A several days visit with our folks, long overdue for the two of us coming in from overseas, but there was this little viral thing. It was some much-needed family time, even after the roadtrip.

First stop as we headed north out of Nashville, with Parlor Doughnuts fueling our systems (well, two of us anyway), was the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, KY. Remember the Bowling Green Massacre? Maybe they were talking about that sinkhole at the museum in February 2014…. Now, for me, much like the motorcycle museum, my relationship to cars is mostly “ooh that’s pretty” or not. Perhaps a bit more intimate, as I do enjoy driving a car, and have owned several. I’ve not owned a 1962 Corvette, but it’s my pick of the museum for the one I want. In that color.

And, a little pizza for lunch. It wasn’t the place we were planning to go, which was something on the salad-y side of things, near to the museum, but when we got there, it just didn’t look up to snuff. We spotted Donato’s Pizza, 861 Fairview Ave., across the road, and dropped in. They make individual sized pizzas, and offer a variety of crusts – gluten free, vegan, and more, along with a wide array of toppings that fit various diets. I went more classic, with a standard thin crust, pepperoni, bacon, and moderately spicy banana peppers. Not bad at all.

We like trains, but… as one of my brothers put it, the Historic RailPark & Train Museum, 401 Kentucky Street, still in Bowling Green, was like walking through a website. It was just display after display of clips kind of like the one pictured for the dining car, with no explanations. It kind of felt like a waste of money, and we were glad we didn’t ante up the extra required to take a walk through the parked train cars outside the museum.

We arrived in Louisville. Our scheduling got us in a day earlier than we were to join our folks at the complex… compound… they live in. So we’d grabbed a hotel for a night, and figured on a special last night of the road trip out. Not barbecue related. I have, for years, wanted to go to 610 Magnolia, at that same address. It’s the flagship restaurant of Chef Ed Lee. Let’s just say I wish I’d gotten to try it in its heyday. Was really expecting it to be on the same level as Husk, in Nashville, but a five course tasting menu, with options, and really the only things we liked were the two options of the first course, a beet and goat cheese tart, and a carrot and almond panna cotta. None of the rest of it was bad, it just wasn’t interesting. And service was just sort of perfunctory, it felt, at moments, like we, and the other customers, were an imposition on the lives of the staff. It was also more expensive than our dinner at Husk.

Next morning we headed out to our folks’ place (they live in an “adult community”), and two of us checked into the guest room, while our Chicago-based brother spent a little time visiting with the parents and then headed home – he sees them more than we do. Most of the eating over the four days with them was either just at their place or some takeout food – they’re still not going out to restaurants, post-covid, for a variety of reasons. But two things stood out that the two of us did solo. In keeping, sort of, with our theme… we went a couple of blocks from their place for breakfast one morning, to Biscuit Belly, 3723 Lexington Rd. More great biscuits, though still not up to the pinnacle we’ve established from Sarah’s biscuits, They do offer some impressive breakfasts – mine was not supposed to be quite so overloaded – I’d asked for bacon instead of the sausage, but they gave me both. I have to admit, the “sauces” to accompany a biscuit, eggs, bacon, and hashbrowns, surprised me, being raspberry jam and ketchup.

And definitely in theme… we decided to get in one last (well, we actually went twice) barbecue stop. Momma’s Mustard, Pickles, & BBQ, 102 Bauer Avenue has always loomed present across the street from where my folks live. I’m not sure why they never suggested it – we’ve been out for barbecue in Louisville, but always to one or another spot elsewhere in town that were just kind of average bbq spots. This place is really good, and offers “Kansas City style” bbq. Their beef ribs, the first ones we’d had on this trip, were quite possibly the best ribs we had on the whole venture, though comparing these huge meaty slabs with pork spareribs is dubious to begin with. One barbecue guide even named them the second-best beef ribs in the country (after Hometown, in Brooklyn). They also regularly get cited for their meatloaf and wings. The meatloaf is excellent, and we tried it both solo on a slider on our first visit, and as part of a grilled cheese sandwich on the second (they offer any of their bbq meats except the beef rib as options added to their grilled cheese). And though their dry rubbed wings were really good, they came in a distant second to those amazing smoked wings we had at 17ST Barbecue. We’d still eat them again.

And now, I begin the solo part of this adventure! My original plan, a drive to Lexington, KY for lunch at one of two spots that are on my list, and then on to Knoxville for the later afternoon, dinner, and stay the night, with a breakfast before heading out. Unfortunately, one of the two spots in Lexington was closed on Tuesday, and the other only open for dinner. And I didn’t want to add an hour or more to my trip and go out of my way for a barbecue joint that we’d originally considered. So, it was straight on to Knoxville, TN. The center of town is… cute. I liked it. I don’t know what I really expected, not sure if I even had any real expectations, but somehow, it was more urban hip than I’d thought it would be. And, I was staying right across the street from the World’s Fair park.

Now, because of the meatloaf we’d had at Momma’s, and I’d had a half meatloaf sandwich in the refrigerator that I was planning to bring on the drive, but left behind, I had meatloaf on the brain. Turns out, not surprisingly, that you can simply ask Google for the “best meatloaf near me”. And, the bourbon and peppercorn glazed meatloaf at the nearby branch of Tupelo Honey, 1 Market Square, sounded perfect, and gets rave reviews. Albeit a small piece of the meatloaf, it’s delicious, and the two sides I picked, crispy salt and pepper brussels sprouts and roasted corn and shishito peppers in lime brown butter, were perfect accompaniments. I knew I needed some downtime, and decided rather than going out in the evening, I’d stay in at the hotel and catch up on some stuff and relax. So I also ordered some of their “Asheville” Hot Chicken on Mac ‘n Cheese Waffles to go. It was good – more the Carolina bbq style, flavored with spicy vinegar, but not as good as the meatloaf and sides.

I don’t recall who told me that Matt Robbs Biscuits was the place to go for biscuits and breakfast in downtown Knoxville, but my thanks go out to whomever it was. Matt himself is a charmer, and when I told him it was my first time, and left myself in his hands, I found myself with a delightful breakfast sandwich of a cheddar and garlic biscuit, scrambled egg, crunchy bacon, and pepperjack cheese. Not to be missed, indeed.

I don’t know (click on the photo for a better view). I was heading back to the hotel to pick up suitcase and car and get back on the road, when I encountered this skeletal chef in the window of someone’s office. I didn’t see any sign indicating what sort of company is ensconced in the place, but clearly, this chef has been waiting awhile for something. See ya around, Knoxville.

Again, plans foiled, when it turned out both places in my lunch itinerary in Chatanooga, TN, were only open for dinner. I really should have looked at hours and days before planning this. As I mentioned a couple of posts ago, I’d planned to pass through Birmingham, and we hadn’t planned on it as a group, but ended up there. So it was back there, and into the same hotel, and a bit of wandering, visiting with my friend LeNell who has a great little wine and liquor shop there. We knew each other “back in the day” in NYC. We’d planned on dinner on my pass through, and hadn’t decided on a spot, until Helen, 2013 2nd Avenue N, occurred to her, and we met up later (we will not discuss the near inedible lunch fare at Uptown Cantina, where the young Mexican chefs should call up and apologize to their grandmothers for calling the abominations they serve, “tacos”). Dinner brought a mound of small biscuits, light and buttery, and served with a sorghum syrup butter, a huge platter of “corn-ribs”, done up like Mexican elotes, with Southern spicing, and a roast chicken with a side of black-eyed peas. All delicious, service was impeccable. Corn-ribs are, apparently, a thing in the South these days. (Basically, they’re just corn on the cob cut into wedges and trimmed of the inner core, and then… the creativity goes into play.)

And that finishes off this stretch, as I head into the final one, and a long weekend in Atlanta before heading home.