he biscuit stuffed with fried chicken (brined first in pickle juice, buttermilk, and Texas Pete) is a big favorite at Krankies Coffee in Winston-Salem. But it got some competition when the restaurant’s vegetarian chef came up with a meat-free redeye gravy for the house-made biscuits. “Coffee is in redeye gravy, so it seemed like a natural pairing,” says General Manager Gaby Cardall. “There’s also liquid smoke and maple syrup, for a balance of flavor.”
In other words, a biscuit can contain multitudes, which is why Biscuit Head in Asheville offers seven different homemade gravies — order them as a tasting flight of three — plus many local jams, jellies, and hot sauces.
At Neal’s Deli in Carrboro, biscuits arrive with house-cured pastrami, pimento cheese, avocado salsa, or spinach and garlic. Blue Ridge Biscuit Company and Bakery in Black Mountain fills its biscuits with everything from cured beets to a fried grits cake with spiced honey.
The Southerly Biscuit & Pie in Carolina Beach reimagined Nashville hot fried chicken as hot fried catfish and slapped that feisty fish on a biscuit. The result, the Hot ’n’ Hot Catfish Biscuit, is topped with pickles and a spicy mayo sauce. Still, a gorgeous biscuit doesn’t need much fuss.
Craig Love, chef/partner at The Southerly, has a bread-based theory that sums it up nicely: “Toast is the one-night stand of bread relationships. Bagels are the college relationship, where you dated for a few years but still flirted. But biscuits, man, biscuits are the stuff of anniversaries.” Until death do us part.
Krankies Coffee
211 East Third Street,
Winston-Salem, NC 27101
(336) 722-3016
krankiescoffee.com
Biscuit Head
733 Haywood Road
Asheville, NC 28806
417 Biltmore Avenue #4F
Asheville, NC 28801
biscuitheads.com
Blue Ridge Biscuit Company and Bakery
601 West State Street
Black Mountain, NC 28711
(828) 357-8501
facebook.com/BlueRidgeBiscuitCompany
Neal’s Deli
100 East Main Street, Suite C
Carrboro, NC 27510
(919) 967-2185
nealsdeli.com
The Southerly Biscuit & Pie
1206 North Lake Park Boulevard, Unit D
Carolina Beach, NC 28428
(910) 707-0776
thesoutherlync.com
Cook, read, learn, and celebrate what North Carolina has to offer this month.
Our editor in chief reminisces on her first special-occasion restaurant experience in North Carolina.
In Pitt County, a luthier’s handcrafted guitars are sometimes discolored or full of knots; some are shaped liked snakes or shotguns. Each instrument’s story starts with the wood used to make it. And while the past may have left its scars, beauty can be found in the sights and sounds of art.
The Roanoke begins in the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia and travels more than 400 miles before emptying into Albemarle Sound, linking countless lives along the way. Follow along as a native son traces the river’s path through northeastern North Carolina, sharing stories of the Roanoke he knows and loves.
