Chicken and Waffles

So I have been sitting on this article for quite some time and for today's post it seem appropriate to pull out of the archives.  On last summer's bike trip we had Marcus, our token Southern gentleman who the end all, be all on everything related to the South.  One of the great debates, probably between to ghost towns, was whether or not chicken and waffles was a southern thing.  I, a true Yankee, believed this combination of breakfast and lunch was in fact Southern and he had never heard of such a concept.

A few months after the trip wrapped up, The Salt set out to debunk the myth and it turns out chicken and waffles is southern dish, "but a Southern dish once or twice removed from the South."  While Jefferson brought back the waffle iron from France, jazz legends like Sammy Davis Jr. and Nat King Cole would order the combination in Harlem after playing.

Now to bring this all together, before I left town today the whole family headed out to Durham to check out Dames Chicken and Waffles.  My father's mind was pretty much blown as he, just like Marcus, had never heard of the pairing.  The only thing better than some fried chicken with sweet potato waffles?  Fried chicken, sweet potato waffles and a side of grits.

After lunch I rolled myself into my car and started the long journey north.  When I hit Richmond I decided to take a quick stretch break and head over to Blue Bee Cider, Virginia’s first and only urban cidery.  Their building is located just off of the James River in a fantastic old building which used to house a coffee roasting company.  I got to the shop just in time for a quick tour and then it was over to test the five ciders they currently make (the company just started selling their product about six months ago).  In honor of Small Business Saturday, I took home some of the Hopsap Shandy which is cider fermented with some hops.

From there it was back on the road and back to The Greatest City in America.