Chicago to Orlando and Back with Diversions

We just returned from three weeks of house and dog sitting for my sister in law.
While there, mostly we cooked as if we were at home (with some frustration at how the kitchen was equipped, but I do have some info on the Orlando-area places we visited as well as some other interesting places on side trips and the driving there and back.

First Day Driving
We stopped briefly at Smoking Goose Meatery in Indianapolis. Having ordered from them a couple times we'd enjoyed their goods, and it sounded like a nice lunch stop. We picked up some cheese and sausage for on-the-road lunches, and split a muffaletta. The latter was very good, although non-traditionally used hot giardinera instead of a mild olive salad.

Smoking Goose Meatery
407 Dorman St, Indianapolis, IN 46202
https://www.smokinggoose.com/
+13176386328

After an irreparable flat tire (that we'd just replaced two weeks prior), we didn't get as far south as we'd thought, and stopped for the night in Bowling Green, KY. Google recommendations brought up Gerard's 1907 Tavern - downtown bar, decent atmosphere (the staff's Spotify setlist matches my tastes quite nicely). The Parmesan Eggplant Fries were good, not great -- too big pieces of eggplant, not cooked through enough, but very tasty. I had a hot chicken sandwich, SueF had the Cuban. A decent place, reasonable prices, good service.




Gerard's 1907 Tavern
935 College St, Bowling Green, KY 42101
https://www.gerards1907tavern.com/menu/
+12709048133

Second Day Driving
Continuing south nearing Chattanooga we saw signs for the Lodge Factory Store in South Pittsburg. We didn't take the tour, but picked up a few accessories (none of it cast iron, but trivets, silicone handle covers, and the like). In the building with the tour and the store is Big Bad Breakfast, which I have the cookbook from, so that was a good choice for lunch (yes, even though we'd just bought stuff for lunches the day before). I had the Mother of All Biscuits (chicken, cheddar, comeback sauce), SueF had an SEC (sausage, egg and cheese). Biscuits are quite good, their house hot sauce is nice and thick green chile. Service was a little surly though, probably because they were just about closing (they only do breakfast and lunch).

Big Bad Breakfast
220 Third Street, South Pittsburg, TN 37380
tel:423-228-5220
https://bigbadbreakfast.com/locations/s ... tsburg-tn/

The motel that evening, when prompted for a non-chain restaurant, recommended the 16 East Bar and Grill in Cordele GA. It was OK. Their website doesn't seem to work, I had a chicken dish of some sort, you could pick 2 of a wide array of sides. Service was very good, I remember, but this isn't a place I'd go out of my way for.

16 East Bar and Grill
1309 16th Ave E, Cordele, GA 31015
+12292739611

Third Day Driving
We only stopped to picnic, I'll talk about where we ate that night in the next post.

Orlando Dining
In general, the more casual the spot, I think the more we enjoyed it. We did a couple higher-end meals and it never quite seemed that special. A major frustration was that not a single restaurant we visited appeared to have fish from Florida: Atlantic Cod, Chilean Salmon, Peruvian Mahi-Mahi seemed to be the norm. Not entirely surprising for the city that brought us Red Lobster, but annoying just the same. I did get some good fish on the way home (but that's another episode).

Our first and last nights, both hand-off days for other housesitters, was at Yellow Dog Eats in Windermere, FL, the closest restaurant to my sister-in-law's. Pulled pork, smoked beef, other sandwiches, lots of beers, decent prices, fun place. It's counter service with beepers, a big open patio or a small upstairs with A/C.

Yellow Dog Eats
1236 Hempel Ave, Windermere, FL 34786
https://yellowdogeats.com/lunch-dinner-menu/
(407) 296-0609

For SueF's birthday, we went to The Ravenous Pig in Winter Park, an Eater recommendation. Enjoyable, but perhaps a little too much truffle (it sort of overpowered on the way in). They brew their own beer and cider, a lot of small plates. I have a couple pictures, but darned if I can remember what they are, and the current menu doesn't match my memory. Service excellent, but nothing memorable enough for me to want to go back.





The Ravenous Pig
565 W Fairbanks Ave, Winter Park, FL 32789
+14076282333
https://www.theravenouspig.com/

The desserts at Ravenous Pig didn't thrill us, so we stopped for soft serve at Twistee Treat -- many flavors of soft serve, malts, floats, sundaes, etc. We hit another of these on the way back from Canaveral beach later in the trip.



Twistee Treat
1500 Maguire Rd, Ocoee, FL 34761
http://www.twisteetreatocoeelbv.com/
+14078776888

Several Days Later
We went to Universal Islands of Adventure - word of advice, make reservations far in advance if you want to eat at one of the nicer places such as Mythos -- we couldn't get in day-of. Ended up with a pretty crappy burger at Burger Digs (but they do have a very nice condiment bar: unlimited pickles!)

Leaving early evening, we wanted a quick, light meal. I looked on Google for things on the way back 'home' and found Tomatoes, a highly-rated middle-eastern (and Halal) place. We shared some very good hummos, falafel wrap, and a greek salad. Their hot sauce is similar to Pita Inn's. Definitely the best bang for the buck we had while down there. It's a small chain, and halal, I hope they're all this good.

TOMATOES HOME STYLE COOKING Orlando حلال
4848 S Apopka Vineland Rd Suite 208, Orlando, FL 32819
tomatoesrestaurants.com
(407) 845-0064

That Weekend
Winter Garden has an excellent farmer's market on Saturdays (although a lot of the produce is commercially labeled, the prices are good). We were there a couple times, picked up fresh mozz, fresh pasta, great strawberries, bread... Windermere has one on Fridays with many of the same vendors, plus one with a boat full of coolers of fresh seafood -- I got some great mahi-mahi-based fish dip for breakfasts one Friday, and huge red gulf shrimp another.

We took a trip to the coast for the beach, didn't get to spend a lot of time because hey, we're there to dog-sit. So as I reported above, we had another Twistee Treat on the way back.

We also met up with friends of my sister-in-law (who we'd met on the river cruise last summer) at La Boucherie. Steaks were fine (again, none of the seafood was local), but it isn't the sort of place I'd ordinarily go to.

La Boucherie
7625 Turkey Lake Rd., Orlando, FL 32819
https://www.laboucherieusa.com/
(407) 930-1708

Some other day

Our next restaurant outing was Dragonfly Robata Grill and Sushi - it had good reviews, and the food was excellent (still no local fish). It's designed like Japanese tapas, small plates for sharing. We had a little sushi (I hope the conch nigiri were at least local). The robata street corn was an interesting variation on elotes (I was expecting off the cob, but it was several small chunks of on-the-cob). Maitake Mushroom Fritters were of course good, there's no reason to put truffle oil on that good a fungus though. Grilled Shrimp and Skirt Steak were delicious but I thought the portions a little small for the price. I know I had a good cocktail there, but I don't recall what it was.

Dragonfly Robata Grill and Sushi
7972 Via Dellagio Way, Orlando, FL 32819
http://www.dragonflyrestaurants.com/orlando-florida/
+14073703359

A Wednesday we didn't feel like cooking
I'm not sure why, but Agave Azul was highly recommended for Mexican in Orlando. Sorry, but meh. Service terrific but food was really, really, unremarkable. Any hole in the wall taquiera in Chicago could mop the floor with them.

Agave Azul Windermere
5855 Winter Garden Vineland Rd Suite 100, Windermere, FL 34786
https://www.agaveazulcocinamex.com/menu
(407) 395-8350

But right next to it was a great ice cream shop: Bruster's Real Ice Cream. I had a cone with key lime (nice chunks of graham cracker crust), SueF had Chocolate Chip Cookie dough. Perfect temperature for eating, great stuff.

Bruster's Real Ice Cream
5855 Winter Garden Vineland Rd Ste 110, Windermere, FL 34786
https://brustersonline.com/Menu/382
+14073479578

Next Up: The road home, where we finally get some fresh seafood

Before the drive home, a couple more diversions
If there's something we do more of than food-related things, it's probably books. We visited a couple used book stores while on this trip, one of the nicer ones is Book Rack in downtown Ocoee, sort of between the Winter Garden Farmer's Market and the house we were sitting. Directly across the street is Bike Life Cafe, and I needed to pick up something (long story)... and it's the only bike shop I've ever been in with a cafe. I asked the bike side of the shop how that happens, and he said he started by serving coffee, and his wife started baking things. There were pastries quiches, and empanadas -- we had one of the latter which was quite good.

Book Rack
125 W McKey St, Ocoee, FL 34761
https://www.facebook.com/ocoeebookrack
(407) 905-0279

Bike Life Cafe
112 W McKey St, Ocoee, FL, United States, Florida
(321) 222-0110
https://www.facebook.com/www.usabikelife/ (note the web link on the facebook page appears to be a cybersquatter)

On another Saturday we took a side trip to Ocala to kayak the Silver River, saw gators, manatees and lots of birds (no monkeys, sadly). Afterward we had a late lunch at Mojo's Food Music and Soul, a kitchy rock-n-roll themed place. Food was very good (but the mahi-mahi tacos weren't local fish, alas). The birria tacos were kinda-sorta quesabirria, but using flour tortillas. Generous portion, tasty consomme. SueF had a southern chicken sandwich -- also good. I'd definitely recommend for anyone in the Ocala area.

Mojo's Food Music and Soul
4620 E Silver Springs Blvd, Ocala, FL 34470
https://www.ilovemojos.com/
+13522916656

Nicsshh post, buddy.

When I'm in Florida and I want local seafood, I've found that it's the gulf side--specifically Apollo Beach down to Sarasota--that has what I like, which is grouper in almost any preparation, and occasionally mullet. And down in the Everglades I could live off catfish, frog legs & stone crab, but that's another story.

What's funny, Joel, is that I have found that the east coast of the state--excluding Miami proper--Pompano Beach up to Orlando (I know, not coastal) maybe I didn't look hard enough, but like you say it's all 'other' fish. Crazy.

Heading Home on Sunday
Our goals for heading home:
* Hit the beach one more time
* Get some Florida seafood
* Visit a couple state capitols
* Pick up a ham at Benton's in Tennessee
We didn't get everything we wanted done: some of the driving was stressful (both standstill and overly twisty -- look up US-129 for fun, we didn't realize what we were getting into), but we ate pretty darn well.

After hitting the beach on Astoria Island near St. Augustine we spent a couple hours wandering the old town -- wow, what a tourist trap. Yeah, some nice historic stuff, but so many tchotchke shops. But some really good ice cream at Mayday. If I remember correctly we had Session Chocolate and Bourbon Pecan. Oddly, they charge extra for cones (versus cups). They make their own waffle cones (very crisp), maraschino cherries and sprinkles. They've got 9 locations across north Florida, worth a stop.

Mayday Ice Cream
100 St. George St. / Suite J, St. Augustine, FL 32084
https://www.maydayicecream.com/
(904) 217-0517

Sue had some some research for fresh fish in the Jacksonville area, and we were not disappointed. The Seafood Kitchen is a simple shack (but air conditioned), with a pretty extensive menu. We started with Crab Bites, tender, deep-fried small crab cakes, excellent flavor. I ordered one of their combos which was a lot to eat -- and it wasn't even close to their biggest combos. Pretty much any two items on their menu can be chosen, plus sides. I had fried oysters and broiled grouper (served with drawn butter), sides of cole slaw and upgraded to fried okra which was a ridiculously huge serving. Sue ordered local "Mayport" shrimp, broiled, with salad and fries. Everything was great, I wish we'd found more places like this. Seafood isn't cheap, but the prices were reasonable and the portions huge.

Seafood Kitchen
31 Royal Palms Dr, Atlantic Beach, FL 32233
(904) 241-8470
https://www.seafoodkitchenab.com/

Monday - Savannah GA to Columbia SC
Savannah is beautiful, but we didn't eat much there. A quick stop into Chocolat by Adam Turoni - a gorgeous little shop, with the truffles and other chocolates placed on glass-fronted bookshelves -- we got one each (a date-filled one and uh I forget). And then a snack before we hit the road again at Savannah Taphouse - we ordered partly to use the restrooms, public loos don't seem to be common in Savannah. Pretzel bites with cheese dip were much better than expected: a big soft pretzel was sliced into nuggets and toasted in butter and garlic. We're going to have to use that trick, it's much better than little pretzel balls.

Savannah Taphouse
125 E Broughton St, Savannah, GA 31401
https://savannahtaphouse.com/savannah-s ... -food-menu
+19122018277

Chocolate by Adam Toroni
323 W Broughton St, Savannah, GA 31401
http://www.chocolatat.com/
+19123352914

After visiting the South Carolina State House (beautiful antebellum interiors, very different from most capitol buildings), we found a motel on the outskirts of town, and a Mediterranean place called Kairos nearby -- sort of a Roti/Naf Naf-ish place, where you pick proteins, condiments, etc., but more choices including lamb (which Sue had) and meatballs (which I had). Lots of sauce choices, better quality than I've had at chains here.

Kairos Mediterranean
125 Columbiana Cir suite a, Columbia, SC 29212
http://www.eatkairos.com/
+18036679131

Tuesday: Colombia SC to Asheville NC
We'd thought about going to the Biltmore estate, but good grief, $79/pp to tour a house is absurd. So we ended up hiking to a waterfall on the way, and then wandered around Asheville for a few hours instead -- always a fun city. Food related included Noble Cider - picked up a 4-pack of their driest; and French Broad Chocolate where we had a couple chocolate nibbles before dinner -- really good stuff there, if we'd had room after dinner we'd have gone back for, you guessed it, ice cream.

Noble Cider and Mead Downtown
49 Rankin Ave, Asheville, NC 28801
https://www.noblecider.com/
+18284125064

French Broad Chocolate Lounge
10 S Pack Square, Asheville, NC 28801
+18282524181

Dinner was at another Eater suggestion, Rhubarb - the second-best meal of the trip. Small plates, again, with a Ottolenghi-like deftness for flavor combinations, especially with vegetables.

Charcuterie Plate - Clockwise from top left: very crisp and light lavash, pickled bamboo, some sort of herby sauce, a very hot mustard, duck prosciutto, ham hock terrine, honey, spiced pecans, rabbit rilletes, soft cow cheese called Bear Wallow (there was a hard cheese too, Walden, where's it hiding?). The best was the rillettes, with a little mustard.


Butternut squash and miso soup with apples - really amazing; crispy brussels sprouts with housemade worcester sauce glaze; hoe cake with Alabama white sauce and kimchi -- this was also superb.


Not pictured: awesome pimento cheese hush puppies, wine, and a really good cocktail not on their menu page made with gin, egg white, and I don't remember what else.

Rhubarb
7 SW Pack Sq, Asheville, NC 28801
http://www.rhubarbasheville.com/
+18287851503

Wednesday: Asheville to Pigeon Forge
One of our objectives for the trip home was Benton's Country Hams and we took a white knuckle scenic route to get there (google "129 tail of the dragon"), visited The Road to Nowhere, and finally made it. We'd been there once before, and wow does that place smell good: pork and smoke at its best. We got half a country ham, several pounds of bacon, and a small package of 20-month cured smoked ham slices, looking very much like Spanish jamon (we haven't dug into that yet).





Benton's Smoky Mountain Country Hams
2603 US-411, Madisonville, TN 37354
http://bentonscountryhams2.com/
+14234425003

From there, we booked a room in Pigeon Forge, which makes the Wisconsin Dells or Niagara Falls (US side) look like a shinto shrine: tchochke shops, chain restaurants, mini golf, dinner theater (choose from the bible, pirates, or civil war battles). We dined at the Old Mill Pottery House Cafe, across the river in a slightly more sedate area of the town. Food was very satisfying: another pimento cheese + corn concoction, this time with pork belly and chow-chow on grits, very good. I ordered another seafood combo, shrimp and grits and fried catfish (at least the catfish was local). Sue had fried chicken, which was not on the bone, and served with maple and pecans (sort of chicken and waffles without the waffles).


Thursday: Pigeon Forge to Cincinnati
We called an audible and gave up on West Virginia, we just didn't want a couple hundred miles of backtracking just to get a photo in front of the Capitol. Next road trip east, maybe (we need Trenton too). So we headed for Cinci, figuring there are options from there. We didn't get much else done but driving (construction stoppages were particularly annoying): a quick stop at the Kentucky Artisan Center in Berea (they serve a decent patty melt), and a Buc-ee's (gas, and a couple of their branded salty snacks for the road).

We found a reasonably priced, highly rated hotel on the north side of the city, so we really didn't see Cincinnati at all. Looking around at what was close by, we found Taste of Belgium, which serves waffles all day, and mussel and steak frites and beer at night. Although the place was nearly empty, the mussels were perfect: not a snotty or rubber-bandy one in the bunch. Frites were thin and served with a garlicky aioli. Sue's steak was perfectly medium rare. Fine dining? Hardly: if it wasn't for the 30 beer taps you'd think it was an IHOP. But a good stop.

Kentucky Artisan Center in Berea
200 Artisan Way, Berea, KY 40403
http://www.kentuckyartisancenter.ky.gov/
+18599855448

Buc-ee's
1013 Buc-ee's Blvd, Richmond, KY 40475
http://buc-ees.com/

Taste of Belgium - Mason
12071 Mason Montgomery Rd, Cincinnati, OH 45249
https://authenticwaffle.com/
+15133965800

A word about hotels: at least hot breakfast is back. When we journeyed around Lake Michigan two summers ago, it was brown bags with granola bars and plastic-wrapped pastries. Every place we stopped at had hot breakfast, most of them with biscuits (of various quality), scrambled eggs, sausage patties and/or bacon and other things. Good way to fuel up before a busy day of driving and hiking.

JoelF wrote:Looking around at what was close by, we found Taste of Belgium, which serves waffles all day, and mussel and steak frites and bear at night.
...
A word about hotels: at least hot breakfast is back. When we journeyed around Lake Michigan two summers ago, it was brown bags with granola bars and plastic-wrapped pastries. Every place we stopped at had hot breakfast, most of them with biscuits (of various quality), scrambled eggs, sausage patties and/or bacon and other things. Good way to fuel up before a busy day of driving and hiking.

I assume that's "beer" and not "bear" altho ya never know!

And agreed on the hotel hot breakfast, but it seems lower quality than pre-pandemic, at least at the grade of hotels we have stayed at recently (Hyatt Place, Fairfield Inn, etc), and more toward the savory than sweet. Very rare to see donuts or decent pastries but plenty of breakfast burritos and hard boiled eggs.

JoelF wrote:We didn't get everything we wanted done: some of the driving was stressful (both standstill and overly twisty -- look up US-129 for fun, we didn't realize what we were getting into), but we ate pretty darn well.

tkairos.com/
+18036679131

General rule of thumb. Never, ever, get off the interstate in the mountains unless you are prepared to accept roads that scare you at 10mph.

If there is a backup and google maps tells you to take this alternate route, don't do it.

tjr wrote:

JoelF wrote:Looking around at what was close by, we found Taste of Belgium, which serves waffles all day, and mussel and steak frites and bear at night.
...
A word about hotels: at least hot breakfast is back. When we journeyed around Lake Michigan two summers ago, it was brown bags with granola bars and plastic-wrapped pastries. Every place we stopped at had hot breakfast, most of them with biscuits (of various quality), scrambled eggs, sausage patties and/or bacon and other things. Good way to fuel up before a busy day of driving and hiking.

I assume that's "beer" and not "bear" altho ya never know!

And agreed on the hotel hot breakfast, but it seems lower quality than pre-pandemic, at least at the grade of hotels we have stayed at recently (Hyatt Place, Fairfield Inn, etc), and more toward the savory than sweet. Very rare to see donuts or decent pastries but plenty of breakfast burritos and hard boiled eggs.

Yes, beer.

I prefer savory breakfast, so I was happy.

Friday: Homeward
So why drive to Cincinnati? Jungle Jim's. The first time we went there it was truly amazing: but availability of international ingredients has greatly improved -- or at least I've found where to get them. We spent almost three hours wandering their innumerable aisles, picked up a couple houseware items for the camper trailer, some Snyder's Smoked Gouda Potato Chips (too salty), aji amarillo (saving me a trip to Clark St.), a couple other odds and ends. A lot of fun, and we got our steps in while a thunderstorm raged outside.

Weirdest item I saw (but didn't buy): Duck Fat Cooking Spray


Jungle Jim's International Market
5440 Dixie Hwy, Fairfield, OH 45014
https://junglejims.com/
(513) 674-6000

With the weather looking bad, we decided to bolt for home rather than taking one more day in, say Indiana somewhere. We stopped for an early dinner (partly due to the time zone change) at Miner-Dunn in Hammond, based on recommendations here. Wonderful little diner, pretty darn good burgers. The Deluxe plate includes fries (nicely done) and soft-serve (orange, vanilla or twist).

Miner-Dunn Real Hamburgers
8940 Indianapolis Blvd, Highland, IN 46322
http://www.minerdunnhamburgers.com/
(219) 923-3311

It poured just as we exited the car, held off for the drive home, then came down in buckets again -- our timing was perfect.

JoelF wrote:Weirdest item I saw (but didn't buy): Duck Fat Cooking Spray

Duck fat spray seems to be the secret weapon of the moment amongst competition BBQ guys. Lay a duck fat spray base down before adding rub, honey, fake butter, maple syrup, strawberry Kool-Aid , mahjong tiles and eye of newt. And then wrapping the meat to death in foil, plastic and butcher paper.

Its actually a good product, killer on toaster-oven baked potatoes. Spray/salt/bake, flavorful crisp skin. A spritz on veg to finish, lots of uses, maybe even BBQ without all the added "winning combos"

Believe it or not my local Ace sells it, I picked it up a while ago on a whim, have not been unhappy with my impulse buy.

Cornhusker Kitchen