Griffith Show. That's us with barber Russell Hiatt."
Michael Stern

"Always a line to get in!!! Come Early!!!"
Michael Colna

"A Main Street fixture since before Andy Griffith grew up in Mount Airy, Snappy Lunch radiates the kind of small-town charm that inspired Andy's fictional hometown of Mayberry."
Michael Stern

"This is a photo of the Pork Chop Sandwich at Snappy Lunch in Mr. Airy, NC. The one in front is "All the way" while the one in back is without some of the available condiments."
Dick Cain

"Excellent, juicy pork chop sandwich - 5 STARS!!!"
Michael Colna

"Charles, the owner of Snappy,cooking the famous chops."
Dick Cain

"A typical day during lunch at the Snappy Lunch in Mt. Airy, NC"
Dick Cain

"This is an up-do-date photo of the Snappy Lunch and Floyd's. You may want to use it in place of a couple of the not so good ones you currently have on the site."
Dick Cain