Jane Stern - Roadfood: The Coast-to-Coast Guide to 800 of the Best Barbecue Joints, Lobster Shacks, Ice Cream Parlors, Highway Diners, and Much, Much More

Copyright 2011 by Jane Stern and Michael Stern

All rights reserved.

Published in the United States by Clarkson Potter/Publishers, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
www.crownpublishing.com
www.clarksonpotter.com

CLARKSON POTTER is a trademark and POTTER with colophon is a registered trademark of Random House, Inc.

This work was originally published in the United States by Random House, Inc., New York, in 1978. Subsequent revised editions were published in the United States by Random House, Inc., New York in 1980, Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, in 1986, Harper Perennial, a division of HarperCollins Publishers, New York, in 1992, and Broadway Books, a division of Random House, Inc., in 2002, 2005, and 2008.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Stern, Jane.
Roadfood: the coast-to-coast guide to 800 of the best barbecue joints, lobster shacks, ice cream parlors, highway diners, and much, much more/Jane Stern and Michael Stern.
p. cm.
1. RestaurantsUnited StatesGuidebooks. 2. United StatesGuidebooks.
3. Automobile travelUnited StatesGuidebooks. I. Stern, Michael, 1946
II. Title. III. Title: Road Food.
TX907.2.S84 2011
647.9573dc22 2010050608

eISBN: 978-0-307-59125-8

Maps designed by Jeffrey L. Ward
Cover design by Dan Rembert
Cover photography: (large sign) Car Culture/Collection Mix: Subjects/Getty Images; (roof) Brand X Pictures/Getty Images; (fried chicken) Radius Images/Corbis; (Kowalskis hot dog sign, Hamtramck, Michigan) DetroitDerek Photography

v3.1

To Steve Rushmore and to Stephen Rushmore, Roadfood pioneers

T o freewheel around this country and eat side by side with citizens of every stripe at caf counters, picnic tables, pig pickins, and chicken booyahs is heaven on earth. As much as we relish the taste of a superior donut or a green chile cheeseburger, what we savor most is the experience of finding the great dishes and meeting the people to whom they matter. There is no way to adequately thank the thousands of cooks, staff, fellow diners, and good-eats tipsters who continue to make our journey such an excellent adventure. Without the enthusiasm of Roadfood restaurateurs as well as of the loyal fans of those restaurants, we would be lost.

We are so grateful for the community of passionate eaters, debaters, raconteurs, photographers, and culinary pioneers who comprise Roadfood.com. Their generous road-trip reports and no-holds-barred participation in forum discussions are, for us, a daily inspiration. There would be no Roadfood.com had not Stephen Rushmore, Jr., conceived it eleven years ago. Our debt to Stephen is incalculable. We also thank Roadfood team members Bruce Bilmes and Sue Boyle, Chris Ayers and Amy Breisch, Tony Baldamenti, Marc Bruno, and, of course, Big Steve Rushmoreall of whom have helped turn a website into a family and cyberspace into an unfolding joy.

For many years, Gourmet magazine was our publishing home, and we still are inexpressibly indebted to Ruth Reichl, Gail Zweigenthal, Alice Gochman, James Rodewald, Bill Sertl, John Doc Willoughby, and Larry Karol for all the support they provided while we were there. When Gourmet died, we were welcomed with open arms by the good people at Saveur magazinein particular, James Osland, Dana Bowen, and Betsy Andrewswhere once again we feel we belong and have the opportunity to do what we love to do.

We are proud to say we have been part of NPRs The Splendid Table almost since its beginning. Our weekly chats with Lynne Rossetto Kasper, aided and abetted by Jen Russell and conducted so ably by Sally Swift, are high on our list of reasons life is good.

We owe a huge debt of gratitude to our literary agent, Doe Coover, for being such a staunch advocate and ally in good times and bad, and we particularly want to thank Charlie Conrad at Random House for keeping the lights on and the hearth warm.

W elcome to the biggest Roadfood yet. We have added two hundred new restaurants since the last edition and updated reviews of old favorites in the hope that this book leads you to many unforgettable meals and inspires you to find new ones. We urge you to share your own restaurant discoveries with us and with fellow eaters who are equally passionate about unique dining experiences and food with real character.

There are so many people today who travel around the country with an itinerary of pulled pork, po-boys, green chile cheeseburgers, and buttermilk pie that it is almost incomprehensible to think that some thirty years ago when we conceived the idea of Roadfood, publishers thought we were crazy. They said there could not be a guidebook to American food because America didnt have any interesting food to find. Back then, the belief among gourmets (the term foodie hadnt yet been coined) was that ours was a nation with such an impoverished palate that anyone interested in eating well needed to go to another continent. Fifty years ago when John Kennedy became president, no one was shocked that he hired a French chef to cook at the White House.

After the original edition of Roadfood was published, we still spent a lot of time convincing people that to eat their way across this land or simply to eat local could be a glorious dining adventure. Even food-savvy readers were unaccustomed to thinking of our countrys regional food as delicious and well worth seeking out; indeed, most people were not even aware that it existed. But over time, as hungry travelers have sought alternatives to junk food and ventured into small towns and city neighborhoods to find underappreciated gastronomic treasures, America has outgrown its culinary inferiority complex. Today, few people doubt what we have spent our career pointing outthat this country is an appetizing crazy quilt of amazing things to eat. Indeed, the subject we named Roadfood has enjoyed an incredible media vogue in the last several years. Just turn to cable TV and you cant miss one wacky host or another taking a thrill-seeking camera to all the sleeves-up eats we have been championing since we first wrote the book.