Thursday, January 14, 2010

Chef Bob's At the Trussville Antique Mall

By Leigh Bratina





Southern cooking is just one more reason to pay a visit to the antique shopping meca, The Trussville Antique Mall. Sure, you could spend hours shopping the rooms upon rooms of antiques, but it is the food there that takes center stage. It was what my parents, cousin Sandie and I came for on this particular day. The Trussville Cafe is located in the center of the antique mall and is headed by local favorite, "Chef Bob". Southern cooking is an art form, and Chef Bob certainly knows his medium.




His dished are piled high in flavor and served buffet style. The Buffet, $7.95, includes your choice of entrees, salad bar, vegetables and desserts. The food was very good, the only thing I would change would be to add a bit more "kick" to the mexican cornbread (in the form of jalepeno peppers). That , though, is a personal opinion and I know not everyone would agree to it.




Chef Bob, who is actually Robert "Bob" Vaningan, has owned his own catering company since 1996, and has been the creator of such recognizable eating establishments as The Ole Springville Bakery and The Chocolate Cottage, among others. But is at the Trussville Cafe where you can find his flair for southern cuisine style cooking evident. Chef Bob is also a regular guest Chef on Fox 6 Good Day Alabama show every Tuesday Morning at 8:45 am for the past 12 years. His segments on the Birmingham Fox 6 morning show, "Good Day, Alabama!", are viewed regularly by his many fans (including my mother) throughout the state of Alabama.

Chef Bob has his own web site that is just brimming with information on his cafe, cookbooks (he is currently working on his follow up), catering information and his new venture, "CBU", which is Chef Bob University.


(More information on this venture-CBU- will be updated onto the blog as I receive more info on this myself)

If you see Chef Bob, introduce yourself. He is a very kind, humorous man that seemed to enjoy receiving feedback on his food and seeing that his customers are happy and satisfied. He was very nice and accommodating to me. His place was packed and he continually was bringing out fresh, hot dishes to the buffet, yet he still stopped to chat for a moment and allow me to take a picture before going back into the kitchen. I can tell you this, with Chef Bob in the kitchen, satisfaction is guaranteed.

Chefbob.com
Deep-South Cooking. "Best Southern food in town"
Catering for over 25 years
cakes, pies and desserts from scratch
147 N Chalkville Mt Road
Trussville, Alabama 35173










*Leigh is a full time mother, a part time photographer and writer. Her photography and written work is featured in several professional business and local publications. She owns her own photography business, Photographic Memories. Leigh resides in the Alabama with her three children and husband "Big Daddy". You can read more of Leigh's daily adventures by visiting any of her three blogs: Tales from Bloggeritaville , Plates and Places , as well as Photographic Memories

6 comments:

j said...

I LOVE Chef Bob's cooking and I LOVE the Trussville Antique mall (one of my favorite pieces of furniture came from there).

He had the Chocolate Cottage in Oneonta for a while. We enjoyed eating there very much.

Jamie said...

I wanted to go to the Trussville Antique Mall right away after reading this post. Alas, it will come another day.

ByLightOfMoon said...

I hope to come and visit this week as I have never been here and this looks like my kind of place for sure, even hubby will come if food is involved!

Smiles, Cyndi

william said...

chef bob is no longer at the mall cafe. he resigned in august of 2009. the new chef is chef wild bill, who has been cooking at the mall cafe for about 2 years.

william said...

chef bob is no longer at the mall cafe. he resigned in august of 2009. the new chef is wild bill. he has been at the cafe for about two years.

B. Reynolds said...

I was told that the cafe has a back room you can rent for events and have the food catered. Does anyone know if this is true and who I would need to contact ? I need a place in the Trussville/Springville area for a Rehearsal dinner on April 13th. Thanks!

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