Eat drink eat drink drive sleep eat drink drive drive drive. After gasoline, food and rest were always going to be the essential fuels for a three-week road trip looping around the southern half of the United States. But food, drink and good places to sleep also turned out to be the journey’s main delights. It’s not all Econo Lodges and Pizza Huts out there (thanks be to God). Below is a little black book of places you might also enjoy.
Of course, it’s the journey rather than the destination that matters most. So for me the enduring image from this trip will probably not be any of these stops, but of the long, open road in west Texas at dusk, where miles and miles ahead of us a bright light twinkles. It fills the whole of the pinpoint where the road vanishes and could be in either lane or hogging both. Headlights? Mystery Lights? A mirage? Whatever it is, we're coming at it at 80 miles per hour. Whatever it is, we'll reach it eventually.
North Carolina
We stayed at my parents’ house in Stokes County, then on to the Snowbird Mountain Lodge near Robbinsville for astonishing views and a spot of trying to outrun lightning in the inn’s private kayaks. We ate at the restaurant at the inn, where the food was five-star quality (go for the trout) and served by down home staff who out of politeness offered us iced tea rather than wine at the start. Brown bag lunches (included in the room rate) were also fun. [photo: morning lights at the Snowbird]
Tennessee
We stayed at the Talbot Heirs Guesthouse in Memphis, in room 8, which could have been designed by the ladies at Sugarbaker’s (that’s a Designing Women reference in case you didn’t know, and basically a compliment). Talbot Heirs is brilliantly located, just across from The Peabody and two blocks from Beale. We ate at Automatic Slim's, where everything's eclectic, especially the menu. It's Carribean meets Southwestern. The striped bass was mighty good, and the 80s DJ was an interesting touch. [photo: view from Talbot Heirs window]
Arkansas
Time didn’t permit an overnight stay in Little Rock. We ate at Flying Fish, where there’s a whole wall of singing Big Mouth Billy Bass 'trophies' (brought in for adoption by locals) and all manner of catfish combos on the menu. Totally Arkansas, and we loved it.
Oklahoma
We’d braced ourselves for the long, empty drive through Oklahoma and the Texas panhandle, and even had a cooler stocked with luxury cheeses and crackers just in case. In the end, fog filled the whole damned space and the temperatures dropped far too low for picnicking. We stayed at a Hampton Inn in the college town of Norman, Oklahoma. We ate a late meal next door at Charleston's, a regional chain, but it was open, and the food was way above average, energetically served by a young man from the college.
New Mexico
We stayed at The Water Street Inn, a bed and breakfast downtown. Nice place if you’re into B&Bs, and cheaper than the luxury hotels. But next time we’d probably opt for a self-catering casita just out of town. We ate at the very good Ristra with a rowdy group of most cultured people, followed by a drink and some shameless bribes at Vanessie, a piano bar, which yielded a round of ‘name that movie’ from the tired pianist. We also had meals at The Burrito Company (good fish tacos) and Il Vicino (but this was altitude sickness-induced take-out; otherwise we’d have been at Café Pasqual’s).
Texas
We stayed at two excellent motels-cum-hotels, The Thunderbird Hotel in Marfa and The Hotel San Jose in Austin, plus one night at the Austin Motel, which despite (or because of?) the cheaper prices and bohemian location on S. Congress Street had interiors that looked like someone had gone to a low-rent furniture store and bought everything in sight, right down to the tacky decorative vases. In Marfa, we ate at Jett’s at the Hotel Paisano. Even if it was the only place open on a Monday night, the food was good. No Elizabeth Taylor sightings though. We had breakfast at The Brown Recluse, a coffeehouse and used book shop in an old bungalow, where we overheard various arty conversations about experimental crochet and vinyl record collections. And we had coffee at The Marfa Book Company, a place that would be as much at home in San Francisco as it is in this strange desert town. In Austin, we ate at Guero's Taco Bar (pretty good fish tacos), South Congress Café (trendy interior and friendly staff but disappointing food), Shady Grove (a real experience and terrific food, under a giant pecan tree) and twice at Magnolia Café (one of the best diners in America; the blackened catfish salad was perfection). We also did copious dog and people watching at Jo’s. [photo: poolside at The Thunderbird Hotel]
Louisiana
We stayed at the Pierre Coulon Guesthouse in New Orleans. It’s literally a guesthouse at the back of Rick and Stephen’s restored Creole cottage, and it overlooks a lush tropical courtyard. Most comfortable. A bargain too. We ate at Snug Harbor (good food, but the jazz room is tops), the Praline Connection (family soul food recipes, but the kitchen must be suffering post-Katrina) and Coop's Place (satisfyingly grotty interior, delicious cajun food). [photo: Pierre Coulon banana trees]
Mississippi
Being a big fan of The Oxford American magazine (although it’s now based in Arkansas), I’d looked forward to Oxford as a potential highlight of the trip. But a long, dangerous drive in the rain and a strange stop in the dark at a desolate gas station, where two men and a sheriff watched us nervously throughout our refueling, didn’t shed the best light on Mississippi (besides which, I couldn’t stop thinking about Matthew Shepard). We stayed at The Inn at Ole Miss on the University of Mississippi campus, where we were asked several times what had brought us there. We ate at Bottletree Bakery, for breakfast, and despite the limited options for the wheat intolerant (yes, I know, it’s a bakery – but nothing else was open!) the folk art, chatty locals and uniqueness of the low-cut counter won us over.
Alabama
Rain rather than stars fell on Alabama while we were there, and who knew the roads could stretch for so long without so much as a truck stop. By the time we reached Lee's Restaurant, somewhere on Highway 78, we were ravenous. The retirees at the next table mentioned Wal-Mart twice in their short conversation (as in, “I went down to Wal-Mart and picked up one of them things you keep CDs in”). In the fluorescent-lit glass counter under the cash register a sign said “things left on tables”, which were: a key on a rough length of wire and about eight pairs of eyeglasses, including some tinted, 1980s ladies’ bifocals.
Georgia
We stayed at The Glenn Hotel in downtown Altanta. It was a bubble of modernity and style on a rainy night in Georgia. We ate at B.E.D., the Glenn’s restaurant and the third in an upscale chain after New York and Miami. We opted for the conventionality of a table rather than lounging like Caligula on one of the mattresses. The food was good, but the waitress was especially sweet and the model-hostess who seated us had the longest legs I have ever seen. We had breakfast at Ria’s Bluebird Café, where the style is alternative, the food is prepared with extraordinary adeptness and the view is of an old cemetery. The perfect end note.
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