Over the years I have visited Sewanee: The University of the South repeatedly because my husband and three children are graduates. With our children’s births spaced four years apart, that added up to 11 parent weekends (minus one for Covid), dozens of homecomings, and three graduations.
Unlike my family, I don’t tap the roof of the car when I drive on and off the domain, but I believe in their Sewanee angel. I’ve grown to love the Cumberland Plateau’s deep beauty—panoramic vistas, morning fogs, lush forests for hiking—and the magical Gothic architecture on campus.
The food scene, however, has made Sewanee more of an outpost and less a food-centric university town. It’s no wonder parents who visit their students come armed with casseroles, vats of pimiento cheese, and caramel cakes from home. I remember Pearl’s, George Stevenson’s heralded opening of the Sewanee Inn, IvyWild, and Crossroads restaurants and how they sought to shake up the status quo…