Pepper’s Restaurant & Bar started in 1975 as a little deli shop within a bustling Boone shopping center. Their tasty food, friendly atmosphere, and reliable pricing quickly made them a local’s favorite and so bit-by-bit, they added to their menu and their location. Today, they are a multi-faceted bar and grill that still boasts the highest quality of deli sandwiches. Only now they also feature a much broader array of foods and alcoholic beverages.
You will find Pepper’s Restaurant & Bar at the Shops of Shadowline shopping mall in southeast Boone, just off of Dale Road. This restaurant and bar is nestled right into the corner of the mall, making parking access incredibly easy. You will often also see a few tables set up just outside the restaurant and underneath the brick mall’s overhang.
The interior of Pepper’s Restaurant & Bar is bright and cheery with wooden accents. More than just accents really. Walking in, you will see wooden floors and wood-paneled walls with rows of wooden booths lined up along the interior walls. There is also a mix of standalone tables and an extended bar that always welcomes drinkers and diners.
The bar set-up at Pepper’s Restaurant & Bar bears emphasizing as this business does have all of the necessary ABC licenses to sell every type of alcoholic drink. And Pepper’s Restaurant & Bar certainly does sell all the drinks with a full ten taps dedicated only to beers from local North Carolina breweries. They also keep a massive selection of local and global bottled beers, including popular seasonal items. They also have a massive liquor bar that includes some of the area’s best whiskey brands and varieties. Most will also appreciate their fine wine menu which frequently rotates out.
Not sure what you want? Consider ordering from their signature cocktail list. Popular options include Warren’s Manhattan which features Bulleit Rye whiskey with a portion of each sale getting donated to ALS research, and Pepper’s Margarita featuring Espolon Blanca tequila.
In terms of food, some of the most popular items at Pepper’s Restaurant and Bar are:
French Onion Soup
The French Onion Soup at Pepper’s Restaurant and Bar is downright famous and certainly the most popular item on their food menu. A bowl of this soup comes topped with their homemade “FOtons” and gets layered with so much cheese, your server will bring scissors for you to cu through it.
Reuben Sandwich
The Reuben, as with all of their other sandwich items, can be ordered as either a half or whole and comes served with your choice of chips, slaw, potato salad, steak fries, or curly fries. This item comes packed with Certified Angus Corned Beef layered with Swiss cheese and topped with spicy mustard and Thousand Island dressing.
Carrot Cake
The Carrot Cake on the Pepper’s Restaurant and Bar menu has been on the menu every day since 1975. This is their most popular dessert and one bite in and you’ll see why. The restaurant uses its own homemade recipe to freshly make whole cakes, pies, and cupcakes every morning.
The kitchen at Pepper’s Restaurant and Bar is very accommodating for those with allergies and food restrictions. For their burgers, patrons can choose to swap out the standard bun they have with either a gluten-free bun or sliced bread. They keep both vegetarian garden burgers and Beyond Beef patties available to meet the needs of both vegetarians and vegans. They also have a quality salad menu that includes shrimp and salmon as protein options.
Insider Tip:
The Carrot Cake is certainly the biggest dessert seller at Pepper’s Restaurant and Bar, but it’s not the only one. This location makes and sells eight fantastic dessert pies and cakes that are all made in-house from family recipes. The only problem is that there is a high demand for whole pies and cakes and so they can sell out pretty quickly by mid-afternoon, especially on weekends. Order online or over the phone to ensure you get one to go when you need it.