This Tennessee All-You-Can-Eat Buffet Is Worth A Fall Road Trip
When fall colors start spreading across Tennessee, a buffet stop feels like part of the journey. Brooks Shaw’s Old Country Store Buffet in Jackson has been feeding travelers and locals for decades with big servings of Southern comfort favorites.
The place sits inside Casey Jones Village right off Interstate 40, surrounded by history and friendly faces.
Fried chicken, cornbread, and pie fill the tables, and the warm welcome keeps people talking long after they’ve left. It’s Tennessee tradition served buffet-style, plain and simple.
Seasonal Spread That Changes With The Leaves
Fall brings a rotating lineup of comfort foods that’ll make your stomach sing. Brooks Shaw’s loads up their buffet with rotating soups that warm you from the inside out, plus at least eight different meats to choose from.
Fourteen vegetable options crowd the serving line, giving you more choices than you’ll know what to do with. Fresh-baked breads fill the air with that irresistible yeasty smell.
The dessert spread at the end is like finding treasure after a long journey. Everything changes with the seasons, so repeat visits always bring something new to try.
Complimentary Fried Green Tomatoes At Your Table
Forget waiting in line for the good stuff. Servers walk around the dining room during lunch and dinner carrying platters of crispy fried green tomatoes, bringing them straight to your table along with your drinks.
This tangy Southern classic gets the red carpet treatment here, and you don’t have to fight the buffet crowd to snag a piece. The cornmeal crust shatters when you bite down, revealing that perfect tart flavor inside.
It’s the kind of touch that makes you feel like family rather than just another customer passing through town.
Weekend Breakfast With Passed Country Ham
Saturday and Sunday mornings get special treatment with a breakfast buffet that includes tableside country ham service. Salty, savory slices of authentic Tennessee country ham come right to you while you’re loading up on everything else.
Starting your day with this kind of protein-packed goodness beats cereal any morning of the week. The ham’s been cured the old-fashioned way, giving it that distinctive flavor you can’t fake with shortcuts.
Pair it with biscuits and gravy from the buffet line, and you’ve got yourself a breakfast worth waking up early for on vacation.
Cracklin’ Cornbread From A Family Recipe
Some recipes are too good to mess with, and Brooks Shaw’s cracklin’ cornbread is one of them. This beloved family recipe has locals talking about it like it’s some kind of edible gold, and honestly, they’re not wrong.
Crispy pork cracklings get mixed right into the cornbread batter, adding pockets of savory crunch throughout each piece. My cousin tried making this at home once and gave up after realizing some things are best left to the experts.
The edges get perfectly crispy while the middle stays moist and crumbly in all the right ways.
Casey Jones Village Surrounds The Restaurant
Brooks Shaw’s sits at the heart of Casey Jones Village, which means your road trip stop becomes a whole afternoon adventure. After stuffing yourself at the buffet, you can browse the general store packed with Tennessee souvenirs, old-timey candies, and random treasures.
Antique shops surround the property, perfect for working off some of those buffet calories while hunting for vintage finds. Miss Anne’s Ice Cream Shoppe waits nearby for anyone brave enough to tackle dessert round two.
The whole village feels like stepping back in time without the annoying parts like no indoor plumbing.
Real Locomotive Next Door At The Museum
Railroad buffs get a bonus attraction right next to the buffet. A genuine locomotive painted as Illinois Central No. 382 sits on the grounds of the Casey Jones Home and Railroad Museum, ready for photos and gawking.
The famous engineer Casey Jones drove a similar engine before his legendary wreck in 1900, making this replica a fitting tribute. Kids go absolutely bonkers over climbing around a real train, and adults secretly enjoy it just as much.
Walking off your meal by exploring railroad history beats sitting in the car for another hundred miles any day.
Perfect Interstate Stop For Leaf Peepers
Geography works in your favor here. Brooks Shaw’s sits just off Interstate 40 near Exit 80A, making it ridiculously convenient for anyone driving between Nashville and Memphis during peak leaf-peeping season.
You’re already on the road watching autumn colors blur past your windows, so why not turn a boring rest stop into a memorable meal? The location means you don’t have to venture deep into unfamiliar back roads to find good Southern cooking.
Pull off, eat until you’re stuffed, and get back on the highway without losing much time from your fall foliage adventure.
Six Decades Of Family-Run Hospitality
Around sixty years of the same family running this place creates something corporate chains can never replicate. The dining room radiates that authentic Tennessee warmth where strangers become friends over shared baskets of hushpuppies.
Family stewardship means recipes don’t change with quarterly profit reports, and the staff actually cares whether you enjoyed your meal. That community-first mentality shows in every detail, from the tableside service to the way regulars greet each other across the room.
When a restaurant survives six decades, you know they’re doing something right beyond just filling plates with food.