Burgers for Breakfast

"Well, that was an experience," we said in unison after walking about 20 steps from the Blue Circle in Bristol, TN.

At one time there were over 30 Blue Circle restaurants scattered the Southeast. Now only the restaurant in Bristol continues in operation. Cars were parked under the canopy from which people could place their orders, although I'm not sure if the phones were still operating.

In its 44th year and still groing strong, the Circle was packed after we took our seats on the two counter stools next to the register. "Packed" means that the 9 stools and 14 table settings were now full. From that vantage point we had a clear view of the diner's operation.

That's when I noticed the counter next to the grill.

There neatly arranged in eight rows of three each were the square burgers for which they are famous. We knew about the burgers, over 30,000 per month are devoured, but we didn't realize how many of those sales came at breakfast.

I don't know why I was so fixated on these rows of burgers, but I watched as the process of preparing these burgers continued. With the speed gained from preparing thousands of burgers, the cook's daughter lifted the top of each burger and dealth each burger a green pickle slice. Later, the cook repeated the lid-lift to add a squirt of mustard.

I took a break to order three pancakes for $1.85, hash browns, and bacon; Kate ordered the sausage gravy and biscuit for $1.25, hash browns, and grits.

Before our order arrived, my eyes were back on the grill. Another 24 of the 2-1/2 inch square patties were on the grill. Then onions are placed on each patty. Then the patties were flipped, onion side down, the top half of the bun placed on the patty, and the lower half of the bun was placed on the top half.

Shortly thereafter, each patty is lifted off the grill, the bottom half placed on the counter, and the burger and top half of the bun are placed on the lower half. The precision of the process resulted in another two dozen burgers ready for the pickle and mustard.

The final step involved picking up three burgers in each hand and placing the six burgers in a row in the aluminum pan on the counter.

Soon after our order arrived, the fellow on the stool next to Kate, said, "You like grits. We can't get them up north."

"Where are you from?" asked Kate.

"Kentucky," he answered and then returned to his steak and eggs.

Meanwhile back at the grill, orders for the burgers were coming in. Before an order of five or six burgers was sent to its owner, the burgers were moved from the aluminum pan for a short "freshening up" in a steamer.

I was caught up in the process; Kate was drawn to the burger. She ordered one. Now considering that four high school kids are well-known for eating a total of 180, an order of "one" brought a few chuckles.

An interesting experience.

The Interstate Diet

Chuck has spent the past two days visiting medical facilities in the area and recovering from a strep throat. He reports having received very good care at the clinic (including a shot of penicillin in his “hip”). So, today we will cover one of the lighter sides of our travels.

So here’s the drill. We pull into the truck stop and verify that the pumps dispense ultra low sulpher diesel. If the answer is yes, I (Kate) note the pump number and proceed to the cashier’s station and request that the pump be activated—at times having to surrender my credit card in advance. I then have time to hang out with our fellow truckers and peruse the various truck stop shop offerings. These can range from the practical (over the counter medications, various truck operating fluids and repair materials, maps, discount cigarettes) to the unusual.

One day I observed two very large gentlemen (and by large I don’t mean tall), bearing a strong familial resemblance that led me believe they were father and son, proceed to the register. After paying their diesel bill (you’d shudder to hear how much), they then laid their personal purchases on the counter—two large bags of pork rinds, two large bags of another undetermined salty snack, four of the large cookies pictured here, and four large sodas. Yes, the lunch of champions.

Bagged pork rinds are sold everywhere, and all of the food markets I’ve visited have large mid-aisle displays. Now I have nothing against deep fried pork skin. I fondly remember being at a Cajun music festival in Mamou, LA and buying them as they came hot out of the deep fryer. The paper bag they were placed in became immediately stained with the fat, and my fingers became slippery from the oil as I ate them. But I did have the good sense not to eat the whole bag—even if I didn’t have the good sense not to order them in the first place. Still, I wanted to suggest that the snacking duo might want to consider a salad every once in awhile.

In addition to pork rinds, you'll find potato chips in all flavors and corn chips in all flavors. When truckers aren’t eating bagged snacks, they appear to have a taste for jerky. You can find plain jerky, barbeque jerky, and jalapeno jerky, whatever. The piece pictured here looks like it would last a cross country haul.

The truckers’ store has an array of candy – large bars included – and other products for those with a sweet tooth. In addition to large cookies you’ll find brownies, carrot cake, and fried pies (another Southern delicacy). Many of the truck stops have precooked items sitting under heat lamps – hot dogs, polish and smoked sausages, and chicken wings.

But there is hope. For those looking for health food, you see large displays of sunflower seeds—again in all flavors.

To wash all of this down, those who don’t want to consume mass quantities of sugary beverages can always choose coffee. I wonder how many pit stops a cup of this size (photo below) requires.

Since Chuck wouldn’t take a picture of the spit buckets on sale, I have to show you my second favorite truck stop item. Two years ago Alton Brown, on his first “Feasting on Asphalt” series for the Food Network, traveled on motorcycle from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and discovered the lunch box oven.
If memory serves me correctly, his initial attempt to bake a meatloaf in this appliance led to a blown fuse in the powering vehicle and he didn’t get his food cooked until 2:00 a.m. Of course, by that time all of his traveling companions were asleep and he had the meatloaf all to himself. No dummy our Alton.

As a final note, this is the big Sharpie 500 weekend at the Bristol Motor Speedway. The campground is crawling with large beefy men traveling together and carrying large quantities of ice back to their RV’s from the campground store. I am sure they are using the ice to keep their ice cream from melting—Right!! The guys next to us, who incidentally invited me to share their breakfast of biscuits and sausage gravy with sausages on the side, have camp chairs emblazoned with the number 20. (I think that is Tony Stewart's number.)

In case you’re wondering, I did turn down the breakfast offer—but reluctantly.

Guy Fieri Wannabe

I want to be Guy Fieri. All I have to do is bleach my hair blond (leaving some black roots) and get tattoos. Who is he you ask? Guy Fieri was the second season winner of the Next Food Network Star competition and has a program called Guy’s Big Bites which I watch occasionally. But Guy is also the star of the Food Network’s program Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. He visits the type of restaurant we like – casual, off-beat, inexpensive, and locally- and/or family-owned.

Which is why we were so excited when Chuck, while doing investigation on the Web, came across two books on small, off-beat local restaurants. Nothing could stop him from running out to purchase the first and second volumes of The Place Setting by Fred W. Sauceman. The two restaurants that I’ll be writing about here were found in these books.

On Sunday, we headed off to Gate City looking for a lunch counter in a drug store. We understood that the place was open on Sunday afternoon but, upon arriving, learned that only the drug store was open and not the lunch counter. Time for plan B--the Campus Drive-In. Local legend has it that the football team owes as much of its success to the food of the Campus Drive-In, located next to the area high school, as it does to the coach’s football acumen. While offering curb service, the Campus Drive-In has two inside dining rooms and this is where we elected to eat.

The drive-in is noted for its hamburgers, but is better known for the “ugly” sandwich (upper left in the photo below), a version of the Philly cheesesteak with onions, peppers, lettuce, tomato, and mayo. Listed on the menu as the Sliced Sirloin with Cheese, they receive extra points for not calling this a “Philly Cheesesteak”--a sin committed by many a local restaurant. I chose this for my lunch and while not a cheesesteak it was delicious. Juicy with a generous amount of fried red and green peppers and onion which kept falling off--hence the “ugly”.

Chuck ordered the hamburger, a chili dog, and fries. (Yes, I do feed him at home.) I forgot to taste the hot dog and all I can tell you is that Chuck said it was good--whatever that means. The hamburger came with bacon, lettuce, tomato, and mayo which, unless you specify otherwise, is the norm (with mayo) here. Whenever I see crinkle fries on the plate, I assume they came frozen from a bag. These were good but not spectacular. All in all, not the best lunch we’ve had but not the worst. We give the Campus Drive-In 4.0 Addies – a half an Addie for not trying to tell me I was having a “real” Philly Cheesesteak.

Back during our urban experience of the early 70’s, we lived in Philadelphia around the corner from a small take-out place that specialized in Broasted Chicken. This was a favorite Friday night “I don’t feel like cooking” option. (To reach this place, you walked past the gentleman who sold produce from the back of his truck while preaching the gospel loudly over a microphone.)

Broasted chicken places are hard to find and when we read the Nick’s Family Restaurant specialized in this method of preparing chicken, we had to go. Now broasting is the process of frying chicken in a pressure cooker so that the skin gets very crisp while the inside of the meat remains moist.

Since Mr. Sauceman also had kind words about Nick’s hamburgers, our choices were the two breast platter with potato wedges and slaw and a hamburger with fries and beans. The chicken was everything I remembered broasted chicken being. The batter coating was so light that it shattered when cut. The meat underneath was moist and tender. The hamburger was very good and enhanced by the buttered toasted bun. The beans were delicious--have we found any other kind here?--with a slightly sweet and slightly tart sauce. And the cole slaw was also delicious.

Our quibbles were with the potatoes. The wedges were so large that some were not cooked thoroughly. The fries were hand cut but not twice fried so didn’t have the crispness we were looking for. So based on the potatoes, we will give Nick’s 4.0 Addies.

A word before closing about cole slaw. Some of you may be old enough to remember when the blender became the “must have” kitchen appliance. One of the selling points was the speed with which one could make cole slaw by placing chunks of cabbage in the blender with an unknown quantity of water and pulsing. After draining the water, the result was finely chopped cabbage.

Now I prefer my cabbage for slaw sliced--the finer the better--but the chopped variety has been the norm during this part of our travels. But, the dressing is of the creamy type rather than the vinegar type so I have been assessing the cole slaw for what it is rather than what I might want it to be.

The Shapes of Bristol

Somedays when we’e out taking photographs we move from scene to scene rather quickly. Other days we stroll around a scene and look at a structure from different angles or in smaller parts. Such a day was the day we saw the train station in Bristol.

The station is in transition . . . from a train station to an unknown future use. Freight trains still pass daily, but there is no use for the luggage carts anymore. Passenger service ended over a dozen years ago and the station has been empty since 1999.

Even the old light fixtures created an interesting reminder of the past.

But as you walk around the station, signs of its rebirth are evident in the fresh paint and pristine exterior. The shapes were interesting, especially when combined with a number of different ones.

I had wanted to take a photo of the sign over State Street which welcomes travelers to Bristol with an arrow to the Virginia side of the street and an arrow to the Tennessee side. You'll see this sign in every travel brochure to the city in two states, so I wanted my photo of this sign to be a little different. I hope I achieved that goal with the help of the station's railing.



And then there are scenes that only require a quick stop.

And then we move on.

"Ham for Hamlet"

It was the mid-1920's and young Robert Porterfield wanted to become an actor, but his father was opposed to this career wish ("No son of mine will work in the 'wicked theater'.") Robert left Hampden-Sydney College in his third year and headed for New York with his dream. But his early success could not insulate him from the realities of the Great Depression and the closing of many theaters. Shortly after being robbed of all his possessions, he earned a small part in a traveling company of Cyrano de Bergerac. Traveling through the Great Plains, he had a "crazy idea."

He arrived in Abingdon, VA, with a statue of Saint Rita, Patron Saint of the Impossible and 22 unemployed and hungry actors from New York. He obtained permission to use the town's "Opry House" and to house the actors in the former Martha Washington College, which had closed because of the Depression. And put his crazy idea into practice--"With Vegetables You Cannot Sell, You Can Buy a Good Laugh." He knew people in this area had so much food that it was going to waste, so he would accept food for the price of admission to the theater.
And so, the Barter Theater began 75 years of continuous repertory theater on June 10, 1933, making it the longest, continuously-operating theater in the country. By the way, opening night was a full house with extra chairs being brought in. And the lobby was filled with fresh vegetables, hams, fried chicken, fruit of all varieties, cakes, pies, and a bouquet of flowers. The barter system was working.

"There were times when a person would bring a cow to the theater, milk it on the street, and use the milk to buy a ticket," related Amber Brown on a tour she led for the two of us. "The first year, Mr. Porterfield made a profit of $4.35, . . . and the actors gained a total of 303 pounds," she added with a laugh. (It wasn't until 1939 that cash customers outnumbered those who bartered.)

"We still have one performance a year for which people can bring food for their price of admission," Amber noted with pride. "We then donate the food to a local food bank." (The photo on the left shows the drama/comedy masks in the circular window on the facade of the theater shown in the first photo.)

Amber talked about some of the obstacles the early actors had to contend with: 1) in the same building as the theater was the Town Hall, along with the town jail which was located under the stage. So the prisoners' comments would sometimes compete with actors' lines. 2) The fire alarm was located on the theater's roof, so when the alarm went off, the actors froze and resumed when the siren stopped.

The picture on the right shows the view from the stage. In the curved portion of the balcony on the other side of the theater, there are seats from the Empire Theater that Mr. Porterfield and his wife would sit in. Amber was kind enough to photograph The Wanderers in these seats. While the designs "etched" into the fabric of the majority of the seats duplicates the comedy/tragedy masks on the stained glass windows, a few of the seats still retaind the design from the Empire Theater.

The view from the Porterfield seats show the decorative work of the theater. The wall sconces and red wall tapestries were also part of the items from the Empire Theater.

The two photos show close-up views of this decorative work.

On the pages of the open book on this decoration (right) are the words: "If you like us, talk about us. If you don't, just keep your mouth shut." With these words, Mr. Porterfield ended his monologues that he delivered during the intermissions at the theater.

I would gladly keep talking, but I would suggest finding time to listen to Amber's accounts of the theater's history. Or read the Barter Theatre's Will Work For Food.

A Morning with Chia, the Vulture

Bays Mountain Park, located in Kingsport, TN, has 22 miles of hiking trails throughout its 3,500 acres. We had expected to spend time walking around the 44-acre lake in the park and attending a program in the Planetarium.

When we arrived, we learned that the nature programs are scheduled for the afternoons, the wolf programs are held on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and the barge rides are also offered in the afternoon. The Planetarium was closed for the summer.

So, . . . we began our self-directed walk around the areas housing deer, river otter, birds, and wolves.

We did not realize until later how lucky we were to find one of the river otters feeding on some fish. One of the volunteers said that he had been working Mondays for several weeks and had not seen the otters outside their houses.

But when we saw the wolves, we were mesmerized. Getting as close as we could and looking them in the eye was an experience that we wished we could have captured on "film."

They are magnificent animals. Kate felt very fortunate to have obtained this photo.

We met two of the volunteers in the aviary and learned that all the people caring for the animals and presenting educational programs are volunteers. All the birds (including the red-tail hawk above) are taken out of the cages and taken into the office for stimulation time every day.

Chia, a very smart black vulture, uses the time to play with a golf ball and will make up games with stones. Chia had imprinted on humans so would not be able to survive in the wild. All the animals cannot be returned to the wild. Bobu, the Great Horned Owl in another cage, has cataracts in both eyes.

Chia's behavior of spreading the wings is done to expose as much of its body as possible to the warmth of the sun.

We finished our walk past the amphitheater where educational programs during the week-long day camps for kids were held.

Not what we had expected, but we had a walk that connected us to nature nonetheless.

The Yin and Yang of Dining Out

Before I begin this Addie Report, I just wanted to add a few additional thoughts on downtown Jonesborough. The four or five blocks that make up much of the historic downtown area are lined with small specialty shops – one sells Celtic merchandise, one stained and blown glass, one beauty and bath products, a Christmas shop, craft stores, and multiple antique stores. And many of the merchants have placed chairs, benches, and rockers on the sidewalk making it literally possible to “shop till you drop.” Now one of the disadvantages to RV living is that one’s impulse to acquire has to be curtailed. You don’t have room for unnecessary items and, for safety’s sake, you have to worry about not carrying too much weight. On the other hand, you don’t spend money. As Adrian Monk would say--it's a blessing . . . and a curse.

We arrived in Jonesborough without a plan for lunch. After looking at the menus posted in a couple of restaurant windows, one food item caught my eye, and I told Chuck “this is the place.” When we walked into Bistro 105, we were immediately reminded of the small store front restaurants that spurred Philadelphia’s restaurant renaissance. This small, narrow restaurant had exposed brick walls, a painted tin ceiling, and vintage flooring, although, unlike Philadelphia in the mid-70’s, all of the furniture matched.

We both started with soup—a cup of tomato, basil, garlic for Chuck and wild mushroom for me. Both were excellent although both were a bit cooler than ideal.

Chuck was set to order the meatloaf and mashed potatoes, but opted instead for Bistro 105’s version of the French dip. Served in a sourdough roll, the perfectly tender thinly sliced beef was cooked in the same au jus that accompanied the sandwich. My sandwich—the Fried Green Tomato BLT on toasted sourdough bread—was a knockout. With tangy fried green tomatoes, apple smoked bacon, field greens, and remoulade sauce spicy with whole grain mustard, the various tastes assaulted the mouth. Both plates came with a side of Bistro 105’s homemade potato chips – a combination of white and sweet potatoes that weren’t quite as crisp as we would have liked.

From a list of desserts that included key lime pie and a warm chocolate walnut cake, we decided to share a peach cobbler that was topped with ice cream and whipped cream. As you can see from the photo, this was an enormous serving which we had no trouble finishing.

While we were approaching 5 Addie territory, the soup that was too cool and the chips that weren’t crisp enough dropped Bistro 105 to a 4.5 rating. Regardless, if we are back in Jonesborough, we’ll be back to Bistro 105.

As Chuck mentioned, Thursday morning required a last minute change of plans. So we found ourselves driving out Virginia Avenue in Bristol looking for photo opportunities at the dam. Driving along, we simultaneously spotted a small, bright yellow restaurant. There was Tootie’s—the home of the fresh ground hamburger. Now we normally would have hit the brakes and squealed into the parking lot. But this was only 9:30 after all, so we noted the location for lunch.

Now Tootie’s, located in Willie Boom, Tennessee, is called Bristol’s oldest restaurant. (You figure that out!) The menu states that the burgers are “fresh ground, hand formed, and fresh fried.” The signature item is the Arvil Burger. For $4.79 you get a nine-ounce patty with fried onions in the center and topped with double lettuce, double tomato, mayo and onion and, of course, the ever popular “secret ingredient.” The Arvil weighs in at a whopping 18 ounces.

Realizing that we were defeated before we began, we instead each ordered the double cheeseburger (two four and a quarter ounce patties—which, of course, added up to almost nine ounces of meat, topped with double cheese) and shared an order of fries, which gave every appearance of being hand-cut. When the waitress delivered the burger, I remembered that I had forgotten to specify that I wanted it cooked medium. My fear of a dry burger was unwarranted. These were juicy and tasted of good quality beef. A real treat.

My quibbles? The order of fries was smallish and they didn’t have unsweetened ice tea. Still, we are awarding Tootie’s 4.5 Addies.

I’m not going to give this next restaurant a formal rating. I wasn’t feeling well and that probably colored my impression of Giovanni’s Cucina. But Chuck, being in the mood for pasta, ordered the Fettuccini Alfredo shown here and raved about it. The sauce was thinner and less rich and heavy than normal for this dish, which may be why he liked it so much. Since he is not the biggest fan of parmesan cheese, this less cheesy sauce was just right.

From a Bistro to Tootie's.