With all the talk about Floyd’s musical heritage and traditions, we someone overlook the area’s growing gastronomical delights.

From good, old-fashioned barbeque at Whiskers (above) to the modified yuppie-flavor menu at Cafe del Sol (right) to the eclectic “Appalachian Latino” offerings at Oddfellas Cantina (below), you can please most tastes.

Traditionalists can find family-style cooking at Pine Tavern, lots of meat and gravy at Blue Ridge Restaurant, a buffet at Ray’s and drive-in fare at DJ’s. Mama Lazzardos offers pizza and an Italian flavor and Tuggles Gap mixes American and Mexican cuisine. Franchise lovers can chow down at Hardees, Subway or Pizza Inn. The grill at Floyd’s Express Mart is busy at breakfast, lunch and dinner.

You do have to adjust to the varied hours. Three restaurants (Oddfellas, Mama Lazzardos and Ray’s) close on Monday. Oddfellas offers dinner Wednesday through Saturday and Pine Tavern is open for dinner only Thursday through Sunday. Ray’s lunch schedule can be a hit or miss proposition depending on the mood of owner Ray Hatcher.

It is hard to explain how a town of 434 residents can support four “gourmet” coffee shops but perhaps that’s part of the mystery of Floyd. Yet none of the shops open before 8 a.m., which is late for the morning coffee crowd so you find the coffee devotees gathering at the minimarts for early in the day java.

And late night dining can be a problem. Some restaurants close by 8 p.m., others at nine and most by 10. The drive through at Hardees is open until 11 p.m. during the week and midnight on Fridays and Saturdays but if you want to eat out in Floyd do it early.

Now, if we could just get a good Chinese carry out (or better yet, delivery).