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Fred's Market Restaurant: Small Town Southern' Fried Cookin'

By Ashtyn Steele


Fred's Southern Kitchen is a well-known food destination in the small town of Plant City, Florida.

Thick slices of juicy bacon crackle on the stove in the back kitchen. Tender pieces of fried pork chop are topped with creamy tomato gravy and served alongside salty grits. Strawberry jam is spread over flaky buttered biscuits next to the scrambled eggs that create strings of cheese with every jab of the fork.

It’s breakfast time at Fred’s Southern Kitchen.


The tea is as sweet as the locals who are crowded around the tables every morning. The restaurant, known as Fred’s, is located in Plant City, Florida. It has deep roots in southern tradition for the residents who make stopping by part of their weekly routine.

Not only does the food taste like home, the restaurant feels like home. Customers can enjoy the view as they rock on the front porch.

Friends chat from separate tables and waitresses join in on the conversations. Look to the left and you may be lucky enough to catch Mrs. Johnson eating breakfast at her usual booth with her two sons, Buddy and Fred. She happily sits under the painting of her and her late husband. It’s hung on the walls decorated with other local paintings and hand-picked antiques from the historic downtown area.

The town knows her as a celebrity, but anyone who is a regular knows her as a friend. Her warm smile is just one trait that characterizes her as the epitome of grace, class and charm.

The popularity wasn’t immediate. The restaurant didn’t begin in a fancy set up or with a strategic business plan. It all started in the humble beginnings of a small gas station.



In 1954, Elton and Evelyn Johnson owned a gas station where Evelyn cooked meals for friends and family who stopped by. The gas station later became Johnson's Restaurant.Elton and Evelyn had two sons, Buddy and Freddy, who soon opened their restaurant called Buddy Freddys. In 1998, Fred moved the restaurant beside the State Farmer’s Market, which allowed for more fresh food and more customers. The name was later re-branded to Fred’s Southern Kitchen.

What started as the small gas station is now known across the southern states for having some of the best food around.


This new addition creates the perfect photo opportunity to make your next Instagram post.

The faint sound of George Strait is played over the speakers, though barely heard over the chatter of patrons in the restaurant. Southern manners are practiced properly as the older couples sitting in the rockers tip their hats, the men hold the door open for ladies and families line up all along the back wall. Everyone patiently waits for the chance to snag a table to get the food they’ve been drooling over all week.

The restaurant is known not only for its traditional food but its southern hospitality.

Let’s adventure through five southern breakfast classics that will have your mouth watering:

1. Biscuits and Gravy:


COVID-19 won't stop locals from eating good biscuits and gravy.



The warm dough is baked to a golden brown that crumbles upon biting into it. The biscuit is topped with a thick, creamy white sauce that has bits of sausage mixed in for every bite. It's the dish all of America has come to love. Though, biscuits and gravy weren't originally eaten by everyone.

Biscuits and gravy dates back to the 1700s during the Revolutionary War. It was commonly a meal for the poor, working-class, according to The Washington Post. The meal was a cheap and high-calorie meal that was easy to fix in the kitchen. The gravy was a combination of scraps not eaten at supper time.

As time progressed, it became a treat for all southerners to enjoy. People can now enjoy biscuits and gravy for breakfast or brunch all across America.



2. Peach Cobbler:


Thick slices of peach soak into the sweet mixture and juices soak into the floury vanilla cake. It’s typically used as a dessert dish. Though, Fred’s offers it as one of their many main meals in the breakfast buffet.

Peach cobbler is made from biscuit dough and canned fruit. At first, it may seem random to offer peach cobbler as a breakfast food. However, Culture Trip says, “Cobblers were quickly integrated into the settler diet, many choosing to eat the sweet dish for breakfast, as a first course, or as a main dish.”

Let’s have dessert for breakfast every morning!



3. Grits:


Salty scoops of ground-up corn kernels are seasoned in butter. It simmers in the pot long enough to create creamy drops of goodness. Grits are arguably the most popular meal in southern cooking.

The secret to making the best grits? There isn't one, which is the best part. The simplicity of the dish is what makes it attractive to everyone. It's mostly comprised of four ingredients: corn kernels, water, butter and salt.

Native Americans were the first to make the side. Corn was ground in the stone mill, which gives it the gritty texture. The corn kernels became a form of currency and the method of paying was eventually picked up by settlers. Slaves from West Africa are also thought to have used the grits when they were given currency or food, and they commonly made the side, according to "Deep South Magazine."

Grits are a southern staple. It’s quick, cheap and easy. What’s not to love?



4. Hashbrowns:


Perfectly sliced potatoes seasoned with spicy onions and red peppers. It tastes like French fries but cooked in a cast-iron skillet or fryer and sliced different.

The term was first used in 1926, but "browned hash" or similar terms date back to the earlier 1900s. Hash browns are considered a U.S. food item, but the dish could have been used in Switzerland, as well.



5. Fried Chicken:


Fried chicken is commonly found in restaurants across southern America.

Crispy pieces of tender, juicy chicken steaming when you bite into the white meat.

It's comfort food for sure.

This southern food has its origins in Scotland and West Africa. It was slowly exposed to the southern states. According to Southern Fried Chicken Challenge, as the Scottish settled into states in the south, they brought their cuisines with them. Though, the Scottish fried chicken in fat, and it was the slaves who added their own seasoning (like what we eat today) and then fry the chicken.



It’s these five foods that make up a refreshing, fulfilling southern cuisine. Fred’s stays true to its roots- the history, the origins and the taste of good home cookin’.

The food is fried and the tea is sweet; but it’s the southern charm of manners and hospitality that’s better than the buttered biscuits, and keeps customers coming back for more.



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