We stopped at two classic southern institutions to see what they were all about. One was Cracker Barrel as we’d seen their signs everywhere in the southeastern states and we stopped at a location somewhere in South Carolina. We weren’t terribly hungry, but thought that a biscuit and coffee would hit the spot. Our waitress was lovely, with her soft, Southern accent and going out of her way to fill our order. They don’t normally sell their baking powder biscuits separately , but she checked with the kitchen and came back with a bag of a half-dozen biscuits, two corn meal muffins (a bonus!), butter, cream cheese, apple butter, blackberry preserves and honey. They were delicious, but it was the quality of service that will always endear our Cracker Barrel experience to us.

Our other occurence was memorable, but in a completely different way. We stopped at a Waffle House location, another restaurant chain that appears all over the south, because Ron has a soft spot for waffles and I was determined to try some cheese grits. We stopped at a Waffle House located in Lafayette, Louisiana, and the comedy that we experienced far surpassed the quality of the food we were served. The whole scene was like something out of a Candid Camera episode (for those readers old enough to remember that show!) – I kept looking around for the camera! There were five women working that morning and we gathered that at least two of them were related – mother and daughter, actually. They couldn’t take orders, didn’t provide the utensils needed to eat our breakfasts, nothing offered or served with Ron’s coffee, no syrup brought for Ron’s waffles, no one checked to see if everything was okay, the women were arguing in front of the customers, one of them insisted they weren’t “uppity” like other Waffle House locations, the cook couldn’t get the orders straight, one woman insisted on slopping water on the floor by the grill and mopping despite safety objections from the cook and other workers, etc. Ron was teasing these women mercilessly and they had no idea that he was having fun with them. At one point, Ron asked our waitress if she was the slightest bit curious about whether or not he was enjoying his breakfast (since she hadn’t checked with him). Even with that prompting, she was completely oblivious and insisted that everyone likes the breakfasts at Waffle House. The whole experience was surreal! The grits, by the way, were underwhelming – basically cream of wheat-like cornmeal with lots of butter and, because I’d ordered cheese grits, my serving was topped with a slice of processed cheese. I couldn’t believe it. I’m sure there are better grits (and waffles) to be had, but we wouldn’t have missed this comedy show for the world!