By any measure, South Carolina is more a barbecue state than a burger state, but eaters of Aiken County spend an inordinate amount of time debating where the best hamburgers are served. It was during one such discussion that Dierdre Stoker Vaillancourt directed me to Dave’s Grill & Grocery out in Couchton. Dave’s is an ethanol-free gas station convenience store that also happens to be a butcher shop and cafe. Thank you, Dierdre! While they are in no way aristocratic, Dave Golding’s blue-collar burgers — hand-pattied from freshly-ground beef — are short-order paradigms: rugged-textured, juicy enough, full-flavored, and reaching five-dollar resplendence when fully dressed with mustard, mayo, lettuce, onion, and tomato.

French fries to accompany these worthy wimpies also are extraordinary. Continue reading

By any measure, South Carolina is more a barbecue state than a burger state, but eaters of Aiken County spend an inordinate amount of time debating where the best hamburgers are served. It was during one such discussion that Dierdre Stoker Vaillancourt directed me to Dave’s Grill & Grocery out in Couchton. Dave’s is an ethanol-free gas station convenience store that also happens to be a butcher shop and cafe. Thank you, Dierdre! While they are in no way aristocratic, Dave Golding’s blue-collar burgers — hand-pattied from freshly-ground beef — are short-order paradigms: rugged-textured, juicy enough, full-flavored, and reaching five-dollar resplendence when fully dressed with mustard, mayo, lettuce, onion, and tomato.

French fries to accompany these worthy wimpies also are extraordinary. Hand-cut and fried to honeytone pulchritude in clean oil, they are ideal companions for burgers, sausage burgers (sausage made here, of course), chicken sandwiches, hot dogs, or chopped BBQ with tangy-sweet mustard sauce.

Beyond burgers and BBQ, Dave’s offers breakfast sandwiches and a lunchtime meat-and-3 selection that usually includes pork chops, along with collard greens, mac ‘n’ cheese, southern-style green beans, and intriguing hash on rice.

Much business is takeout, but a coterie of customers occupy bare tables that share floor space with shelves of packaged groceries, local produce, motor oil, Little Debbie snack cakes, and household goods. It’s been my experience that prandial conversations are as much about Dave’s good food as about politics, sports, and weather.