If you follow Rachel Ray on her "Tasty Travels," you may be under the impression that good food can only be found in artsy-fartsy sections of big cities, near ski slopes, or by beach resorts. Not so! I have discovered that there are chain restaurants serving up stuff as tasty as you could ever hope to find at easily affordable prices.
First, make the acquaintance of Zaxby's. I've seen the Zaxby's logo around town for a couple of years now but I always kept rolling. Something about the logo and design of their buildings made me think it must be some place where you would pay $10 for a chicken sandwich with some sort of oddball French dressing, or peculiar gourmet seasoning of chivas. However, a co-worker asked for a Zaxby's gift certificate for our Secret Santa gift exchange at work, and then when I noticed a Zaxby's cup on another co-worker's desk on my way out to lunch the other day, so I finally decided to stop in. I drove past the usual stops of Burger King, Taco Bell and Arby's and entered the new world of Zaxby's.
I shouldn't have waited two years. The Cajun Club chicken sandwich was the advertised feature of the week, so I had one. Unbelievable. This was a fantastic-quality chicken sandwich with bacon, lettuce and a side of fries for about $6.50, including medium drink. Anywhere else you would easily have paid over $10 for this after you left a tip. I wound up eating there twice more that week! The next time I went into a grungy Taco Bell and found myself waiting with a dozen other people for a damp taco I had to advise a couple of my fellow patrons to give Zaxby's a try, as not only was the food hot and unbelievably flavorful, but I get it in about :59 seconds, too!
Bojangle's is no Zaxby's, but I knew when I saw one of these opening up nearby it spelled danger for my waistline. Bojangle's, for those not familiar, serves eggs, sausage, bacon and gravy all day long and into the night at the drive-thru. We used to go to one of these in Chattanooga near my grandmother's house. The new one down here...well...they don't have their act together so much service-wise. You ask for dine-in and they serve it to you in a paper bag. Go to the drive-thru and order sausage and eggs and drive away finding there's no fork in the bag. You can order two sausage-and-eggs biscuits with a side of gravy and orange juice and it's $5 one week, $6.25 the next, because no one on the register knows what anything costs. Unfortunately they've got me hostage because where else am I going to get sausage, eggs, biscuits and gravy for under $7 without waiting 10 minutes to be seated and another half-hour for the food? Nowhere. So despite the soapy taste I sometimes detect in their eggs, Bojangle's has become my Friday night treat to myself.
Bon Appetite.
And homemade drive-thru breakfast is also hard to find. (Although I'd never let gravy get anywhere near my food, orange juice or biscuits. Some things just don't work well across state lines!)
I love pepper in my gravy! I'm very liberal, not at all conservative, when it comes to shaking that miniature Pottery Barn rooster over my food. Who doesn't love ladling out that beautiful steaming comfort slop on homemade mashed potatoes - or dressing. But scrambled eggs is way too funky. On a beautiful melting biscuit... I'll take your word that it's good. It's butter and sweet sweet jam that are simple, classic and all American.
Nope, gravy on my biscuits, just too heavy. But the South is all about them biscuits smothered in gravy.
=_=
zzzzzz....a meal like that calls for a nap!
A major fave for me is stir fried tofu. (Cubed.) Not soft tofu, but stir-fried with rice and veggies and soy sauce. How California, huh?
Otherwise, you can't beat good old junk food.
The Bojangles near my work does an all-you-can-eat Wednesdays. I tried conquering it and failed.
The McDonald's breakfast is another winner for me. I particularly love the Hotcakes & Sausage platter and the sausage biscuits. Imagine my delight when I saw this article http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,214758,00.html stating that Mickey-D's might start a Breakfast All Day program of their own. Breakfast is my favorite of all the meals anyhow, so why not make it easier on me to get what I want?
Hardee's had great biscuits. I think they cut and ran from the Atlanta market entirely (VN, you'll know this chain as "Carl's Jr").
Art, I know you and I love Cracker Barrel. Ever been to a Bob Evans? That's some good eatin' too. I make a point of stopping whenever my travels take me near one. There used to be one in Georgia, at Southlake Mall, but it died more than a decade ago.