Tasting tradition 

Marcella’s Farm to Fork in Mount Vernon draws on family heritage 

WHEN MARCELLA LOVELL was growing up in the hills of Pongo in Rockcastle County, her parents, Brent and Jean Boone, raised tobacco for cash, feeding their family with the vegetables they grew and the wild game and fish that Brent brought home. “We didn’t have a milk cow,” Marcella remembers, “so we did buy our milk.” 

In 2014, Marcella opened a restaurant in Mount Vernon, Marcella’s Farm to Fork, which draws on her family heritage of resourcefulness. “I come from a long line of cooks and farmers, so that blended in with what I like to do and what I was raised to do,” she says. 

Customers’ favorite items include meatloaf—Marcella’s great-grandmother’s recipe—hand-breaded chicken strips, pinto beans and fried cornbread, and a closely guarded coleslaw recipe from Jean. For breakfast, diners can expect scratch-made country favorites with “all the fixings.” Marcella serves as many Kentucky Proud items as possible, and her beef comes from a Kentucky-based processor. 

Brent, who will turn 74 this year, works three days a week in the restaurant, manning the fryers Wednesday through Friday, an assignment that includes the popular Friday fish special. He still raises a garden, too. It’s “big enough to feed the county,” Marcella says, and he takes pride in bringing produce and canned items to the restaurant. 

Jean helped in the restaurant from the time it opened until her death in 2017, even while battling pancreatic cancer. Marcella says her mother taught her how to put up fresh produce, how to garden and most of all, how to persevere. “Any success I’ve had has been on her skirt-tails,” she says. 

Served by Jackson Energy, Marcella’s Farm to Fork is located at 216 Cedar Rapids Road in Mount Vernon, open 7 a.m.–8 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, closed Sunday and Monday.