the road | the food | a new direction
Urbanspoon just released their list of Top Cheap Eats in major cities across the U.S. and Canada. Hut’s Hamburgers and Round Rock Donuts were named in Austin, TX, while Gene & Jude’s and their hot dogs were chosen for Chicago. Some other favorites of ours: Shake Shack and Burger Joint in NYC, Peters’ Drive-In in Calgary, and the two noted Montreal bagelries, Fairmount and St-Viateur. Check out the full list here. Continue reading
Polly’s Pancake Parlor in Sugar Hill, NH, founded in 1938, is the premier pancake spot in New England. They make their own maple cream and maple sugar, grind the organic grains for their buckwheat, corn, and whole wheat pancakes, and make a stupendously good topping, known as Hurricane Sauce, of apples cooked in maple syrup and butter. There are only two negatives that we can think of: it’s very popular but seats only 65, and it closes from October until spring. And that’s about to change. Continue reading
As you stroll from the parking lot to Barbara Jean’s front door, eyeing the Mercedes and Jaguars and BMWs you pass along the way, you might be skeptical of your chances of finding good, and inexpensive, home cooking inside. Nonetheless, here it is, in the golfing mecca of Ponte Vedra Beach. Continue reading
Washington D.C.’s Florida Avenue Grill turned 70 years old yesterday. To mark the event, Sarah Kaplan looks back at the Grill’s 70 years for The Washington Post. Very interesting story. For instance, the current owner, Imar Hutchins, who purchased the restaurant nine years ago, is a vegetarian. He’s recently been sprinkling in a few more healthful menu options, while at the same time preserving all the old soul food favorites. He also “increased tipped workers’ pay to a dollar above the District’s minimum wage and begin granting paid vacation and sick days.” Read the whole story here. Continue reading
The iconic, independently operated Colorado truck stop known as Johnson’s Corner has been sold to the largest truck stop chain in the country, TravelCenters of America. The sale went through at the end of September. Original owner Joe Johnson started the truck stop in the 1950s. The stop became famous for its cinnamon roll, which was baked at home by an employee. In the ’60s, the Corner began baking the cinnamon rolls in a formal bakery. Today, 15,000 cinnamon are sold each month across the Front Range. Continue reading
San Antonio, TX loves tacos. A lot. And the taco competition is fierce. The San Antonio Current asked their readers for suggestions on where to find the best tacos in town, and the Current culled 14 of the finest from the long list of favorites. Taco Taco, whose puffy tacos are pictured above, is one of the 14. Check out the full list. It’ll come in handy during your next visit to the Alamo. Continue reading
We imagine selling pizza in Connecticut is more challenging than in any other part of the country. After all, America’s greatest pizzas are found in the Nutmeg State. The bar here has been set awfully high. And while we wouldn’t match Letizia’s up against the best of its New Haven brethren, emerging from their oven are pizzas that we would be glad to call our neighborhood pies. These are well-executed pizzas, served with an unusual level of hospitality for a pie joint.
For the fifth consecutive year, Gifford’s, a Maine-based ice cream company, has won the World Dairy Expo award for best chocolate ice cream. The Expo, sponsored by the Wisconsin Dairy Products Association, also gave Gifford’s top honors for their regular vanilla, French vanilla, and Philly vanilla. Gifford’s is based in Skowhegan and is found principally in the state of Maine, although it can be found less frequently as far south as Maryland and as far west as Illinois. We’re especially fond of the five Maine Gifford’s stands, where they offer flavors not found in containers. Congrats to Gifford’s! Continue reading
The residents of Ann Arbor, MI were shocked to learn of the impending demise of their beloved, 60-year-old Krazy Jim’s Blimpy Burger last year. The land beneath the burger joint was sold to the local university for the construction of a dormitory. The restaurant’s owners vowed to find a new spot to reopen the Ann Arbor institution, and they were as good as their word, as a new Blimpy Burger had its grand opening yesterday. Lines are long. Prices are up. Seating is more expansive. Fans are overjoyed! Continue reading
Turkey sandwiches are a “thing” in Delaware. Oh, sure, you can get a turkey sandwich anywhere. It’s generally made with wet, gelatinous-textured deli turkey, and that’s fine for what it is. But Delaware is different: here, more than anywhere else we’ve been, the turkey often comes from a freshly roasted bird. Continue reading
In 1914, the Charles E. Roesch and Company butcher shop was founded. (Mr. Roesch later found time to become the mayor of Buffalo.) The shop continued under the helm of his son Charles, and today his grandson Charles runs the business now known as Charlie the Butcher. All next week, Charlie the Butcher will be celebrating 100 years in business with all sorts of planned events. At the various locations around town there’ll be free birthday cake and certificates for a free beef on weck. We especially like Wednesday’s offer of a free beef on weck to anyone who shows up with something from 1914! Details of the festivities are on their Facebook page.
If all Ellen Margulies had touted in her Nashville Ledger story about where to take Nashville visitors was the Biscuit Love Truck, we’d have been grateful. How about fresh biscuits filled with Nashville hot chicken, local honey, and house-made pickles?! Or the Wash Park: Bear Creek Farm beef burger topped with pimento cheese and Benton’s bacon jam? Or the seasonal Nathaniel: a griddled biscuit topped with buttermilk cheese and local peaches and honey? Yes, get us to the Biscuit Love Truck! One other recommendation that stood out was Hattie B’s, a hot chicken purveyor that opened two years ago and has become hotter’n a whorehouse on nickel night. Continue reading
When we posted the news on Monday about the opening of a new Tucson Tamale Company shop we hadn’t yet learned of the connected promotion: folks who dine at the grand opening of the new restaurant on October 18th will receive a free warm pumpkin dessert tamale. They’ll also offer 50% off the first six packages of frozen tamales to take home (tamales freeze and heat beautifully). If we lived locally we’d be there! Continue reading
We visit brewpubs all over the country but rarely eat in them (and, therefore, rarely write about them). While we love craft brews the food in the pubs is fairly predictable: at best, hearty pub grub like burgers, sausages, fish and chips … Nothing wrong with any of that, mind you, and the execution is generally OK, if you stick to the less ambitious selections. But interesting food? Yawn. Trap Rock is one brewpub that smashes the mold. Continue reading
Anyone who has spent significant time in the Binghamton, NY area knows what we mean when we assert that diners capture the essence of life in these parts. Some have closed over the years but many remain, some have been spiffed up and tricked out, others seem to be melting into the ground upon which they’ve stood for decades. All dish up the same predictable and reliable eats to anyone, from any background, who has the ability to pay the modest tabs. Gerald Smith, the Broome Country historian, has written a story that surveys the diners, both thriving and long gone, that have fed the Binghamton-area residents over the years. Check it out.
It’s not easy to find Canadian cuisine in the U.S., unless you head up to our northern borders. Hell, most Americans probably don’t even know there IS such a thing as Canadian cuisine! Don’t they eat the same things that we do? Yes, they do, but there are also a surprising number of specialties unique to our northern neighbor, and many of them can be found at the Chez Ben Diner. Continue reading
It’s not what you think. Readers of the Tulsa World get to vote on their local favorites each year, and this year’s winner in the hot dog category is Coney I-Lander. Get it? Tulsa World? “Best in the World”? Still, it’s good info to know if you find yourself in Tulsa with a hankering for a top-notch coney, here topped with chili, onions, and mustard and, if you ask for it loaded, shredded yellow cheese. The Coney I-Lander began in 1926. Today you’ll find seven locations in and around Tulsa. Tulsa World also recommends sampling the three-way chili. We can’t finish this post without mentioning one of the two non-winner finalists: The Dog House, a truck and carts, featuring the Chong Dog topped with peanut butter, cream cheese, dill pickle, and Sriracha hot sauce! Continue reading
When you ask folks about where to eat in New Orleans, you hear a lot of the same names over and over. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. There are few places in America that have as many “must eat” restaurants as the Crescent City does. But we love to hear about the places that few people mention. Roll Call’s Jason Dick has written a brief story about how the local political operatives can be a good source for off-the-beaten-path food recommendations. He mentions three places in New Orleans and, while the Drago’s oysters pictured above are certainly no secret, the other two places intrigue us: fried chicken wings at Manchu in Treme, and the sausage sandwich at Castnet Seafood (yes, sausage at a seafood place). We can’t wait to try them! Continue reading
“The pies are exceptional, and Hartley’s basically thrives on the rather foolproof logic that you should do one thing and do it right, so this place is all about meat pies, all the time.” Those are the words of Larry Olmsted, writing for USA TODAY, in his rave review of Hartley’s Original Pork Pies in Fall River, MA. We’ve been there and we totally agree. During one visit we were given a behind-the-scenes tour of Hartley’s, where we snapped that shot, above, of pork pies in the oven. We have our friends, Amy and Chris Ayers, to thank for introducing us to Hartley’s, a true taste of Fall River history open since 1900. Check out Mr. Olmsted’s review and then hasten to Fall River, where you will find, in addition to pork pies, all manner of good things to eat. Continue reading
The fourth franchised location of Buffalo wing inventor Anchor Bar opens today on Transit Road, down the street from their main competitor, Duff’s. While the original Anchor offers their wings in mild, medium, hot, suicidal, and spicy barbecue, the new location adds four more flavors: garlic parmesan, chipotle BBQ, honey garlic, and sweet-and-sour. Call us Luddites but, as far as we’re concerned, the only legitimate Buffalo wing flavors are mild, medium, and hot (and we have our doubts about mild). The Transit Road Anchor will also have local beer on tap. Continue reading
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