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
In North Carolina, spring brings the scent of fresh-cut grass and memories of helping Dad mow the lawn.
Nostalgic burger joints are like time machines, delivering something extra special that keeps us coming back.
This tiny city block in downtown Greensboro once had a gigantic reputation. Not so much for its charbroiled beef patties — though they, too, were plentiful — but for its colorful characters and their wild shenanigans.
In the 1950s, as Americans hit freshly paved roads in shiny new cars during the postwar boom, a new kind of restaurant took shape: the drive-in. From those first thin patties to the elaborate gourmet hamburgers of today, North Carolina has spent the past 80 years making burger history.
