It's wonderful the diners have operated since the Jazz Age, but some out there are definitely showing that age factor, from the tired and slumping staff to the chipped coffee mugs and bruised eggs. Tradition is one thing, but flavor and a friendly face still matter, so we don't make return trips to "since 1937" diners who don't uphold their standards. (Disclaimer: My books may be old, so no disrespect intended to the authors.)
For a recent spin up through Arkansas to Tennessee, I took Guy Fieri's books, based on his TV show. This isn't shilling on my part here. His latest book More Diners, Drive-ins and Dives explains the lengths to which the research staff checks the background on diners - talking with local foodies, chefs and business contacts, looking at health department records, reading press coverage, vetting the freshness of the ingredients and reviewing the stories of the owners. Even after all the effort and due dilligence, if the food isn't good as Guy bites into it during taping, he just might walk out. It's happened.
"I’m not going to tell you on Triple D that something’s good if it’s not good. Why am I gonna lie to you? I don’t need to sell out for this. As soon as I start eating food that I can't support, the show suffers. I’m only going to give you the real deal," he told me. And why feel that way? Because he knows people like me are getting into cars all over this country and driving to places he's talked about. His credibility is on the line.
So if you motor to a place featured on the show, you have a reasonable expectation of tasty satisfaction. Just make sure before you leave home that you know where you're going. We had poor instructions (off the Internet) that caused us to miss not one but two potential barbecue stops in Memphis, Tom's Bar B Que and Marlowe's Ribs. We never could find the I-55 turnoff toward Jackson, Miss., as we traveled west on I-40, so this may be a signage issue. Memphis is often snarled up with traffic - then there's the "we're committed now" travel across the Mighty Mississip bridge that shoots you into Arkansas. No going back.
A longtime fave with some diner drivers that's off the highway in Nashville is Loveless Cafe, where the Grand Old Opry stars used to hang out after shows. Loveless is not in the Fieri books, but it is in Eat Your Way Across the USA. On this trip, I didn't have this book with me, or we wouldn't have wandered around in the dark at rush hour in NashVegas (as my son calls it), eventually giving up. Now that I'm home and I've looked it up again, I see that I wrote "Exit 199, Charlotte Pike" in my Eat copy. Apparently I've been lost before, and as I said, it is off the highway; you gotta know where to go. Eat called it a "country-western diamond in the rough," so it may never be up to the "freshness" standard of a Triple D stop, even with its "brittle-crusted fried chicken on red-checked tablecloths, and hot buttermilk biscuits served with homemade blackberry and peach preserves."
Apparently ham is the pride of the Loveless kitchen and yes, I do love a good slab of country ham. Wasn't to happen on this trip, though, ham it all!
I mention the Loveless because of a great quote I once got while stopping there (and not getting in, the crowd was so thick). At a nearby gas station, I asked the attendant, "Where do the locals eat?"
"They eat at home," he drawled.
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