People You Meet in Our Sandhills Neighborhood

There’s a Sesame Street song that says, “Who are the people in your neighborhood?”

I would ask, how well do you know the people in your Pinehurst neighborhood? When I was in town, I met some of the absolute nicest people.

Let’s start with Mimi from the Carolina Dining Room at the Pinehurst Resort.

The best way to describe Mimi is human sunshine. When you look up an example of people who are just so beautiful on the inside, you’ll find a photo of Mimi.

Breakfast at the Carolina Hotel

Pinehurst Resort is known to have the best breakfast in golf. And so, my mom and I went when we were in town.

Breakfast, of course, happens in the morning. And most people aren’t super friendly in the morning. Especially when they’re at work.

But Mimi, our server, is one of those people who you just know wakes up with a smile. She wakes up while the world is still quiet, has a light breakfast with peach juice, and heads to work. She then spends her workday filling up coffee mugs and chatting with customers who have come from around the world to play golf at the resort’s famed courses.

She filled our coffee cups once and then, without missing a beat, asked us if we wanted her to take our photo.

People are on vacation when they see Mimi. But vacations are busy, life’s hustle is always in the way. And people don’t often stop long enough to pose for a photo when they’re on a trip. So, Mimi’s kind gesture, whether she realizes it or not, is a way for people to remember their vacation.

Her kindness is infectious. Her bubbliness assures you’re going to have the best day because it started in the best way.

And people notice.

I told Mimi she’s exactly where she should be in life, and she agreed. She told me that another customer that day said she remembered Mimi from last year. And a child, one whose parents said never speaks to anyone, hugged Mimi after breakfast.

Human sunshine, I tell you.

Also, it should be mentioned, this is just Mimi being Mimi. I never once mentioned my job, never said I write about people and places for a living, never even thought I’d be writing about her one day. So, she didn’t put on an act for me. She’s just kind.

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Another kind person we met on our travels was Lin from Foodie Tours.

We took a Peach Week Foodie Tour in Aberdeen. Lin was one of our tour guides (our other was Tori, founder of Foodie Tours).

Foodie Tours Group

The tour itself is great. You walk around town, eating and drinking at five different locations, learning the history of the town along the way.

You get to sit and chat for a bit with your tour guide and fellow foodies while you’re dining, and at one of our stops, we got to chatting with Lin about our plans for the rest of our time in Moore County. Besides checking out the Peach Festival, our schedule was sort of up in the air.

“We’re gonna walk around Pinehurst tomorrow and explore,” I told Lin.Well, let me tell you. Moore County is filled with kind people. Lin offered to meet us in town and walk around with us.

We met up in the morning and it was like three old friends hanging out … if you look past the fact that we had only met the day before.

Lin showed us around town and pointed out very cool buildings (like The Roast Office, an old post office turned coffee shop and used bookstore) that we probably would have unintentionally overlooked if she wasn’t walking with us.

She also gave my mom, an avid traveler, tips for some of her upcoming vacations.

Lin was so generous with her time and her knowledge.

The next day, when we were aimlessly walking around Southern Pines by ourselves, we wished that we had Lin and her wealth of information with us.

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Maybe there’s something to be said about food and finding fine people, because the list of fun people in Moore County would be incomplete without Kenny and Sarah from Kenny’s Country Restaurant. At least, I’m pretty sure the waitress’ name is Sarah. Kenny’s presence overpowered her introduction, and really, if you’ve met Kenny before, you know exactly how true that sentence is.

Kenny’s Country Restaurant

Kenny’s a New Jersey native, who lived in Pennsylvania for a while, and had a home near Wilmington, (STATE?) and ended up as the only restaurant owner in Pinebluff for a while. Kenny’s Country Restaurant was able to claim it had the best burger in Pinebluff because, well, it was the only restaurant in Pinebluff.

Burgers come with a side of fries and conversation.

We heard that Kenny is chatty, but he didn’t know who we were. We were just a mother and daughter eating a burger and BLT for lunch.

Kenny made our food himself, then made conversation with us. He helped himself to a chair at our table and just chatted with us like we were locals who had been coming for lunch religiously for years, not like two out-of-towners who had never been to the restaurant before.

He let us into his world, telling us about restaurants he had owned previously, and sometimes let us and Sarah get a word in too. Their banter made it feel like we were having dinner and a show.

Kenny’s is a blink-and-you-miss-it restaurant. But don’t miss it. The food is good, the staff is even better, and Kenny is someone you will remember long after you leave Moore County.

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Lisa Sokolowski traveled to the Sandhills region for the first time to experience 2024 Peach Week, eat her way through Aberdeen on a walking food tour, and enjoy the Home of American Golf. She writes about travel, food, crafts, and more at Drugstore Divas.