Roadfood: The Coast-to-Coast Guide to 500 of the Best Barbeque Joints, Lobster Shacks, Ice Cream Parlors, Highway Diners, and Much More [Paperback]

Jane Stern (Author), Michael Stern (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 14, 2002

First published in 1977, the original Roadfood became an instant classic. James Beard said, "This is a book that you should carry with you, no matter where you are going in these United States. It's a treasure house of information."

Now this indispensable guide is back, in an even bigger and better edition, covering 500 of the country's best local eateries from Maine to California. With more than 250 completely new listings and thorough updates of old favorites, the new Roadfood offers an extended tour of the most affordable, most enjoyable dining options along America's highways and back roads.

Filled with enticing alternatives for chain-weary-travelers, Roadfood provides descriptions of and directions to (complete with regional maps) the best lobster shacks on the East Coast; the ultimate barbecue joints down South; the most indulgent steak houses in the Midwest; and dozens of top-notch diners, hotdog stands, ice-cream parlors, and uniquely regional finds in between. Each entry delves into the folkways of a restaurant's locale as well as the dining experience itself, and each is written in the Sterns' entertaining and colorful style. A cornucopia for road warriors and armchair epicures alike, Roadfood is a road map to some of the tastiest treasures in the United States.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The talented Sterns ( American Gourmet ) hit the highways again for this update of perhaps their most celebrated work. And again, American backroads and interstates come to life through livelier, more active? the authors' almost Grail-like quest for the kind of home-cooked food and restaurants that threaten to fade into oblivion, overshadowed by the homogeneous glare of the chain eatery. Roadfood celebrates venues most travelers would never venture near, let alone enter--like Lusco's in Greenwood, Miss. ("one of the weirdest, and most wonderful, restaurants in America"242 ), where green walls and grimy, chintz-curtained rooms belie the excellence of the "luxurious-tasting"243 (albeit expensive) food. Most of the state-by-state listed restaurants are, however, for dining on the cheap. They include Manny's Coffee Shop in Chicago ("a temple of honest food"129 ), the Smokestack Bar-B-Que in Kansas City, Mo.--where a "serious chaw of meat,"261 according to the Sterns, is "nothing less than the essence of the smoke pit, like barbecue bouillon"--and Duke's Barbecue in Orangeburg, S.C., where "there is no decor to speak of and . . . no music other than the thud of the cleaver hacking pork and the moans of pleasure, slurping, and licking that are a symphonic expression of people enjoying one of the great meals of the Southland."398 While one could hardly map a road trip by the Sterns' restaurant finds--some cities, like Chicago, are overrepresented, while the rest of Illinois is all but ignored--this fun and fanciful volume is pure pleasure.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"America's leading authorities on the culinary delights to be found while driving"
-- Newsweek magazine

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Product Details

• Paperback: 592 pages
• Publisher: Broadway; 1st Broadw edition (May 14, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0767908090
• ISBN-13: 978-0767908092
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,490,136 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Road trip!, October 7, 2002

By 

Andrew S. Rogers (Houston, Texas) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Roadfood: The Coast-to-Coast Guide to 500 of the Best Barbeque Joints, Lobster Shacks, Ice Cream Parlors, Highway Diners, and Much More (Paperback)

Few things can make the tedium of a long drive more bearable than the prospect of a decent place to eat along the way, and the restaurants listed in this guide are destinations in their own right.

Helpfully arranged by sections of the country, road food aficionados will find more than enough to keep them busy. Personally, I wanted to take off and tour Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana, as well as old haunts in Virginia. Being in the opposite corner of the country, though, I found a number of interesting looking places here to check out (as well as one or two I've already been to, and so I can attest to the reliability of the Stern's reviews).

I should note, though, that family members in Cody, Wyoming tell me that Franca's, which the Sterns list in this book, has in fact been closed for several years. So *caveat lector.* Things can change quickly in the restaurant world. Nevertheless, this is both a great reference and a fun title just for entertaining (if stomach growl-inducing) reading. If you're out on the road, be sure to keep a copy of this guide in your glove compartment.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Roadfood - Don't Leave Home Without It, August 17, 2002

By 

Dom Miliano (Denville, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Roadfood: The Coast-to-Coast Guide to 500 of the Best Barbeque Joints, Lobster Shacks, Ice Cream Parlors, Highway Diners, and Much More (Paperback)

I have traveled with the Sterns for many years (virtually!) I have most of their previous books on regional food and their pages are ketchup, mustard and butter stained with notes scribbled in the margins. When I heard that they wrote another new and updated version, I ordered one just in time for this summer's 1000 mile New England odyssey, make that vacation. Every recommendation was right on - priced right and exactly as described. This is important to note because I know in their "Eat Your Way Across The USA" release of a few years ago there were many out of date references. (We were disappointed last year in Wisconsin as our search for a Bratwurst joint ended at a boarded up and abandonded store front.) Happily, this one seems to be more current and we have yet to find a dead reference. If you love to eat and love to travel, this is the book for you.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Americana at its Best, December 4, 1999

By 

Martha Ratliff (Ann Arbor, Michigan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Roadfood (Paperback)

I always take this book with me when I travel by car. Without fail, it leads me to wonderful and quirky places to eat with Major Atmosphere which I never would have found otherwise. Local color plus. I do hope it will be updated and reissued.