Star Mercantile is an antique shop, local goods store and restaurant all wrapped up into one.

They even have the shop across the road which has even more goodie inside.

But I stopped by quickly to get some snacks for my upcoming train ride later in the day.

You order at the counter, find a seat, then they bring your food.

The menu features hearty breakfasts, broasted chicken, hot dogs, burgers, and sandwiches.

For something portable, I went for "The Patwich," -- Not your ordinary grilled cheese. Made with potato bread, cheese, butter & love.


While waiting for it to cook, I looked around at the local products, antiques and more. This was perfect for my trip!

Here's a quick snap of the Trough, where we saw three eagles!



And the last state park I had to check off my list.

The Lost River Trading Post is a unique spot that combines art, local goods and tasty snacks.

With the trademark red cow out front, this shop truly has a little bit of everything, and I was excited to explore it.

While looking around, I found antiques, jewelry, blankets and more.

There's even a fine art gallery.

At the cafe portion, they have frittatas, coffee, biscuits, sweets and even falafel.

The latter sounded perfect for my scenic train ride later in the day.

And, it's a little unexpected and unique! What's your favorite item here?

I headed over to the Lost River area to check off the last state park on my list.

And while in the area, of course I wanted to check out some local fare.

One place that I recently heard of was the Wardensville Garden Market + Bakery.

The Wardensville Garden Market + Bakery is a nonprofit farm that employs local youth, encouraging their entrepreneurial spirit through small-scale sustainable farming in an education-rich environment. Our goal is to enhance the knowledge of local youth by teaching them how to run and sustain a successful small business, and by offering opportunities to pursue new career paths, through classes and scholarships.  We reinvest 100% of every purchase and donation made back into the program to hire and inspire even more young people (ABOUT).

How cool is that? The bakery is really cute and known for these gigantic cinnamon rolls. They even had free samples of cookies!


As I was getting ready to leave, I saw the entire other half of the place - the market!



It's such a cute space with some great local products.


Have you been here yet? What's your favorite item?

Driving toward Summersville, I passed Drennen Dairy Bar, and it's exactly the kind of place I love to find: cute, small, & local.



On this hot day, I was ready for ice cream. They call their blizzards "storms," and the cookie dough was speaking to me.



Here, they don't do the small little balls of cookie dough. No, they scoops giant hunks from a tub and mix it in. The result being a half cookie dough-half ice cream concoction that is all delicious.

Donut Connection is a chain, but it's not widespread through West Virginia and there are just a few locations in the southern part of the state: two in Huntington, two in Charleston and two in Beckley.

This is the second Charleston location I've visited, and I do like that they have a drive-thru and a nice assortment of donuts.

I got a dozen to take back to the office, which included: caramel apple, pumpkin, iced pumpkin, glazed, german chocolate, samoa, chocolate chip, jelly filled, strawberries & cream, sprinkle and cream-filled.

This was in the fall, so the specialty donuts were my favorites.