Roadfood_ Revised Edition - Jane Stern [95]
Sally Bell’s Kitchen
708 W. Grace St.
804–644–2838
Richmond, VA
$
Sally Bell’s Kitchen was conceived in 1924 as a bakery, and that is what it is today—a charming little relic from the past with Sally Lunn muffins, pies, tarts, and that nearly lost icon of the Old South kitchen, beaten biscuits. The biscuits are crisp, tan rounds with silky tops that are an ideal companion for bisque or salad or Sally Bell’s tomato aspic. Cupcakes are notable because they are iced all over, not just on top. We love the strawberry cupcakes, so pretty in pink.
There is no place to eat here, but you can get a boxed lunch that sells for a little over $6. Inside a white cardboard box, inscribed with the trademark feminine silhouette, you will find a sandwich on a made-here roll or bread, a cup of macaroni or potato salad, a cupcake…and this marvelous thing called a cheese wafer. It is delicate and fragile—a couple of bites and it is gone—a taste of a more refined era long before supersizing. Among available sandwich ingredients are, of course, pimiento cheese, as well as chicken salad, egg salad, Smithfield ham, and cream cheese with nuts.
While we travelers generally confine ourselves to cupcakes, little tarts (apple, peach, or pecan), muffins, and boxed lunches, people with a dinner table nearby come to Sally Bell’s for full-size cakes. The devil’s food and yellow batter cakes are picture-perfect.
Wright’s Dairy Rite
346 Greenville Ave.
540–886–0435
Staunton, VA
LD | $
Three years before Ray Kroc began franchising McDonald’s, Wright’s Dairy Rite of Staunton, Virginia, started serving Superburgers. Two beef patties with cheese and lettuce, topped with special sauce and layered in a triple-decker bun, this monumental hamburger is still served as it was in 1952—by carhops at the window of your vehicle in a car slip at the side of the restaurant. Wright’s added a dining room in 1989, so it is possible to eat inside, where décor includes a handsome Wurlitzer jukebox (with compact discs rather than 45s) and vintage Wright’s menus from the 1950s and 1960s, but for us, the joy of this place is in-car dining.
If really, really hungry, forgo the Superburger for a Monsterburger. That is one-half pound of beef barely sandwiched in a bun, available in a basket, with French fries or, better yet, with Wright’s homemade onion rings. To drink with this festive heap of food, one needs a shake. At Wright’s, milkshakes are the real thing, available in chocolate, strawberry, or vanilla, as well as with real bananas or strawberries (mmmm!), and with or without malted milk for additional richness. While on the subject of dairy products, we should also note that this place knows how to make a fine banana split, a float (a big blob of ice cream set adrift in the soda pop of your choice), and a flurry (candy and/or cookies blended into soft-serve ice cream).
Wright’s menu goes well beyond burgers. There are regular and foot-long hot dogs, pork barbecue on a bun, sandwich baskets with potato chips and a pickle, whole submarines, hearty chili with beans, even a veggie wrap with fat-free dressing. In addition to milkshakes and soda pop, the beverage list includes that drink known to connoisseurs of Dixie mixology as the champagne of the South—freshly brewed, presweetened iced tea, served in twenty-ounce cups.
West Virginia
Blossom Dairy and Soda Fountain Café
904 Quarrier St.
304–345–2233
Charleston, WV
LD | $$
A 1933 art deco dairy bar that has been polished and restored to gleaming perfection, Blossom Dairy is a vast, high-ceilinged room with tables and plush blue-upholstered booths, and a long counter facing vintage mixological tools.
During the day you can come for a late breakfast of coffee and pastries; at lunch there is a wide-ranging menu of sandwiches and salads, including better-than-lunch-counter hamburgers; and at supper, the tables are covered with soft white linen