More Diners, Drive-ins and Dives
Page 11
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And that’s not all. Darwell has a full selection of sandwiches, from pulled pork and burgers to prime rib. Prime rib? Not bad for a little joint! He says, “Daddy taught me, if you can’t go top of the line, don’t go at all.” He drenches the ribs with soy sauce, then rubs ’em down with minced garlic; sprinkles on Tony Chachere’s Creole Seasoning, black pepper, and chopped onion; and pops ’em in the oven at 350°F for two and a half hours. After they rest and cool, he slices them super thin, then sautés the rib meat and serves it on a roll with sautéed onions, mushrooms, and its juice for dipping. I’d like to have a big sixteen-layer birthday cake made out of that. Messy and good.
THE CABOOSE ON THE TRAIN TO FLAVORTOWN—ALL ABOARD!
Crawfish Étouffée
ADAPTED FROM A RECIPE COURTESY OF DARWELL YEAGER III, OWNER OF DARWELL’S CAFE
Kitchen note: Darwell does this using his own homemade crawfish stock made from the crawfish shells. We substituted shrimp stock and, in case all you can find are frozen crawfish that have already been peeled, you can too. Feel free to adjust the amount of the Creole seasoning to your taste.
MAKES 6 SERVINGS
4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 bunch of celery, medium diced (about 3 cups)
2 red or green bell peppers, stemmed, seeded, and medium diced
1 small onion, medium diced
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon Old Bay Seasoning
1 tablespoon Creole seasoning, preferably Tony Chachere brand
½ cup all-purpose flour
1 quart (4 cups) shrimp stock
1 cup heavy cream
2 pounds freshly picked, steamed crawfish tail meat
Steamed basmati rice and/or French bread, for serving
2 tablespoons freshly chopped flat-leaf parsley leaves, for serving
1. Melt the butter in a 14-inch skillet over medium heat. Add the celery and sauté until tender. Add the bell peppers, onion, garlic, and Old Bay and Creole seasoning and cook, stirring, for another 5 minutes.
2. Turn the heat up to medium-high and blend in the flour to form a roux around the vegetables. Cook thoroughly, stirring, until the roux starts to brown slightly. Stir in the shrimp stock and the heavy cream a little at a time. Bring just to a boil, reduce the heat to low, and simmer until thickened, about 15 minutes.
3. Finish by adding the crawfish tail meat and simmer to heat through. Serve over rice or French bread, and garnish with the chopped parsley.
SOUTH
BAR-B-Q KING
EST. 1959 A LANDMARK DRIVE-IN SERVIN’ SAUCY FRIED CHICKEN
I used to visit North Carolina a lot when I was a kid. You see, that’s where my grandma Mamie used to live, and that’s where I got my love of grits. But had I known about the Bar-B-Q King, I think I would’ve visited even more often.
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TRACK IT DOWN
2900 Wilkinson Boulevard
Charlotte, North Carolina 28208
704-399-8344
www.barbqking.com
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When you pull in here you’re headed for some killer Carolina-style vinegar-based barbecue. They’ve been dishing up pulled pork, sliced pork, fried chicken drenched in their secret recipe barbecue sauce, even homemade hush puppies for years at this Charlotte landmark. And it’s brought right to your car.
It’s a family joint, run by the same family since the start. They’ve had the same ordering gizmos and the same carhop service since the very beginning, along with one other thing: the same food made from scratch.
Pete Gianakis started running this place and smoking the signature pork shoulders in 1959. He retired in 2003, but no one’s really sure what that means; he still shows up almost every day. Gus Karapanos, his brother George, and their uncle Steve bought the place from Uncle Pete, and Steve’s wife, Maria, and Gus’s niece, Amanda, also work there. Gus is in charge of putting on the pork shoulder—a hundred pounds every day. It’s cooked so tender it falls right off the bone, and it’s used for chopped pork, sliced pork, sandwiches, and platters. The hickory-smoked meat is served with barbecue sauce that’s tangy and wow: vinegar, brown sugar, tomato, and a little somethin’ that tastes like Tabasco, Worcestershire, and liquid smoke—a secret spice mixture that’s cooked with lemons for three hours.
They bread the chicken before frying all day long, then submerge it in that barbecue sauce. It’s like a cross between fried chicken, barbecue chicken, and buffalo wings. Oh man, I don’t get surprised very often, but that is outta bounds right there. They don’t need to have anything else on the menu, but they do.
I tried doing the carhop delivery, but I made it through only five orders; man, they’ve got some hard workers. But I think they’ll do okay without me, ’cause in Charlotte this place is king, chopped and sliced, fried and dipped.
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[GUY ASIDE]
A few years ago when I was doing competition barbecue at the Kansas City Royal, a couple guys came up to me saying they wanted to do a “barbecue king” show set up like a competition on Food Network, so I had the name in the back of my mind. Then right after I won Food Network Star I was in Charlotte judging a Pro Start culinary competition, and all of a sudden we go by this Bar-B-Q King on the way to the airport, and I thought it was such a great name. Then four years later we were shooting there! It was too coincidental! So we went there and I thought it was just a drive-in—it was a little hit or miss at the beginning of the show. So I thought, okay, it’ll be so-so food, a novelty drive-in and so forth. But this place really blew my mind. They don’t even season the big old pork shoulders, and they make some wicked barbecue sauce, but the thing that blew me away the most was when they fried the chicken and dipped it in the ’cue sauce.
They’ve got a real-deal carhop service. I spoke to some people the other day who went there and they complained, “We had to eat in our car,” and I said, “What’s wrong with that?” and they said, “Our AC was broken!” There were five of them in ninety-degree heat. I said, I would’ve gone out and eaten it on the hood. They said they did. So I said, “Well, how was the barbecue?” Their answer: “Totally worth it.”
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COMMAND CENTER O’ BBQ KING.
Bar-B-Q King Fried Chicken
ADAPTED FROM A RECIPE COURTESY OF BAR-B-Q KING
Give this method a go—just make sure you’re using vinegar-based, tangy Carolina-style sauce.
MAKES 4 SERVINGS
Vegetable shortening or oil, for deep-frying
2 cups water
1 cup milk
2 cups self-rising flour
2 cups finely ground cracker meal
1 (2½- to 3-pound) chicken, cut into 10 pieces
Carolina-style barbecue sauce of your choice (optional)
1. Heat the shortening or oil in a deep-fryer or deep pot to 300°F. Combine the water and milk in a large bowl. Whisk the flour and cracker meal in a shallow dish.
2. Dip the chicken pieces in the milk mixture, then roll them in the flour mixture. Dip again in the milk and roll in the flour. Fry the pieces until golden brown and cooked through, about 15 minutes. If desired, dip the hot pieces in barbecue sauce as they come out of the fryer.
OWNER’S NOTE: At the Bar-B-Q King, the food is made today the same way it was in 1959. The food is all prepared in-house. The homemade barbecue pork, barbecue chicken, barbecue sauce, and seafood would actually be enough to keep Bar-B-Q King busy, but we also have homemade items such as slaw, potato salad, hush puppies, tartar sauce, and our one-of-a-kind onion rings. Most of the people who visit Bar-B-Q King have been customers for many, many years, but thanks to Diners, Drive-ins and Dives, our new clientele has increased dramatically. We have people drive hundreds of miles just to come to Bar-B-Q King and try the barbecue fried chicken. All of them say they’ll keep coming back! Many customers ask us every week for the recipe for the barbecue chicken and the barbecue sauce. It’s dipped into our secret barbecue sauce�
��the ingredients have been kept a secret for almost fifty years. Only the owners know the ingredients, and Guy’s not getting this one! Thank you to Diners, Drive-ins and Dives! And a very special thanks to Guy, his crew, and the producer, David Page.—Steve, George, and Gus
SOUTH
BEACON DRIVE-IN
EST. 1946 WHERE GOOD FOOD, GOOD TIMES, AND GOOD PEOPLE COME “A-PLENTY”
For more than sixty years, folks around Spartanburg have been in love with this landmark called the Beacon Drive-In, and for good reason. I’ve never seen anything like it.
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TRACK IT DOWN
255 John B. White Sr. Boulevard
Spartanburg, South Carolina 29306
864-585-9387
www.beacondrivein.com
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This place is loud, packed, and busy, with good food at a reasonable price. And it may look like pandemonium, but let me tell you, these guys have a playbook—a system for cranking it out. In a week’s time they see fifteen to twenty thousand customers. But now, wait a second…there are only about forty-five thousand people living in Spartanburg.
Most meals come with a mountain of French fries and homemade onion rings—a combination they call “a-plenty.” The best seller is a cheeseburger topped with homemade chili underneath a-plenty; yes, the burger is under there, although it’s tough to see under all the fried goodness. They’ve got ham and cheese a-plenty, bacon cheeseburgers a-plenty—everything’s a-plenty. Owner Kenny Church showed me how to make the signature rings. They sell more than two tons of onions a week—that they slice, ring, and batter. For one day they do a thousand pounds. Shaking the rings out after battering was like mining for gold—and Kenny says, that is gold.
Right after the Depression the original owner, John White, started serving these mounds of good, cheap food. Kenny, Mark McManus, Steve McManus, Sam Maw, and Steve Duncan won the bid to buy it in 1998 because they were dedicated to keeping it just the way it’s always been. They do all kinds of down-home cooking. The hash is not the typical corned-beef hash; it’s made with beef shoulder and pulled pork and served with barbecue sauce on a bun. The pimento cheese is homemade and served in a sandwich that’s pressed—like a South Carolina–style panini. The chicken stew is creamy and thick, with loads of chicken and chives, and a real-deal homemade breakfast is served; you can have a platter with grits, great bacon, scrambled eggs, and peaches. Peaches? Steve says that’s just the way Mr. White did it since 1946, and if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. And that means making traditional Southern iced tea filled with sugar and lemons. They say they make more than any place else in the country, thousands of gallons. But maybe the biggest tradition of the Beacon isn’t the food, it’s how you order it.
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[GUY ASIDE]
Back in the day it would take two days for us to shoot in one location on Triple D, and this was one of the first, with just the coolest people. J.C. Strobble is the main character. You can’t believe how fast he can call the orders—everybody loves to hear it. I got really hoarse trying to do what he does—it was hysterical. We had J.C. and his wife and daughter out to California to shoot the Best of Triple D show; he’s such a great guy. His daughter couldn’t stop telling me what an impact our visit had had on her father’s life.
People come from everywhere to eat here, more than almost anywhere else we’ve been—along with Hodad’s in San Diego. It’s crazy!
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J.C. Strobble is a Spartanburg institution and the heart of this place. He’s been calling orders here for half a century. He says, “I tell you one thing, we do not have strangers at the Beacon,” and he’s one amazing person. He’s lost his eyesight but not his enthusiasm or his energy. In his spare time he goes to church and goes home to get some rest. He says let’s rock, and man, does he. I tried calling orders. “There ya go!” he encouraged me, but I did five and lost my voice. And try being the guy who’s filling J.C.’s orders; they keep coming in, and it’s restaurant shorthand like you’ve never heard.
You’re not going to find anything like the Beacon anywhere else. Great food, a one-of-a-kind experience, and some really special people you ought to meet.
THERE ARE “A-PLENTY” OF FOLKS WAITIN’ FOR A-PLENTY!
Beacon Lightly Breaded Onion Rings
ADAPTED FROM A RECIPE COURTESY OF KENNY CHURCH OF BEACON DRIVE-IN
These are fantastic; try them “a-plenty” atop your next burger.
MAKES 4 SERVINGS
Vegetable oil for deep-frying, plus 1 tablespoon
3 Vidalia onions
1 quart (4 cups) buttermilk
1 egg
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more for sprinkling on hot rings
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1. Heat the frying oil in a large heavy pot over medium-high heat until a deep-fry thermometer reads 325°F. Peel and slice the onions into rings about 1 inch thick (just rings, not hearts).
2. Whisk the buttermilk, egg, and 1 tablespoon vegetable oil in a large bowl. In another bowl, whisk the flour, 1 teaspoon salt, and the pepper.
3. Drop the onion rings first into the buttermilk mixture and then into the flour, making sure they are well coated with each dip. Shake the excess flour off the rings and fry in batches until golden brown, about 3 minutes. Remove from the oil, sprinkle with salt, and serve hot.
Beacon Drive-In Pimento Cheese
ADAPTED FROM A RECIPE COURTESY OF KENNY CHURCH OF BEACON DRIVE-IN
The cheese is great spread on toast and broiled until the cheese melts, or on burgers.
MAKES 1 QUART
1-pound block American cheese, coarsely chopped
1 (4-ounce) jar pimentos, drained
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
Grind up the cheese and pimentos in a food processor until almost smooth, but with some small pieces of pimento visible. Scrape into a bowl and stir in the mayonnaise.
IF YOU’RE STANDING THIS CLOSE TO DA SIGN, YOU BETTER BE READY.
SOUTH
UNCLE LOU’S FRIED CHICKEN
EST. 2001 DIPPIN’ IT ALL IN SWEET SPICY LOVE
You know how I like to find the funkiest joints in town—well, I found one here in Memphis, Tennessee, in a strip mall by the airport. It’s Uncle Lou’s, and he’s doing chicken one of my favorite ways, fried and dipped.
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TRACK IT DOWN
3633 Millbranch Road
Memphis, Tennessee 38116
901-332-2367
www.unclelousfriedchicken.com
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This is Uncle Lou’s home cooking. A few years ago Louis Martin opened his own joint, doing chicken the way his great-grandmother did, and folks just went nuts. The chicken and the sauce are bananas, and bananas is good (you know that, though, don’t you?). He’s even frying it whole and the crowd keeps packing in, for something fresh, hot, tasty, and cooked to order.
His seasoned flour has loads of black pepper, as well as salt, onion, garlic, and cinnamon. He dredges the pieces with a light coating, then puts them into the fryer, thigh first, then drum, then wing, then breast. Twelve minutes and it’s golden brown. There’s good crunch, and I can hear the sauce calling my name. It’s Lou’s creation and it’s like a buffalo wing sauce, sort of, with red wine vinegar, honey, Cajun Chef Louisiana Hot Sauce, and a mixture he calls Corruption, with garlic, chili powder, salt, paprika, onion, sugar, lemon pepper, and hickory smoke. (He sells this and his seasoned flour online.) He called it Honey Dip Sauce when I went in there, but I said you’ve got to call it Sweet Spicy Love, and he changed the name on the spot. He dips that chicken in and you get the taste of vinegar backed up with the sweetness and a little heat—or more heat if you roll that way; he does that too. There’s Spicy and More Spicy. As he says, it’s hot enough to make your hair stand on end, like mine.
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[GUY ASIDE]
I arrive here at this strip mall in the rain, and there’s this
guy Lou with this rub that he calls Corruption. He’s in every form a character, with a huge heart. Cooking with this guy is like hanging out with one of my buddies. Everything he does has something unique. I can see it now…A whole melting pot of people come into this place. One of his terms, which is something you don’t hear outside of the South, is hysterical, but you can’t use it: “So good it will make you want to slap your mama.” Lou mailed me some Sweet Spicy Love and Corruption. It should be an international spice blend, like curry. Uncle Lou’s Corruption takes over the world!
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But Uncle Lou is not a one-hit wonder. Folks are loving whatever he’s doing, like honey-dipped fried bologna or a dipped smoked sausage sandwich or a monster burger. His signature item, though, is his whole fried chicken, injected with Creole butter, fried, and dunked in Sweet Spicy Love, and sprinkled with Corruption. So tender and juicy, and you can really taste the garlic butter. It’s off the chain, crazy good. If you live within three hundred miles of this joint you should be getting yourself over there, right quick now.