New restaurant opens at renowned site

Sweet T’s Country Kitchen opened in January off of Route 250 in Valley Bend, at the site where C&J’s Restaurant operated for close to 40 years.

“I always say that we have something for everybody,” co-owner Marcus Blankeship told The Inter-Mountain. “If you can’t find something on our menu, you’re definitely a real picky eater.”

Sweet T’s menu offers everything from hot dogs and burgers, to pasta, seafood, and country fried steak, to meatloaf, fried chicken and the restaurant’s extremely popular chicken fingers.

“We offer southern-style home-cooked meals, including our country fried steak, our homemade meatloaf, and our famous chicken fingers, which are Sweet T brined,” Blankenship said.

Submitted photo
Sweet T’s Country Kitchen is located in the Valley Bend building at the site where C&J’s Restaurant operated for close to 40 years.

“People come in for the chicken fingers all the time and it’s one of our top sellers. Or they get the chicken sandwich because they can get it Sweet T brined also. And we go through a lot of burgers, that’s for sure. I think how we season and slow cook the burgers, that makes them so good. You can build your burger any way you want it. And our hot dog chili is homemade.”

Blankenship, who owns the business with Matt Ford, said customers won’t leave the restaurant hungry.

“One thing about us is our portion sizes. You’re not going to go away hungry after eating here,” said Blankenship. “Most people take a lot of their food home with them. I’ve been told that I need to cut some of our portions back, but we’re not going to do that because we are a southern-style restaurant and in the south you make sure you are full and take home leftovers.”

Sweet T’s starter menu features everything from mozzarella sticks to fried pickles and fried green tomatoes. The restaurant also offers an array of deserts including pies, cakes and homemade cupcakes.

The comfort food restaurant also offers a weekly special, which this week is a Mother’s Day feature that will run all weekend long and features a meal consisting of a marinated eight-ounce New York Strip, two sides, a salad and homemade rolls.

After the Easter holiday, Sweet T’s also began serving breakfast on the weekends. After Memorial Day, the establishment will start serving breakfast five days a week. The breakfast menu features many breakfast items, including omelets and biscuits with homemade gravy.

The establishment also has a walk-up window where customers can order anything from the menu, including ice cream.

Both Blankenship and Ford have extensive backgrounds in the food business, so when the opportunity arose for them to open their own restaurant, they jumped at the chance.

“We have both worked in the restaurant industry and hospitality for 20-plus years,” said Blankenship. “We always talked about opening our own restaurant and it never really came to fruition until our initial investor, Jonthan Kyle, helped us with the opportunity to open the building we are in. C&J’s was a staple in the Valley and we have revamped it a little bit.”

Sweet T’s Country Kitchen is open Wednesday through Sunday. For more information, go to the restaurant’s Facebook page or call 304-335-1027.