Although larger than Mayberry, a visit to downtown Mount Airy NC will make you feel as if you've stepped into the iconic 1960s TV show. Whenever one of the characters from the show had to go to the "big city", they would often mention nearby Mount Airy.
The actor, Andy Griffith, famous for his role as Sheriff Andy Taylor in the Andy Griffith Show, grew up in Mount Airy, North Carolina. The quaint, small, and fictitious town of Mayberry, featured in the show, was based on Mount Airy and Andy's experiences growing up there.
Today, the town embraces that heritage, with lots of themed attractions, stores and restaurants. This is particularly true of the historic downtown area of Mount Airy. In fact, Mount Airy often refers to itself as the "real life Mayberry".
During our visit to the real-life Mayberry, we really enjoyed exploring downtown Mount Airy. We visited many of the stores, shops, even restaurants.
We found many things to do in downtown Mount Airy. Our guide covers many of the fun things we experienced exploring downtown Mount Airy NC during our visit in the summer of 2024.
Enjoy fresh baked goods at Miss Angel's Heavenly Pies
We don't like to be partial, but being truthful, Miss Angel's Heavenly Pies was our favorite place in Mount Airy.
Not only is Miss Angel a wonderful person who is as passionate about her community as she is about her pies, she also runs a farm with her husband AND makes some incredible moonshine ice cream!
We had never heard of moonshine ice cream, and this was our first trying it. It's delicious!
Miss Angel's Heavenly Pies is easy to find and trust us, you'll smell the fresh pies before you see the shop.
As you enter, you'll notice two things: lots of pink and lots of pies. The shop brims with displays full of pies, sonker, fried pies, rolls, cinnamon buns, and many other flavors of mouth-watering baked goodness.
We spend some time talking to Miss Angel and fell in love with her and her pies. Miss Angel bakes all the pies fresh daily, with no preservatives. Anything left over the next day goes on a discount table in the shop. If it doesn't sell there, it's donated to local charities to help feed those less fortunate.
One reason the pies and baked goods are so delicious is that many of the fruits used in the pies are fresh from Miss Angel's Farm and Orchard, where she and her husband grow apples, peaches, berries, pumpkins and more.
Next door, you'll find Hillbilly Creamery, which sells ice cream, moonshine ice cream, gluten-free baked products and other treats.
Opie's Candy Store
A trip to Mayberry (um, Mount Airy) wouldn't be complete without a stop at Opie's Candy Store.
Opie's Candy Store is an old-fashioned candy store with tons of candy options straight from the barrel. You'll also find ice cream, fudge, snacks, shakes, bottled soda and more! You can even get an Opie's snack pack, which is an RC Cola and Moon pie (picture below).
Most of the candy is sold by weight, so you can mix and match to your heart's desire.
We really enjoyed browsing the different candies and even picked up some red hots (Jenn) and orange slices (Larry). The Opie's snack pack was tempting, though. It's hard to resist a real southern RC and moon pie.
We found the two young ladies working the front of the store to be fun and pleasant as well, adding to the enjoyment of the store. You'll even find episodes of the Andy Griffith Show running on the TV in the back.
Like much of downtown Mount Airy, a visit to Opie's Candy Store will take you back in time and revise some of those childhood memories from old candy and general stores gone by.
Grab Lunch at Snappy Lunch
If you're an Andy Griffith Show fan, you'll probably remember Sheriff Andy Taylor mentioning going to Snappy Lunch in a few episodes. Turns out, Snappy Lunch is an actual restaurant and the oldest operating business in Mount Airy. Andy Griffith actually ate there as a young boy, often stopping by to grab a hot dog.
They are open for breakfast and lunch, and well known for their "World famous pork chop sandwich". They also have breaded burgers, hot dogs, grilled cheese, and other classic lunch meals.
They've been serving great food in Mount Airy for nearly 100 years. Snappy Lunch is a Mount Airy icon and a must visit place to eat when visiting.
Be prepared. The lines to get in are often long and extend out onto main street and up the sidewalk.
Visit Floyd's Barbershop
Another real Mount Airy business with ties to the Andy Griffith Show is Floyd's Barbership. Opened by Russel Haitt in the late 1940s, Haitt was the inspiration for Floyd the Barber in the show. In 1989, they renamed the shop to Floyd's Barbershop as downtown Mount Airy themed itself for the Andy Griffith Show.
The barbershop is also famous for its "Wall of fame" where you'll find over 35,000 photos of people who have visited, thumb tacked carefully on the wall. You'll find Lou Ferrigno of the Incredible Hulk, Oprah Winfrey and many others if you look close.
Floyd's is located right next to Snappy Lunch, and is visible from inside Snappy Lunch as well. Floyd's is a real old-fashioned city barbershop offering haircuts and shaves even today. The shop welcomes visitors and photos and if you need a haircut, even better!
Enjoy great food and a wine at Old North State Winery
Located in a historic hardware store building on the north side of Main Street in Mount Airy is Old North State Winery. Ben Webb founded old North State Winery in 2002. A native of Mount Airy, Ben wanted to not only make great North Carolina wine, but wanted to help the Mount Airy economy as well.
Ben located his winery in downtown Mount Airy to help the economy and give locals and visitors a nice place to hang out in town and enjoy wine.
Today, Old North State Winery is a leading Mount Airy and Yadkin Valley tourism destination. The main building is used to serve guests and produce their different red and white wines.
The historic building is beautiful, and the wine is excellent. In fact, if you're from North Carolina, you may recognize the vineyard's brand, Fish Hippie.
During our visit, we enjoyed sitting down at the main bar area for a Charcuterie plate and a wine tasting. Our server told us about the various wines and helped us make selections on what to taste based on our personal preferences.
The charcuterie board was excellent, and we enjoyed all the different wines as well. While enjoying our food and wine, we learned that the large table to our left was the Chef's table where you can make reservations to enjoy a 5 course dining experience using local and seasonal ingredients.
We heard from locals that the Chef's Table food was delicious, so we've added a Chef's Table dining experience to our future bucket list.
Overall, Old North State Winery offers a mix of excellent wines, great food, and historical ambiance, making it a must-visit destination when in downtown Mount Airy NC.
Visit the Andy Griffith Mural
Whether or not you're an Andy Griffith fan, you'll want to visit and see the large downtown mural of Andy Griffith. Located on the wall of Surrey Bank and Trust on Moore Avenue, this beautiful mural features Andy in his early days, to his role on the Andy Griffith show, and later as Matlock.
But the various faces throughout Andy's career aren't the only feature on this mural by artist Brian Lewis of Greensboro (known as "JEKS"). Superimposed over the face images is Pilot Mountain, another icon of Surrey County.
The mural is one of 20 different murals in downtown Mount Airy, where they are passionate about arts and telling the story of the history of Mount Airy and Surrey County.
Be sure to put seeing this amazing mural and work of art on your short list! If you take a Mayberry squad car tour, they'll take you to see it!
Visit the locally owned shops
We really enjoyed visiting many of the downtown shops during the day, including:
Bear Creek Candy Kitchen - One our favorite general gift shops, and the perfect place to find Mayberry and Mount Airy souvenirs. You can't miss the shop as there is a Mayberry squad car parked right out front.
Mayberry Trading Post - This home goods and accent shop is full of seasonal and fun items to decorate your home, including decorative flags, silk flower arrangements and even a Christmas Dept.!
Main Street Market - Wonderful antique shop full of vintage furniture, unusual and unique antiques and even old farm tools. You'll also find crafts and art from local Surrey County artists.
Unusual antiques, vintage furniture and old tobacco & farm tools, along with crafts of local artists
Mayberry Market & Souvenirs - Looking for Mayberry items and souvenirs? This is the place. Shirts, hoodies, license plates, mugs, crafts, local art, and much more.
Fancy Gap Outfitters - Being avid outdoor people, this outfitter shop contained lots of outdoor and hiking gear, including shirts, pants, shorts, hiking boots, water shoes and more. They have all the popular and recommended brand names as well. Not into hiking or the outdoors, you'll find some great casual and comfortable clothing items as well.
Mark & Meow Pet Spa - Pet store, spa, bakery, and dog and cat hotel. They sell pet merchandise, have lots of baked dog and cat products, grooming facilities, and even provide overnight boarding.
Keswick Candle Company - Keswick Candle is one of the most beautiful stores we've ever seen, and as photographers, we had a hard time leaving. The shop makes their own candles, soaps, lotions, and more. They all smelled wonderful, and we brought some soaps and lotions home with us.
Mount Airy Tractor Company - We enjoyed browsing this collectibles toy store full of die-cast tractors, trucks, cars and more. The store brought make memories for us of our boys when they were young. Super nice and friendly owners as well.
There are many more stores as well. We just didn't have enough time to visit them all. We surprised at how vibrant and busy Downtown Mount Airy was, and how many shops there were. You could literally spend all day long browsing and exploring the various shops.
Watch a movie at the historic Earle Theater
Built in 1938, the Earle was the only Mount Airy theater and cinema for many years. The theater also became one of the premiere locations for Gone with the Wind. Over the years, the theater received many updates and upgrades, and is still operational today.
While the Earle shows movies, it's also used for live music as well as part of the Old-Time Music Heritage Hall.
Andy Griffith attended the theater as a young boy, and later his movies premiered and were shown here as well. In the Andy Griffith Show, Sheriff Andy Taylor often mentions seeing movies in Mount Airy. The Earle is the theater he is referring to.
When visiting the theater, you can see movies, live music performances, and take tours of the old historic theater.
See the Donna Fargo Mural
While you may not recognize her name, but we're confident you'll recognize her biggest hit, "The happiest girl in the whole USA".
Donna Fargo (real name Yvonne Vaughn) was born and raised in Mount Airy, NC. She attended college and became an English teacher in California. While there, she pursued a musical career.
Her career peaked with the release of "The happiest girl in the whole USA", which she wrote and composed. The song made it to the #1 position on country music charts in 1972. She also received the Best Female Country Vocal Performance award from the Grammy Awards, and was also named Top Female Vocalist by the Academy of Country Music Awards.
While she released more albums and country hits, she never again broke the top 40. She had her own TV show in 1978 and was the first female country singer to do so.
Mount Airy is proud of Donna's success, and you'll find a beautiful color mural of her in downtown Mount Airy. The mural was painted by artist JEKS (Brian Lewis), the same artist that did the Andy Griffith mural.
