Donald Duck Orange Juice As I sat at the breakfast table this morning I stared at my glass of orange juice and contemplated the beverage’s evolution. As a child, orange juice was kept in a small can in the freezer. One opened the can, dumped the syrupy, icy, orange clump into a pitcher, filled the [...]

Southbound The restaurant business is full of chef/owners with atypical success stories. The restaurant business is full of culinary twists on tried-and-true recipes. The restaurant business is notorious for its 90-hour work weeks for owners who are willing to open on a shoestring and do what it takes— whatever it takes— to build a business. [...]

Banana Fanna Fo Felvis Elvis is alive… on candy wrappers. I walked into a convenience store yesterday and ran into the King of Rock and Roll. Immediately inside the front entrance of the store sat a huge display of a newly introduced candy: Collector’s Edition Reese’s Peanut Butter and Banana Crème cups—the Elvis edition. The [...]

Diet Dilemma I was walking from the restaurant to my office the other day and, out of the corner of my eye, caught a glimpse of C’est La Vie, the French bakery across the street. The morning sun fell gently on the face of the bakery and a golden glow shone all about the building. [...]

A Singular Culinary Career New Orleans has many culinary icons. In the beginning there were Jean Galatoire, Arnaud Cazenave, and Antoine Alciatore. By mid century the Brennan family began to set up shop in North America’s Creole Capital. In the 1970s Warren LeRuth was on top and passed the torch to Paul Prudhomme who began [...]

Lawsuits Aplenty A man in Morgantown, West Virginia is suing fast-food giant McDonald’s for $10 million because they put cheese on his hamburger. According to a recent story in the Charleston Daily Mail, “The man says he bit into a hamburger and had a severe allergic reaction to the cheese melted on it. Jeromy Jackson, [...]

From Sausage Gravy to Snails In Georgia, on the border of North Carolina, sits a restaurant and inn that has been serving great home-cooked meals since 1917. I discovered The Dillard House several years ago on the recommendation of a former classmate. I have returned every year since, when my friends and I gather for [...]

Fireworks and Food Foibles One of the benefits of being a writer is that I am always on the receiving end of humorous and informative stories reported to me by the people I meet. Last week I heard one of the best yet. A friend of a friend was recounting a recent Fourth of July [...]

Food For Thought “If I was a doughnut, I‘d eat myself.” Those words were spoken by my six-year old son as I sat watching him eat doughnuts yesterday. Our family talks about food a lot. My daughter talks about what we should have for supper while we are eating lunch. It’s genetic. “Daddy, Jesus is [...]

Icees, Bikes, and Brain Freezes Over the past few weeks my family has been catching up on movies, sometimes seeing two films in one day. I love movies. As a matter of fact, the two things I love most about owning my own business are— getting to wear whatever I want to work (no neckties, [...]