Roadfood_ Revised Edition - Jane Stern [117]
The tabletops are crowded with platters of fried chicken and corn bread dressing, sweet potato soufflés, black-eyed peas, okra gumbo, corn muffins, and biscuits. As at any southern feast worth its cracklin’ corn bread, there are constellations of vegetable casseroles: great, gooey, buttery bowls full of squash au gratin and scalloped eggplant, cheese grits, corn pudding, pineapple-flavored yams topped with melted marshmallows, creamed corn enriched with bacon drippings, green rice (mixed with broccoli and celery); brown rice (with mushrooms and soy sauce); and the low-country legend, Savannah red rice (with tomatoes). The food comes fast, and everybody eats fast in a spirit of joyful camaraderie.
When Mrs. Wilkes first started serving meals in this dining room in 1943, there were many similar places in cities throughout the region, where boarders as well as frugal local citizens gathered to enjoy the special pleasure of a meal shared with neighbors and strangers. Now, the take-some-and-pass-the-bowl style of the old boarding house is a rarity. Mrs. Wilkes’ is a prized opportunity to indulge in the delicious dining style of a culinary tradition that values sociability as much as a good macaroni salad.
Sconyers Bar-B-Que
2250 Sconyers Way
706–790–5411
Augusta, GA
LD Thurs–Sat only | $$
Sconyers is an immense barbecue complex with seating for hundreds in multiple dining rooms, plus drive-through service. Hams are cooked a full twenty-four hours over oak and hickory, resulting in meat that is ridiculously tender and bathed in its own smoke-perfumed juices. Curiously, it is a lot like Lexington-style barbecue, but with a sauce that has more of a pepper punch. It comes on a plate along with hash and rice, pickles and coleslaw, and plenty of nice soft white bread for mopping, or in a sandwich or à la carte by the pound.
If the luxury of traditional pork is too rich for your blood, Sconyers has added something called T-loin, which is billed as 96 percent fat-free, low sodium, and low cholesterol “choice pork.” Someday perhaps we will try it. Ribs, chopped beef, turkey, and chicken are also available off the pit. Sweet tea is, of course, the most popular thing to drink.
Silver Skillet
200 14th St.
404–874–1388
Atlanta, GA
BL | $
The Silver Skillet is a charismatic blast from the past, a funky 1950s diner with glass windows that tilt outward like mid-century tailfins. Booths are upholstered in green and orange Naugahyde, tables topped with boomerang-pattern Formica, and the clientele ranges from blue-collar boys in overalls to visiting celebrities with entourage in tow.
The South gets hot. Refreshment is essential. One of the great warm-weather tongue-icers, popular at barbecues and in plate-lunch places throughout the region, is lemon icebox pie. There is none better than the one served at the Silver Skillet. And we do mean the one, because most days there is only a single pie available, and after it is sliced and served (often before noon), you are out of luck. Cool, creamy, and neatly poised between sugar-sweet and lemon-zesty, this pie is a superlative exclamation point after a meal of country ham, biscuits, and red-eye gravy.
The Varsity Drive-In
61 North Ave.
404–881–1706
Atlanta, GA
BLD | $
Anyone who loves all-American food and has spent any time in Atlanta knows about the Varsity Drive-In…and most people have their own personal stories about wonderful meals and good times they’ve had there. These extravagant tales tend to relate to the fact that the Varsity is huge and it is fast, the thrills commencing when you step up to the counter and an order-taker accosts you with the command, “What’ll ya have?”
Hot dogs are the house specialty—little pink tube steaks served in steamy-soft buns, begging to be dolled up with condiments. The prime adornment is chili, a finely pulverized brew that perfectly complements