Up, Up and Aweigh

Just a found a new gem in Greenville thanks to my friend Austin. The next time you find yourself near the downtown airport and you are hungry (that would be 24/7 for me), take off to Runway Cafe. At the end of Airport Road Extension is the old downtown flight school now turned restaurant. What a great place. You sit inside or outside right on the runway and watch the planes take off and land. It makes for great theater. I'm told that if you drive up in your plane you get a 20% discount. Sure wish I had a plane. The food was excellent. I had their Yeager burger - angus beef or a spicy black bean patty with ham, homemade pimento cheese, lettuce, tomato. I, of course, had the beef. Delicious! They have Kittyhawk pesto chicken salad, Rickenbacker swiss/steak sauce/fried onion burger, Earhart fried tilapia, Orville Wright chicken wrap, Lindberg quesadilla...you get the picture. Soups, salads, burgers, sandwiches, wraps. Lunch and dinner. Beer and Wine. I was full and ran out of time, but next time, I'm having their fried oreos for dessert. $2.99 for 5. Burgers, wraps and sandwiches are $7 - $10. Runway Cafe is a great little place to land. TEM

My Kinda House

The year was 1955. Two major world changing phenomena occured. The world was graced with the birth of The Eating Man and Waffle House opened their doors. Both similar in so many ways. Since then WH has served 1,173,838,328 hashbrown orders, 1,527,602,959 eggs and 1,108,574,633 orders of grits. The similarity? I've eaten most of that. Most impressive is that they serve 368 strips of bacon every minute 24/7/365. Now you see why I'm so busy. WH never closes. They serve every minute of every day. The Eating Man never closes. I eat every minute of every day. WH has many signature items ala waffles and hashbrowns and their great coffee. It is good. Why? I am going to guess volumn. Everything is always fresh because of the volumn. Another similarity with TEM. I Like volumn and consume as such. Many of you don't know I'm a germaphobe. Yes, I like cleanliness. At WH that has to be put aside for the sake of deliciousness. The WH way is bare hands...for everything. If you can't get over that, try another place. It is what it is. A couple of inside tips. Google Waffle House Coupons and get some freebees. I rarely don't have a coupon when I dine there. Usually a free waffle or free hashbrown or free coffee. Also check out their dollar menu. I get the egg and cheese biscuit. It's $1. I have them make my egg over medium and melt the cheese. Also, I have them "well" grill my biscuit both sides with butter using the paddles. It's a complete breakfast for $1. Add to that my free coffee (usually) and my day starts off right...for $1. Now, I of course leave a nice tip if my waitress has a good attitude. That's an interesting thing at WH. Those waitreses are real. Very real. They can be sweet. They can be funny. They can bite your head off. Somehow, in their training they are told to just "be yourself". And, they are. It makes for great theatre. As does the cooking. It's my favorite part of WH. Sitting at the counter on a stool watching the magic happen. It's really unbelieveable. No written orders, just a lot of yelling in a special language... a code. And many orders at the same time by multiple waitresses with wide ranging attitudes. "Pull one, Mark. Over E. Scattered, smothered, chunked, capped, covered".  Somehow the cooks keep it all straight. The requirement must be that they be MIT grads. I'm not smart enaough to be a WH cook. I just be a UT grad. TEM

Who'd a thunk?

When I think of Greenville Tech, I think of learning a trade like plumber or electrician or auto mechanic or nurse. I think of a technical college that provides a wealth of talent for the manufacturing facilities we so covet in our area. This past week, I was enlightened to a new dimension of Greenville Tech. First, I knew there were multiple campuses, but I was not aware of the fairly new Northwest campus. It is in the Northwest area of the county, in the Berea area. It is in an area not frequented in my world. Quite frankly and sadly, I felt lost getting there. It's just not a familiar area for me. Somewhere out White Horse Rd. take a left through a beautiful entranceway, drive down a long and spectacular tree lined drive and come upon a magnificent campus. Wow. I had no idea. In the midst of an apparently very low economic part of town is this resort like campus. On this campus houses a major I have never associated with Greenville Tech. Food. There are approx 400 culinary students learning to be world class chefs in a state of the art facility. Who'd a thunk? On this occasion, I was invited to participate in one of the many "meals" prepared by the students. Apparently, every third week or so, the college puts on an eating event to allow the students to showcase their talents. It is not open to the public, but it is open to anyone invited. In my case, someone who knew someone who knew someone asked me. This day it was a general buffet lunch. Sometimes it is a themed lunch or dinner. Upcoming events include an Italian night, German night, etc. The cost for this lunch was $8, all inclusive. It included tax, dessert and drink. No tipping allowed. Just the way I like it. I walked in and the first thing that struck me was the unbelieveable ice sculpture. Turns out, ice sculpting is part of the curriculum. The many students in attendance were dressed in full white chef outfits along with chef hats. Their jackets were custome embroidered with their names. Impressive. The tables were dressed with linens, silver and glass. It was first class event. There was food everywhere. It reminded me of a spectacular Sunday brunch at a five star resort. I, of course, tried everything. Some things multiple times. Of those items I tried at least twice were...carved pork loin with mango and peach chutney, curried chicken with honey coconut glaze and lemon rice, poached egg with prosciutto on herb focaccia with basil mustard hollandaise, vegetables with goat cheese and lemon flavored turkey breast, spinach pear frisee sald with curried hazelnuts and there was much, much more. The desserts I enjoyed many times over included scotch scones with clotted cream, fresh fruit filled crepes and fresh baked danishes and muffins drizzled with flavored butter. Yes, I was a very bad Eating Man this day and I'm sure my boyish Eating Man figure will be penalized severely. But what the heck, I'm ready for the next one. TEM

Pizza. Setting the Story Straight

Pizza. Most people don't know good from bad. It's sad but true. So many folk around these parts just don't know. It's not their fault. It just is what it is. First, let's dismiss the chains. All of them but one. The new Dominos thin crust is palpable in a pinch. A good deal at $8 for a large cheese. The new recipe is actually ok, but just ok. It's a desperation eat at best. The rest aren't worth any amount of money. Now with that said, I would receommend any of the chains above any frozen pizza. I place frozen pizza on par with dog food. Now on to real pizza, at least the best we have in these parts  (Greenville, SC). By pizza, I mean New York style pizza. Thin crust. The kind you fold over to eat. None of this Chicago thick pizza. All crust and no taste. It's like eating bread with a little sauce. Not for me. With that said, the goal is to find real  NYC pizza. Like Rays or any other thousands in the big city. Unfortunately, we can only get close. Just close. My top five are  5) Bertolos   4) Barleys    3) Titos   2) Morrettis   1) Tony's (the one on Haywood rd next to TJ Maxx...the other Tonys around town are not affiliated and are not in my top 10). At Tony's, get the 20" cheese for $14. You'll need an SUV for transport. Cheese pizza is the bellweather. Use cheese pizza to compare. It's the purest form of pizza and doesn't have all the toppings that mask the core taste. There are other pizzas around that are ok, but a notch behind my top 5. In my second five would be Happy Pie, Acropolis, The Olive Tree, Mellow Mushroom and Illeanos. There are those who like brick oven pizza. I don't. For those who do, I think Trio has an ok brick oven pizza and as does Whole Foods. My suggestion...save up and take a trip to NYC. TEM