Roadfood_ Revised Edition - Jane Stern [130]
Ramon’s
535 Oakhurst St.
662–624–9230
Clarksdale, MS
D | $$
We thank Roger and Jennifer Stolle, infallible tipsters for all things relating to food and culture in the Mississippi Delta, for taking us to Ramon’s. It’s not the sort of place anyone would find accidentally. But it is a Roadfood treasure. “I wouldn’t tell everyone to eat here,” Roger said, pointing at the water-damaged acoustical ceiling tiles and explaining that local lore blames a lax landlord on the decomposition that makes the place a bona-fide dump. Still, Thomas and Barbara Ely, the couple who run Ramon’s, valiantly create a pleasing milieu in the form of empty fifths of Jack Daniel’s and three-liter jugs of Taylor Chablis that have been made into decorative lamps, and they serve magnificent butterflied fried shrimp nearly as big as moon pies. “We were taking bets in the kitchen if you all would be able to finish,” the waitress admitted when Michael, dispossessed of all appetite, left two of his dozen shrimp uneaten on the plate.
Roger said his favorite thing to eat was a plate of chicken livers and spaghetti, a reminder of the significant Italian influence in Delta cooking. The livers are sensational: unspeakably rich and luxuriously crunchy. They are so filling that we barely forked into the heap of noodles that came alongside them.
South Carolina
Beacon Drive-In
255 Reidville Rd.
864–585–9387
Spartanburg, SC
LD | $
The South’s drive-in trail leads to barbecue, fried chicken, boudin sausage, and biscuits stuffed with streak o’ lean. At the Beacon, before the car window is halfway down, you will be accosted by a curb boy ready virtually to sing a menu that ranges from gizzard plates to banana sandwiches. We recommend Pork a-Plenty, which is chopped and sauced hickory-cooked hot barbecue on a bun that also contains cool coleslaw. The sandwich comes buried under a mountain of intertwined deep-fried onion rings and French fries. And of course the only correct libation to accompany this tremendous meal is sweet tea, served in a tall tumbler over crushed ice so cold that gulpers run the risk of brain-freeze headache. The Beacon claims to sell more tea than any other single restaurant in the USA.
Drive-in service is swell, but any newcomer must avail her-or himself of the serving line inside. Here, the Beacon is the most intense restaurant you will ever visit. The moment you enter and approach the counter, an employee behind it will demand, “Call it out!” The grand old man of the ritual is J. C. Stroebel, who used to insist that customers say what they want to eat and say it quickly, or else he instructed them to stand back and allow other, swifter folks to say their piece. On a good weekend day, the Beacon serves five thousand people.
Once you manage to convey your order, it is shouted back to the huge open kitchen, then you are asked in no uncertain terms to “Move on down the line!” Grab a tray and by the time you have moved twenty paces forward, there your order will be—miraculously, exactly as you ordered it, with or without extra barbecue sauce, double bacon on the burger. A bit farther down the line, you get your tea, lemonade, or milkshake and pay the cashier, then find a seat. Total time from entering to digging in—maybe two minutes.
Bookstore Café
1039 Johnnie Dobbs Blvd.
843–720–8843
Mt. Pleasant, SC
BL | $$
As a rule, creamy grits is the luxury starch of the low country, and the Bookstore Café serves some doozies along with tasso ham and sweet potato biscuits. But no potato lover can ignore the kitchen’s chippers, which look to us like cottage fries: circular potato slices thick enough that they have been fried crisp, yet that still bend rather than break. You can have chippers alongside any breakfast, or, better, use them as the foundation for an Island Casserole, each of which is a great pile of good things to eat