Nabers Drive In

Been going to Nabers drive-​in (yes you sit in your car) my entire life (43 years). Very nostalgic place, stuck in the 60’s. This is a MUST stop for me every time we visit Bryson.
Minced pork with slaw is my favorite. Favorite Onion rings are awesome. Cash only. Closes at 8 pm and closed on Sundays.

Disgusting greasy food. Incredibly rude staff, may or may not have spit in my food. Found $$ on ground, walked around dinning area asking whos it was, nobody claimed. Then… employee i see all the time: Ugly dike woman with coke bottle glasses and feathered hair, comes up to my table accusing me of stealing $$ from a «very good customer» that left 20min before i arrived! I gave the $$ to the rude employee to avoid more confrontation, wondering if she just kept it. Now every time i come in, they stair and say rude things under their breath.

I have eaten here since I was a kid.
The reason for my review is to bring to everyone’s attention their minced bbq sandwich. Finely chopped bbq seared on the flat top with slaw, tomatoes, and pickles.
I can knock out about 3 of these!
A «must try» if you are in the area.
Also, some of the nicest people you’ll meet anywhere in the world!

What can I say about Na-​bers? How can you describe a 50 year old building that has seen better days, run by a staff who seem more like your friends, in a town that feels like a modern day Mayberry.
THE EXPERIENCE
This is a place where little old guys (70+) pull up in little old cars and little young waitresses yell out the screened front door «Git on in here outta the rain handsome!» The elderly gentleman (wearing his favorite American Legion hat) then makes a quick glance back at the door wondering who she’s calling handsome… lol
She then yells over to the 50 something year old fellow who came in right before him saying, «why did you leave him out there standing in the rain?» I honestly can’t remember what he replied, because her next response was:
«If you do it again and I’m gonna cut the rest of your fingers off».
Yep, you guessed it! 3 of his fingers were missing (which I didn’t notice until announced), and yep… she really told him she’d cut the rest of em off. That’s what kinda place I was in, and it was AWESOME!!!
Then we got to meet Fuzzy, who was our waitress and the grandmother of the finger cutting cashier. Fuzzy was so sweet we just wanted to wrap her up and take her home. She took our order, told us stories of how Na-​bers got their name, showed us pictures of her great granddaughter and frantically looked for a CD of music she had written (but could not find). If you ever come here, you will LOVE FUZZY!!!
All of the staff were just the most down to earth and cool bunch you would ever expect to find. It was such a pleasure, we asked everyone to take a picture with us before we checked out.

THE FOOD
I had the Hot Dog ‘all the way’ which included slaw and chilli and it was really good. My wife had a grill cheese and the kids had a burger and chicken nuggets. Everyone was pleased, but we fought over the fries, which never happens. They were fantastic and left me seriously considering placing a to-​go order. Prices are so reasonable that you could practically order everything on the menu for what it would cost for one ‘date night’ meal in downtown Atlanta.
My favorite discovery here was the assortment of shakes. I thought I was the only one who used grape soda to make shakes… but Na-​bers had a Grape shake on the menu as well as peach, pineapple, orange, Pepsi and sour dill pickle juice shakes. I asked Fuzzy if the sour dill shake was good, and the look on her face was priceless. She’d rather cut her arm off than taste it, but she says its popular with some locals.
THE REST OF THE STORY
Our main reason for coming here is because our youngest son’s name is Bryson, and well, he thinks Bryson City is his town. I’m gonna be honest and I hope readers don’t take this the wrong way, but as a black guy walking into a old Diner, in a little country town, in the mountains, with an interracial family… I didn’t know what to expect!!! But I’d never have guessed we would be so in love with this place when we left. The beautiful part of traveling is the hidden gems that you would never expect to find. Na-​bers is a diamond that sits on the river banks of a city that uses old crushed cars as erosion control (I’m not kidding).