My plans for the day o’ barbecue in Memphis took a hit when the venerable, and extremely popular, Cozy Corner Restaurant was damaged by a fire in January and was forced to close. Happily, a few days before our trip, Southern Living writer Robert Moss tweeted out that they would reopen in temporary digs across the street. The owners of Encore Cafe had reached out to them, giving Cozy Corner a stopover home with an abbreviated menu while their restaurant was repaired. Continue reading “Cozy Corner Restaurant, Memphis TN”
Category: roadfood
Leonard’s Pit Bar-B-Que, Memphis TN (take two)
A couple of chapters back, I mentioned how quite a few restaurants in this part of the country go to town on the Elvis memorabilia, even if there may be some disagreement as to how much influence that The King had on their cash registers while he was living. Leonard’s does not play up the Elvis angle, but he really did seem to enjoy this place. There are stories aplenty about how he’d rent the previous location, at 1140 South Bellevue, for all-night parties in the early 1960s. Continue reading “Leonard’s Pit Bar-B-Que, Memphis TN (take two)”
Chapter 1100: Skylight Inn BBQ, Ayden NC
“Good morning, East Carolina University admissions office. How may I help you?”
“Oh, I sure hope you can. My name’s Grant, from the blog Marie, Let’s Eat! and I’ve got a fifteen year-old daughter and I need for her to attend East Carolina.”
“Well, I’d be happy to send you a catalog–”
“A catalog won’t be good enough. She’s already fallen in love with the University of North Alabama. I need you to send boys.”
“Excuse me?”
“Boys in school colors, yes. Cute boys. And money and clothes. This is urgent. I had lunch at Skylight Inn. It’s about eight hours from my house. I can’t justify going back unless I have business in the area. Best I can figure is that my daughter needs to go to ECU.” Continue reading “Chapter 1100: Skylight Inn BBQ, Ayden NC”
Parker’s Barbecue, Wilson NC
I left my house before six in the morning, and finally arrived at Parker’s Barbecue in Wilson a little before 3:30. This is a long, long drive, but I was finally ready to dig into the celebrated eastern North Carolina style of barbecue. There is a long tradition of whole hog cooking east of I-95 and north of Fayetteville. Parker’s is one of several very old restaurants in this part of the country. It was opened in 1946 by brothers Graham and Ralph Parker, and their cousin Henry Parker Brewer. It is no longer in family hands, but it’s in good hands all the same. Donald Williams started working here in 1963; he bought the business from Graham and Ralph upon their retirement in 1987, cousin Henry having already passed. Donald brought on two partners, Kevin Lamm and Eric Lippard, in the late 1990s. Continue reading “Parker’s Barbecue, Wilson NC”
Litton’s and Denton’s, Knoxville TN
Our son fell asleep, finally, on the road back from Johnson City as we returned to I-40. He snoozed and Marie and I braced ourselves for Knoxville’s Friday 5:00 traffic, which never came. We lucked out, I suppose, and our route, which brought us into town from the east and around the top of the I-640 half-a-loop to I-75, is outside whatever the local rush hour crushes. So we checked into our hotel without trouble, and carried him, sleeping, up to our room, where we kicked back for about an hour while he finished his nap. Continue reading “Litton’s and Denton’s, Knoxville TN”
The Original Ridgewood Barbecue, Bluff City TN
Last month, the girlchild went to Knoxville for a week to spend her spring break with some of her other family up there. When it came time to retrieve her, I proposed a fun little two-day trip. We had originally planned to spend a long family weekend in Memphis when she returned, but some unplanned expenses killed that idea. We still needed to pick her up from her trip, but instead of a quick there-and-back day trip, I suggested that we take a little of the money that we didn’t spend and go visit northeastern Tennessee, come back to Knoxville in the evening and stay one night. We’d only driven through the northeastern region in a rush about five years before, on a long trip down I-81 from Baltimore to Asheville on our honeymoon. Continue reading “The Original Ridgewood Barbecue, Bluff City TN”
R.O.’s Bar-B-Q, Gastonia NC
The whole reason behind our sharing our love of food with you good readers is to celebrate differences and highlight places that just refuse to follow the directives of some corporation five states away from where you’re eating. We love to talk about regional specialties, and things that are important precisely because you can’t get them anywhere else. Continue reading “R.O.’s Bar-B-Q, Gastonia NC”
Marie, Let's Eat! 