HOLT — Folks who miss Hall’s Seafood and Catfish’s addictive hushpuppies can once more find the next best thing, and much closer to home.
After 18 years working in the famed Pensacola eatery, which closed several years ago, as well as dabbling in Mobile and a few Milton restaurants, Sherry Cregger has settled down in Holt and opened a place all her own.
PHOTOS: View photos of lunch at Sherry's
“I worked for a lot of people,” Cregger said. “I said, ‘You know what? I’ve worked hard for other people, now I’m going to work hard for myself.’”
In Sherry’s, on U.S. Highway 90 next door to the post office, Cregger gathers nearly three decades of down-home restaurant experience under one roof.
“We specialize in country cookin’,” Cregger said. “We keep it as fresh as possible. We try to buy from locals whenever we can. We like to promote our own neighbors.”
FRESH SAUCES AND SIDES
At Sherry’s, patrons won’t find food service bottles of cocktail or tartar sauce, tubs of store-bought potato salad or coleslaw, nor cans of baked beans.
“We make it all fresh. And we do our own ranch, thousand island and French dressings on-site,” Cregger said. “There’s nothing like fresh ranch dressing when you make it with buttermilk.”
In the kitchen, cook Julie Spears starts the day by indulging in her love of baking. Tuesday’s highlight was filled lemon cupcakes with cream cheese icing.
“How was that cupcake?” Cregger asked a patron, who, his mouth full, nodded enthusiastically. “Good, hunh? I told you!”
There is one key menu item accompanying many platters at Sherry’s that’s not homemade, and Cregger proudly defends her decision.
“I serve Sister Schubert’s rolls,” she said. “I try to get the best you can.”
WADDLE OUT
Daily all-you-can-eat specials capitalize on fresh seafood Cregger buys from Rollo’s Seafood in Milton. There’s catfish on Tuesdays and Saturdays, mullet on Wednesdays and Fridays, and shrimp on Wednesdays.
“These are heaping portions,” Cregger said. “My motto is, ‘Duck in, waddle out.’ You don’t go away hungry here.”
“Miss Sherry smokes these herself out back,” waitress Jessica Nelson said as she served two overflowing barbecue rib platters to residents Juanita and H.W. Worley.
After a bit, Cregger paused at the Worleys’ table to make sure everything was OK, leading to a lengthy discussion about the secrets behind good barbecue. When Cregger talks about down-home cooking, the emphasis is on the “home.”
“Our customers are like family,” she said. “We love ‘em.”
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Sherry's brings three decades of down-home cookin' to Holt