“You can get it fried, or you can get it grilled,” says Duck, an EnergyUnited member. “It’s very tasty.”

As Southern Lunch celebrates 100 years in 2025 as a family operated restaurant, longtime loyal employees such as Duck, Fonda Bishop, Timothy “Snake” Dye, Levern Owens and several others provide consistency to the food and service, as well as bring specialty dishes and desserts to the menu. Fonda has been ringing up checks for 42 years. Snake makes the cobblers in a variety of flavors: apple, blueberry, peach, strawberry and blackberry, when in season. The now retired 101-year-old Levern, the main cook at Southern Lunch for 48 years, added many of the items seen on the menu today.

Main course

In 1925, at the age of 25, Herbert Lohr launched Southern Lunch in his brother’s building near Lexington’s train depot.

“They started serving hamburgers and hotdogs,” says Herb Lohr II, Southern Lunch’s current owner and grandson to Herbert. “People would line up behind the counter and get their orders to go before returning to the factories to work.”

Whether it’s Duck’s chicken, Snake’s cobblers or Fonda’s Hershey Bar cakes, the staff are the secret ingredient to Southern Lunch.

In 1958, Herbert built the first air-conditioned restaurant in town across the street from its original location. Herbert died just a few months after the restaurant opened in its new location, and his son, Fred Lohr, took over. Fred added fish dinners on Friday nights. The breadburger has been on the menu since the restaurant’s opening. It’s a depression-era grilled burger with bread, onion and spices mixed with hamburger meat.

After attending Catawba College, Herb started working full-time at Southern Lunch in 1981. He added dinner and expanded the restaurant to incorporate table service. Home-cooked meals such as chicken and dumplings, country style steak, fried chicken, meat plus three vegetables and seafood provided many choices for patrons.

“Sometimes when you’re born and you know what you’re supposed to do, you’re lucky,” Herb says. “I knew what I was going to do. It was going to be this.”

Dessert

Herb recognizes how Southern Lunch’s longevity may be credited to not only its affordable quality food but its reputation and partnerships within the community.

“It’s a big old family,” Herb says. “We’re in the fourth generation of families eating here. They start them out as little babies. They always kid about eating their first macaroni and cheese or creamed potatoes.”

Employees may begin as a dishwasher or server, but they find a way to contribute their other talents to Southern Lunch. Whether it’s Duck’s chicken, Snake’s cobblers or Fonda’s Hershey Bar cakes, the staff are the secret ingredient to Southern Lunch.

“I couldn’t go on without the people who work here,” Herb says. “They’re the key to my success.”