Watauga Lake Mercantile

The store five minutes from the townhouse

About five minutes from the townhouse, on Dry Hill Road, there is a small country store called the Watauga Lake Mercantile. If you stay with us long enough you will end up here. Most of our guests do, usually for one of three reasons: they forgot something, they want bait, or they heard about the Friday fish fry.

It is not a big store. It is the kind of small general store that exists because a lake community needs one — and would barely exist anywhere else. That is part of why we like sending people there.

What’s actually inside

Walk in and the layout makes sense in about ten seconds. Coolers along one wall (drinks, beer, dairy). Dry goods in the middle aisles (bread, snacks, cereal, the basics). A deli counter at the back where the kitchen lives. Live bait and tackle near the door. A small freezer with ice and a few essentials. Restroom in the back.

You can put together a meal here. You can put together breakfast. You can buy a six-pack of beer, a couple of sandwiches, ice for the cooler, and a tube of sunscreen and walk out the door in fifteen minutes. That is most of what a guest needs out of a lake-town general store.

What you cannot do is a full week’s grocery run. For that, drive 25 minutes to Elizabethton — there’s a Food City and an Ingles.

The Friday fish fry

This is the part to plan around if you’re staying with us on a Friday.

The Mercantile does a Friday fish fry every week. It has been doing this long enough that it is part of the local rhythm. People who live on the lake plan their Friday evening around it. People at the campground a quarter mile away walk over. The parking lot fills up.

We’re not going to print a menu we haven’t verified — but the fish-fry plate is the reason people come. There’s typically a side or two and a dessert option. If you’re a guest, the move is to walk in around 5 or 5:30, order at the counter, decide if you want to eat there at one of the tables or take it back to the townhouse deck.

Friday hours extend until 8 PM (an hour and a half later than weekdays) specifically for this. That tells you how much of a thing it is.

Bait and tackle

This is the closest live-bait stop to the townhouse and to the public launch at Lakeshore. If you are heading out to fish first thing in the morning, the Mercantile opens at 7 AM Monday through Saturday. Walk in, get minnows or worms, grab a couple of hooks if you’re under-supplied, get coffee, you’re on the water by 7:45.

What they stock for tackle is basic — hooks, sinkers, a wall of common lures, line. If you need something specific (a particular musky bait, fly tackle, ultralight rods) you’ll want to go to one of the marinas, or down to Mahoney’s in Johnson City.

Deli and grab-and-go

The deli does sandwiches, biscuits in the morning, and a rotating set of hot items at lunch. It is the kind of deli where the person behind the counter probably also rings you up at the register, and probably also stocked the shelf you got your chips off of. That is the entire scale of the place.

Coffee is set up self-serve at the front. It is fine. It is the coffee that exists for people who needed coffee, not for people who care a great deal about coffee. We say this with affection. If you care a great deal about coffee, we drink the pour-over we keep at the townhouse, or we drive to one of the Elizabethton or Johnson City spots when we want a real cup out.

A few things worth knowing

A few things to know:

• Closed Sunday. This catches people. If you’re a Sunday arrival and you forgot supplies, you cannot stop here. Stock up before you get to Butler, or wait until Monday at 7 AM.
• Small parking lot. Friday evening during fish fry it fills up. Park politely; the gravel shoulder is fine.
• Cash is welcome. Cards work, but if you have cash for a small purchase, the staff appreciates it.
• Selection rotates. Specific items come and go. If you’re depending on a specific thing being there (a particular cut of meat, a specific brand of beer), call first.

How it fits with a stay at the lake

For most guests:

• Arrival day. Stop in for the last few things you didn’t pick up at the Food City in Elizabethton. Beer, ice, eggs, bread, half-and-half. Five minutes from the townhouse means a low-friction supply run.
• Fishing mornings. Open at 7 AM, bait in stock, coffee at the front. Easiest fishing-trip start in the area.
• Friday evening. Plan to be at the lake on a Friday night so you can do the fish fry once. Order the plate, take it back to the deck, eat outside while the light goes on the water.

Related

• The Property — five minutes north on Dry Hill Road
• Butler, Tennessee — what else is in town
• Watauga Lake — the lake the store is named after
• Where to eat near Watauga Lake