The Powhatan

I hesitated to write this review because this particular restaurant is one of my favorites in the country and they don’t have a lot of truck parking. I didn’t want to show up there some night and find no place to park. Then I realized the place wasn’t likely to be over-run by all 13 of our readers at once so what the heck.

Powhatan

If you are a breakfast fan you’re going to be sending me thank you notes every time you stop at the Powhatan in Pocahontas, Illinois. They are located on I-70 at exit 36. Turn south and go to the four-way stop where you will turn right to get to the truck parking. You won’t have any trouble finding it as the restaurant is right off the interstate. Park behind the restaurant — do not park over at the little motel across the street since it is my understanding that the motel people get quite grumpy about such things.

Walking into the Powhatan is kinda like walking into the past. Not like into the Middle Ages or anything, but back to a good time. A time when restaurants still used real wooden chairs. Made out of wood. And wooden booths. And wood on the walls. And the floors.

Powhatan Pillar

Actually the wood in the Powhatan is quite interesting and soothing to me. It makes the place feel kinda warm and cozy like a trapper’s cabin on some river in the great northwest. I guess that may not be to some people’s taste, but I like it. Oh not enough to actually eat in the restaurant but I do enjoy looking around while waiting for my to-go order. I’m pretty sure I explained in our last Restaurant Review that we virtually always get our orders to-go. It’s nothing personal.

I am a breakfast sort of person. It’s almost unheard of for me to order something not in the waffle-pancake-french toast family of foods for breakfast. My personal feeling is that breakfast exists to inject syrup into my system in the most tasty manner available. But not at the Powhatan. They have this thing called the Sante Fe Scramble that is so very good its almost all I ever order. You’ve all had scrambles I’m sure, so you know the general idea, but I doubt you’ve had anything that matches the quality of this one. Real ingredients… cooked well. That’s about all you need to say about their scramble. And to top it off… home-made salsa.

Powhatan inside

Stace is a biscuit and gravy sort of person and typically judges a restaurant based on their ability to make decent biscuits and gravy. She typically has a problem with just about every restaurant north of the Mason-Dixon line in this respect. However, the Powhatan’s biscuits and gravy are different from everyone else’s and grow on you to the point of becoming a favorite. Even if they are Yankee.  She also loves their hash brown casserole. They start with hash browns and add onions, green peppers, and cheese. It is melt-in-your-mouth good.

Now for some of the nitty-gritty details you should know. They are open 24 hours and serve breakfast all day. Obviously, they have food other than breakfast but we don’t get by there often enough to want to branch out from our favorites so we generally stick to breakfast. The food is big person food. Seriously. Some of you smaller people will probably be able to share a meal. The coffee is hot and fresh and some of my favorite anywhere. Although I am a Diet Coke addict and generally drink it exclusively, I do tend to get coffee there. The service is typically quite fast and friendly.

Powhatan booth art

Servers like Kayla and Martha treat you right and make sure you have every thing you could want. I believe our order has been perfect every single time when I got it back out to the truck. That’s saying something. It’s on the verge of being a miracle.

This is one of — if not the first — restaurants I ever ate at when I first went out on the road years ago. My trainer absolutely loved their food and we stopped there at the first opportunity. I was an easy convert. It was one of the first places I took Stace to when she was finally in the truck with me and she was smitten as well. I hope you will like it as much as we do if you get the chance to stop by.