Lea's Lunchroom

Lea Johnson started with a hunch and a trade: one car for two countertops, five stools, a coal-oil stove, and a coffee pot. That was 1928, and the lunchroom he built in Lecompte has been running ever since — nearly a century on the same highway, with the same menu logic. Ham sandwiches. Plate lunches. Homemade pies. Johnson's view was that a menu was a waste of time; if the food was good enough, people would come back. They did.

The pies are the reason most people stop. The recipes came from his wife's side of the family, and they haven't changed. That's the whole point — the chocolate pie you eat today is the same chocolate pie your grandfather ate in the 1930s. In 2008, a second location opened in Monroe. USA Today named it one of the best restaurants in the country. The Southern Foodways Alliance documented it as a significant Southern food landmark.

It's about 20 miles south of Alexandria on US-71. Worth every one of them.