"On the Road" restaurants Archives

Rehoboth Beach, Delaware

October 13, 2014

We don’t do many vacations, so this fall break we decided to trek it up to Rehoboth Beach, Delaware for a few days…it was a good decision.

Philip and I are bona fide cheapskates, and one of the implications of this is that we rarely take vacations. This summer, we had good intentions of trying to find a trip to take, but because of the issues with our car and because I ended up working when I hadn’t planned to, it never panned out. The first couple of months of my new job have been pretty exhausting and I decided back in September that I needed to get away from home….away from feeling like I should spend my Fall break cleaning the house, catching up on blog stuff, and inevitably ending up thinking too much about work. We decided to trek it up to Rehoboth Beach, Delaware for a few days.

We chose Rehoboth Beach, Delaware because it’s near Milton, the home of Dogfish Head Brewing Company (more on that in a minute). A little hotel searching and we found a great deal right on the beach, by the Rehoboth Boardwalk. We decided to drive up through North Carolina, Virginia, and Maryland so that we could check out the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. We left on Saturday and drove to Durham, NC, where we didn’t have time to do much except visit what might have been the busiest mall I’ve ever been to, The Streets at Southpoint. We witnessed two wrecks ON THE EXIT RAMP going to the mall then someone ran the red light while we were in the intersection. Yikes! There were more people than I believe I’ve ever seen in one place. We searched for a restaurant to eat dinner and ended up eating popcorn (that we took with us) and snacks we bought from our hotel lobby (Reese’s cups and Cheetos for the win!) for dinner.

Day two….six and a half hour drive. We started off the day filling our tank across from Lizard Lick Towing, which sounded vaguely familiar, but I had to look it up on my phone to make sure it was actually something famous. My nephews were excited about the picture. Later, our GPS took us off our path, telling us to exit left when we actually needed to exit right…but we corrected quickly and then got to see the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, a nearly 18-mile series of bridges and tunnels over/through the bay connecting Southeastern VA to the Delmarva (get it? Delaware-Maryland-Virginia) peninsula. It was quite a sight to see.

We arrived in early evening at our hotel, the Admiral on Baltimore. The Admiral was nothing fancy, but it was clean, up to date, inexpensive, and right by the beach. We checked in and headed out to grab dinner. I won’t name the place where we ate that night…we were not terribly impressed (if you ever go to Rehoboth Beach, send me an email and I’ll tell you the name of this place so you can avoid it). The food was okay, the service was pretty meh, and the bathroom was disgusting-a unisex bathroom with an unflushed toilet and urine all over the seat and the floor. Nice. At least there were fried pickles….

Day three we started out at Safeway buying food for our room so that we wouldn’t have to dine out for every meal. After lunch we spent the rest of the day checking out all the shops in the Rehoboth Beach downtown area. Unfortunately, some of the shops and restaurants were closed for the season, but we still found enough to occupy several hours. I found several shops with cute clothes, with a bonus being that they were made in the USA (we try to buy made in the USA as much as possible) but nothing fit. Wah WAH. The clerks in the clothing stores (Hula Sue and another whose name I can’t remember!) were very friendly and one of them made a dinner recommendation for us.

Before dinner, though, we had to hit the local ice cream stand (well, one of them), aptly named The Ice Cream Store. They feature over 100 flavors and have been featured on Food Network and several other channels. They also claim to have invented bacon ice cream….so hats off to them! I decided on a cup of the Minty Python-chocolate ice cream with peppermint flavor, chocolate chips, and Junior Mints, topped off with a Peppermint Patty. Hey-O! I love my ice cream minty. Philip decided on the bacon de leche-dulce de leche ice cream with bacon pieces-in a waffle bowl. The ice cream was delicious, but the best part was eating it while we watched the waves crash onto the beach.

For dinner, we followed the sales lady’s recommendation and dined at Pig + Fish and found ourselves wishing that we’d eaten there the night before! They had great happy hour deals so Philip tried Evolution Brewing Company‘s Jacques O’Lantern pumpkin ale, which he really enjoyed. I ordered the fish & chips, served with slaw, lemon-caper tartar sauce, and, of course, a bottle of malt vinegar. Everything about the dish was great and I had to slow myself down so I wouldn’t eat every bite! Philip had the pan crispy chicken, two skin-on, sautéed chicken breast halves served with mashed potatoes, sherry pan jus, and crispy green beans, which was outstanding…perfectly cooked and delicious. The service was fast and friendly and the atmosphere was beautiful-nice, simply decorated, not too noisy. Great place!

Day four we headed to the outlets. Not much to see there, though we did come home with a few things (including a deeply discounted Kate Spade bag that I had to go back for. I canNOT pass up Kate Spade on the cheap!). My most exciting find was four 1 1/2 cup Anchor Hocking glass casserole dishes for making individual pot pies. This is what I do on vacation, people. After that, we took a two-mile walk down the boardwalk and the beach. I wish I’d taken pictures of the houses along the boardwalk. Some of them were truly amazing. We ended up at the Dogfish Head Brewpub for dinner. Dogfish Head Brewing Company is the reason that we went to Rehoboth in the first place, so it seemed fitting that we would eat at some point in the place where it all started. It was burger night so it was hard for us to pass up the great deals on the burgers; I had the Indulgence burger with American cheese, bacon, and an onion ring, while Philip built his own with blue cheese and bacon. We also had some spent-grain pretzel bites with Hop-Pickle dip and truffle mustard (loved the Hop-Pickle dip, made with spicy pickles made by Dogfish Head). The burgers were good too. I had a Nor’easter (essentially a hurricane, made with Dogfish Head wit spiced rhum-no, that isn’t a typo-pineapple juice, orange juice, and grenadine)-strong but quite good. I know my limits…I sipped it through dinner but never finished it. Philip tried the Raison d’être, which he declared excellent, and the Tweason’Ale (a gluten-free sorghum brew) which he did not care for.

Day five: Dogfish Head Brewing Company tour. We had a great tour guide, Jake, and since we came on the off-season there were only four other people on our tour. Jake showed us around the brewery, detailing the history of Dogfish Head Brewing Co.-starting with its humble beginnings in Sam Calagione’s apartment and eventually expanding to the 12th largest craft brewery in the US-and showing us the process through which all of their brews are created. We got to see the bottling operation, including cases and cases of DFH getting ready for shipment. We also saw a snake (!) while we were walking along. After the tour, guests 21 and over can choose 4 free 3-ounce samples. I don’t care for beer, so I had their beach beer, which is a non-alcoholic birch beer, similar to root beer…and delicious. Philip tried the Miles Davis Bitches Brew (American stout), Birra Etrusca (ancient ale), Kvasir (ancient ale), and Noble Rot (saison ale) (he’s now contemplating entering the world of home-brewing). After, we had lunch from Bunyan’s Lunchbox, a little cart outside the taproom serving Dogfish brats (Philip had the Italian), clam chowder with fresh clams, pork, and Dogfish Palo Santo Marron (which is what I had). Great lunch! We finished up with a shopping spree in the store then headed back for another boardwalk/beach walk.

On our final night in Rehoboth, we wanted to head out for a seafood dinner. We narrowed our options down to Henlopen City Oyster House and Salt Air, next door neighbors both recommended to me by Bob the Rehoboth Foodie, whom I emailed before our trip to ask for recommendations. We decided on Salt Air, and while I’m sure that Henlopen is a perfectly wonderful restaurant, we were glad that we did. Salt Air was a beautifully decorated upscale casual restaurant-they call themselves a “picnic on the beach”. Our server Ryan was fantastic. To start, he brought us a basket of parmesan flatbreads with a goat cheese/cream cheese blend for spreading-perfect! I couldn’t stop thinking about them! We decided to be brave and try the mussels-which neither of us have ever eaten. They were delicious, served in a cream sauce smoky with tasso ham. I quickly got the hang of using a discarded shell to dig out the mussels and scoop up some of the delicious briny broth. Philip decided on the caramelized day boat scallops, served with sweet potato puree, brown butter cauliflower, and shiitake mushrooms. He declared the perfectly browned scallops “like butter”. The portion was deceptively large and I thought I was going to need to roll him back to the hotel. I ordered the crab cakes, which came with bacon potato salad and coleslaw. Everything was perfect, the cole slaw lightly dressed with mayo-based dressing, the potato salad made with red potatoes, bacon, celery, thin slivers of red onion, and a light mayo dressing. The crab cakes were crispy and full of meat, hardly any filler. The tartar sauce on the side was a delicious complement. We followed up our dinner with a final walk on the beach…which we needed in order to walk off some of our dinner.

Thursday and Friday were filled with driving, rain, and a visit to a mall in Roanoke, Virginia to break up the monotony. Not much to tell. We returned home happy to be back to our own bed and our cat, who clearly missed us immensely and has hardly left our sides since we’ve been home. We highly recommend checking out Rehoboth Beach, Delaware!

We loved Rehoboth Beach, Delaware and we’ll definitely be planning a trip back one of these days!

Chattavore//Nashavore: Burger Up Cool Springs, October 12, 2012

October 14, 2012

Have you figured out yet that local food is a big deal to me? If you’ve been a regular reader for a while you know that (while I still visit the grocery store) I buy the majority of my food at the farmers market. I try to eat at local restaurants as much as possible (and don’t profile chain restaurants-other than “local chains”-on Chattavore. Period.). The best of both worlds? A local restaurant that serves food from farmers markets. More and more restaurants in Chattanooga are making an effort to do just that, but most of them tend toward a few items on the menu that are local and everything else is from who-knows-where.

Philip and I visited Nashville for a couple of days this week just to get away on my fall break. One of my friends, who is an animal lover/vegetarian/local food fanatic, met us for lunch on Friday. I asked her to recommend some good local places, so she threw out some suggestions. All of them sounded good….Calypso Café (Caribbean fare), Puffy Muffin (“dessert bakery and restaurant”), and Burger Up (self-explanatory). She mentioned that just about everything served at Burger Up is sourced locally and that they serve Krispy Kreme bread pudding. Sold! Philip loves Krispy Kreme and bread pudding, and you know we both love a good burger.

According to their website, Burger Up Cool Springs was born from the idea to start a follow-up restaurant to the Burger Up location at 12th and Paris in Nashville. The farm that sources the beef (Triple L Beef) for that restaurant is located in Franklin, so this restaurant is an homage of sorts to that farm. The farm that sources the beef for the Cool Springs restaurant (Bear Creek Farm) is also located in Williamson County. The menu features grass-fed beef, free-range chicken, Sweetwater Valley cheese, Benton’s Bacon (oh yeeeeaaaahhhhhh), etc. Even the chocolate used in their brownies and the ranch dressing served with their fried pickles are local. For a complete rundown of their vendors, check out this page: http://www.burgerupcoolsprings.com/vendors.html.

Philip took one look at the menu and pointed out what he knew I was going to order: the ramsey pimento cheese burger. Duh. House-made pimento cheese, pickles, red onion, Bibb lettuce. Perfection. On my friend’s suggestion, I ordered the truffle fries (unlimited house fries are included in the price of the burger, but you can sub any other side-truffle fries, sweet potato fries, vidalia onion rings, or steamed baby spinach-for $1.00 extra) which are drizzled with truffle oil, topped with parmesan, and served with honey dijon aioli. These are my dream fries, with or without the truffle oil…hand-cut, crispy but not overly so….obviously made in house. The aioli was amazing, a stepped-up version of the honey mustard I used to obsessively dip my fries in. The burger…wow. It had the amazing flavor of grass-fed beef (if you’ve never compared the two….you really can tell the difference), the pimento cheese (in which you could see the shreds of cheese) was just creamy enough and you could taste the pimentos just a little, the vegetables were fresh, and the bun was soft but not squishy. Me = happy camper.

Oh dear. My photo looks terrible! Sorry for the blur.

Similarly, Philip immediately knew what he was going to order: the woodstock. Benton’s bacon (again, oh yeeaahhhh), Sweetwater white cheddar, and Jack Daniels maple ketchup (see? Another local product!!). He decided to get the regular house fries so that we could compare the two. Like me, he thought the fries were perfect, and he liked their ketchup, which he doesn’t usually eat. They make it there and it has a different texture and flavor from storebought…and it contains Coke! Fun. He took one bite of the burger and his eyes rolled back. The bacon was awe-evoking…..not super-crisp, perfectly salty, and with the sweet flavor from the Jack Daniels maple ketchup…wow. Of course, the burger itself was wonderful too.

Colleen ordered the tomato-basil soup as a starter and our server brought us three spoons so that Philip and I could try it too. It was creamy and tasted like a non-alcoholic (ha!) and slightly spicy (just slightly!) version of my vodka sauce. Mmmmm. She ordered the Marathon burger, a quinoa and black bean burger served with lettuce, tomato, red onion, and cilantro-lime crème fraiche. Wow. I would love to go back and order this sometime. She eats there fairly regularly and always orders this. She said that she really likes it because (a) it tastes good; (b) they cook it perfectly so that it is a little crunchy; and (c) it isn’t non-meat trying to masquerade as meat (a la Boca burgers) which is my criteria for a good vegetarian burger as well. It looked amazing.

And, finally, we ordered the Krispy Kreme donut pudding with housemade raspberry sauce (they also serve milkshakes and a brownie). It came in a fairly large rectangle, definitely big enough for two (actually, I think it could have served three but Colleen didn’t eat any…she insisted that since we don’t have access to this restaurant on a regular basis we had to eat the whole thing). It was perfectly moist and not overly sweet (like you might fear that Krispy Kreme pudding would be) and the raspberry sauce was sweet and just slightly tart and nicely “raspberry-y”. It complemented the pudding just right. We ate the whole thing.

All I can say is…..a-MAH-zing. I’m in love with this restaurant. It’s probably a good thing I don’t live there or I’d be eating at Burger Up all the time. Good for them but probably not good for the state of my waistline. It’s definitely ranked right up there with Southern Burger in my burger rankings (and it’s a good thing they aren’t open all the time or I’d be in trouble here too!). I love the mission of serving as much local food as possible and Burger Up is definitely going above and beyond that call. I’ll be back.

Burger Up Cool Springs is located at 401B Cool Springs Boulevard, Franklin, TN 37067. You can call them at 615-503-9892. Check out their website: http://www.burgerupcoolsprings.com/. You can also like them on Facebook or follow them on Twitter. The website for the original location at 12th and Paris is http://burger-up.com/.

Chattavore “On the Road”-Smoky Mountain Brewery, Gatlinburg-June 4, 2012

June 8, 2012

Pretty sure I’ve mentioned before my love for Groupon and LivingSocial. This time, they provided us with a stellar deal at the Glenstone Lodge in Gatlinburg-a half-price room! Now, say what you want about Gatlinburg…I know it’s incredibly cheesy (we’ll call it “kitschy”) but (a) it’s close to home; (b) it’s familiar so there’s no trying to figure out where everything is, what there is to do, etc.; (c) we park our car at the hotel and walk everywhere except when we drive into Sevierville to go to the (d) Tanger outlet mall. Plus, we love all of the Copper Cellar restaurants up there, so it gives us the opportunity to eat there. Last time we went, I blogged about Calhoun’s, so this time we were actually planning to eat lunch at Cherokee Grill and do a blog post about it…until we got there and discovered that they don’t open until 4 p.m. Smoky Mountain Brewery it is!

Since it was a Monday and a little later in the afternoon (2ish) there was no crowd and we were seated immediately. Our server, whose name I didn’t catch (I hate it when I do that) was extremely friendly and quickly took our drink order. We perused the menu for a few minutes before I settled on the Philly Cheesesteak with fries. The bread for their sandwiches is baked daily, on the premises I assume since they have a wood-burning stove in which they cook pizza (I haven’t tried their pizzas but they look amazing). The cheesesteak was huge with thinly sliced strips of steak, sautéed onions, green peppers, and cheese sauce. The freshly baked sandwich roll was soft but at the same time crispy around the edges from having been placed on the grill. The juice from the meat soaked into the bread perfectly to create a little bit of sogginess, but not in a bad way….in certain sandwiches, this is actually a positive in my opinion, and this was definitely one of those cases. While the fries were decent, there was no real standout feature of them that made me jump up and down.

Philip decided on the Ole Smoky Burger, basically a bacon cheeseburger with barbecue sauce…only he had them take off the sauce. This actually cost less than if he had ordered the regular cheeseburger and had them add bacon. Of course, the burger came with lettuce, tomato, pickle, and onion, with mayo and mustard on request (they brought the bottles to the table). Again, the fries were fine but nothing to write home about, but the burger was great. The meat tasted very fresh and the grilled flavor was perfect. The burger has cheddar cheese on it, which is my personal favorite for burgers. This cheese was really sharp and paired nicely with the salty, smoky bacon…which, of course, makes everything better. The bread was fresh and soft. Highly recommend this one!

One of the true selling points of Smoky Mountain Brewery (and really all of the Copper Cellar restaurants by association) is, well…the brewery. They serve seven micro brewed beers year-round with a rotating selection of seasonal beers. I will be honest, I am not clear on whether or not there is actually a microbrewery in this location….the website expressly states that there are microbrewery operations inside the Turkey Creek (Knoxville) and Pigeon Forge locations. You can order the beers in a pint or 2-pint glass or try 5-ounce samples, and you can also purchase growlers and kegs. Their beers run the gamut from American-style lagers to porters to wheat beers, pale ales, and bocks. Just as I am a huge believer in small-batch bread, cheese, etc., I am a huge believer in micro brewed beers. Quality comes in small batches.

So…if you are ever in the Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge, Knoxville, or Maryville area and are looking for a great but quick sandwich or pizza (or even a larger meal, as they do serve steaks, chicken, etc.) or are looking for a great glass of micro brewed beer, I would say that Smoky Mountain Brewery is your place. The Gatlinburg store is located at 1004 Parkway, Gatlinburg, TN 37738. You can call them at 865-436-4200. Check out their website at http://www.coppercellar.com/Restaurant-SmokyMountainBrewery.html. You can also like them on Facebook and follow them on Twitter.

Chattavore on the Road: Calhoun’s Gatlinburg, 10/8/11

October 11, 2011

One of my very favorite restaurants anywhere is Calhoun’s, owned by Copper Cellar Restaurants, a small chain with a variety of restaurants based in Knoxville. While Calhoun’s has locations in Knoxville, Nashville, Lenoir City, and Pigeon Forge, Philip and I love to visit the Gatlinburg location, which gives us the perfect excuse to spend a weekend in a kitschy town fighting crowds and people-watching. We’ve been going here for ten years (the first time we visited was on the last stop of our mega-road-trip honeymoon) and we aren’t about to stop anytime soon.

One tip to know when you are visiting Calhoun’s Gatlinburg is that you should arrive early. We usually eat breakfast, skip lunch, and eat a super-early dinner in order to avoid a wait, then we eat a snack later in the evening. We arrived at Calhoun’s at around 3 p.m. and got seated immediately. Our server, Ronni, quickly took our drink order while we perused the menu.

I have had several different menu items at Calhoun’s, including their chicken fingers (fantastic), Southern Salad (yum), and burger (perfection). They are known for their barbecue, and a bottle of their “famous sauce” sits on every table. The sauce tastes great, but something in it always gives me a terrible stomachache, so I can’t eat it any more (I used to order the Steak Calhoun, which is basted in the BBQ sauce, and it was always bad news). I’ve never, ever had a meal here that I didn’t enjoy, but if you ask me (and Philip) nothing beats the steaks. I always order the Ale steak, a 10 oz. sirloin, marinated in olive oil, mustard, garlic and Calhoun’s Cherokee Red Ale, topped with Worcestershire butter (Copper Cellar also owns a microbrewery and Calhoun’s sells a variety of microbrewed beers).

Philip used to order the filet, but after tasting my Ale steak a while back, he has taken to ordering it as well (it’s a few dollars less than the filet, which is always a plus). Steaks come with mashed potatoes (although we always pay a little extra to get a loaded baked potato) and another side, and we also order a salad for $3 extra. I always get the house salad with Ranch dressing, and Philip orders the Caesar. As his extra side, Philip ordered “Tennessee Corn Puddin'”, and I ordered Spinach Maria, which is really just a slightly spicy parmesan creamed spinach.

Once you order at Calhoun’s, a basket of delicious bread makes its way out to you. Usually, there are two French rolls, two White Lily biscuits, and a cornbread muffin. Sadly, on this day, there was only one biscuit….but we probably didn’t need any more than that. They’ll gladly replenish your bread basket if you ask, but again, we were trying not to totally overdo it.

Cornbread muffin, French rolls, White Lily biscuit, and REAL butter

I love Calhoun’s house salad, which is composed of mixed greens, diced tomatoes, chopped bacon, croutons, and shredded cheddar and Jack cheeses. They used to put diced egg on it as well, which was very tasty. I am a “fork dipper,” meaning that I dip my fork into my dressing before spearing my salad. I feel like this allows me to really taste all the components of the salad while getting just enough dressing. Delicious.

House Salad, ranch dressing on the side

Philip is a huge fan of Caesar salads, but he often has to ask for more dressing at Calhoun’s. Not on this day. The leaves were quite sufficiently coated with their Caesar dressing, very garlicky with plenty of red wine vinegar for tanginess.

Caesar Salad

We’re definitely medium-rare steak people. As far as we are concerned, there is no other way to eat steak. If you’ll take a look at the bottom picture, you’ll see that they definitely do medium-rare right. By the time the steak arrives, the butter is completely melted, and the marinade provides the perfect seasoning for this delicious piece of meat. The baked potato is, well, a loaded potato. As far as I’m concerned, a steak without a baked potato isn’t a steak at all. I love the Spinach Maria, which is creamy and cheesy with just a little bit of spice, I’m assuming from red pepper flakes. Philip wasn’t a huge fan of the corn pudding…it was just okay. He has ordered their broccoli before and really enjoyed it.

Ale Steak with Loaded Baked Potato and Spinach Maria

Ale Steak with Loaded Baked Potato and "Corn Puddin' "

Medium-rare is the only way to eat steak!

We didn’t order dessert on this occasion…okay, we never order dessert with dinner…but we have gone here specifically for dessert and really liked it. We were stuffed to the gills, though, and holding out to try a deep-fried Snickers bar on the strip later that evening. We paid Ronni (who was very friendly and attentive) and set out to burn some calories.

We have inquired about the possibility of Calhoun’s coming to Chattanooga on several occasions and have been told that it’s never out of the realm of possibility and that the owner’s main rule is that he will not open a restaurant outside of Tennessee. Help us start a crusade to open Calhoun’s in Chattanooga! Of course, if one ever did open here, it would probably be so crowded all the time we would never go there and we’d still only eat at the one in Gatlinburg during our once-or-twice-a-year weekend getaways. Whatever happens, I’m betting Calhoun’s will remain our favorite place to eat steak!

Calhoun’s Gatlinburg is located at 1004 Parkway, Gatlinburg, TN, 37738. Their hours are seasonal; find them here. The telephone number for Calhoun’s Gatlinburg is 865-436-4100. You can view the full menu and details about the restaurant (and the rest of the Copper Cellar family) at their website. You can also find them on Facebook and Twitter.