When you go to the Bon Ton Mini Mart, mention Jane and Michael Stern and Roadfood. They’ll pay attention. Also, they close on Saturdays after 3:00 p.m. and are not open on Sundays. I eat at the Bon Ton every day they’re open. Who knows? I might be there when you show up.

All of the meals I’ve had at Claudia Sanders have been very good; the one exception is one that I had when I ate from the buffet one Sunday morning. The fried chicken was suffused with country ham flavor. I don’t know why, but I learned to avoid the buffet and order off the menu.

The Beaumont Inn’s fried chicken is a great choice.

If you want to stray a bit from the confines of the Kentucky border, go to the Chicken Place in Ireland, Indiana, just four miles west of Jasper, Indiana on Indiana 56. I am partial to their fried chicken recipe, as well. I never can pass them up when I’m in that area.

If you’re going to visit the Bon Ton in Henderson, Kentucky, you might as well go across the river seven miles away to Evansville, Indiana to the Bar-B-Q Barn on Diamond Avenue, just two blocks west of U.S. 41. Don’t go there for the barbecue, go there for the smoked chicken. It is the only barbecue restaurant I’ve visited where the chicken is better than the barbecue. Get a half-chicken.