The other day I was hosting some out-of-state folks for a business meeting in Greensboro, and afterward I asked them what kind of food they were in the mood for.
“Oh, whatever you would recommend,” one of them said.
In these cases, I don’t necessarily think about my personal favorite or what I’m hankering for at the moment; I just want to choose something my visitors will find different and fun and maybe even memorable.
I immediately thought of Pho Hien Voung, Jerusalem Market on Elm, Crafted The Art of the Taco and the Hops Burger Bar on Spring Garden Street.
If we’d been in Winston-Salem, my list might have included Mozelle’s, Sweet Potatoes, Foothills Brewpub and the Carving Board.
But while I was sorting through this Greensboro menu of choices inside my head, like Arnold Schwarzenegger in “The Terminator” scanning his cyborg brain for the perfect action-movie retort, that same guest amended his wish list.
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“But not Mexican,” he said.
Immediately, with Terminator-like efficiency, I eliminated Crafted, despite the fact that it offers Cuban, Korean and Nashville hot-chicken tacos.
As I was about to pull the trigger on one of the remaining three choices, my guest offered another refinement:
“Hey, how about some good North Carolina barbecue? Text us a place and we can all meet there.”
And they were gone to their hotels to freshen up.
And this is where I’m going to offend somebody.
I’m not saying you can’t get good barbecue in Greensboro, because you can, but nearly every city in America has at least one place that knows how to smoke some meat. For something that will stand out, you have to drive a long way on back roads and stand in line for a long time and hope there’s something left on the cutting block when you arrive.
On this day, we didn’t have time to drive to Lexington or Ayden, so I texted a friend of mine who’d recently served barbecue at his daughter’s wedding in High Point and asked for the name of the place.
My own daughter got married in Memphis and we catered Central BBQ, and people were fighting to get the last smoked chicken wing. If you’re picking a barbecue joint for one of the biggest parties you’re ever going to throw, then it’s got to be great, right?
My friend texted that his caterer had been Black Powder Smokehouse in Jamestown and that he’d highly recommend the brisket and the gouda mac and cheese.
So like somebody who knew what he was doing, I texted my business colleagues the address, and then I drove to Jamestown, which turned out to be a shorter trip than if we’d gone to a place in the city.
We had a great meal. Black Powder Smokehouse is one of those “when we run out, we run out” places — which I observe as a mark of excellence — and they hadn’t run out of what we wanted. I got a quarter pound of brisket, a couple of spare ribs, some gouda mac, a couple of Red Oaks and a slice of peanut butter pie, and my colleagues had versions on that same theme, including a Cheerwine chicken and peach cobbler.
By the way, you’ve got to love a place that sells ribs by the bone instead of the rack or half-rack. The perfect side dish.
Anyway, I share this example to show that we’re all making restaurant choices every day and that every decision we make and group we join and meal we eat is kind of a story in and of itself.
And every time somebody makes a decision to take the plunge and start a restaurant, it’s certainly a story, and often a terrifying roller-coaster ride that includes the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.
That’s why we have a full-time food editor, Michael Hastings.
Some of our most popular articles so far this year include Michael’s stories about Ronnie’s Country Store reopening in a new location and Johnny’s Farmhouse closing.
Earlier this month, Michael wrote about Kyndra Bell, a Winston-Salem woman who was working in a bank when she started making ice cream because she thought it would be “something cute” for her twin sons to sell in her cul-de-sac.
“It just kind of grew from there,” she said. And it grew so much that she eventually quit her job at the bank to start a pop-up business called Dream Kreams. She survived through the COVID-19 pandemic, developed a loyal customer base and opened her own store on West Third Street last month.
Michael writes plenty of stories like that. One of my favorites was about a Mexican-American family that moved from California for a better life and started a food truck called LaCallejera in Lewisville.
“California had gotten so expensive,” said Karla Delgado, who started the business with her husband, Sol Muniz. “And my mom was always saying, ‘You should move here and get a food trailer’ — so we did!”
The couple opened their business on Thanksgiving Day. “We figured what better way to give thanks than to work on the opening of our food truck,” Muniz said. “We actually had a good day.”
These are stories that transcend the topic of food: they’re about human beings overcoming obstacles to do something meaningful that makes all of us happy.
We’re going to keep writing these, so let us know when you find more people and places like these with stories to tell.
Dimon Kendrick-Holmes is North Carolina editor for Lee Enterprises. Email him at dimon.kendrick-holmes@greensboro.com