About Your Visit

If you’ve never visited us, we welcome you! If you’re planning a return trip,  we’re happy to have you back. You will find that there’s plenty to do for the whole family. We offer two award-winning restaurants. Our pottery studio conducts demonstrations daily. You can see candy and jelly being made. Our distillery offers free tastings, and in-season, guided tours of our Historic Old Mill and area are available.

Or, you can simply enjoy the grounds, which are award-winning too, while you visit. Please take all the pictures you want and do share them with us! We love to see what The Old Mill is like through your eyes. When you do, be sure to tag us with @theoldmilltn .

If you’re looking for a full Old Mill Experience,  our Old Mill Lodging offers a variety of options with touches of The Old Mill throughout each, from pottery sinks to the homes’ decor.There are Cabins and Cottages, right in town or just off the beaten path, that sleep up to 2, and Mountain Homes that sleep up to 18. 

The Old Mill sits along the banks of the Little Pigeon River, right in the heart of Pigeon Forge, just as it did when it was built in 1830. To find us we like to say “Turn at stoplight #7 and go back nearly 200 years!” It really is that simple. From the Parkway in Pigeon Forge, you will see all the stoplights are numbered and you just turn and cross the river at #7. You will find our family of businesses on both sides of Old Mill Avenue.

If you’re coming from Veteran’s Blvd., you will turn onto Teaster Lane at the stoplight and make an immediate left onto Old Mill Ave. You will find our family of businesses on both sides of the street across from, and just past, the entrance to Patriot Park.

If you’re using GPS, you will find us at 175 Old Mill Ave., Pigeon Forge.

We’re about 25 miles from McGhee Tyson Airport in Alcoa, TN, 35 miles from downtown Knoxville, TN, and 90 miles from Asheville, NC. On I-40 you will take exit 407, pass through Sevierville and enter Pigeon Forge. We’re just 15 miles from exit 407.

If you’re looking for a full Old Mill Experience, and want to avoid the chain hotels, check out our Old Mill Lodging. We offer quite a variety for you to choose from, depending on what you need. There are Cabins and Cottages, right in town or just off the beaten path, that sleep up to two, and Mountain Homes that sleep up to 18. You can find out more information right here. You’ll find touches of The Old Mill throughout each locations, from pottery sinks to the home’s decor.

Free parking at The Old Mill is available for Old Mill guests in front of both of our restaurants and our shops. If you’re eating at the Pottery House Cafe,  you’ll find additional parking on Butler Street right off of Old Mill Avenue.

We do staff and monitor our parking areas, but please keep valuable belongings with you or out of sight in your vehicles. 

Overflow parking and paid parking can be found near The Old Mill, in Patriot Park, and off of Old Mill Street. You may also find additional paid parking in the area.

We’re lucky to have Patriot Park, the main hub for the Pigeon Forge Trolley system, right down the sidewalk. With stops all over town, you don’t have to worry about driving or parking!  You can find their fare and route schedules here.

The Old Mill property and its businesses are completely handicap-accessible for our guests. Many of the entrances are on the ground level; those that are elevated have ramps.

Walkways are made of concrete, brick, and stone and can be a little bumpy, but completely passable for guests in wheelchairs, walkers, canes, and children in strollers.

You’ll find handicap parking spots available closest to entryways and ramps.

• The Old Mill Restaurant has a multi-level ramp to the entry and it also has an elevator from the parking level into the foyer. Once inside, there is a lift to the first level dining room. There are two levels of dining rooms and the entry level. The entry level is where you’ll find the restrooms, so you may want to wash up before heading to your tables.

• The Pottery House Cafe has two entrances, both on the ground level, with parking close to both entrances.

• The shops of The Old Mill have entrances at ground level or level with the walkways.The Old Forge Distillery has a ramp to the entrance.

• Our Historic Old Mill is accessible on the first floor for guests taking tours, but there are no lifts or assistance to the second level, due to the historic nature of the building.

Please let us know if we can assist you in any way. 

Service dogs are allowed in both restaurants and all of our businesses, as outlined by the ADA Guidelines. We don’t require them to wear vests or any apparel indicating that they provide you service, but you may choose to have some identification so other guests will know not to interrupt them while they are assisting you.  

All service dogs should be leashed or restrained as appropriate. In the restaurants, they should remain under the table or beside the person they are assisting. If water is needed, please ask for assistance. No feeding from the table, please! If you have any questions, our managers are equipped to assist.

Only service animals are allowed inside the restaurants and shops. The service animals policy includes any areas where full-service is provided, including the outdoor dining patios in front of and behind our Pottery House Cafe.

Pets are welcome elsewhere on our properties, so long as they are always in your control — either on a leash or in a pet carrier/stroller. There is an open seating area with tables adjacent to the shops and in front of The Old Mill Creamery and picnic tables next to The Farmhouse Kitchen, where pets are allowed. The patio and indoor spaces of The Old Forge Distillery also allow pets.

Please don’t leave your pet in vehicles unattended. There are many pet-sitting and boarding options throughout Sevier County within a few minutes’ drive of us. A quick Google search should help you find the right place if you need to give your pet a little daycation while you vacation! Your hotel or rental agency may have solutions for you as well. If you are looking for pet-friendly accommodations, here is a handy link to a national search engine dedicated to just that. 

We ask that you clean up after your pet or service dog, and advise bringing your own waste bags. However, you will find a disposal station to the right of the back parking lot entrance of our Pottery House Cafe, along the sidewalk.

We post all the details about upcoming events on our Blog and we also share the information on our social channels. Follow us on Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook to keep informed.

We host events throughout the year, such as a Breakfast & Brunch with the Easter Bunny, Christmas on the Square Breakfast and a Breakfast Brunch with Santa.

Some events are by reservation only and some are free to the public.

In season, we offer guided tours of our Historic Old Mill, Pigeon River Pottery studio, and Old Forge Distillery. When tours are not running, you can still see free pottery demonstrations daily, look into our kitchens as we make candy, jelly, and more.

Try our free tastings at Old Forge Distillery, if you are 21 or older of course. And, you’ll find live music throughout the week and weekends when we have good weather. 

In the works are classes and workshops, cookbook signings and cooking demonstrations, and more special events. Again, follow us on social or sign up for our newsletter to keep up to date on anything coming up and news about new exciting experiences.

We don’t take reservations at either of our very popular, award-winning restaurants, The Old Mill and the Pottery House Cafe. It’s always first come, first served. Wait times are hard to predict prior to your visit. We recommend you see one of our hosts and they will do all they can to accommodate you. 

If you’re looking for a faster option, head over to our The Old Mill Farmhouse Kitchen for grab-and-go sandwiches, homemade soups, and other sweet and savory snacks.

We’re honored that you’re thinking of visiting us for any special day! Please keep in mind that what we do best is feed you. We carry plates, bowls, glasses, and trays full of food. What we don’t do is boast to being able to carry a tune in a bucket. So, we will be happy to put a candle in someone’s dessert, and we will let you do the serenading.

Absolutely! We don’t take reservations at either restaurant, even for groups. However, we do accommodate large groups regularly on a walk-in basis and off the regular menu. Both restaurants have spacious seating and large tables for group dining.

We recommend planning to spend a few hours with us and enjoying the rest of the property if you have to wait for a seating. Billing can be all on one ticket or on separate tickets. We don’t accept pre-payments.

Parking for buses and large vans is available in Patriot Park, right next to our Old Mill Restaurant.

General Questions

Your pottery is made to last for generations and we hope you’ll consider them pieces that you can pass down in the family. It is very durable, but there are a few things you need to know when using, cleaning and storing your pieces. Our pottery is oven, microwave, dishwasher, and of course, food safe, with the exception of some decorative pieces.

When using your pottery to cook you need to ensure that you never shock it. By that we mean that you never want to apply direct heat to it, such as on the stove top. You also never want to take it from one extreme temperature to another, such as sitting a casserole dish that you just removed from the oven onto your granite countertop.

When using it to bake in the oven, do not preheat your oven, but rather start out your filled dish in a cold oven and allow it to come to temperature as the oven heats up. You will simply need to add a few extra minutes to the cook time. You also want to be very careful when broiling and not get it too close. Shocking the pottery can cause it to crack or break into several pieces.

When serving on your pottery be mindful that the bottom surfaces are not glazed and therefore are still a bit rough. We recommend that you use placemats under plates and bowls, coasters under mugs and tumblers, and hot pads or mats under serving pieces. This will help reduce the possibility of scratching your tables and counters.

We recommend hand-washing your pottery, but it is dishwasher safe. If you wash it in the dishwasher, be mindful of how you stack it so that it does not touch or can rattle during the cycle, which could cause it could chip or scratch.

If you notice a chip or crack in you pottery, it is not considered safe to continue using. Chips expose the raw pottery below the glaze. While there is nothing in the clay that will hurt you, the raw pottery is rough and can harbor bacteria from food particles that can be absorbed. The glaze could further chip or flake and you would never want that in your food. Cracks make it very fragile. The crack could easily spread and the pottery could likely break into multiple pieces. If you end up with a piece of pottery that has chipped or cracked, it cannot be repaired but can make a nice display piece if the flaw can be concealed from view.

The Old Mill sits on the banks of the Little Pigeon River, exactly where it was built nearly 200 years ago. As it was the day it was built, the river is the source of energy needed to turn the large stones.

Water powered refers to the source of energy used in the milling process. There is a turbine located in an area under the mill and next to the river, called the pin stock. At the end of the dam, there is a door that’s raised to allow water on the upper side of the dam to flow into that pin stock. As it does, it passes through the turbine and flows back out to the river. That turbine begins to spin from the force of the water passing, allowing it to turn the shafts, gears, and belts that turn the stones. There’s absolutely no electricity needed or used to power the stones. The large water wheel on the front of the building also turns when the millers are grinding, but it operates belts with cups on them called grain elevators. Those elevators carry grains and ground products up to the second and third floors, where gravity brings back down in shafts where it waits for the next step and will finally be hand-bagged.

Stone ground means that the grains pass between the large flint granite stones. As they do, they are slowly ground to the coarseness that the miller desires. This slower process means that the grains are never heated, preserving the natural nutritional value of each grain. Our stones lay horizontally and the miller can adjust the grind by raising and lowering the top stone. The more he raises it, the coarser. The more he lowers it, the finer. That’s the difference in grinding grits and cornmeal, respectively.

We do not add any preservatives or pesticides to our products. That makes them more attractive to you, and to bugs and critters. To preserve the freshness, we recommend you store them in airtight containers and keep them in the freezer. The next best place to keep them is in the refrigerator. Any meal or mix can be used right from the freezer or fridge. We do not recommend keeping them at room temperature or exposing them to warm, damp areas, such as a cabinet close to your stove or under the kitchen sink.

All of our cornmeal is unbolted, even if it says self-rising. Unbolted simply means that it is unsifted, so nothing has been removed.

Plain is just that, nothing added. It is great to use in your favorite recipes, breading meats and vegetables for frying, and baking.

Self-rising has the leavening agents already added, so if you are making your heirloom family cornbread, just eliminate any salt, baking powder, and baking soda that it may call for.

Well, we didn’t! We built the Old Mill Restaurant building in 1993, right next to The Old Mill, and opened as The Cornflour Restaurant. A couple of years later The Old Mill and General Store became available for purchase, so we bought it. We had already been using many of the stone ground products from the Mill, but we decided that we would change the name of our restaurant to The Old Mill Restaurant to really tie the two together. In building it, we did use lots of rough-hewn posts and beams and lots of wood, lending the feel of an old mill.

The Old Mill is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and we are honored to preserve it. And we are proud to keep it operational, just as it has been for nearly 200 years.