From Chicago to Cajun Country - smoked, fried and spiked.

My boyfriend and I are treating ourselves to a BBQ/Soul Food/Cajun holiday this year. We are driving from Chicago to New Orleans, and then we'll fly home. Right now our eyes are bigger than our already gigantic appetites--and so sadly we have to narrow down our choices, especially in Arkansas and Mississippi (the two places that we haven't been to yet.) So I am going to give you guys our path of destruction, and ask if there is anything that we are missing that we must do, or if there is anything on our list that is not worth it. Also, we will probably only be in Cajun country for one night (New Years!), and then in New Orleans for a day--so I think we have those stops covered. Here goes:

1st stop: Murphysboro, IL | 17th St. Bar and Grill, home of Mike Mills (The Legend), and his thrice award winning (Memphis in May) ribs. Can't wait for this! He has a couple of places in Vegas that we've been to, and loved. He also consulted Danny Meyer on Blue Smoke in Manhattan, which for yankee BBQ is also quite good.

http://www.4-17th-rib.com/history.htm

2nd stop: Owensboro, KY- Shady Rest and Ole' South. (We have been to Owensboro a few times, and have tried all of the BBQ places in town. I just love Shady Rest. The first time I went, I was with 2 friends. The second time I went was 2 years later, and I went with just one of same people that I had originally gone with. When we walked through the door, the waitress looked up, smiled, and said, "where's the other guy?" You have to love that!

3rd stop: Memphis, TN | Cozy Corner and the BBQ shop. Note, we will be here on Christmas Eve/Day, and so we are not counting on too much BBQ while we are here. Any Chinese (other Asian) recs would be appreciated.

4th stop: Little Rock, AR and surrounds: These are the recs that we have so far--Starne's, Sim's, Whole Hog BBQ, Mr. Mason's BBQ, Dixie Pig, L & M BBQ, Gene's BBQ, Craig's BBQ, Smokin' Joe's Rib House. We are trying to widdle down our list to about 4.

5th stop: Greenville, MS and surrounds | White Front Cafe' (Rosedale, MS), Doe's Eat Place, Airport Cafe' (Cleveland, MS), Abe's BBQ (Greenwood, MS).

6th stop: Jackson, MS | Hal and Mal's, Cock-o-the-Walk (Ridgeland, MS)

On the way down to the 7th stop maybe Bowie's Smokehouse in Brookhaven, MS.

7th stop: West Hattiesburg, MS | For Leatha's it's a bit out of the way, but that's the whole point of a trip like this.

8th stop: Cajun Country, LA

9th stop: New Orleans, LA

Great suggestions can and should be rewarded with Muffaletta sandwiches fresh from Central Grocery! At least those coming from Chicago--

I did this trip back in May to my hometown N.O. and ate at more than 20 places along the way, mainly in Memphis (Interstate BBQ), Cajun Country (Prejeans in Lafayette, Cafe de Amis in Beaux Bridge and a good seafood restaurant that sits on the river for some spicy crawfish) and lots of N.O. places (Turtle soup and roast beef po-boys at Mandina's, Drago's in Metarie for char-broiled oysters, Restaurant Mandich for Italian, Brigsten's, Stella!, Acme, Casemento's, Uglesich's and many others). Didn't make it to Central Grocery (tried but closed on my only attempt). I still have most of my printouts if you have any specific inquiries. Also, check out the N.O. tread below. Enjoy!

Hey Trixiepea,

If you're going to be spending more than a day or two in the Delta, you should definitely get over to Helena, Arkansas for an afternoon visit. I went to the Delta for about a week last June, and Helena was my last stop before hittin' the highway back to Chicago. What a great, classic little town! The place feels like time stopped around 1950 (sadly, the local salaries and social services are also on a Truman-era level) and everyone was as nice as could be. Just park at one end of Cherry Street, check out the various shops, the Delta Cultural Center for some blues history, and then go eat at the no-name soul food shack which is right around the corner from the Cultural Center (across the street from the liquor store by the old train depot - I know it sounds like I'm being vague here, but once you get there you'll see what I mean!!). The woman who runs the restaurant actually took my friend and me into the kitchen to show us what she had to offer that day and let us pick and choose out of the dozen or so pots and pans she had laid out. Whoa, daddy. Good stuff (chicken, greens with ham hocks, gizzards, corn bread, yams, something she called "Indian corn", which was creamed corn mixed with dirty rice and beans in a hot gravy. MM-mm) all washed down with a Coke in the bottle. Great place. Have a great trip. I'm jealous.

Rebbe

Great trip. You'll enjoy 17th St. I was down there for court in Mt. Vernon a few months back, added the hour round trip to 17th St. and brought back some ribs and pork to confim that geography wasn't the reason it tasted so good. Murphysboro and Carbondale are nice towns, and 17th St. is a great restaurant by any standard. Get a sampler platter. The ribs are good, but the pulled pork and brisket also are stellar. For sides, the beans and slaw are great, as is the salad, believe it or not. Not sure what Mill's involvement is these days, but the pitmaster, a rangy black guy in about his late 30's is a genius.

I ate there several times a week over the course of a very long trial a few years back. By the time you get there, the satelite 17th St. might be up and running at the first Marion exit off 57. You should still take the 30 minute drive over to M'boro though. For a very modest but in its own way solid BBQ in the peculiar Little Egypt style (pork on a hamburger bun w/ pickles and mustard-spiked slaw) plus good catfish and homemade pies, look up Pulley's in Marion. In fact, the whole area is lousy with good fried catfish, and lots of decent cue.

Your route is pretty meandering, so I don't know if you'll pass through Cairo, but this devestated former boomtown is worth a look around the downtown with its Tiffany glass, Taft bronzes, and the first nice batch of antebellum plantation-style mansions.

PS, the Mt. Vernon ref reminded me that others have raved about a place called Barbacoa, I believe. I had misunderstood it to be a Mexican roadhouse of some kind (lots on 57 catering to migrants and mules) but am now told it is run by a gentleman famous for his BBQ. We look forward to the report.

Great suggestions so far--JeffB, have you ever eaten at either Shemwell's BBQ or Mack's BBQ stand in Cairo?

I know it doesn't necessarily mean it's going to be good BBQ, but I love it when a pull up to a BBQ joint that looks like Shemwell's:

Yes, and I thought it was good. But this was so very long ago (circa 1992) I doubt my experience means much. There is also a tiny town off of 57 between Marion and Cairo named Ullin that had a fine smokehouse. I actually went to a wedding rehersal dinner there. Good food, including the peculiar grilled steaks slathered with mollases. Not sure of the name, but it won't matter. The town has like 100 people.

(It's amazing how unpopulated and remote that part of the world is. Look at a map: its not too far from several population centers, but (like parts of Appalachia and the Ozarks) the area between the rivers down there seems to have been left behind. This leads to the isolated preservation of some interesting foodways, among other things.)

It is without a doubt the most beautiful part of this state. You really also should stop about 20 min south of Marion in the tiny town of Lick Creek, which sits right on the precipice of the glacial moraine. The sheer white limestone escarpment, Draper's bluff, makes the town something of a climber's destination, as well as, supposedly, one of the best places in the Midwest for mountain biking. Just before Lick Creek os Fern Clyffe (sp?) state park. If it's daylight and you will be in a 4X4 of some kind, there are some excellent and easy logging trails that go past pretty scenic stuff, including high waterfalls.

If you are really lucky, the folks at the Lick Creek General Store will be there and cooking. This little shack/gas station is right out of central casting for Andy Griffith or Lil Abner. The store will be on your left as you enter "town," before the moraine and the picturesque whitewashed Baptist church below. It is run by a group of hippies/former pilots who ran a "charter service" in the Carribean and Central America befor making their way to far Southern Illinois. On of them is a great chef, especially BBQ.

trixie-pea,

These are from some notes I took on a similar trip a few years back. You MIGHT have some luck on Christmas in Memphis at Earnestine & Hazel's, at 531 S. Main, a dark, deco, neighborhood joint housed in a former brothel where you can drink in the red lit upstairs rooms. I spotted Cozy Corner's Raymond Robinson Jr. order a $5 'soul burger' there after a long hot day in the pit. 901-523-9754 . . . Across the street is Memphis' oldest cafe, the Arcade Restaurant, where you can eat your country ham with biscuits and gravy ($7) in Elvis' favorite booth. There's a hangover cure on the menu: "one slice of cold cheese and one warm Budweiser." Sundays-Thursdays, 8 am to 3 pm, 5:30 pm to 10 pm; Fridays-Saturdays until 11 pm. Main. 901-526-5757. Both are just a few blocks south of Beale.

Not food related but tiny Holly Springs, Mississippi is worth a stop for Graceland Too where Paul MacLeod and his son Elvis Aaron MacLeod--"The World's #1 Elvis fans"--transformed their antebellum home into an Elvis shrine more reverent and bizarre than anything in Memphis. The place is packed to the ceiling with esoteric Elvibilia (His high school report card) and the thousands of Presley annotated TV Guides. They'll give you a head-spinning tour for $5 anytime 24/7, probably even on Christmas. When its over they'll take your Polaroid and stick it on the wall next to thousands of others. Take Highway 78 (Lamar Avenue) south from Memphis about 30 miles to the Holly Springs exit. Take Highway 4 into town; 200 E. Gholson is right off the square. 662-252-7954 Holly Springs is also the home of the late great bluesman Junior Kimbrough, and the still kicking R.L. Burnside. Also the location of Altman's Cookie's Fortune


I second the rec. for Craig's Bar B-Q, which I believe, is written up in Road Food: turn off I-40, exit 202 in De Valls Bluff, AR, pop 708. Then take State Road 33 about 2 miles south to Highway 70 and hang a right. Four miles down on the left there's a little shack. Daily 9 am to 9 pm. Cash. 870-998-2616


Mike