Charlotte and Dick Forester from Richmond told us about this special place – Smith’s Red & White in the little town of Dortches, near Rocky Mount. Each summer on their way to Topsail Beach, Charlotte and Dick pulled off I-95 at the Hwy. 43 Exit and stopped at this grocery store, where they loaded their trunk and coolers with beach food. With all the great places in Richmond to buy food, why here?
Well, Nancy and I stopped at Smith’s also, and this place is special. For starters, they make their own country sausage – been doing it for over 50 years. It’s whole hog sausage, specially cured and seasoned. They make it in link and patty style, hot and regular, and it is superb.
But wait, there is more.
They have a special deli with homemade chicken salad, tuna salad, pimiento salad, egg salad, homemade breads and desserts that are all superb. And there is more.
They have country hams, fresh cut pork, beef and poultry and a huge homemade candy section. Perhaps best of all are their frozen vegetables. It’s all local veggies, freshly picked and flash frozen. They offer things like field peas, black-eyed peas, home grown limas and string beans. Smith’s also makes and cans their own jams, jellies and apple butter. If you come in the summer and early fall, most all of their produce is local and super fresh – an amazing place.
The founder, Sherwood Smith, began his grocery store operation in 1954 in a small, local convenience-type country store in the old Dortches schoolhouse. And he did well, constantly expanding with the help of his sons and family until today, where Smith’s Red & White is a full-fledged, 20,000+ square foot grocery store and meat processor with a separate restaurant as well. The restaurant specializes in home cooking – chicken, barbeque, meat loaf and the like. And it’s all good.
If you are a sausage aficionado, you owe it to yourself to take Hwy. 43 east towards Rocky Mount off of I-95 and stop at Smith’s and fill your coolers. The address for GPS users is Smith’s Red & White, 3635 N. Halifax Road, Rocky Mount, NC.
Call them at 252-443-4323 if you get lost.