This is a blog of my five-week exploration of culinary experiences in North Carolina. Baaswell Sheep is accompanying me and offering his own commentary on the trip, although he refuses to go into any place that serves lamb chops.
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There's a Biscuitville right across the parking lot from our hotel, making for a nice, quick brunch. My companion tried the spicy chicken and honey biscuit this time, which he said was quite good: not too spicy, and the honey helps balance it all out. I enjoyed eating his hashbrown, and I tried a few sips of that Cheerwine he loves so much – it's acutally pretty good.
For an interesting change of pace, I can report that Downtown Mount Airy is bustling with business: I don't think we saw a single vacant storefront along the three primary blocks. That's surely due to the town's embracing of hometown boy Andy Griffith and his classic TV show, The Andy Griffith Show, in which the fictional town of Mayberry was based very much on life in Mount Airy when Andy was growing up. Now, the town tries to model itself after Mayberry with an oddly interesting effect. About half the stores are what you'd expect to find in any small town: antique stores, general merchandise stores, small restaurants, specialty services, etc. The other half are all clamoring to claim some connection to the fictional Mayberry, and it seems the tourists are eating it up. On one block, you can find Floyd's Barber Shop, with pictures of the four "Floyd"s who have worked there over the years. Oddly, it's up for sale, so if you'd like to become the fifth Floyd, well, here's your chance. Next door to the barber shop is Opie's Candy Store, which feels a bit unreal, and that's just the tip of the iceberg. It's not as bad as places like Gatlinburg, Tennessee, but definitely heading in that direction. There are still some historical and cultural elements intact, like the Historic Earle theater, which still hosts the "Merry-Go-Round" radio broadcast, started 77 years ago in 1948, every Saturday on WPAQ 740 AM. We did our walking tour around six in the evening, so we didn't get to go in anywhere, but we're going back tomorrow at lunchtime to see some of the more interesting places.
On the edge of Mount Airy in a former Dairy Queen barn-style building is a restaurant proclaiming itself to be Aunt Bea's, undoubtedly referencing the matriarch of the Andy Griffith Show. That said, I just can't picture the Mayberry Aunt Bea giving her stamp of approval to this place. Granted, my companion didn't try the BBQ, but that probably would not have made any difference. Don't get me wrong: the place was clean and bright and the staff friendly, but the food felt a little too much like what you might have gotten at the former Dairy Queen. In my mind, I'd expect a place named for Aunt Bea to be one of those nice meat and two vegetable places. This place did have some of those plates, and my companion got a country fried steak, but the vegetables were not what you'd expect, more than half along the lines of french fries and onion rings. We were able to get a small side salad, but there really wasn't another "healthy" vegetable on the menu. The food wasn't all that bad, but a little on the greasy side.
And now, a special shout-out to Pepsi. If you're outside of North Carolina, you might be completely unaware that Pepsi AKA Pepsi-Cola had its origins in this state, specifically in the coastal town of New Bern. Outside of this state, you'll see standard generic brand advertising, but throughout North Carolina you'll see advertising like in the picture on the right: "Pepsi-Cola: Born in the Carolinas". With apologies to a certain Georgia based cola, my companion and I have always liked RC Cola, but given the limited availability of RC, our next favorite is Pepsi. So, it's nice to find so many places selling Pepsi, and nice to see them celebrating their local heritage. We've been doing our part to occasionally get Pepsi when Cheerwine isn't available. However, given that the North Carolina Pepsi bottling companies also bottle Cheerwine, Pepsi tends to be wherever we find Cheerwine, and we tend to lean towards Cheerwine, or being the southern folks we are, a good sweet iced tea.
Please note that all restaurant and product names are used simply for referential purposes and links provided as a courtesy. Reviews are the sole opinions of the reviewer: no restaurant has paid to be listed here, and no restaurant is being explicitly endorsed. In other words, go out there, try them all, and form your own opinions!
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