My oldest sister, Jenny–she goes by Jen, and has for years, but I haven’t outgrown calling her Jenny, she allows it– she was in my city yesterday and the day before. She and her family live in Cleveland, Ohio but every year they spend a week in August at Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Where I live in North Carolina is about 2 hours from Myrtle Beach and along the route they drive to get there. So they leave a few days early and stop here on Thursday and leave on Saturday. This year it was her, my brother-in-law (Bob), my oldest nephew (Quintin), and Quintin’s girlfriend (Clara). Last year our middle sister came along. This year it was just the four of them. I left work early on Thursday to hang out with them in their hotel’s pool. Then I took all of Friday off so I could spend the whole day with them.
On Friday, we knew we were going to go out to dinner with Josh, who had to work, but got off a little early. Clara lived in North Carolina for many years when she was a kid and because of that, she craved some southern barbecue. I wouldn’t say the place we went, Chason’s, is the best restaurant in my city, but that’s where we went. It was a buffet full of southern food. Lots of pulled pork, fried chicken, baked chicken, bbq chicken, chitlins, fried liver, lots of diffrent types of fried fish, liver and onions, stewed tomatoes, lima beans, field peas, all the good southern stuff. Josh is very discerning when it comes to pulled pork. He believes with his whole heart that the best pulled pork is smoked. Most of what is served in the restaurants down here is not smoked. It’s baked or broiled or something in the oven. Not the best, but it’s still good. Obviously he thinks the pulled pork he makes in his backyard smoker is the best.
This “best restaurant” question is also like the “favorite song” question…favorite country song? Favorite pop song? Have to narrow it down. Same with the restaurants. Chason’s is probably the best barbecue restaurant in my city. Simply because of it being a buffet with a massive amount of variety. But there’s also a best Chinese restaurant, a best Mexican restaurant, and everything in between. Jenny commented that our city is great in that we have almost literally everything here. Want to go out for a steak dinner? Take your pick from Outback, Texas Roadhouse, Longhorn, or even this local place called Luigi’s. And all four of them are within 2 miles of each other. Actually three of them are on the same street. I think the fact that we’re a military town has contributed to the assortment of businesses we have here. Except for the Cheesecake Factory! The closest one is at least an hour away and no matter how much the people in my city have begged and pleaded and advocated for one to come here, they just haven’t built one. It’s o.k. though. Jenny is coming back down in October, but not to my city. We’ll be hanging out in the northern part of the state for the weekend where we have tickets to a stand-up comedy show. We can go to the Cheesecake Factory then.
Bottom line…there are too many restaurant choices in my city to definitively declare one as the best. However, when you’re dining with family, like I was last night at Chason’s, then obviously that place is going to be the best.
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