Super Quick & Random Afternoon Trip to Dunnellon, FL – Thanks to my Hubby Joe!
Living in North Central Florida, we are very blessed with many, many state parks, county parks, state trails (walking and biking), natural (cold) springs and great outdoor opportunities. Of course, living near all of these wonderful things, we are the first to admit we rarely take advantage of them. My background is working in Florida state and county parks, so while I will boast about how awesome they are, I am not that impressed by them anymore (at least, not enough to go visit them regularly). Foolish me.
However, one lazy Saturday afternoon, I was relaxing on the couch (OK, OK, I was working on our Ireland itinerary, so I was “working”) when my husband yells from another room “what arreee yooouuuu doinnnggg?” Then he appeared in the living room and he asked “what DO you want to do?” I could tell he had an idea already so I asked what it was he wanted to do (maybe, for once, one of the two of us knows what we want to do, LoL). To my surprise, he suggested heading to Dunnellon, which is about an hour from us, and trying out some random restaurant and dessert place. We never go to Dunnellon. We never travel that far JUST for a restaurant, especially one that we aren’t in love with already. I figure if we’re going that far, let’s take our bikes! So, around 2pm, off we went on a little unexpected adventure.
We arrived to the restaurant, The Front Porch, where the reviews claimed great fried chicken and amazing pies and cakes. You can’t miss the place if you’re looking, they have a HUUUGGEE blue sign along Highway 41. They also have a large covered front porch and a big rooster on it.
Dunnellon, Florida 
Selfie with a rooster!
Everyone was so friendly from the moment we walked in. It was 
a cool little place with a lot of thoughtful touches to make it feel like the theme (front porch). Joe ordered the fried chicken and I ordered the pot roast. The server came out after a few minutes and said it would still be 15 minutes for the fried chicken. In fairness, the website, menu and reviews warned about the time 
it could take if you ordered certain items. Well, with 15 more minutes, what should we do with our time? Why, eat dessert first of course! (Thanks for the suggestion on the back of the menu!)
They have a long list of desserts and pies, and we were allowed to take a look at their refrigerator cooler, too. They ALL looked 
amazing!! We are dessert lovers and we were impressed! I ordered a chocolate peanut butter pie and Joe ordered a banana meringue pie. O.m.g! His pie was so big! Mine was a decent size, and another O.M.G! they were SO good!! My chocolate peanut butter piece was sooo smooth and creamy; it didn’t have that thick peanut butter texture at all. YUMMM!! The banana meringue pie was also really great. It was like having excellent banana pudding in pie form. Even the meringue had a sweet flavor vs being bland like many can be. So good!! We asked if they made them in house and they have a woman who comes in and makes all of them. That’s even more impressive since so many places order theirs from out of town companies. (Sorry, no photos of our pies, we ate them too fast, LoL!)
Our dinner arrived and it looked great! My pot roast was excellent, mashed taters were tasty and carrots were similar to Cracker Barrel’s. Joe’s fried chicken was good, but not quite 
what he had hoped from reading reviews, but it definitely was not bad and better than most. There was too much food for me after having dessert first, so I have delicious leftovers for later! The prices were reasonable too, about $34 + tip for both meals and pieces of pie. We definitely will be back again sometime!
After eating, we decided we were going to find the trail head and ride our bikes some. As I mentioned, we have great areas around and the state converted a lot of old railroad tracks into the Rails to Trails system consisting of a lot of paved trails great for walking, biking and rollerblading. We went to the Dunnellon Head Trail and biked for a little more than 3 miles to a swimming area and back. It was a great ride and went over a bridge overlooking the Withlacoochee River. It’s an easy ride, even for people like us who don’t ride a ton.
The whole trip only took about five hours. All in all, it was an enjoyable quick spur-of-the-moment trip consisting of tasty food and a little bit of exercise, making it a fantastic afternoon! Anytime I can be with my hubby, I’m a happy girl!
-Road Trip June 2019
