LATEST REVIEWS
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Little Diner
Canutillo, TexasLittle Diner of Canutillo, Texas, just outside El Paso, offers the best true Tex-Mex food: superb chili con carne, flautas, gorditas, and made-here tortillas.
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Blue Canoe Cafe
Ridge Spring, South CarolinaLocated in a grand old Main Street bank building, the Blue Canoe is a cheerful town cafe with good coffee an’ pastries and locally-sourced meats & veggies.
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Milwaukee Wiener House
Sioux City, IowaSioux City’s Milwaukee Wiener House serves classic Midwest Coney Island hot dogs nestled in soft buns and topped with house-made fine-grind chili.
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Rock’s Family Diner
Fort Kent, MaineRock’s has been Fort Kent’s three-meal-a-day town diner since 1945 — a northern Maine destination for burgers, fries and homemade whoopie pies.
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Cozy Dog
Southern View, IllinoisDipped in batter and deep-fried when ordered, the Cozy Dog has vivid crunch and succulence. It’s an Illinois Route 66 landmark.
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The Fort
Morrison, ColoradoColorado’s Fort, which really does look like a fort, offers such unusual southwestern fare as buffalo empanadas and buffalo stew in a cast iron kettle.
GUIDES
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Roadfood Adventures: Colorado Springs to Estes Park, Colorado
4 STOPS |
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1 min
Colorado is famous for its scenery, from the Garden of the Gods to the Rocky Mountains. Its beauties are as diverse as a rainbow. And its food, from great steaks and buffalo sausage to award-winning pies, makes Colorado the best friend of eager appetites. Some of Roadfood’s favorite stops are The Fort, where cutting-edge cookery is…
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The Best of Branson, Missouri
Branson, a city of countless entertainment theaters, not to mention zip lines, wax museums, and mini-golf courses, is a tourist Mecca. But that doesn’t mean it lacks good places to eat. In fact, some restaurants that cater to tourists do a fine job serving honest Ozark vittles, like the pork tenderloin at the always-crowded downtown Branson…
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Roadfood Adventures: Scottsdale to Bisbee, Arizona
7 STOPS |
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1 min
Scottsdale to Bisbee, Arizona
Roadfood Adventures are not just quests for great food wherever the road leads, but an invitation for travelers to connect that memorable…
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Best Eats in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee
Anybody visiting Dollywood, Pigeon Forge, and Great Smoky Mountains National Park will have no trouble finding a place to eat – there are hundreds. The trick is to find a good one. These “bests” are Roadfood’s choices to enjoy a unique eating experience that is delicious and memorable, served with genuine hospitality.
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Hidden Gems: Savannah
10 STOPS |
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1 min
The city of Savannah is a profoundly colorful swirl of Low Country flavors that taste of old-time Dixie, of the Low Country, of African-American soul, and of the modern South. This roster of Roadfood favorites is only a start to savoring a city that is an eater’s dream.
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North of Milwaukee
5 STOPS |
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1 min
Sheboygan to Fish Creek
The drive north from Milwaukee is a grand taste of Wisconsin. First stop: Sheboygan, renowned for its butchers’ brats (rhymes with hots, short for bratwurst), cooked over charcoal at the Charcoal Inn. In Manitowoc, Beerntsen’s Confectionery cooks candy in vintage copper…
DISHES
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Dixie Dog
Hot dog historians believe that the Dixie dog first was configured in Huntington, West Virginia, where it remains immensely popular, at Stewart’s root beer stand, which opened in 1932. The next year, proprietor Gertrude Mandt developed a chili sauce and started serving hot dogs. Exactly when slaw became part of the formula is lost in the…
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Poutine
One way to refer to yukky leftovers in colloquial Quebecoise is to call them poutine. At its worst, poutine can indeed be awful. But made right, it is transcendent. It must start with excellent French fries (twice fried), which are a staple at roadside snack bars throughout the province. Top the hot spuds with squeaky-fresh cheese…
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Carne Adovada
Carne adovada, marinated meat, is hugely popular in New Mexico, where it is pork chunks or chops sopped in a puree of red chile and baked slowly enough to become dramatically tender and, in serious chile-growing country, even more dramatically hot. Served in all levels of restaurant, it can be a substantial and quite elegant main…
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Gooey Butter Cake
A low-rise pastry unique to St. Louis, gooey butter cake has a tender crust around the edge and a middle that is custard-soft and overwhelmingly sweet. Originally it was simply yellow cake mixed with butter, cream cheese and powdered sugar. City bakers have taken the idea and run with it, creating such flavors as banana split,…
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Smith Island Cake
Not every state has an official dessert. Named for one of the two inhabited islands in the Chesapeake Bay, Maryland’s Smith Island Cake is a 10-layer tour de force of fluffy cake and creamy icing in all the colors of the flavor rainbow. It’s well worth trying to eat it on Smith Island, where the locals…
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White Clam Pizza
White clam pizza was first served in New Haven in the mid 20th century. It is a simple pie, made with neither tomatoes nor mozzarella cheese – just freshly-opened clams, minced garlic, a dusting of sharp Pecarino cheese and a sprinkle of herbs. The elegant medley is really more a flatbread than a pizza, its crust…
FEATURES
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Cle Elum Bakery
Cake donuts and maple bars are at their best in this long-standing town bakery, which also is known for its cookies and bread. Good coffee, too.
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Roadfood Adventures: Winter Park to Miami, Florida
From Orlando and Winter Park down the east coast of Florida to Miami is a journey of never-ending adventure. Here you encounter brilliant sunshine, exotic wildlife, and bright urban energy, as well as an array of spectacular seafood, Latin-spiced specialties, and farm-fresh fruit. Must-eats include rock shrimp, El Cubanos, porky chicharones, and spectacular grilled cheese sandwiches….
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Roadfood Adventures: Selma to Montgomery, Alabama
Sweet Home Alabama! … from Selma – Queen City of the Blackbelt – to Montgomery — the Heart of Dixie — is an inspiring journey through the Deep South. Selma is all about the birth of the 20th century Civil Rights movement as well as home to some of the best BBQ in the nation. Montgomery,…
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Roadfood Adventures: San Luis Obisbo to Ventura, California
Memorable food stops with meals that are California’s alone … sophisticated wineries and wine-tasting rooms: these are the pleasures of an oceanside drive through SLO CAL, named for its easy-going pace, part of California that retains Golden State allure. Much of it is still wide-open country, with a legacy of cattle ranches as well as restaurants…
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Two For the Road
By Jane and Michael Stern
Originally Published 2006 Gourmet Magazine
OUR FIRST DATE WAS OVER A WHITE-CLAM PIZZA at Pepe’ s Pizzeria on Wooster Street in New Haven, Connecticut, and it was instantly apparent as we gazed into each other’s eyes across the thin-crusted Neapolitan pie speckled with tiny, tender…
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Jane’s Diary: The Bar Sinister
Paris, London, Rome, Butte. Yes, Butte, Montana! This may seem a weird line-up of favorite cities, but it’s true. I have traveled the world a fair amount and have gone to places exotic enough that I worried about strange bugs biting me, but few have been as memorable as Butte.
I am not an authority on…