Wood Iron Eatery is a scratch-cooking breakfast and lunch cafe with a full espresso bar, in the historic Ankrom-Dickerson House at 129 South Court Street, Unit A. Think a house-made fennel sausage and egg sandwich with pepper jelly for $7.95, or a Belgian waffle with fried chicken on top. Its website says "Open Everyday," 8:30 AM to 2:30 PM, with breakfast and lunch both served all day. It closed in 2023 and is back under new owners.
What to order at Wood Iron
Everything leans homemade: the site talks up food from scratch, baked goods and freshly roasted coffee. On the menu, that fennel sausage, egg and pepper jelly sandwich on an English muffin is $7.95, house granola is $8.75, and a Belgian waffle is $9.95, or $6 more with fried chicken piled on. There's a tofu scramble for $10.45 and loaded tots for $10.25.
Lunch brings a smash burger, a vegan burger, a rockfish sandwich and a fried chicken sandwich at $15 each, a BLAT at $14 and a big green salad at $12. Sandwiches come with a house salad, and fries or tots are $2 extra. Kids get The Cool Kid plate for $9.50.
Breakfast here mostly comes in under $15, a relief on a trip where rafting and lodging already take a bite out of the budget; the budget and what to book ahead page runs the rest of the numbers. BringFido lists Wood Iron as pet friendly, and one TripAdvisor post sums up the trade-off in four words: "Good food long wait."
Is Wood Iron Eatery open?
Yes. It's worth asking, because Wood Iron has a comeback story. Chef Jeffrey Toth, a Baltimore native, opened it in July 2018, and in April 2023 it "abruptly closed," the Fayette Tribune reported. Not for lack of customers: "Fayetteville is flooded with visitors and we are getting crushed with not enough staff," a representative told the paper.
Now it's cooking again at the same address. The Hill Hall Hotel names Wood Iron's current owners as "Katie & Tennyson" and credits them with helping develop the menu at Patsy's, the hotel's restaurant, where Toth now runs the kitchen, according to the hotel's opening release. So the founder and the new owners both have a hand in the town's newest dining room on High Street. Older write-ups, like the state tourism listing, still describe the Toth-era cafe.
The house and the old names
Wood Iron occupies part of the Ankrom-Dickerson House, which both the state tourism listing and Hill Hall call historic. Before Wood Iron, the storefront held Vandal's Kitchen, long since closed. Don't confuse either with "The Vandalian," a different, long-gone restaurant at 101 South Court Street; that corner is now Southside Junction Tap House.
Getting there and a breakfast crawl
Wood Iron shares its block of South Court Street with Cathedral Cafe (134 South Court, closed Wednesdays) and Range Finder Coffee (104 South Court). If one has a line, the others are a minute's walk. Park on the street; there's no lot. The full list of places to eat is in the Fayetteville dining guide.
