I got mildly lost last month. Well, as lost as you can get with a Garmin and a phone loaded with Google Maps, Waze, and the rest. Turns out, we weren’t paying attention along the coast and took one exit too early. A half-mile off I-10 there was a shopping center that full of chain restaurants and shops that was so cookie-cutter, I couldn’t help but mention out loud that we could be anywhere in the country and have no idea where we really were because everything there was national and there were no independent businesses.
It makes sense that if you have a concept that works, you go off and keep that going as long and far as you can (see: Target) but those places have no soul.
That’s why we drive so far out of the way to go to places like Ezell’s Fish Camp in Lavaca, Alabama. Granted, Ezell’s has tried to make their own restaurant work in other locations but when you see the original, you realize how it can never truly be replicated. Because it’s that kind of perfect.
To get there, you drive on a little road through a cotton field, and…true to fish camp…they’re right on a river. The Tombigbee.
They have the best coleslaw in the world (better with a couple of Lance crackers crunched in). It takes just like my MawMaw’s.
Fried pickles to start, then frog legs:
and what else? Catfish:
Two big fans:
Two boys, three boars on the wall:
What kind of fish camp could it be without an autographed Senator’s picture? Hi Mary and Mary Abigail! Thought y’all would be tickled to see this pic!
Out on the porch, rocking chairs and this board where hunters post some brag pics:
