I figured, incorrectly as it turned out, that stopping by a sandwich shop would make a nice midday snack for Marie and our daughter. I had looked around and learned that Orlando is the home of two small chains of such shops. I flipped a coin and Sobik’s, which is very popular, came up tails. I picked Gabriel’s instead. The original store was opened in 1958 by Paul Gabriel, who passed away in 2013. That business, today in its second location on Edgewater Avenue, is still in family hands. At the chain’s peak in the 1970s, there were almost twenty stores around Florida and Georgia. Continue reading “Gabriel’s Sub Shop, Orlando FL”
Tag: sandwiches
Beefy King, Orlando FL
I’m going to say something here that might make Orlando natives and lovers bristle, but here goes: the city does not have a good reputation for interesting and unique eats. It’s said to be a roadfood desert. If it has champions, they are quieter than most. Nevertheless, Sweet Tea & Bourbon, the best of the many food blogs in Florida, has devoted some time to the town, but not even Mike sold me on any must-eats. This was going to take some time and research. I settled on five places for Marie and I to visit with our daughter while our son played with his grandmother all day in Apopka. I also picked eight places to shop to really give us a chance to dig into the city that the Mouse calls home and is surrounded by a more extensive grid of toll roads than I’ve seen anywhere before. Continue reading “Beefy King, Orlando FL”
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”
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”
Shenanigans, Sewanee TN
The drive back from Henderson KY to home was a very long one, and there was a lengthy detour in Manchester TN that messed up my late dinner plans. I stopped at the Russell Stover outlet just off I-24, looking for a certain package of caramel seconds that Marie loves. The two employees working the evening shift tried their best to help me, and looked everywhere for them, but it took a long time and we didn’t find any. I got a reasonable alternative, filled the gas tank, checked Waze, and realized that I was not going to make it to Ankar’s Hoagies in Chattanooga before they closed. Darn the central / eastern time split. It’s messed me up in the past, too. Continue reading “Shenanigans, Sewanee TN”
The Yellow Deli, Chattanooga TN
Since 2012, I’ve taken five “circumnavigations,” little two-day eating fests around areas that we don’t often visit. I checked the calendar, and another one was coming up on the horizon as a maybe, and my daughter expressed a desire to see her mother in Kentucky for a little while. I decided to turn the traditional circumnavigation into a drop-off trip instead and expanded it with extra time in Nashville on the way up and a great big wonderful detour on the way back. Continue reading “The Yellow Deli, Chattanooga TN”
Ankar’s Hoagies, Chattanooga TN
In his book Southern Belly, John T. Edge wrote about the Jacksonville-area “camel rider” pita sandwiches. This served as background for a longer 2012 story in The New York Times, in which he mentioned that the riders have been spotted in a few other cities around the southeast. Edge mentioned Birmingham and Columbus (where, our friend Matt pointed out, camel riders have been a staple at a restaurant called Speakeasy for decades), but it turns out that camel riders have also made it as far as Chattanooga. Continue reading “Ankar’s Hoagies, Chattanooga TN”
Marie, Let's Eat! 