You know when places are famous for a particular dish, so you go there knowing you want to order it to know what’s so special? We were in Columbus, Georgia — and I already have a soft-spot for lunch counters, soda fountains — so we went to the Dinglewood Pharmacy there, which has been in business since 1918 and is the oldest eating establishment in town.
Well, the thing to get at there is the ‘scramble dog’ which is probably not meant to be finished. They actually cut the hot dog itself into little coin shapes, placed inside a bun (place in a little boat dish) and covered with onions, chili, pickles, etc…and oyster crackers. Av got a regular hotdog, the boys decided on grilled cheese sandwiches, and…I got the scrambled dog, not quite realizing what this would look like (soooo: turns out I didn’t like it and only had a couple of bites…but then again I’m not big on hotdogs in the first place, so don’t let this impression dissuade you if this kind of thing sounds good to you).
Let’s talk about other soda fountains, though:
Payne’s Soda Fountain in Scottsboro is the oldest in Alabama (the top two pics in this collage):
There’s also Brent’s in Fondren:
Toomer’s in Auburn:
Borroum’s in Corinth:
Gilchrist Drugs in Mountain Brook (my go-to for aspic):
Trowbridge’s in Florence:
Huggin’ Molly’s in Abbeville:
There are many others in the area but I’ll stop here. Does anyone know of a really good, comprehensive list of soda fountains (email me, please, if so)? I Googled, but found a bunch of incomplete sites.
…maybe we should start one? The research would be yummy, anyway…