When we visited Auburn in 2014, one question that jumped out as we planned the trip was which of the two well-known barbecue places we would visit. We went with Price’s, in part because of its terrific campus-friendly location, which, in the end, doomed the restaurant as developers bulldoze everything within walking distance of the classroom buildings in favor of mixed-use places. Price’s closed for the final time about a week after our visit, which is a real shame. Continue reading “Byron’s Smokehouse, Auburn AL”
Category: auburn / opelika
Acre, Auburn AL
Several months back, in advance of our trip to Florence AL to participate in their Restaurant Week, I reached out to several other convention and visitors’ bureaus around the southeast to let them know what their peers in northwest Alabama were up to. I wasn’t obliged to; I just liked what they planned in Florence a whole lot and figured that other organizations might enjoy watching how it developed and might follow their lead. Among the agencies that I contacted was the Auburn & Opelika Tourism Bureau, and they were kind enough to invite us to their city to treat us to an astonishingly good new restaurant called Acre. Continue reading “Acre, Auburn AL”
Momma Goldberg’s Deli, Auburn AL
Maybe every college town has a unique little sandwich shop, but few are as beloved as Momma Goldberg’s Deli in Auburn. It’s just a couple of years older than Price’s Barbecue House, which is on the east side of campus. Momma Goldberg’s is on Magnolia, on the northern border of the university. You can see the upper decks of Jordan-Hare Stadium from the parking lot. We overheard a manager showing a new hire the ropes when we visited, and he noted that it is a requirement to work every home game, and to try and get a ride from somebody else on game day, because this place can be a madhouse and parking is at a premium. Continue reading “Momma Goldberg’s Deli, Auburn AL”
Price’s Barbecue House, Auburn AL (CLOSED)
Last week, we introduced you to Chuck’s Bar-B-Que in Opelika and explained how the owner’s family helped to craft the dominant style of barbecue, and the omnipresent mustard-based sauce, in the region. Everybody else in the area is following in those footprints, even if some of those restaurants, like Price’s Barbecue House, have a huge following of their own. Continue reading “Price’s Barbecue House, Auburn AL (CLOSED)”
Mama Mocha’s Coffee Emporium, Auburn AL
This is Marie, contributing an article about a paired establishment that has divided into two – the Gnu’s Room and Mama Mocha’s. We’d stumbled over the bookstore while wandering in another part of town, and on arriving at the coffeehouse found out more about the story. Continue reading “Mama Mocha’s Coffee Emporium, Auburn AL”
Chuck’s Bar-B-Que, Opelika AL
If only we had every weekend free to travel and write about food, then we would have visited Chuck’s in Opelika at least three years ago. We had popped into this corner of eastern Alabama, via Columbus, back in 2010, and I guess that not long after that, I read John T. Edge’s terrific interview with the owner, Chuck Ferrell, which he’d conducted in 2006 for the Southern Foodways Alliance. (Readers should definitely check that out, along with all the dozens of other oral histories at the Southern Foodways site. It’s all terrific stuff.) Continue reading “Chuck’s Bar-B-Que, Opelika AL”
The Chicken Salad Chick, Auburn AL
This is Marie, contributing a story about a very special specialty store and restaurant. The Chicken Salad Chick is a chain that is slowly expanding through the southeast, and on a recent trip to Auburn, Alabama, we visited the original location. Each of the main menu items except the pimento cheese is some variety of chicken salad. There is a limited selection of sides. The combination I picked was “Fruity Fran” and “Olivia’s Old South” with a side of fruit intended for the boy, who came with us on the two-hour drive from our house to “the Plains” in eastern Alabama. Each of the salads that has a name is linked to a real person in the life of Stacy Brown, the owner and inventor of these delicious recipes. Continue reading “The Chicken Salad Chick, Auburn AL”
Marie, Let's Eat! 