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The following is the second in a multi-part travel series chronicling Anna Coburn’s tour of the Smokey Mountain area with her newlywed husband, James.

After our stop at the Chanticleer Inn, James and I traveled east towards Knoxville, but we spent the night in Tellico Plains.

The town of Tellico Plains has many charms, including its beautiful plains that give its name, its vibrant downtown area and Tellico Grains Bakery.

Situated just off the main stretch, the bakery was opened in 2003 and has been serving all types of delicious bread since.

According to their website (tellico-grains-bakery.com), the bakery was started because the owners, Stuart and Anissa Shull, had a passion for wood-fired stove baking.

An entry from their blog states “We get asked a lot how we ended up in this little town. It is family that brought us to East Tennessee, but it is the natural beauty and simplicity of this place that captured our hearts and convinced us to begin our journey here.”

The Shulls began their journey after buying an old building near the square of downtown Tellico Plains, but it took longer than they expected as they combatted rotting roofs, walls and floors before even building and installing their woodstove.

Their months of work were worth it, as now people from all around East Tennessee travel to the small town just to get a taste of the bakery’s breads, pastries and pizza.

James and I had a wonderful time drinking strong coffee and eating breakfast sandwiches in the bakery which hosted people from all over the place–hikers, stock brokers and even a couple who traveled from Knoxville just to have some of the bakery’s famous pizza.

If you’re traveling through the Smokies, I highly recommend going a little out of the way to stop by Tellico Plains and eating at Tellico Grains Bakery.