Restaurants in Franklin

The sounds of cheers and high-fives from youth baseball and softball teams sponsored by Grumpy's Restaurant & Pub punctuate the hush of patrons tucking into feasts. Five big-screen televisions chatter overhead, tuned to athletic events or emergency broadcasts aimed at whoever keeps taking the mayor's lunch out of the fridge. Plates clatter onto tables, bearing juicy burgers stuffed with cheddar and jalapeños and buffalo-chicken-topped pizzas. On weekend nights, the twang of guitars slipping into tune fills the air as musicians prepare for live sets, and glasses click together at the full bar.

As guests pass under Lewis' Restaurant and Grille's festive blue marquee, they enter an inviting world of Americana, with a bar that has been in place for generations and a kitchen offering up the appetizing aroma of freshly baked pizzas and Angus beef burgers. Guests share plates of buttermilk pancakes and eggs benedict during Sunday brunches and savor the tastes of inventive burgers and sandwiches, such as caprese-salad burgers or chicken-pesto sandwiches drizzled with balsamic reduction, all week long. Upscale haddock and salmon entrees satisfy refined palates, and a spread of bar food pleases crowds with chicken-finger baskets, tots, and tuna melts.

Though it has welcomed in families and bar regulars for decades, Lewis' has recently updated its interior with new bamboo flooring in the dining room and crisp dollar bills in the bar's cash register. Patrons regularly join in special events hosted by the bar, such as Tuesday-night trivia, where first-placers win a cash prize.