For our last stop on the first night in Indiana, I combined two of my interests into one stop. In the summer, I had a breaded pork tenderloin at Cannelton’s popular Walls’ Drive-In. These are much-loved in Indiana and Iowa, and if you are able to watch this terrific short documentary about the sandwiches by Jensen Rufe without wanting to book a flight to Bloomington, you’re stronger than I am. If you don’t have twelve minutes, look over this essay from Serious Eats. Don’t these look delicious? Anyway, I wanted a couple more tenderloin sandwiches. Continue reading “Zesto, Evansville IN”
Tag: regional chains
Gerst Haus, Evansville IN
As the afternoon started turning into evening, we stopped by a pretty good comic and game shop in Henderson KY called Knight’s, and then made our way north to Evansville to check into our hotel and relax for a couple of hours. Our son had been really well-behaved on the trip, but the road can wear on a four year-old, and kids need a little something besides a restaurant to break the time in a car! So he ran around and bounced around, and, after the sun went down, we drove over to Franklin Street to rejoin our friend Louis for a meal at the city’s Gerst Haus. Continue reading “Gerst Haus, Evansville IN”
Memphis BBQ Company, Dunwoody GA
Last month, Marie and I were invited to visit Memphis BBQ Company, which opened last year in a great big space in Dunwoody that had previously been the home of a British-themed pub called Firkin & Gryphon, and, for many years before that, a Smokey Bones. It looks like too large a space for a barbecue restaurant in Atlanta. Acknowledging that Jim ‘n Nick’s has done pretty well here, quite a few other large-store chains, including Famous Dave’s, Corky’s and indeed Smokey Bones, have all failed in this market, and Sonny’s seems to have closed as many stores as they’ve opened. On the other hand, Melissa Cookston, the owner of this restaurant, has a very small-growth approach to her chain. The Atlanta store is only the third, and while she is considering a fourth and looking at spaces around the southeast, right now her focus is on this market. Continue reading “Memphis BBQ Company, Dunwoody GA”
Gus’s World Famous Fried Chicken, Atlanta GA
Earlier this year, I saw advance word that the small Memphis-based chain Gus’s was going to open its eleventh location, and first east of I-65, in Atlanta. In Peachtree Center, of all places. It wasn’t April 1, and I didn’t have a single brandy at lunch. It’s in one of those weird off-the-path corridors of that strange little mall that doesn’t get any foot traffic. We’ve had dinner here once and I promise, I was not hallucinating. Some of the very best fried chicken on the planet is available in Atlanta. You can go get some today. Continue reading “Gus’s World Famous Fried Chicken, Atlanta GA”
Chicken Salad Chick, Kennesaw GA
So, my daughter. God bless her, she’s a teenager. Is she ever a teenager. Because on the one hand, she’s prone to push back against what we’d like her to do, and eat, and because on the other hand, she wants to eat where all her friends eat, she doesn’t often join us when we pick a place that sounds too weird. And by weird, we mean a Chinese place that doesn’t offer sweet and sour chicken with broccoli. Meryn Cadell once sang of a girl who longed for “the boy of your dreams who is the same boy in the dreams of all your friends.” My girl. Continue reading “Chicken Salad Chick, Kennesaw GA”
Skyline Chili, Louisville KY
You might truly make the point that if I was going to be in Louisville, I could have visited one of the city’s many iconic or vintage or awesome and independent restaurants. Good grief, the nation’s only remaining Ollie’s Trolley is in Louisville, and surely I should see that. But this was a very rare trip for me to a city that I do not love, and I had places in western Kentucky waiting for me. My daughter and I love Cincinnati-style chili, and so we beat a path to a Skyline, and I dropped her with her people, and I moved on out of town. Continue reading “Skyline Chili, Louisville KY”
Champy’s World Famous Fried Chicken, Athens GA
Last month, Marie and I celebrated our anniversary, but instead of having a simple date night – or a complicated date night – we decided to have a family day in Athens. This resulted in a little grumbling from the teenager, who wants to be included when she’s left behind, but left behind when we include her. Happily, even she had a good time in the end. We tried to juggle several things that everybody would enjoy, starting with a long stop at Washington Farms, outside Watkinsville. We picked three buckets of strawberries, and the four year-old probably ate a fourth on his own, so we didn’t complain about the price. Four for the price of three’s not bad, really. Continue reading “Champy’s World Famous Fried Chicken, Athens GA”
Marie, Let's Eat! 