Dining With Dave

Dining With Dave

The country decor just enhances the good country cooking at Carey's Country Cafe in Lake Butler.

Country to the core

By DAVID THEUS

Carey’s Country Café at 150 West Main Street in Lake Butler is mmm... good! Owners Kathy and Crystal Carey opened this quaint little café in down town Lake Butler in February of this year with a mission of serving good home cooked food at a reasonable price. And that they do.

The Country Café’s hours are Monday through Thursday 6:30 am to 2:30 pm serving breakfast and lunch, Friday 6:30 am to 9:00 pm serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and Saturday 6:30 am to 3:00 pm serving breakfast and lunch. Here’s the kicker…Saturday’s for you late "getter upper’s," they serve breakfast until closing at 3:00 pm, I like that.

We ordered the Saturday special of roast beef and a fresh handmade cheeseburger. The roast 

was served with mashed potatoes and brown gravy. The potatoes were prepared with skin on too, just to prove they’re made fresh. They were great! It also came with a fresh homemade biscuit and side salad. The cheeseburger was at least a third of a pound of hand-formed lean beef.

I opted for a side of macaroni and cheese to accompany the burger. I don’t know exactly what it is with me and macaroni and cheese. Every time I order it and it comes to the table home made, you know, the baked kind, I consider that to be just a slice of heaven. When it arrived at the table and I asked if this was heaven, our server Brigette assured me, no, it’s Lake Butler.

After clearing our empty plates, Brigette offered a litany of more treats to try. Desserts ranged from hand-dipped milk shakes with real fruit; a concoction they call a Hershey’s Kisses Brownie served with vanilla ice cream; a chocolate delight; various cheesecakes; apples pie; and sometimes even assorted cobblers depending on what fruits are in season and fresh.

Our lunch for two came to $15.20.

I give them four forks out of five. Value, good food, great service, and did I say good food? We are going to add this venue to our Friday night out list. Lake Butler is only minutes away from every where. Dinner at the café and a stroll down by the lake afterwards, who knows what could happen next?