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As we were packing up Fish Camp for the day, the Hot Legs Comedy Show was just getting underway. The MC, an overweight, grandfatherly figure with a Santa beard and faded Hawaiian shirt on was warming up the audience on the back patio near where our … [Read more...] about Running Away From Home (Dive Bars, Salty Fish and Smeared Entrails)

Socially lubricated on mole stout, rillettes and tinned oysters, I walked away from my "interview" with The Chef knowing I got the gig.  We talked charcuterie, New Orleans, staffing issues, product procurement snafus, masks, Spain, pretentious food … [Read more...] about Running Away From Home (Home Base #3 Asheville, NC)

To speak ill of Chef Vivian Howard is to speak ill of the south.  She personifies, with a folksy, girl next door vibe, bouncy North Carolina twang and neighborly affect, the small-town life of the rural Carolina coast. One can easily picture her … [Read more...] about Dining During The Apocalypse: Lenoir

Kristin’s belting out a convincing Me and Bobby McGee as she packs Peyton’s socks into a clear plastic travel case on the bedroom floor.  That she hasn’t attempted to cash in on her God-given singing talent has always left me confused.  She’s so … [Read more...] about Running Away From Home (Going Off The Grid)

When it comes time to pay your restaurant bill, do you instinctively default to one of these revealing gems: ‘I don’t believe in tipping.’ ‘In Europe, no one tips.’ ‘I’m sure the restaurant pays their waiters well,’ or similarly, the empty … [Read more...] about Salty Words on Non-Tippers

Moments before we valiantly fought off another tsunami of curious foodies, UNH graduates and their families, Kristin gathered our beloved staff together for a mandatory meeting in the booths.  When she politely demanded that the entire crew—including … [Read more...] about Running Away From Home (Exodus)

Not all restaurants on the highways and byways of this often beautiful country have proven themselves portentous havens of culinary revelation.  Sometimes it’s the grungy little store front in that cookie cutter strip mall across the way from the Old … [Read more...] about Dining During the Apocalypse: One Offs, Strip Malls, WTFs

At fifty-one, I realize that I am not the best cook on the planet.  I’m not even in the top million.  I say this not as a disingenuous stab at garnering praise—the ego maniac’s self-deprecating ploy—but as a man honest with himself and his … [Read more...] about Embracing My Shortcomings

I’d lived in Memphis twenty-nine years before being sucked into Asheville, North Carolina’s pachouli-scented culinary orbit.  And it happened completely by chance. Kristin was snoring, full-drool in the passenger seat.  My son Luke, our reason for … [Read more...] about Dining During the Apocalypse: ASHEVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA