[OP]
Member
I'm curious about the regional "dive" favorites from The Usual suspects... I'm in a region that considers mayonnaise a spice, but does have amazing "Clam Shacks" like Evelyn's in Tiverton, RI.
Outside of places with a National advertising campaign - what "made to order" restaurants are a draw in your area?
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It's kind of a moving target due to the nature of the restaurant business...which has additional challenges right now. Asian, Latin and vegetarian are hot around here. There are a few small multi-location operations for things like thin-crust gourmet pizza, chicken-only and a small, expanding local "chain" of breakfast/brunch/lunch restaurants. Craft made Ice Cream is also gaining steam with a wonderful local multi-site business called O-Wow-Cow that utilized locally sourced ingredients and offers very unique flavor combinations. There are also a few small craft-beer establishments.
Broader in area, Lee's Hoagie House and Wawa (which you are familiar with) are pretty well known.
--
The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...
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Catfish Shacks. Seafood. And cannot forget BBQ.
My Dad always told me "Can't Never Could".
SWE
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http://westsidetav.com/
a tiny building that has about 5 tables and a good size patio. best food in our town though. we try to get takeout from there every couple weeks, would really like to see them stay open, but not sure being able to have one table inside and about 5 outside will keep them going through the winter. they also have the best bartender, very knowledgeable and creative. the owner once let us pick some interesting stuff for them to get from the catalog of their liquor distributer.
for a local chain we have mountain sun breweries, about 6 restaurants or so. great food, also struggling mightily. I think we should tell the big retailers and chains they have to shut down for a couple months and give the little guys a chance. but the government finds the small business a neusense to their goal of control and reliance.
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"Barberton Chicken" is a thing around here (between Cleveland and Akron). The name comes from Barberton Ohio, and is not the name of a restaurant but rather a style of fried chicken served by several local dive places: Whitehouse chicken, Belgrade gardens, and others. Not something that will make any healthy eating lists, but every couple of years I give in to the yen.
--I had my patience tested. I'm negative--
[OP]
Member
Too much of a good thing can be wonderful.Originally Posted by Paul F Franklin
- Mae West
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Paul,
Back in the day, when I was coaching youth baseball, Barberton was one of our favorite places to play, because they always fed us fried chicken after the games. I'd almost forgotten about that...
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If you go to New Orleans, try Frankie and Johnny's. Order the oyster po-boy (also called the oyster loaf). It's fried oysters. If they ask you if you want it "dressed" that means with shredded lettuce and tomato.
The roast beef po-boy is also very good. The roast beef is cooked in gravy and gravy is put on the French bread. Maybe add a bit of mayo. You can also get a regional favorite - red beans and rice. Here's the menu.
It looks like it's been remodeled since I've been there. It used to be a real dive. It's in the uptown section of New Orleans, not in the downtown business district. You can't walk to it if you're close to the French quarter - you'll need a car.
Mike
Last edited by Mike Henderson; 11-25-2020 at 1:15 PM.
Go into the world and do well. But more importantly, go into the world and do good.
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Here in Eastern NC, it's any place that serves seafood, and BBQ. Johnson's, Wilbers, Dillards, Parkers, White Swan, Hot Lake, Clyde Coopers, Bullocks, Starlight in Ayden, Kings, McColls and the list goes on and on. As for a chain, Smithfield Chicken and BBQ, plus BoJangles. Over in the western half of the state they serve Lexington style BBQ, which we refer to as slop. Looks like the cook cut his finger and bled to death on the meat
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In Morocco we have 2 diners. Mel's is my favorite - far and away the best Italian beef I've ever had. I have friends who drive down from Chicago (90 miles) just for the chance to get a beef from Mel's. And they have great pies. Nothin like jumping in the golf cart and cruising on over for coffee and pie.
Stand for something, or you'll fall for anything.
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I have a pound of Wilber's pulled pork in my freezer right now, saving it for a special occasion. I have it double foodsaver bagged, and when it gets down to -40dF here I take it out to my tool shed for a couple days to make sure it stays frozen all the way through. Besides the 'cue, my favorite thing about Wilber's is the sign on the ice machine "Do not latch ice machine door open - health department regulation- but you kind of have to crane your head around the screen door latch holding the icemachine door open to read the "health department regulation" part.
Kings, best banana pudding in the world.
If you are headed up towads Raliegh, do try the RedNeck BBQ lab in Benson. I thought they were in McGee's Crossroads, but their website says Benson.
An epic day for me would be diving NC shipwrecks off the Captian's Lady with Captian Leroy and then hitting all three of Wilber's, King's and Redneck lab on my way back to Chapel Hill for the evening.
Good times.
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My last dive trip the wife had a business thing in San Antonio, I guess 2018 or so, we were there for a week. While she was in powerpoint presentations I was running around central Texas trying BBQ. The wife let me check a cooler as one of my checked bags, it weighed 48 pounds when I checked it for the flight home.
If I only had time to go back for two I would pick the South Side Market in Elgin Texas, and Two Brothers BBQ on the north side of San Antonio. I did not have any bad BBQ and I am not trying to start a fist fight or a flame war. Those are the two I would pick. Driving around on country roads with beef cattle grazing under the live oak trees they will get cooked on later, hard to screw up, sort of like salmon and alder. Freshness is essential.
Instead of Franklin's we took a son who was living in Austin at the time to some shi-shi place that was pretty good. A James Beard winner or contender, not a dive.
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Fairbanks has a Latin America family operating four pretty darn good TexMex places, and a ridiculous critical mass of Thai resturaunts. If you are coming and want BBQ message me in advance so I can cook something for you, I don't patronize any of our cue joints.
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The Lexington style luckily is only in that town with a few exceptions.
Most places in western NC are similar to most places in SC now, you get several choices of sauce for moist, real pulled pork. There are some places in mid SC that do the mustard base.
I only see the vinegar based que in the eastern half of NC.
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Here in the Charleston SC area we have several hundred restaurants with a handful closing every year and the same or more opening. We spent a small fortune trying different ones starting 11 years before we actually moved here. Let me know when visiting, lots to do and see, would take many weeks to put a dent in it. Our favorites include a few fancy places on the peninsula but our regular rotation includes Swig and Swine Barbecue, Mario’s Peruvian Chicken and Boxcar Betty’s Chicken sandwiches. We buy our seafood from a boat and grill it. If your in the upper end of FL you need to eat at Timoti’s Seafood Shak, Amelia Island location is where we go.
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