The Brandon Britton Country And Convenience Store Delicacy Awards

      “Let’s get lunch and talk about dinner” is my favorite New Orleans expression, and food itself has become one of my favorite topics of discussion. In the past ten years this super picky eater has evolved into what is now known as a “foodie.” Foodie is a much less judgmental title than the previously described “food snob.” I’ve pretty much narrowed this journey down to three key ingredients. The first ingredient was the creation of an actual television channel devoted to watching people cook and eat amazing food. The next ingredient was traveling extensively and being exposed to restaurants with trained chefs and not just cooks. The final ingredient was my own venture into experimental cooking at home, which was triggered by the acquiring of a New Orleans recipe place mat purchased from a yard sale. The convergence of these three things resulted in me developing a passionate appreciation for intentionally sourced, well prepared, and truly delicious food.

The watershed moment for me came when I visited a New Orleans restaurant that I first saw profiled on The Food Network. The restaurant is called Cochon, and is Chef Donald Link’s tribute to his Cajun heritage and the food of his childhood. Having watched a feature on their wood oven cooked rabbit and dumplings, I had to sample this dish in person. My first visit to Cochon would forever change my view of food. It was also during this visit that I learned the restaurant and chef had been the recipient of something called The James Beard Award.

Ten years ago I hadn’t even heard of the James Beard Awards, and just a couple of weeks go I was one of only two people I know who stayed up late watching the entire James Beard Award Show live on Twitter. Wait, you mean you didn’t? If you are like I was, and have no idea who James Beard is, and why he gives away awards, let me boil it down this way: winning a James Beard Award for a restaurant or chef is the equivalent of winning an Academy Award for a filmmaker or actor. Winning one of these awards is a truly, career and business changing honor. Not only do I watch the James Beard Award, and subscribe to the newsletter, whenever we travel to a new town the first thing I do is look to see if they have any James Beard Award winning restaurants. I’ve yet to be disappointed a single time. If a town doesn’t have any winners, I will next move to restaurants that have been nominated. Again, I’ve yet to be disappointed. Chef’s are my rock stars. Donald Link, Anthony Bourdain, Nina Compton, Susan Spicer, Edouardo Jordan, Alon Shaya, Brian Whittington, Andrew Tice and Michael Hudman, the late Paul Prudhomme and Justin Wilson. These are the people whose t-shirts I’d wear and whose posters I’d put on my wall if they made such a thing. They don’t have albums for me to purchase, but they do have cookbooks which I collect.

All of that being said, don’t think for a moment that I can’t go back to my roots and slum it with good tasting, if ill prepared, and potentially harmful, comfort food. Which is precisely why I am establishing and announcing, for the first time, the winners of my own personally appointed food awards. The following locations and dishes make up the founding winners of The Brandon Britton Country And Convenience Store Delicacy Awards. I doubt these will be make someone’s career, but they just might make your day if you sample their delicacies. 

Let’s start with the Hall Of Fame inductees. With a few exceptions, these hall of famers belong to a special class of store known as country stores. At one time, every little community had their own community store, and though they largely followed a similar pattern, each of them was filled with their own unique offerings, but they Patrons entered through a screen door and made their way across the room on a creaking wood floor that would “give” a little with each step. Near the back would be a refrigerated deli case, usually topped with a scale and meat slicer. Food was wrapped in plain brown butcher paper and cold drinks were retrieved from one of two types of drink machines: the vertically stacked bottles which were removed via a thin glass door on the right of the machine or the box style drink cooler that sat on the floor, requiring you to lift a lid and navigate dangling drink bottles through a labyrinth like track that required great skill to remove the bottle without dropping it. At all times of the day there seemed to be a few old men sitting around telling lies and talking about the weather. Breaking long silences with questions like, “Did you put out a garden this year? How are you’re beans coming up? You’re tomatoes turning out? Is your okra making? What did your rain gage show this morning? How’d the Bobcats come out last night?” During a cold snap they would be huddled around a pot bellied wood stove in the middle of the room. If you didn’t dine from the deli you could snack from the shelves of foods like potted meat, Vienna sausages, Beanie Weenies, and Moon Pies. They had names like Uncle Marvin’s, Dunnavant’s Grocery, and Hilltop Grocery. These stores may not remain, but the memory of their food lives on and deserves to be memorialized.

Best BBQ Ham Sandwich: Quik Mart #2 - Minor Hill Highway. In the 1980’s my mother was the manager of this Quik Mart location, which installed an expanded deli and also an ice cream shop. In those days they sold a shaved bbq ham sandwich, topped with melted Swiss cheese, and served on a sesame seed sub style bun. I always ordered this sandwich heated, with extra bbq sauce. It has been at least a decade since I’ve seen this deli offering, and the original store where it was served was recently demolished and rebuilt, resulting in it becoming the first inductee into my hall of fame of foods.

Best Red Rind Hoop Cheese, Stick Bologna, and Crackers: Bodenham Grocery - Old Highway 64. Like the original Quik Mart #2, this old country store is no more. With the closing of Bodenham School and the demolition of the gymnasium, very little remains of the Bodenham community, beyond the memory of this humble, country gourmet meal. For those not familiar, with hoop cheese, it is an almost extinct cheese made from milk alone, and cut from a red rind molding hoop. Similarly, sticks of bologna wrapped in a red plastic mold could be cut and served along with the cheese on saltine crackers. Virtually all country stores served their own version of this delicacy, and admittedly, this one might be so high on my list because it was the meal I shared with my daddy on the day he accompanied me to buy my now wife an engagement ring.

Best Jo Jo Taters: Wade Eddie’s Handyway Market. Like Bodenham Grocery, this store no longer exists. Corner Market presently resides on the property, but originally Handyway was a two story building that looked like a barn. Their claim to fame was the perfectly seasoned, breaded, and fried jo jo tater. If you don’t know what a jo jo tater is, imagine quartering a potato lengthwise, coat it with a spicy seasoned batter and deep fry the until the potato is soft and the breading is crispy. If you were so inclined you could dip them in ketchup or honey mustard, but these wedges were so perfectly prepared that I enjoyed them au natural.

Best Ham Sandwich: Norwood’s (aka, The Store At City Dump Hill) - Highway 31A. If this store had an actual name I never knew it. We just called it the store at City Dump Hill. As with some of the previous winners, there is presently a store at this location but it isn’t the same. During my high school years I worked for the highway department and prided myself on sampling the ham sandwich at every country store in Giles County. The hands down winner was the store at City Dump Hill. The wood floors would creak underneath your chair as you sat in the middle of the room watching the owner shave a hunk of ham near tissue thin and then pile it onto white Bunny Bread, slather it with Miracle Whip and top it with a slice of cheddar cheese. It was a half pound of cloud like pillowy bliss.

Best Burger: Easy Stop Market - Highway 31. Every convenience store has their own take on the hamburger, from the abominable frozen patty, to the delightful hand pattied and pan fried offering. Every store has one, but only one store was hall of fame worthy. When I worked at Oakwood Homes in the industrial park about a mile away, Easy Stop Market was just a hop, skip, and a jump down the road for lunch break. Their burger was perfect for two reasons: it was huge and it was seasoned perfectly. I think they soaked this half pound hunk of meat in Dale’s before frying it in a pan, and topping it with a hunk of cheddar cheese and balancing it on a saucer sized bun.

Best Ambiance: Wilburn Grocery - Fall River. I’m fairly certain that ambiance is French for “it sure is pretty down there.” Situated within a hundred feet of the Fall River waterfalls and old grist mill, there is not a better located country store in all of Giles County, or Lawrence County either, since, technically it lies within the borders of our county to the West. I can’t remember what kind of food they served, but I remember the simple pleasure of buying a bottle Coke, pouring a pack of salted pea turns in the bottle, and sitting by the water drinking it. The store closed nearly twenty years ago so you can’t buy a Coke there anymore, but you can buy the store, the grist mill, the old farmhouse and about two hundred acres of land for a mere two million dollars.

There are plenty of contemporary convenience stores that continue the tradition of delicious foods and are worthy of praise. While they may lack the character and comfort of the old time country stores, they make up for it with comfort, selection and deliciousness. So here are the contemporary winners of the Brandon Britton Convenience Store Delicacy Awards.

Best Ham Sandwich: Flat Rock Cheese And More - Highway 11. Owned and operated by a Mennonite family, this is the place to stop if you want homemade candies and baked goods, knives, wooden toys, spices, hanging plants, or porch swings. It is truly a thrown back to the old fashioned general store, but the centerpiece of the store is the deli. The cooler displays nearly a dozen types of meats to choose from, and their menu board offers a choice of half a dozen types of cheeses and at least three different kinds of homemade breads. The best sandwich in town is the honey ham with extra sharp cheddar on sourdough bread, topped with Miracle Whip and washed down with a can Sun Drop.

Best Chicken Fingers, Buckeye Balls: Richland Trace Market. Our only multi award winning store is the consistently outstanding Richland Trace Market. With it’s full kitchen and near cafeteria like seating, this business is more restaurant than convenience store. Topping the list is their huge, juicy, perfectly fried chicken fingers, served with homemade Ranch, Honey Mustard, or BBQ sauce. Finish it off with a couple of the huge, homemade chocolate dipped peanut butter balls, and you have yourself a lovely lunch.

Best Smoked Sausage: Quik Mart #2. Quik Mart may not serve the legendary bbq ham sandwich any longer, but they do have an awesome smoked sausage dog which is worth every penny. It doesn’t cost much more than pennies, being one of the cheapest items on the menu. 

Best Pizza: Bottom Of The Hill Store - Minor Hill. The majority of the pizza sold at convenience stores is disturbing. This isn’t the case here. Huge, fresh, customizable pizzas at a fraction of the cost of Domino’s or Pizza Hut, make it worth the twelve mile drive south of Pulaski for this perfect pizza.

There you have it, the winners of the first Brandon Britton Convenience Store Delicacy Awards, and hall of fame inductees. If you don’t have lunch plans tomorrow I’d recommend you swing by which ever one is closest, or for the brave, why not try a convenience store food tour around the town. Grab a Sun Drop and enjoy a can of smoked oysters — on saltine crackers with some hot sauce — for me.