Category: dining

Having lunch at Nina Compton’s Compere Lapin is just too easy. They’re on OpenTable, it’s a very short walk from the Quarter (with easier parking), and if you’re staying at the Old No. 77, it’s even the room service. If you’ve watched Top Chef, you know that this is Nina Compton’s still-newish place that she wished to make after living and falling in love with New Orleans during the 2013 TC season.

Here, seated along the far wall with a view of the quite long bar:

First brought to the table are biscuits with columns of perfect cylindrical butter.
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That biscuit really deserves its own image. Tall and light and laminated so lots of buttery layers
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The ‘hot fire chicken with pickles’ for lunch
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perfectly crunchy crust on the chicken (though not especially spicy) with nice bite of quick-pickle alongside and atop
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Afterward, a complimentary scoop of mango sorbet. Perfect way to finish.
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Next time, if it’s still on the menu: trying the curried goat with sweet potato gnocchi and cashews

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The new season of Top Chef begins December 1 in Charleston with newcomers vs. returning chefs. Among the new: Jim Smith, who’s the ‘executive chef of the State of Alabama’
http://player.theplatform.com/p/PHSl-B/tLGNZ7qPWAH0/select/media/guid/2140479951/3126772

After 55 years, Peggy’s in Philadelphia, Mississippi announced October 28 was its last day of business. Just three blocks south of the Neshoba County courthouse, an old Geocities site they had from who-knows-when listed that $7 lunch included everything: salad, drink, dessert, and tax. That’s how much it was when we were there first in 2005; more recently it’s been $9 ($8.42 plus tax).

Once a home-turned-restaurant, Peggy’s had made quite a name for itself, appearing in food tour books and magazines; in 2013, it made Southern Living’s Best Restaurants in the South list:
…You entered the home (hallways covered in family photos), fixed your plate of comfort food (fried chicken, pork chops, creamed corn, butter beans) off the make-shift serving counter at the kitchen entryway, sat at one of the folding tables scattered throughout the house (at whatever seat was available), and left your money in the basket by the door (making your own change)…

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Truly, that was the charm. There were family photos everywhere. The food came from what looked like a residential kitchen. It was…it was food from home. Fried chicken, beans, potato salad. I don’t think they had an account with Sysco. Likely nothing came from Restaurant Depot or its ilk, including the china, which was pretty, but a little worn and chipped. And that was part of the charm too. When it was time to go, there was a simple straw basket, and you paid and made your own change. The honor system proved that they loved you enough to feed you and trust you to make it right in return.
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While there is the very occasional house-restaurant, more often it’s easier to find the family plate-lunch fundraiser, or curbside rib plate or fish fry. Am I remembering correctly that somewhere in Georgia there’s a funeral home that serves lunch? We definitely want to get to Masada Cafe at the United House of Prayer the next time we’re in Savannah.

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Mississippi Roads came to Philadelphia and the segment with Peggy’s begins at 3:18

Av and I finally got over to the Blue Willow Inn in Social Circle, Georgia. It was soooo very nice.

This was our dining room (below). When we arrived, we were asked if we had reservations (I for some reason didn’t even *think* about reservations) but we only had to wait about ten minutes to be seated. I think the idea is that entire rooms of the home get seated at about the same time (but I might be wrong about this) because when we were called, so were people for every other table in the same dining room. We all had the same waitress, who was wonderful and really was sort-of a fan herself for the place and what to have…sooo nice.

These are the Blue Willow dishes:

The serving room:

Here’s my plate – some dressing, sweet potatoes, collards, biscuit, and chicken livers. All of it was *delicious*! For dessert, I had peach cobbler (one of my favorites) and it was really terrific, too. Av had the fried chicken which he really enjoyed (plus dressing and potatoes), and for dessert had pecan pie, which he says was really, really good.

Before going to the Music City Bowl, we had breakfast at the Loveless Cafe, which is about 15 minutes outside of downtown Nashville. We got there about 8:30am and had no trouble getting a table. Everything was great – look at the tall biscuits they serve (below)!

The interior has signed photographs of country music performers…

Here’s the exterior. The cafe/motel looks like it’s getting built-up a little too much – there’s now some sort of a barbecue hut next to this building, and on the other side of the parking lot is where some shops have moved in (the motel isn’t functioning now and they’ve repurposed that space for retail). I think much of the charm originally came from the quaintess of the place…I hope they retain that rather than making it ultra-touristy. It’s one thing to realize that a lot of your business comes in from non-locals, but it’s another to try to become Cracker Barrel. Anybody can drive thirty miles for a Cracker Barrel.

Isn’t the sign great!?

We had a really nice time, and then drove over to see the Music City Bowl – next post!