If you are looking for a unique dining experience, look no further than Donna’s Old Town Café in Historic Downtown Madisonville. The food that is served at Donna’s Café is what you would expect...decades ago! Every dish at the Café is lovingly prepared. The Café offers both breakfast and lunch buffets, as well as unique menu items. When the scrumptious food is partnered with a classy, yet relaxed setting, the combination is mouth watering.
Donna’s is a family owned and operated full service restaurant and catering business that is going into its 15th year. Madisonville natives Donna Leslie and Melissa Graves are great cooks and the happy owners of Donna’s Café. They are also mother and daughter. Their entire family is excited about the changes that are going on at the restaurant.
“Right now we’ve added some new homemade entrees to the buffet bar,” said Graves. “We have a baked pork loin, meat loaf, chicken and dumplings, herb chicken, baked chicken, kraut and weenies, at least two soups are on the bar daily, we have Grandma’s beef stew, chili and a lot more. We are adding a little more flavor to the buffet, too, like our buffalo chicken drummies and wings, a taco bake and other spicy things. One of everybody’s favorites is a new kind of white fish that we are special breading and deep frying. It is delicious. No one can stop eating it. It’s really, really good. Of course, on Thursdays we have our homemade buttermilk pies and also on Thursdays we have a breakfast buffet that starts at 3 in the afternoon. Mom has added her waffles and homemade chocolate gravy to it, a favorite around here.”
July will see a new menu at Donna’s Café. But, as you would expect, all of the changes are scrumptious and delicious. New items will include favorites such as the Café’s pot roast beef sandwich and buffalo chicken tenders. “We have a lot of grilled foods and garden foods in the summer. We have four gardens his year and bring in a lot of our own produce and a lot of locals bring us their fruits and vegetables. Last year we had fresh green beans all summer and I know once we had over 50 watermelons in the back,” said Graves.
Donna’s Café is expanding a bit into the world of retail. “We have purses and bags, gifts and accessory items. We also have some of the dressings that we have featured on the buffet now available for purchase. People are really happy about that,” said Graves. “We have back packs, diaper bags, headbands and other retail items available. New things are coming in every week and it’s been a big draw. We also have the note cards and the print that features the courthouse available.”
As always people can purchase whole pies and cakes to go at the Cafe. Favorites include the famous buttermilk pie, sweet potato cake, upside down German chocolate cake and Heath bar cake. Donna’s Café still does both onsite and offsite catering. “We do reunions, meetings, anything. I can comfortably seat 100 onsite and I have done as many as 800 offsite and we can do more. People should start booking us now as it gets booked up fast. But, we will try to fit someone in at the last minute if we can,” Graves stated.
