Cromer’s P-Nuts, Columbia SC

My daughter and I went to Columbia to visit the campus of the University of South Carolina, and give her a first proper college tour. She really, really liked the place, far more than I was expecting. Within a few weeks, to be honest, some of the shine and excitement had ebbed somewhat, even after buying a T-shirt (blast it, campus bookstore prices are criminal at every darn college, aren’t they?), only to resume, happily, in the last week, and the visit did wonders for her self-confidence and drive. It’s entirely possible that she might apply here a year or so down the line in the hopes of getting a degree in management, and if she does, we found a great place for her to get a terrific cup of coffee. Continue reading “Cromer’s P-Nuts, Columbia SC” →

Hite’s BBQ, West Columbia SC

A couple of years ago, we visited Jackie Hite’s in Leesville SC and had a really good meal at their buffet. In 1957, another member of that family, cousin John D. Hite, opened a little weekend-only takeout shack about twenty miles closer to town. Hite’s BBQ is just a hop, skip, and a jump from US-1, and, like many restaurants with a lot of hype and a hint of legend about them, it gets really busy during the two days of the week that it’s open. It is still in family hands – John’s grandson David is in charge these days – but the business is still as no-frills as it was almost sixty years ago. Continue reading “Hite’s BBQ, West Columbia SC” →

Hildebrandt’s, Augusta GA

Over on the forums at Roadfood.com, one of our readers, Keith, started one of the most entertaining threads that this fun site has ever had. He noted that food writers and hobbyists had not really covered the restaurants in eastern Georgia very well and decided to do something about that with a fabulous ongoing collection of them there. The thread is called Augusta, Georgia just ain’t no place to be… and you really should check it out. He’s found some great places, both newer and, in some cases, very old. Hildebrandt’s is probably the oldest of them. It opened 136 years ago and is still in family hands. Continue reading “Hildebrandt’s, Augusta GA” →

Little Bangkok, Atlanta GA

Little Bangkok is a Thai restaurant on Cheshire Bridge Road, and it’s so little that you can’t help but bump into people here. For example, we arrived and bumped into our pal Val from A Scrumptious Life just as she was leaving! Continue reading “Little Bangkok, Atlanta GA” →

Barbecue Street, Kennesaw GA (take two)

A couple of months ago, I posted a chapter about a barbecue place in Columbus GA called Chicken Comer. This seems to be the origin of a very interesting mustard sauce that is occasionally found in Atlanta’s western and northwestern suburbs. It’s lava-hot, laced with cayenne, and I wondered how Chicken’s sauce, which was developed in Phenix City AL around 1929, had become standard on the tables of restaurants in places like Austell and Douglasville GA. Continue reading “Barbecue Street, Kennesaw GA (take two)” →

Hoboken Cafe, Marietta GA

If you drive west on Whitlock away from the Marietta Square, you’ll soon come to that dying strip mall which is home to the very good Dave Poe’s BBQ. Beyond that is an unusual and very small shopping center, built in a zig-zag style that was briefly fashionable in the late 1960s. Over the years, several businesses that I’ve found interesting have set up there, including a record shop and a comic store. Those are gone, but today, you can find a place to buy vintage video games, and a more traditional gaming shop. Anchoring the plaza on the street side is Hoboken Cafe, which opened two years ago and which I had never noticed before. Continue reading “Hoboken Cafe, Marietta GA” →

Kristin Sollenne’s Chicken Piccata

This is Marie, contributing an article about a recipe we tried from Domestic Chic, a new book by Kristin Sollenne that we received for preview. There are always cookbooks out there, and I know full well that the vast majority of the ones I own are going to be used for one thing and one thing only: for food porn. I have a much-abused box of slightly stained cards that have the family recipes on them; I have my Joy of Cooking which breaks automatically to the waffle and pie sections, and then…there is the endless stacks of print-outs stuffed haphazardly into a 3-ring binder of “oooh, nifty!” from the internet – some used, some not, but all forgotten the instant they are filed. Continue reading “Kristin Sollenne’s Chicken Piccata” →