So this morning I popped up, drove from Charlotte to Charleston, SC, and got my car and my parents care unloaded and the folks settled in. They went off to a bar to watch the Steelers game, and I hopped back in the family truckster and headed north so I only have half the drive to do tomorrow.
I know it takes a lot of balls for someone from WV to say they are in the middle of nowhere, but right now I am in the middle of fucking nowhere and the only dining option was a Snickers bar in the vending machine or a waffle house. I have never been to a Waffle House, so I went. I got the chili with extra raw onions because I hate myself, and an omelet and some hash browns. It was precisely what I expected- hot and greasy and salty, I am full, and I will probably have the shits tomorrow.
In other news, we are slowly getting some ads installed and in the right places. Bear with us. This god damned blog will pay for itself.
zhena gogolia
I “shutter” to think what tomorrow’s post will be about.
Juju
We don’t call it Awful House for nothing.
Amir Khalid
Does this ad provider demand that the jackaltariat keep their language clean?
lurker dean
you’re looking at a 15 flush morning.
NotMax
Probably 1972, feasted on the best shrimp jambalaya have ever eaten – before or since – at, of all places, the dining room of the Holiday inn in Emporia, Virginia. More or less the halfway stop overnight while driving back to NYC from Miami. Was on Christmas day, IIRC.
Steeplejack
@zhena gogolia:
LOL.
Waffle House is not bad for late-night low-rent comfort food. The chili might have been an error, though. More things to go wrong than with eggs and potatoes.
Old Dan and Little Ann
Scattered, smothered, and covered. Hmmmm…..
Steeplejack
@Old Dan and Little Ann:
Yeah, baby.
Damn, might have to go to IHOP tomorrow. Nearest Waffle House is 25 miles away.
WaterGirl
Too bad you don’t have Lily to snuggle up with tonight. She will be super glad to have you return home a day early.
NotMax
@Steeplejack
Never have heard of the place but if it was my first time at a joint named Waffle House, might venture way out onto a limb and try … the waffles.
;)
SectionH
Sigh. When you drive a lot around this Ginormous country, you discover there are a LOT of fucking nowhere places – some can be 20 miles from somewhere, but if that’s where you have to stop for the night for reasons, there you are.
Once in a while, you discover something really nice. Usually you just deal with it. I wouldn’t go to a Waffle House by choice but I’be had worse options.
Steeplejack
@NotMax:
Such a purist.
zhena gogolia
My most “nowhere” experience was stopping at a Bob Evans Farms somewhere in Ohio in about 1977. We were en route from New Haven to St. Louis. Everyone else in the restaurant was there for the “car show.” We got asked about 50 times if we were there for the “car show.” Everything on the menu was either ham, pork, or bacon. Seriously. EVERYTHING on the menu.
kindness
I forget, what was the agreed upon curse substitutes so we wouldn’t scare off the ad people?
zhena gogolia
@zhena gogolia:
Even worse was on our way back — Wheeling, WV. I swear every person in line looked like a Walker Evans photograph, only not so glamourous. The landscape was beautiful, though.
NotMax
re: Mr. Cole’s tweet showing here now about his “first act as president.”
Sorry to break it to him, but changing Election Day for federal elections like that requires a Constitutional amendment.
As for making it a four day holiday, face the fact that a lot of people who might otherwise cast a ballot would skip voting altogether and head out of town on a long vacation weekend. Not to mention institutions which cannot reasonably afford to be short staffed for so long, such as hospitals and emergency services.
delk
We have the Golden Nugget. There’s one down the street from me.
SectionH
Meanwhile tonight Mr S is at the TWA fancy hotel at JFK. Y’know, the one attached to the iconic Saarinen terminal there.
At least I’m home right now, or I’d probably kill him. I mean if I were stuck in LEX right now. Damn, you spend a decade or so in a sane climate and this,Winter shit just doesn’t work any more.
Oh, and Delta seems to have given him $1400 in bump credit for taking the bump off his flight to San Diego.
I am so not making that up. He does have to pay for the hotel, but, it’s kinda minor, even for that.
Adam L Silverman
You shall be known, henceforth and forever more, as Scattered, Smothered, Covered, Topped, and Chunked!
Steeplejack
@zhena gogolia:
LOL. Good one.
Steeplejack
@delk:
I’d eat there.
khead
I will guess…… “Welcome to Wytheville!”
Steeplejack
@SectionH:
Score for the mister! Even with paying for the hotel and a presumably large bar tab/room-service bill he’s way ahead.
The Dangerman
Think of it as practice for when Trump is counting worms on the wrong side of the daisies.
Do ya know what I’m doin’, doin’ the Trumpty Dump
Do the Trumpty Dump, do the Trumpty Dump
Leto
Avalune and I found some Waffle House’s in the northern part of PA a few weeks ago. It’d been about 10 years since we’d last been but I was ever so fucking happy to be back in one. I saw that they now have a triple hashbrown option, so ordered that (scattered, smothered, covered, and topped), three eggs, bacon, and a pecan waffle. Avalune said I was trying to make up for that lost decade all at once with about 10lbs of potato. It was totally worth it.
Redshift
Eyeballing the general route, and yeah, that’s the ass end of Virginia. As a friend from Richmond liked to point out to illustrate how big Virginia is from east to west, it’s further from Richmond to the westernmost point in Virginia than it is from Richmond to New York.
Amir Khalid
@zhena gogolia:
If I’m ever in that neck of the woods, I may need to avoid this restaurant.
Percysowner
@zhena gogolia: I used to get together with a group of women on Thursday nights. We’d talk and then go out to eat. Every so often they would want to go to Bob Evans, which was kind of tough for me, because I was more or less eating vegetarian. It was horrible for our only Jewish member who kept Kosher. She would just leave early because there was NOTHING that wasn’t pork for her to eat.
Steeplejack
@Leto:
Damn it, now I’m seriously jonesin’ for Waffle House. I might drive the 25 miles to the nearest one tomorrow. It won’t be the same as at 2:00 a.m. on Sunday morning, but still . . .
zhena gogolia
@Amir Khalid:
Definitely.
zhena gogolia
@Percysowner:
I know! I said I wasn’t exaggerating!
gene108
Should go up the eastern shore, in Virginia.
It is a bit of a detour for you, but there are great Mexican restaurants up and down the route.
Central Planning
I think “This god damned blog will pay for itself” should be a new rotating tag.
Roger Moore
@NotMax:
No, it doesn’t. The Constitution doesn’t mention when Election day is. The only dates it mentions are for when the President’s term starts and for when the Congressional session starts, and it allows Congress to change the latter by statute. This is why states are free to have early voting.
Mary G
My college roommate and I used to go to Hamburger Hamlet on Wilshire Blvd. for chili sizes when we had money. It came with a cup of chopped onion each and they would give you more when you asked. We thought it was hilarious one late night when some businessmen were horrified by how much onion we went through. Now I want one. Probably wouldn’t sit too well now, but more because of the fat than the onion.
Steeplejack
@Redshift:
Boy, you’re right. I was thinking, “Eh, what’s so hard about coming up 95,” but then I got on Google Maps and looked at the default route from Charleston to Bethany. Yeah, that’s some heart of darkness stuff right there.
He should have Googled barbecue and Mexican restaurants. Surprising number of the latter (good ones) in small towns around here.
Adam L Silverman
@Percysowner: Bob Evans is where you go if the food at Dennys is too spicy.
NotMax
@Roger Moore
Setting or changing by independent action of the president, as Mr. Cole proposes, requires an amendment.
Waffle House GOAT
JFC, Waffle House kicks ass!
When Anthony Bourdain visited Sean Brock in Charleston, SC, where did Sean take him? Waffle House (I’ve been to that exact location). Brock waxed rather eloquently about the many real virtues of Waffle House, especially if you’ve been partying earlier in the evening.
Y’all probably never saw the inside of a Denny’s, a Perkins, or an actual brick and mortar White Castle either. Dilettantes.
Roger Moore
@zhena gogolia:
I’ve had some real “nowhere” experiences in Utah. There’s a stretch along I-70 where there are no services for about 120 miles, and the towns on either side of that stretch might not be big enough to justify having service stations if there weren’t an interstate.
The Dangerman
@Mary G:
If it wasn’t for the weather, I’m thinking Tommy’s run tonight. Well, weather and closest Tommy’s is about 2 hours away (if we call the speed limit malleable).
Amir Khalid
@Adam L Silverman:
Or if you keep kosher/halal and are curious to experience bursting into flames.
Kay
This is why Guiliani had to turn to a life of crime. To pay country club memberships. It’s just pathetic.
His decadent lifestyle really made criminal activity inevitable. Without it he never would have made more than 200k a year, and he needs more than that in a month.
When he’s indicted and then convicted and they go to seize all of it it’ll be just a bunch of mortgages and unpaid bills. A pile of crap.
Adam L Silverman
@Waffle House GOAT: I grew up in the south and spent many a late night at a Waffle House in Atlanta when I was in undergrad. And depending on where I might be sent on TDY, they were also a solid choice for a decent breakfast if one wasn’t available in guest quarters.I’ve also eaten in Dennys, Perkins, Village Inn, Bob Evans, and in every actual non chain diner in areas I’ve been in.
Adam L Silverman
@Amir Khalid: I’ve eaten in one. Like all places that do breakfast all day, there is a lot of pork on the menu. You can also get a lot of items without it. Now if you are so strict that you require a pork free kitchen, then you’re going to have a hard time. But that’s going to be the case at most restaurants that aren’t kosher, halal, and/or vegetarian or vegan.
Origuy
@Amir Khalid: It’s not necessary to be Muslim to avoid Bob Evans. I think I’ve been to one once, and it was about a mile from my parents’ house.
NotMax
@Adam L. Silverman
Got something against SOS on soggy white toast?
;)
MomSense
Nowhere is a logging road in an unorganized territory. The only identifiers are fire codes or the Township names like T3 R4.
Roger Moore
@Kay:
Pathetic but sadly predictable. There’s a core sense of entitlement that’s driving this. Guiliani is sure that he deserves all that nice stuff, and when he couldn’t pay for it honestly, he decided to pay for it dishonestly instead of keeping his expectations realistic. It’s a path many well off people have taken to a life of crime.
Adam L Silverman
@Kay: Actually he’s been running these scams, or, rather, covering up the crimes of wealthy and powerful folks who could later benefit going back to when he was the US Attorney in SDNY. That’s how he got linked up with the President. He buried a witness’s testimony that was being offered in exchange for favorable treatment as part of a plea that the President had been laundering money for the mob (the witness was mobbed up) because the President had just given the max donation to his mayoral campaign and signed on to be the chief fundraiser and bundler for Giuliani’s mayoral campaign. So the President got protected by Giuliani and Giuliani got the money he needed for his campaign. Give these a read:
https://www.villagevoice.com/2019/03/22/rudys-long-history-of-quashing-trump-probes/
https://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/wayne-barrett-donald-trump-rudy-giuliani-peas-pod-article-1.2776357
NotMax
@Adam L. Silverman
McDonald’s (yuck-o) in Hawaii offers a choice of a spam, rice and egg platter or a Portuguese sausage, rice and egg platter.
Ruckus
@NotMax:
I’ve eaten at an Awful House more times than I want to admit but really it was the only place open. And I can not remember ever having a waffle. But I’d bet that the waffles would be greasy, just on the general concept of the place and the rest of the food.
David ??Booooooo?? Koch
Adam L Silverman
@NotMax: Why yes I do.
Ruckus
@zhena gogolia:
Bob Evens isn’t normally bad, as long as you really like ham, pork or bacon.
Adam L Silverman
@Ruckus: From what I remember, they were not greasy.
mrmoshpotato
@Adam L Silverman: And now I want to listen to Driver 8.
?BillinGlendaleCA
I’ve spent my day removing airplane trails from about 200 photos to create a star trail without airplane trails. While Joshua Tree has great scenery and hence great foreground elements for photos of the sky, the sky has almost as many aircraft as LA.
Ruckus
@Amir Khalid:
Like the plague.
Marshall Eubanks
Were you on 81? There are decent restaurants near pretty much each of the Waffle Houses on 81 in Virginia. The toughest one might be Wytheville – that might take some digging, but I bet there is something around there.
Adam L Silverman
@mrmoshpotato: You’re welcome!
NotMax
@Adam L. Silverman
For no good reason, breakfast food as president.
;)
Ruckus
@Adam L Silverman:
LOL
Barbara
@khead: Bluefield? Galax? I drove from NC to Morgantown once and it was a bit empty.
Kay
@Adam L Silverman:
Thanks I will. That hit me a couple of weeks ago- how he probably helped Trump avoid prosecution.
Trump is close to the Mukasey’s too- Donald Trump was really well connected with NY prosecutors, which, you know, perhaps explains why he’s been permitted to get away with murder for 50 years.
Guiliani had to borrow 100k to pay his taxes and it’s not like his expenses are going down- god knows what he’s paying just the divorce lawyer and that’s not the only lawyer he needs, or has, and here shortly he’ll need a criminal defense lawyer, if he doesn’t have one already.
David ??Booooooo?? Koch
FUCK YEAH!
khead
@Marshall Eubanks:
There’s decent Mexican and a Japanese steakhouse right down the street if Cole really is in Wytheville. He should go load up on the Shoney’s breakfast bar before hitting the road in the morning.
Barbara
@Redshift: Roanoke is closer to the capitals of five other states than it is to Richmond. Or so I have been told.
David ??Booooooo?? Koch
@Kay: do you have a link for Ghouliani having to borrow to pay his taxes, I want to savor it.
Amir Khalid
@Adam L Silverman:
I’d close one eye to a kitchen that isn’t pork-free, as long as I am steered clear of any items with non-halal ingredients. That was always my policy on my assignment-related trips to the US.
mrmoshpotato
@Amir Khalid: Hehe
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
What, there wasn’t a Mickey D’s? Speaking of chili, Wendy’s chili is actually pretty good. Definitely won’t give you the shits, Cole! Wendy’s is, as far as fast food goes, fairly decent.
SiubhanDuinne
@Steeplejack:
I didn’t know it was even possible to be more than 0.7 miles from a Waffle House. Amazing, the things I learn on this blog.
Kay
@Ruckus:
That’s what they call them in Atlanta, but it’s a bad nickname- hard to say! I kind of liked them- so small. You could sit at the counter and look left and then look right and you’ve surveyed the whole room, which you need to do because it’s full of shady people. I used to love how people would sleep in the booths completely at ease- just stretch out in that booth, feet sticking out into the aisle. That’s fine at the Waffle House- expected, even.
NotMax
@Amir Khalid
The menu.
Ruckus
@Waffle House GOAT:
Eaten at Awful House a number of times, as well as Dennys, I believe a Perkins, once and never, ever at a White Castle. Never been that drunk, ever. And I have eaten at Skyline Chili way too often. The people I worked with had terrible taste for lunch food.
Amir Khalid
@NotMax:
Alas and a lack-a-day, for the Bob Evans server is down.
khead
@Barbara:
No Waffle House in those exotic locales. Heh. Another hour and he could’ve been in Beckley. There’s a whole bunch of places to stay and eat at Harper Rd. Also, Galax really is the boonies.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Kay:
Who the fuck needs 11 country club memberships?
NotMax
@Ruckus
Way too many supremely forgettable foods along the NY Thruway when Hot Shoppes were the only option.
Amir Khalid
@NotMax:
In Malaysia you can now get nasi lemak for breakfast at McDonalds.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Steeplejack: IHOP is headquartered here in beautiful Downtown Glendale.
NotMax
@NotMax
Although to give them their due, they did give an impression of cleanliness. Everything was vaguely redolent of bleach.
Amir Khalid
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Someone with residential addresses in 11 gated communities.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Ruckus:
IHOP’s been mentioned upthread. They have the best pancakes. I’ve always really liked Waffle House’s hashbrowns tbh
Ruckus
@Kay:
I wonder if he’s smart enough any more to not represent himself.
NotMax
@Amir Khalid
Is that by any chance an artificial mimicry of a banana leaf, along the lines of the plastic ‘seaweed’ found in some bentos?
Ruckus
@SiubhanDuinne:
When I worked in the south eastern part of Franklin county OH, there were places with an Awful House on the opposite sides of the road. It made more sense than it sounds, you could not make a left turn due to medians and you never had to make a U turn, which I thought was illegal in OH, for good reasons.
Ruckus
@Kay:
Eat there more than once or twice and Awful House slides right off the tongue.
mrmoshpotato
@Adam L Silverman: It’s a great cover.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Amir Khalid:
Rhetorical question, Amir : p
This dude was a federal prosecutor. His hunger for money makes you wonder what he did while he was a federal attorney that probably compromised his judgment. I’m Ghoulini has done lots of shady deals
Ruckus
@Amir Khalid:
That actually looks better than any McD’s food I’ve ever seen in person. Bet it doesn’t give you food poisoning either.
As you maybe can tell, I’m NOT a McD’s person.
NotMax
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
Long time locals in the know head to Tasty Crust.
;)
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@NotMax:
There’s no such thing as “tasty crust”, except maybe pizza crust. Ick. Definitely a place I’d avoid with that name
Amir Khalid
@NotMax:
The places that serve food on banana leaf always use real banana leaf. It’s Tradition. That picture wasn’t Mickey D’s nasi emak, by the way. I doubt theirs looks anywhere near as appetising.
Ruckus
@NotMax:
Do not remember the food but was stuck at a NY thruway stop once while in the navy, Jan 1971. It was winter, a rather bad winter and the guy with the car had 24 hrs to get from Great Lakes NTS, western shore of Lake Michigan, north of Chicago to his next post in Groton CT. I was along to help drive and then take a bus to SC. The only thing that saved us – driving on the closed thruway, was that we were in uniform. Not so good times.
mrmoshpotato
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Goku, do you really want to know what compromised Ghouliani’s judgment?
Because once you know…
mrmoshpotato
@Ruckus: The Popeyes chicken sandwich looks great on TV. In real life, pfft.
Roger Moore
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Someone who wants to be able to go to a couple of different country clubs from each of his 6 houses.
jl
@NotMax: I agree. As a kind of cultural tribute and peace offering to Southern culture, I always try to get to a Waffle House when in those parts,
From my experience, stick to the waffles. Certainly, any prudent person would start this kind of risky experimentation with the waffles. And, you can ask for any damn kind of waffle you want, if they have the fixings , they will make it. And, as with other chains, the quality of individual waffle houses varies greatly. As does the nature of clientele, from my experience.
Roger Moore
@Amir Khalid:
Sounds good! Nasi lemak was my favorite food discovery when I was visiting Singapore. I don’t know how well McDonald’s would handle it, though.
Ruckus
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
He was mayor of NYC after being US associate attorney general and US attorney for SDNY, and that and associating with big shots like DT as mayor probably gave him the idea of the “good life.” He was out as mayor in Dec 2001, so he’s had plenty of time to charge rich people too much for his legal services.
Roger Moore
@NotMax:
As Amir said, they have plenty of real banana leaves, which have the advantage of being disposable and environmentally friendly. There are even banana leaf restaurants where everything- a big serving of rice and a bunch of different vegetarian curries- is served on a banana leaf. They don’t offer silverware, though; they’re from the southern Indian tradition where you eat everything with your right hand.
Ruckus
@mrmoshpotato:
I’ve eaten at Popeye’s. Was not impressed. It was better than KFC but that’s not difficult.
Amir Khalid
@Roger Moore:
They do provide a fork and spoon on request. And if you’re a white tourist, you’ll get them without even having to ask. ;-)
mrmoshpotato
@Ruckus: Yeah. I got one of their chicken sandwiches after they were back in stock.
I know YouTube cooking channels that would show me how to make a better one.
Mike J
I waited tables at a Perkins, I’ve had everything on the menu at Awful House, and in college we would drive far too long to get to a White Castle.
Mary G
@The Dangerman: Tommy’s on Rampart was another favorite. I was there about 3 a.m. one time when someone drove by and threw some kind of small explosive onto that tin roof. Nobody moved out of line except the guy from NYC I had taken there. They have branches all over now, but the ones I’ve been to in OC and the SGV weren’t the same
Roger Moore
@Amir Khalid:
I don’t remember seeing any utensils at the banana leaf restaurant where I ate. They certainly didn’t provide any to me without my asking. I wasn’t going to ask, because I was taken there in one as part of a silly social posturing things. The person who took me there was trying to get me to act surprised and out of my depth by showing me an unfamiliar experience, and I was trying to act calm and unsurprised by going along as if I did this kind of thing all the time.
Steeplejack (phone)
@SiubhanDuinne:
I would have thought the same when I lived in Atlanta. But some “national” chains are really regional chains, and some are more national than others.
I’m also about 20 miles away from the nearest Cracker Barrel, which is equally surprising.
Steeplejack (phone)
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Good to know!
The Dangerman
@Mary G:
Don’t think I’ve been to that one; I was introduced to Tommy’s at UCLA and drove up to one on … Roscoe, IIRC. Yeah, still there on Roscoe but the picture on Google shows they’ve cleaned it up a bit since the 80’s. Used to be a complete dive. Great chili burger.
I’ve found Tommy’s that look nice aren’t as good as the Tommy’s where you drive up and think, damn, what a dive (see above). Let’s not even talk about the Tommy’s that aren’t real Tommy’s
ETA: Yeah, the one on Rampart reminds me of the Tommy’s I used to go to on Roscoe. Very simple (read: dive).
Steeplejack (phone)
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Can confirm that Wendy’s chili is surprisingly good. I have actually ordered it voluntarily a few times.
Speaking of fast food in general, I have been lusting for a chili dog for a week.
NotMax
@Mike J
First time ever ate White Castle (“Buy ’em By The Sack!”) was while standing outside one in a driving snowstorm while waiting for JFK’s motorcade, running a couple of hours behind schedule, to pass by not all that long after his election.
Hot and greasy warmth on the inside of the body was a welcome counterpoint to being chilled and damp on the outside.
Anyone else from the NY area remember Wetson’s (“Buy A Bagful!”)?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Mary G: The one in Eagle Rock is pretty faithful to the original.
Ruckus
My favorite fast junk food is Taco Bell. You have to know the menu and choose wisely, OK oxymoron. But it’s not bad.
My all time junk food favorite was not a chain, a local place not too far from my LA business in Vernon called Mikes Hockey Burger. A hockey burger was a cheeseburger with 2 butterflied, fried hot dogs. Sounds sketchy but it was good. Open about 40 yrs, often a line out the door, 2 generations of ownership. Ate there once in 2012, hadn’t been in for almost 20 yrs, the owner remembered me, the cashier was the same woman who started as a teen.
Actually far better is a place I ate at as an 11 yr old with the original owner working and as a 65 yr old served by the grandson of the original owner. Pecos Bill’s BBQ is a historical landmark on Victory in Glendale. Opened 73 yrs ago, still going strong. Amazing BBQ. They can’t change a thing because of the historical landmark status, can’t even add a fountain, drinks are served from a drink cooler or an ice chest. Original oven, all the meat is cooked overnight. As good of BBQ as I’ve had anywhere. And I’ve eaten BBQ from coast to coast.
SectionH
@Steeplejack: Well yeah, although with taxes etc. and adding a whole $10 for sexier view, the bill was around $300. Which neither of us would ever
pay for in any normal circs. But he actually told me what he wanted for his b’day last July was to fly to New York and stay at that hotel, so I couldn’t resist, and just booked it for him. And we’re still ahead on the $ thing. Even with me paying more than I should to keep my weekend Hertz car until Tuesday (fuck a bunch of MLB assholes). Um, my lovely little Volt is in the LEX parking lot, with my coat in it, so I rented again. Damn.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Mike J:
Note: Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle is very funny and holds up very well.
Ruckus
@Mike J:
You are a man of the hearts of the guys I used to work with in OH.
Ruckus
@Mary G:
Ate at Tommy’s once. Not the original one. Not impressed at all.
NotMax
@Roger Moore
Talk of banana leaves summons an incipient craving for pasteles.
Ruckus
@Steeplejack (phone):
Cracker Barrel food isn’t bad and there is a lot of it.
Far better than the blue hair buffets around Columbus, OH.
smike
@Steeplejack (phone):
Though I normally shun the Cracker House, they have a breakfast (Uncle somebody’s) that comes with grilled catfish. Quite good, actually. The pancake places are usually good at the basics.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Ruckus:
I took my mother to Cracker Barrel when she was here a year or so ago. She wanted their biscuits. The food was good.
Ruckus
Anyone remember Bob’s Big Boy? Still a few around. Can’t remember eating there in the last 60 yrs.
Ruckus
@NotMax:
No but the link reminds me of a number of Latina people I used to know, on special occasions they would hand make tamales assembly line fashion and they sound, by at least the prep, about the same, doubting the flavor is similar. At one friends wedding there must have been 200 tamales. Amazing.
SectionH
@Ruckus: Lucky you.
NotMax
@Ruckus
Higher circulation than the rest of Marvel, comics-wise.
;)
Mel
@Ruckus: There are still a bunch Big Boy restaurants around Cincinnati, just called “Frisch’s Big Boy”. They had a big kerfluffle a couple of years ago with the question of whether to change from serving Pepsi to serving Coca-Cola. Or maybe it was the other way around.
Mel
@Ruckus: Street corn and homemade tamales. Heaven on a plate.
Jackie
@Ruckus: We had a Big Boy, originally a Sambos. Then changed to Bananas. This was in eastern WA.
SectionH
@NotMax: I miss Sam Choy’s Breakfast Lunch and Crab. Yes, I know you’re on Maui – and we actually ate at the Sam’s somewhere near Kahului – it was in a big strip mall kind of thing. If you were headed “east” rather than “south” towards West Maui.
But BL&C was Nimitz Highway at the split (or where the one ways merge), and I loved that place. It had a lot of actual Hawaiian families in there all the time.
We have his cookbook, and Mr S (my chef) has made or adapted some amazing recipes from Sam.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Ruckus: Bob’s first location was on Colorado in Glendale.
Suzanne
@Waffle House GOAT:
I think you just described half of my elementary school years. Add IHOP and Village Inn to that rotation.
frosty
@The Dangerman: Tommy’s on Rampart. A long drive at night from Claremont … but we made the pilgrimage.
I’m hoping my grown boys can meet us in SoCal on our next road trip. I should take them there when we’re touring around.
Ruckus
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Eaten there.
frosty
@Ruckus: We hit Cracker Barrel at least once on the road for the pecan pancakes. Breakfast is OK but everything else is meh.
NotMax
@Section H
The Sam Choy’s in Kahului was bizarre. No matter what you ordered, it came with a heap of mashed potatoes.
Friend and I ate there one time. Both of us ordered the bouillabaisse. Arrived with a Close Encounters-sized mountain of buttered mashed potatoes dominating the center of the bowl.
Don’t recall the place lasting much more than a year.
NotMax
@NotMax
Neither of us are big on restaurant desserts but we seriously debated ordering the apple pie if only to see it it showed up with a scoop of mashed potatoes on top.
Mel
@Origuy: After finding a curl of pubic hair on a friend’s plate of pancakes at a Perkins years ago (yes, an entire lock -not just a single stray hair- like someone had been casually man-scaping or lady-scaping their nether regions over the griddle with some kitchen shears) I have made the occasional foray into Bob Evans for post- New Year’s pancakes or waffles.
The best / worst part of the whole Perkins incident was the manager saying, “Oh. I am SO sorry!! That’s totally unacceptable!! That is not how we do things here!! Let me get you guys a fresh plate right away”, then returning with an empty plate (not a fresh meal for her), and scraping the pubecakes onto the new plate with a cheery, “There you go. All set! And I’m really sorry about that!”
Perkins is forever verboten!!
joel hanes
@Steeplejack (phone):
too near
SectionH
@Waffle House GOAT: Oh FFS.
I’ve driven 7500 miles back and forth across the country in the last 2 months. No truckie record, but you try it sometime.
When we need to get somewhere, we generally survive on McDonald’s whatever is 2 for $4 or similar for breakfast and lunch. Because they’re cheap and usually edible, and they have wifi.
I’ve had a big dose of reality about actual internet connections the last couple of months.
if we’re ahead of schedule – I mean the last drive, we had 5 whole days to load a big van and get it from LEX to SAN and unload it and turn it in, so we were damn well worried about timing.
tl;dr – fuck off clueless asshole.
KithKanan
@Steeplejack (phone): It’s surprising how national some chains I’d thought of as regional are becoming, though. I’m ~560 miles from the nearest Waffle House (less than I’d have thought, apparently they’ve expanded into the Phoenix metro) but only ~35 miles from the nearest Cracker Barrel.
Ruckus
Is twitter down for anyone else?
KithKanan
@Ruckus: Seems to be working for me.
ETA: USPS tracking, on the other hand…
Ruckus
@KithKanan:
New operating motto for big business:
Whatever you need but never when you want it.
SectionH
So when I (deep breath) take my lovely little Volt home –
things I’ve learned:
Stay off of Interstates as much as you can.
FInd Toll Roads. They are out there, I mean, damn. Texas, the Eastern part, has some really good ones.And Oklahoma’s are hugely overcrowded but stlll better than I-40… Email via the us usual suspects me if you want to get targeted, uh, the details if you’re heading onna diagonal NE-SW, either direction…
Even places like Odessa TX have allies. Not just nice people (Doh!) but people who srsly hate That Asshole.
SectionH
@SectionH: OK, except when they ARE I40 which sadly is too much of the time. Sorry about that.
Which Infrastructure year is this?
mrmoshpotato
@SectionH: Which Infrastructure decade is this? :)
West of the Rockies
@Amir Khalid:
In America, nasi lemak has you for breakfast! What a country!
SectionH
@mrmoshpotato: Just as a guess, the last one?
mrmoshpotato
@SectionH: We all hope so. Let’s make it so.
prostratedragon
From <em>Let My Children Hear Music</em>, dedicated to Devin Nunes:
<blockquote>
<a href=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rbdx-jR3a8U”>”The Shoes of the Fisherman’s Wife Are Some Jive Ass Slippers,” Charles Mingus</a>
</blockquote>
Anotherlurker
@NotMax: Wetson’s was my intro to fast food. They had one in Syosset that we reprobates from Oyster Bay would frequent, upon many a foggy night.
However, when we discovered a Souvlaki stand in Bayville, it was bye-bye Wetson’s and hello pressed lamb and Pita! The perfect munchie food!
Ruckus
Just finished watching that movie I talked about up thread, Role With Me. One of the best things I’ve seen in a very, very long time, maybe ever. An amazing journey and story. A paraplegic – 3100 miles in a wheelchair. No one had ever done that. He risked doing damage to his shoulders/arms and loosing his limited mobility of a chair. But more than the journey for him it was an amazing thing to watch, meeting regular people, meeting other people living in chairs, a couple of autistic guys in chairs, and the people who made the trip with him, helping him, a rag tag bunch – mostly lost individuals who learned as much about themselves and others as he did about pain and success.
Earlier today I was thinking about a man who I knew from professional sports. I knew him for the last 20-25 yrs of his life and took over part of his job when he passed away. I can not recall ever knowing him to be anything but positive. He had 5 retirement parties but never left till he passed in his sleep. He just refused to quit and was his very positive self till his last day.
This guy in his chair had that. And more.
opiejeanne
@Ruckus: In HS it was considered a bit racy to cruise the Bob’s Big Boy on Colorado, down the street from PCC. I vaguely recall a bunch of us doing that once and feeling like we’d done something slightly dangerous. We’d have been grounded if our parents had found out. Can’t remember who I was with it’s been so long ago.
opiejeanne
Anyone remember Twohey’s? Their last location was in Alhambra but I remember driving past it in Pasadena on Arroyo (I think). They say they will reopen in Pasadena on Fair Oaks, but it’s been a while since they closed down in Alhambra so I’m wondering if it will really happen.
I never ate there, Just remember the sign, Home of Little Stink-o.
Amir Khalid
@opiejeanne:
I heard Bruce Sprngsteen mention Bob’s Big Boy nearly 40 years ago in a song on the Nebraska album, but until now I thought he’d just made up the name.
Steeplejack
Just got on the computer for the first time since last night. I was closing some tabs and looked at the one where I had Google Maps open to my nearest Cracker Barrel. It turns out to be cheek by jowl with the Waffle House. (I didn’t look at the location of that last night, just the distance from me.)
In fact, this one intersection in Dumfries is a cornucopia of fast food: Cracker Barrel and Waffle House within walking distance of each other, a Chick-fil-A across the street and McDonald’s, Taco Bell and KFC just across I-95. Good eats for the guests at the Comfort Inn and Days Inn!
There’s also El Paso Mexican Grill up the street. It’s got a 4.4 rating from 862 reviews, which makes it eligible for a visit by me if I’m ever down there again. (I like to see at least a 4.0, the more reviews the better.)
wvng
When I was campaigning for Hillary in Pittsburg, we stayed at a Motel 6 and ate at Bob Evans every morning. They were trying out a new item – bacon candied in maple syrup. It sounded great, because who doesn’t love the bacon on the side of a stack of pancakes that gets into the syrup, but they blew it. Remarkably, they had so much sweet that you couldn’t taste the bacon. Which should be a crime
Also, as one who lives InTheMiddleOfNowhere, Hardy County, WV, what possible better place is there to be?
J R in WV
@Percysowner:
Ya’ll are fooling around, I know. But Bob Evans does do chicken too, and the chicken ‘n dumplings (which are really pretty good noodles, not dumplings) is OK. Pretty sure they do a beef or two as well.
And Waffle House waffles with pecans are also good. I always do the triple hash browns with all the extra veggies and bacon and eggs. Don’t know that I’ve ever done the chilli, I’m a wee bit picky about my beans and spices. The hash browns are heard to beat if they cook does it right.
low-tech cyclist
Nah, Wytheville’s definitely ‘somewhere’ by SW VA standards. I’m gonna guess maybe Hillsville or Bland.
Ivan X
@SectionH: I effing love the TWA Hotel. It’s not attached to the old T5, it’s in it. (The actual room wings are new and attached, as is the new JetBlue T5.) It’s like a time machine to 1963. They converted a propellor plane into a bar. They just put in an ice skating rink. You can get delicious fast food from Halal Guys and others or go high end at a Jean Georges (or whatever his name is) restaurant or spend all night drinking Negronis in the sunken lounge or look at the museum of TWA uniforms or watch the planes take off from the roof pool. I actually urge everyone passing through JFK (esp if flying JetBlue) to add an extra hour and check it out. It’s one of the coolest NYC things that’s happened in years IMO. And Delta (not my fave airline but they do some things right) give their bump comp with Amex gift cards as an option, so that’s pretty much cash. I think Mr S is a lucky guy!
Omnes Omnibus
@SiubhanDuinne: I am hundreds of miles from one. The nearest ones to me are either in St. Louis or Indianapolis.
Ol'Froth
I’ve been in about 4 Waffle Houses and each of them was filthy and fly infested.
wkwv
@opiejeanne: I’m so sorry to hear Twohey’s closed. My friends just about lived there as teenagers. Any time we visited our parents, my husband and I would go out of our way to eat their onion rings- which were tempura-like and flakey over what I guess were Maui sweet onions. I’ve never found onion rings or milk shakes better than those at Twohey’s.
MoxieM
@NotMax: Hey, My dad was a WWII vet, and he taught us all to love that … stuff … growing up. I tried to feed it to my own family, insisting it was the best comfort food. yeah, ha.
Matt Smith
@Leto: Right there with you. I always get the hash browns scattered, smothered, covered, topped, and diced. (For the uninitiated, that means scattered on the grill, then served with onions, chili, cheese, and tomatoes.) And a waffle.
I also love the Waffle House jukebox songs, which the waitresses all HATE, but I think they’re funny. My favorite is Special Lady at the Waffle House. “All it took was just one time to meet her, now I’m not a stranger no more…”