Cheri Baker, Owner of Tuggles Gap Restuarant and Motel, Floyd, VA is interviewed by Blue Ridge Country Magazine.

From Blue Ridge Country Magazine: Floyd County, VA: Tuggles Gap Restaruant Offers Local Produce Infused With Southwestern Flavors Floyd County claims more musicians per capita than New York City. On The Crooked Road: Virginia’s Heritage Music Trail, and within sight of the Blue Ridge Parkway, sits Tuggles Gap Restaurant, where live music is performed every weekend. Once the location of the Parkway Service Station, the pine-paneled restaurant near “the crest of the Blue Ridge” serves satisfying repasts, often with a southwestern touch and a vegetarian theme. Drawn by her “love of the rural environment,” current owner Cheri Baker bought the restaurant and its accompanying 12-room roadside motel two decades ago, with her mother, Neil Baker. Risking their life savings, they moved cross-country from Grants, New Mexico, and brought with them recipes for making green and red chilies. Those sauces are slathered over a beautiful breakfast burrito, stuffed with scrambled eggs, shredded cheese, tomato, and onion. The menu offers red “or” green chili, but Cheri Baker says “and” is appropriate, too: red over one half and green over the other, a combination called “Christmas” in New Mexico. The red is the bolder of the two, made from an old New Mexico recipe using dried Anaheim peppers. Tuggles Gap is fully aligned with Floyd County’s long-standing farm-to-table focus. Hamburger meat is local, purchased at Slaughters’ Supermarket in Floyd County. Vegetarian omelets are stuffed, whenever possible, with local squash, peppers, onions and spinach – and, as Baker says, “whatever is in the kitchen.” Tuggles Gap is a direct link to the early days of the Blue Ridge Parkway, when travelers along the thoroughfare began demanding quick access to lodging, food and fuel. The original shell of the building that now houses Tuggles Gap Restaurant, about six miles outside the town of Floyd, dates to 1938. Tuggles Gap Restaurant and Motel, 3351 Parkway Lane South, Floyd, Virginia, 540-745-3402.