Southern Eats Road Trip
For three years now we've been driving from New Jersey to North Carolina for our summer beach vacation. And while I don't mind long car trips, I'm always researching towns and points of interest along the way to make the trip more fun. In our travel experiences we've found driving I-95 to be more trouble than it's worth if you're looking to take the quickest route possible. Instead, we've been taking the slightly longer drive through Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia on route 113 and 13. This route takes you over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, which on a gorgeous summer day is quite an experience, and by far a more scenic and picturesque drive than dealing with the road construction and maintenance on I-95.
This year I plotted out a couple good eats along the way. We highly enjoyed eating at these places, all for various reasons as they certainly beat eating fast food (yuck!), and they help to make the road trip part of our vacation. Sorry vegetarians, besides the sweet spots that we visited, this collection of road trip eats might still leave you hungry.
Super busy when we stopped for lunch on a Saturday in the early afternoon. The menu has all kinds of classic southern style seafood eats. I had the soft shell crab sandwich and David had the fried flounder sandwich. Both were delicious!
Further on down the road is the cute coastal town of Cape Charles. The main street is lined with boutique stores and restaurants all facing the Chesapeake Bay. We explored the town for about an hour stretching our legs and checking out a couple shops. Apparently the Brown Dog Ice Cream is a big tourist attraction for the town, and it didn't disappoint. I got the mixed berry and David got the lemon poppyseed pound cake ice cream. Both were delicious and refreshing as it was just blazing outside! The menu changes all the time so who knows what creative flavors you'll find.
This barbecue joint was an unexpected and totally delicious stop on the way home. The eight smokers outside and the sweet smell of barbecue caught our attention as we were literally driving through the back roads of Maryland. This place is completely authentic! The real deal! We both had the brisket sandwich, and if I had anymore room I would have ordered the barbecued chicken. We'll have to go back!
We first discovered these amazing donuts in Richmond, VA, and lucky us, they've open yet another store in Norfolk, VA. You're probably thinking it's just another gourmet donut shop. But these donuts are heaven!!! They're light and fluffy with the most pure flavors. We made two trips to the Sugar Shack to get our fill. The chocolate cake donut was our favorite, but the raspberry cheesecake and the butter finger were close behind. Maybe one day they'll open a store near Manhattan...dangerous!
This barbecue restaurant seems to have cornered the market in Greenville, NC with three outposts. It's a bit more franchised than I typically like for artisanal eats, however I did find the barbecued chicken and brisket really quite delicious. The green beans were cooked southern style, aka using lots of lard, and were tasty and not at all healthy! And the mac and cheese was good as well although not my fav. All in all this was a good place to stop, but I tend to like the grittier BBQ joints.
Well that wraps up our road trip eats. Thank goodness for our daily bike rides while on vacation and that this southern food splurge isn't a regular thing. I'd definitely need to buy bigger pants!!
Where do you enjoy eating on the road? I'd love to hear.
xo
L
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