Yoder’s Smoky Mountain Provisions, 715 Parkway, Gatlinburg, TN 37738
Gatlinburg’s bustling Parkway is world-famous for its towering pancake houses, moonshine distilleries, and neon-lit fudge shops. But tucked among the vibrant tourist attractions, a distinctly quieter, more analog culinary experience has arrived. Yoder’s Smoky Mountain Provisions has officially opened, bringing the slow-paced, handcrafted heritage of Ohio’s Amish country directly to the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains.
The Backstory: A Bridge Between Two Mountain Cultures
The journey from Holmes County, Ohio—home to one of the world’s largest Amish settlements—to Sevier County, Tennessee, began with a family vacation. Three years ago, Ezekiel and Miriam Yoder took a chartered bus tour to the Smokies. While they fell in love with the mist-covered mountains and the deep-rooted Appalachian woodworking culture, they noticed a gap in the local food scene: amidst all the commercialized sweets, there was a craving for genuine, off-the-grid, scratch-made provisions.
Ezekiel struck up a friendship with a local Gatlinburg cabin builder named Beau. Realizing that Appalachian mountain heritage and Amish agricultural traditions share a deep respect for manual labor and preservation, the two hatched a plan. Beau built out a beautiful, rough-hewn timber storefront on the Parkway, while the Yoders organized the supply chain…