Glen Dale Restaurant Offers Southern Cuisine

By ANNIE DeGENOVA
GLEN DALE — Alligator, catfish, turtle — not the traditional menu items you see at restaurants in the Ohio Valley. But they can be found at Hocutt’s Carolina Barbecue and Seafood in Glen Dale, where, according to owner Travis Hocutt, being different is what sets the restaurant apart from others.

“Everything on our menu is different,” he said. “No one else in the area does anything like this.”

By “this,” Hocutt means serving North Carolina cuisine in an area that, for the most part, knows little about it. He said he grew up on pulled pork, collard greens, grits, butter beans, fried okra and turtle soup, and those, along with other items, are what his restaurant offers.

“A lot of our menu is from the South,” he said. “But when I opened our first location in Moundsville, it did so well that I knew I had something.”

The North Carolina native, along with his wife, Elizabeth, a Moundsville native, married 16 years ago and operated two restaurants and a fish market in North Carolina. But eight years ago, Hurricane Floyd struck, flooding the restaurants and forcing the couple and their three children to head north.

After cooking in local restaurants and buying restaurant equipment with the money earned, Travis and Elizabeth used their tax money to buy a building at the end of Jefferson Avenue in Moundsville. The family fixed it up, and in 2005 they opened a restaurant serving Carolina cuisine made from scratch. A year and a half later, the business is still growing — so much so that they’ve just moved into a new location in the former DiCarlo’s Pizza building along W.Va. 2 in Glen Dale.

“Literally we went from having everything to having nothing, but we know this business,” Hocutt said. “I moved here (W.Va. 2) because of the highway. Thousands of cars pass here every day.”

Those cars bring in hungry customers, who Hocutt said have come from all across the nation to sample the menu. A glance in the restaurant’s comment book shows that people from South Carolina, Florida, Maryland and even California have all enjoyed the southern cuisine the restaurant offers.

Thanks to rave reviews from food critics, visitors from across the U.S. and other parts of the world have sampled the menu.

“I’ve had customers from New Zealand and the Philippines,” Hocutt said. “Locally, we have a motorcycle group from Columbus that has been here five times already, and they said they’ll keep coming back for our hush puppies.”

With just one bite, you’ll know why the bikers vow to return. Hocutt uses his grandmother’s recipe for hush puppies, which includes corn meal instead of corn bread, resulting in a sweeter taste that is guaranteed to make the diner want more. They are standard with every order, just as bread and salad are at other restaurants, and the entrees they accompany have something for everyone.

Whether its pulled pork, ribs, fried green tomatoes, blackeyed peas, catfish, rabbit, fried frog legs or ice cream, the eyebrow raising menu continues to please taste buds and brings smiles to the faces of hungry patrons.

Entertainment also is offered for diners, as Hocutt, a former traveling musician, has his keyboard set up and will sing his own songs for patrons who have requests.

And don’t expect to pay an arm and a leg for the Carolina cuisine and southern hospitality. The meals at Hocutt’s are so reasonable that patrons have suggested the prices be raised, but that’s something that isn’t in the cards.

“I want people to be able to afford to eat here,” said Hocutt. “This is something for everyone to enjoy.”