Meet Amanda Browning! Amanda is a longtime Hall County resident and own’s Amanda’s Farm to Fork, a new restaurant in Lula. The restaurant specializes in  homecooked lunches, baked goods and premade dinners. Prior to owning the storefront Amanda had a prepared meal service but now anyone can come in for breakfast and coffee or for a hearty lunch.
Amanda, who moved to Hall County in 1993, is married to Timothy and the couple has five children.
“It’s not only just about the food, we strive to have fantastic customer service and to make everyone happy and I think that makes a difference,” she said.
Amanda’s Farm to Fork is located at 5951 Main Street in Lula.
Abernathy Cochran Realtor Ricky Lewallen recently sat down with Amanda to find out more about her life and love of Hall County.
Question: What inspired you or led you to your current career?
Answer: “I worked for the same company for 22 years and I had lost my job with no back up plan so I got another office job making it the best I could but it just wasn’t enough income for our family; I have five children. I always cooked on the side for people when they had a funeral or if someone was having a party, they would ask me to cook. My husband said we need to do a dinner service, we need to do something where you can cook more. I started out doing it just a little bit and I had fantastic supporters like Jeannie and Brent with Natural Juice Cafe, they ordered from me right away and were some of my first customers and we went from 20 customers a week to about 56 families within a months time. It’s not only just the food, we strive to have fantastic customer service and to make everyone happy and I think that makes a difference, too.”
Q: What do you love most about owning Farm to Fork?
A: “I think it is interaction. I had worked in an office for 22 years and you don’t see a lot of people and everybody that comes in, I’m able to chat with them for a few minutes, kind of hear their story. I love that we have, even in the last week, we’ve had some older couples that will come in every morning around 10 a.m. and have coffee and I like to have that sense of community in the building.”
Q: What is the most unique thing about Farm to Fork?
A: “I think the most unique thing is for our dinner service we have a new menu every week. We change that every Monday and everyone has until Thursday to put their order in. We cater to Whole 30 meals, we cater to Keto meals and we have our Southern cooking, so we still have the variety.”
Q: What is your customer’s favorite item that you make?
A: “I’m famous for my cinnamon rolls, we make giant cinnamon rolls.”
Q: Who is the most interesting person that you have met in Hall County?
A: “Steve Thomas that runs the Farmer’s Market on the square in Gainesville. He has got to be one of my most favorite people, I’ve worked at the Farmer’s Market for seven or eight years now and he is a fantastic storyteller and a joy to talk to.”
Q: If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go?
A: “I keep telling my husband that we haven’t had a good vacation in a couple years. He loves old Westerns and I’ve always wanted to take him to Tombstone, Ariz.”
Q: What was the first movie or your favorite movie that you saw in the theater?
A: “This probably isn’t my favorite movie, but this is a favorite memory…Cinemas West that used to be on Hudgins St. in Gainesville, the last movie they played before they closed down was ‘Thelma & Louise.’ I always remember, we went to the 9 o’clock show and it was the last movie of the last night before it was closed.”
Q: What advice would you give a crowd of people?
A: “Don’t ever lose your faith, even on the worst days keep your faith and remember to pray.”
Q: What is something on your bucket list?
A: “All of my children have never been on an airplane and I tease them all the time that I’m going to put them on a plane and fly them to Hawaii.”
Q: What are your favorite three bands? 
A: “This year and last year is the first time in 25 years that I have missed a Jimmy Buffet concert, of course, I’m crazy about country music but we like old country, we are all about Lorette Lynn and Conway Twitty.”
Q: What former local business makes you feel nostalgic about Hall County? 
A: “Do you remember Clore’s that used to be off the square and you could go and have breakfast? I remember when I first moved here, I lived with my grandmother and granddaddy and my grandmother and I would go there in the morning and have breakfast and it was just an old fashioned place.”
Q: What is your favorite thing about Hall County?
A: “I think that we have a wonderful amount of friendly people and I say this because I’ve worked on the square during Farmer’s Markets, I’ve worked in Clermont when they had Pickin’ in the Park, I’ve worked the Hall County markets; there are just a lot of great and good natured people.”
Q: Where do you see yourself in five to 10 years? 
A: “I hope that Farm to Fork continues to grow. Currently, we deliver to Clarkesville, Gainesville, Jefferson and Flowery Branch and I would love to be able to extend that to a few other communities. I love to teach classes and on our list of things to do is to teach children’s cooking classes on Saturday mornings.”
Q: What is something interesting about you that most people don’t know?
A: “Might be that I’m a Yankee. I was born in Michigan.”
Q: What three words mean HOME to you?
A: “I think of my children, gatherings and love.”
 
Interview done by Ricky Lewallen, Realtor with Abernathy Cochran Real Estate Group.
The Faces of Hall County is a project to showcase the amazing people that live or work in our community. If you would like to nominate an interesting person to be featured please email babernathy@gonorton.com.