This is not a story about how diners offer cheap food and fast service. (Or is that fast food and cheap service?) You don’t have to have a regular booth or stool to know that. This is about a… ...

The Blue Plate Special is strictly a made-from-scratch, everything-fresh kind of place. If they find it at the farmers market that morning, it’s on the menu that day.

Staff Photo by Matt Hamilton / Chef Nancy Adams writes the menu in chalk at Southern Star restaurant on Aug. 31, 2021. The restaurant maintains an old tradition with its blue plate special.