The Ledbetter clan is going to be passing through several of the major cities in North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Mississippi (user name does not pan out here). Since I've never been to any of these states before, where do I need to eat for the best southern food, non-Texas style bbq, fried chicken, fried fish, etc. Also, where do we go for a good Cajun food buffet/restaurant in Baton Rouge?

If the best food is along the highways, where do we stop? I doubt I'll ever get back in that country again so I want to make the most of the food experience.

Thanks!

I wish they had Whataburger up here in Oregon. We do have some pretty good burger joints, though.

Where in NC?

Charlotte and passing through Asheville.

Rendezvous for ribs in Memphis.

Find you some random roadside gas station in the Delta in Mississippi advertising tamales and soul food where you see busted old vehicles and old black men and large black women and you'll be good.

If you find a roadside veggie stand selling boiled peanuts, get some of them too. And a Cheerwine to wash it down (it's not wine it's sorta like Big Red but way better).

If you happen to be in Athens, Georgia go to Clocked and get the "Elvis"- it's a peanut butter & bacon covered burger. Sounds so wrong but it so gloriously right. Also get the Cheerwine milkshake there. In Atlanta go to the Colonnade for fried chicken. Get the fried livers & gizzards for a starter.

Louisville, Nashville, Asheville, Memphis, Baton Rouge, Jacksonville, and points in between.

Mama Hamils in Jackson, MS

Forego Rendesvouz. Go to Germantown Commissary or Three Little Pigs.
Memphis honorable mention: SoulFish

For the Asheville leg of your trip, go to the Appalachian Craft Guild store if you have family with you. My wife can spend an hour (and $$$) in there. Great drive. Depending on how far east you get in NC, there's some good places:

Dave's Kickin Chicken, Wilkesboro
The Pedalin Pig, Boone
Sunny Rock, Blowing Rock
Blue Ridge Diner, Laxon (all you can eat breakfast on the weekends)

Are you driving down 61 through Mississippi from Memphis or coming back through from the east?

If going down 61, then the following:
Senator's Place, Cleveland
Doe's Eat Place, Greenville
Lusco's, Greenwood
Giardina's, Greenwood
Fratesi's, Leland
Pea-Soup, Indianola
The Crown, Indianola
Lost Pizza, Indianola
Rusty's, Vicksburg
Gumbo Pot, Vicksburg (kinda moot if going to Baton Rouge)

Stop in Rolling Fork and see the bears
Stop at the Onward Store, see the birthplace of the Teddy Bear

Given your handle, if you keep going south on 61, you'll pass close to Liberty, MS.

Places to stay:
Shack Up Inn, Clarksdale
The Alluvian, Greenwood

If you have a better idea of your route, I can help more with MS, AL, and TN. If coming into MS from the East, I can post more.

Bojangles steak biscuit with cheese and cajun chicken buscuit with cheese

Don't have a specific recommendation in Asheville but they should have a good BBQ shack with a pulled pork sandwich that's better than what you'd get here. With the Carolina mustard sauce that's a bit on the hot side, it won't be dry and will be much more flavorful. Plus, the bun and sides (for some reason) will probably be better as well.

For Tennessee, page ZooGuy. He lives there -- at least in the eastern part -- and should be able to give you better recommendations than most of us. We went to Central BBQ in Memphis. It was good but nothing outrageous. Certainly not worth a trip to Memphis for. If you're going there anyway, then yeah, give it a shot. Memphis BBQ, especially ribs, is good, but it isn't that much better than what I've had here.

Avoid Zaxbys. No idea why that's a thing there.

Don't get excited about the bbq, you will be disappointed anywhere you go. It's not bad, just different.

In Memphis, go to Silky O Sullivan's. Good food, cold beer and live music.

Just got back from Asheville. Little off the beaten path Forestry Camp has upscale food and is the restaurant side of Burial Beer. Lots of brew pubs if you are into that. For what it's worth there were almost no mask wearers but the restaurants were really strict about wearing one to and from your table however not while eating.

Use the map feature on TripAdvisor. Also the map on atlasobscura is always worth a check on road trips.

Cookout is a staple in NC. Best bang for your buck around. Good shakes, too.

DuckDown2013 said:

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Cookout is a staple in NC. Best bang for your buck around. Good shakes, too.

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Tray with two hotdogs cookout style, cheeseburger quesadillia, and fries. They've spread further west too!

Pamela's Bayou in a Bowl if you find yourself near Alexandria, LA

The food board on tigerdroppings has google maps for boudin, detla tamales, and one or two others. Check out the links at the bottom of the first post. Not sure how up to date this is with Covid likley shutting a few places down.

link

Asheville has changed a lot since I was there. (Stepdads parents used to live there) I'm told its been taken over by the IPA/Hipster crowd. Definitely check out the Biltmore and related restaurants etc.

While I cannot recommend a specific restaurant, do not pass up the opportunity to get yourself some Carolina style barbecue. I love the pulled pork with vinegar based barbecue sauce.

Thanks for the replies! It's going to be an interesting road trip with a lot to see.

combat wombat said:

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While I cannot recommend a specific restaurant, do not pass up the opportunity to get yourself some Carolina style barbecue. I love the pulled pork with vinegar based barbecue sauce.

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Edit - O.K., not that bad, but I would pass. I eventually just avoided BBQ in Carolinas altogether... Maybe go with some sweet ribs instead.

marcel ledbetter said:

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Louisville, Nashville, Asheville, Memphis, Baton Rouge, Jacksonville, and points in between.

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Carolina BBQ is a bit complicated. In the western part of NC where you'll be, the predominant style is pulled pork with a vinigar and tomato based sauce (and it's very good, my favorite).

Further east in the Carolinas near the coast, you start seeing very thin apple cider vinigar based sauces.

Then there's the mustard based Carolina Gold sauce mentioned earlier in the thread. That one you see primarily in central and eastern South Carolina. Western (Upstate) SC is more like western NC bbq. Not sure you'll see much mustard sauce in Asheville, NC, or how good it would be if you did find it.

Lafayette....Drago's for grilled oysters!!!

Hattie B's for hot chicken in nashville.

BOOJUM BREWING CO

This is a place that our family visited a couple of times a few years back--between Asheville and Maggie Valley.

NRD09 said:

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JSKolache said:

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Bojangles steak biscuit with cheese and cajun chicken buscuit with cheese

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Bojangles for breakfast every day.
Guarantee you won't fly through Charlotte again without running over to terminal B for a cajun chicken biscuit

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Somebody is a huge fan of salt.

OP-
Family make up and budget?

If just eating one dinner in Asheville it should be on the Sunset Terrance at Grove Park. Biscuit Head if you want Southern.

If the Biltmore is on your list be there 30 minutes before it opens to buy tickets and get to the house for first or second tour. 90 minutes later it will be packed for the rest of the day.

If you're a craft beer and baseball fan what the Asheville Tourists minor league team's home schedule is. Very fun.
https://www.milb.com/asheville/schedule/2021-06

We're passing through Asheville, but the Biltmore is something I'd like to tour if we have time. What are some good east coast craft beers? I'm in Oregon and we have breweries on every street corner.

In Asheville: Burial and Green Man are my favorite breweries in terms of the beer. Burial is generally considered the best. Sierra Nevada and New Belgium are my favorite breweries in terms of a cool/unique space, both being right on the river. There's a million breweries in downtown Asheville so plenty of options.