Gip’s Mill Country Store reopening April 1 as Lolli & Pops with new operator
Lolli & Pops Country Store and Deli will open April 1 in the former location of Gip’s Mill Country Store & Deli on Tennessee 61 near Andersonville, just west of the entrance to Big Ridge State Park. (photo:G Chambers Williams III )
To be called Lolli & Pops Country Store & Deli, the new business already has created a Facebook page, and promises to have similar fare to that of Gip’s Mill, which quietly closed late last year.
Signs have already been posted or painted on the front of the building at 2402 Highway 61 West, Andersonville, about two miles west of the entrance to Big Ridge.
The owners, who have not yet identified themselves on the Facebook page, recently posted:
“Looking for thoughts and ideas on daily lunch and dinner ideas. We plan to have a daily special for each day of the week. Your suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Look forward to hear what everyone comes up with. Thanks.”
Gip’s Mill Country Store & Deli, in most-recent iteration, opened in 2020, and featured fresh meals prepared by Gary Thornton, former operator of Big G’s Diner in South Clinton, who was helped by wife, Brenda.
The business closed without notice late in 2022, although its Facebook page remains up on the social media platform.
That business was owned by the couple’s son-in-law and daughter, Jerry and Sonya Keith. But it was the Thorntons who spent their days whipping up burgers, sandwiches, lunch and dinner entrees, side dishes, and desserts for customers at the store.
Thornton said in early 2021 that the Keiths had leased the building from the owner and opened the restaurant.
The building housing the store was built in the mid-1990s and was originally opened as a deli by Steve Foster on the family farm where he still lives along with his wife and mother. They ran the deli from 1997 to 2000, then reopened it briefly in summer 2019 before closing and later leasing the space to the Keiths.
“It was fun, but it started running me rather than me running it,” Foster said in early 2021. “It’s not a huge money-maker.”
The Gip’s Mill name came from Steve Foster’s great-grandfather, Gibson “Gip” Warwick, who once operated a grist mill on the property.
Gip’s brother Marion Warwick and his wife, Minnie, ran a country store for years in a log building just a mile or so east on Tennessee 61.
That building is still standing, even though the store has been closed for decades.