Mac's Country Store & Exxon

15 Years ago on a road trip to New Orleans we pulled off of I-95 and ended up at some gas station that had a weird little kitchen off to the side selling fried chicken and fried potato wedges (aka Jo-Jo's in certain parts of the world and Q-Mart). Being mostly vegetarians (yup) we skipped the chicken and loaded up on deep fried wedges and sides and after being in a car for 15 hours it seemed like the best food I had ever had in my life. Since then I've been dying to get back to a place like that for some real fried chicken. 

Driving down to Virginia to go camping I realized we were heading into deep gas station fried chicken territory. Picked up a box of chicken from the Roadfood-approved Wayside Market in Charlottesville which was really good, but didn't really have that gas station vibe I was looking for. Next up was Mac's, a few miles from the campground and one of maybe 2 or 3 places in a 30 mile radius for gas / water / ice or food of any kind. Basically a house with a gas station, no sign, and awesome awesome fried chicken.

Anyway everything from here was fantastic from the chicken to the sides and the potato wedges. Always some locals hanging out at the tables and chairs and a busy parking lot, as I said this is really the only store or meeting place of any kind for miles in every direction, and they seem to be getting semi-famous for their chicken, which in my opinion was much better than Wayside, and seemed fresher, crispier, more golden brown, juicer, just in general more pride taken in the food. 

Awesome sides too. Nothing fancy, just made with care in that southern way with plenty of mayonnaise and several notches higher than your average Philly deli salads, the potato salad especially. Stopped in on the way out to fill up on gas, coffee, and a chicken biscuit with egg for something like $2. Delicious. 

Mac's Country Store

7023 Patrick Henry Highway (rt 151)

Massies Mill, VA 22967

Gayle's Market and Country Ham - Penn Laird, VA

"This place smells funny"
"There is a weird room in the back with a giant pile of pig parts on a table"

Red flags for my friends. To me a sign of the real deal. There is sort of a fine line between "uber authentic so-and-so from a shack behind the sunoco" and the sort of place you would see on TV with Gordon Ramsay tossing 40 lbs of rotten chicken into the garbage. There is definitely that moment where you bite into something and think "this is either going to be the best thing I've ever eaten or give me food poisoning".  I've definitely had both.

But it's also pretty ridiculous that our urban minds equate clutter and the south with "dirty" while back home we happily pay $60 a head to eat 4 slivers of "authentic artisan country ham" (made in a place like this) shaved onto an ikea plate in a joint made of "reclaimed barn wood" that probably came from a farm 2 miles from here. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but you know don't miss the real deal when it's right in front of your face.

Anyway Gayle's is the truth. Country ham everywhere. Just piles of piles of it. They make their own, which you can buy by the ham, the slab, or sliced like deli meat. Also other brands of country ham, just stacked up all over the store. And other things like "side meat", ham hocks, pon hass (scrapple), and their own made loose sausage, which along with a styrofoam pint of country ham broth makes the best sausage gravy of all time. The hot dog and packaged sausage selection was pretty basic commercial brands, this is not the place for that. Stick with their home made pork products and you will not be bummed.

And in case the first paragraph makes you think otherwise, yeah this place is cluttered and funky but everything was fresh and rotated and food surfaces completely clean. I feel safer eating here than 99% of South Philly corner stores.

And yeah. Country ham freshly sliced on white bread with mayonnaise for something like 3 dollars. Holy god damn. They also have pre-made country ham sandwiches at the counter on burger buns for $1.25 but they are a little dry. You definitely need some mayonnaise (and maybe a 42 ounce can of bud light) to balance out all that salt. If you are down this way and like this sort of thing don't miss Gayle's. They also have a second location a few miles away that we found while getting lost.

Gayle's Market and Country Ham

5439 Spottswood Trail

Penn Laird, VA 

Gayle's Quick Stop

Highway 340

Grottoes, VA

Tammy & Johnny's Fried Chicken

After eating some rough fried chicken at Bojangles somewhere along Virginia's Eastern Shore, about 5 miles down the road we saw this place packed to the gills with people lined up for chicken & burgers and made sure to stop in on the way home. It's definitely an eclectic, no-frills spot, with some framed articles along the walls (I think it's been there since the 50's or 60's) but also sort of a strange odor in the dining room and a lot of neck tattoos.


The menu can be a challenge to decipher, I think we ordered the "hunter's combo" which means a burger with cheese and a drink? Chicken is ordered as a "boat" or "dinner" and there's also "Bbq" which I'm assuming means a sandwich (didn't try it). The burger was nothing special, your average gray fast food style burger. Cole slaw was sort of watery and sad and I was worried we had another loser on our hands.


But then- holy s&*%, the fried chicken .... this is what everyone was lined up for. Ultra crispy, well seasoned medium-thick breading and probably some of the juiciest (as in not dried out, not even the breast, like every other fried chicken) perfectly cooked fried chicken I've ever had. Don't mess around with burgers or sides or anything else, just get a bucket of chicken and maybe some sweet tea. Fries are pretty good too.



Tammy & Johnny's
27352 Lankford Hwy (route 13)
Melfa, VA 23410

Bojangles Failure

Last time I was down south it was for hot dogs, literally stopping at 6 or 7 places a day with no time (or appetite) to stop at every awesome BBQ place and all the beautiful looking southern fast food chains that still look like 1970 like Bojangles. If you ever find yourself in the position of traveling the country eating only one food item for weeks at a time you'll see that everything, ANYTHING else looks like the best thing in the world.


Last weekend we were heading South (well, Delaware to Virgina Beach at least) and stopped at the first Bojangles we saw. I was pretty psyched as fried chicken is up there with my favorite stuff and Philly is really almost totally devoid of the real thing. I got even more excited when I saw the signs for the "$1.29 Fried Bologna Biscuit".


To make a long story short, like most places I talk up to my girlfriend for 8 hours to convince her to go there, it sucked. The Bologna meat tasted kind of sketchy, chicken not that crispy, sides had no flavor. We would have been better off at the Popeyes on Broad & Snyder. Even the BISCUITS are better at Popeye's. The only thing slightly "southern" about the experience was when I asked for hot sauce the guy gave me 12 PACKETS and asked if I wanted more.

Most of you are probably thinking "of course it sucked, it's fast food" but there's something about regional mini-chains that fascinates me, like the Greek-themed pastrami burger joints in Utah I've been reading up on for a freelance project. And I haven't ruled Bojangles out, maybe the good ones are further south??

Garlic Fest - Nelson County Virginia

Annually at Rebec Vineyards about 10 miles from where I grew up in COUNTRY ass Virginny. There is the Garlic Festival. Now, yes, there are the Garlic King and the Garlic Queen wearing their smelly crowns..but the main reason anyone comes to this particular event is for the drinking of local Virginia winery offerings. Virginia is not known for its wine per se. But if you are in the liking for the sweeter side of things, then you are in luck. Most of this stuff tastes a little like Franzia, a little like Kool Aid, but goes down easier than water. The other offerings are LOADS of food vendors, Thai, Ribs, Shwarma, Falafal, etc etc. So here are some of the pics from a nice day in the south drinking and eating.