Roads to Everywhere
There was a time in America when the car was king. When road or rail were the two affordable options for long travel and most preferred the freedom of the highway. Air travel was an extravagance. Vacation? Pack up the wagon. Sales? Fill your trunk with samples and jump in the sedan. Holidays? Pile in packages and hit the road. It was rubber and road and maps that you could never refold. It also put regional cuisine on the endangered species list.
The romantic, winding, two-lane state highways that made their way through small town America gave way to the Interstate System. Designed to quickly move military equipment from point A to point B and be wide enough to allow aircraft to land and take off, it had no time for the towns and cities it bypassed in the quest of efficiency. The diners and taverns that served local cuisine stopped being a convenient place for a quick meal because of their lack of proximity to the road now traveled.
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This change also shifted the curiosity of the American palette. Instead of having something unusual from their normal fare, the modern driver sought comfort in the homogenized offerings of fast-food chains. With rare variation which still remain — mustard and onions, the default condiments in the south, ketchup and pickles everywhere else — the meal enjoyed a few days before in Oxnard would be the same as the meal had tonight in Omaha. Regional differences faded from the menu as well as the shelves in our stores. Produce was engineered to travel long distances and look perfect; they are glorious in their bounty — and tasted like water.
I, like most, had become used to hopping a plane to reach my destination. Whether it be across to the coast, or the midlands for holidays, I bypassed most of the country to end up where I needed to be. When you start in one location and end in another, you lose touch with everything in between. Travel food became even more homogenized. The one-off, semi-famous local place that earned a spot in the food court of the airport was as close as I came to regional cuisine during the journey. And then came COVID. And with it rediscovery of the road trip.
A funny thing happened while we were all so busy flying over the states we used to drive through — local, regional chains sprouted and grew, and their locations moved towards the sprawling interstate. Where before motorists had only the big three chains from which to choose, now regional favorites beckoned. Culvers, Runza, In-N-Out, Freddy’s, Whataburger, and Chap’s Pit Beef are but a few of the regional options to be found. Unique to their regions, they also provide an appetizer of what could be found if one ventures a bit further from the tarmac ribbon.
The pace of a road trip is already slower than sitting in a metal tube surrounded by strangers watching limited entertainment options. Adding an hour to the trip to discover a regional delicacy and experience the people of a place is to reconnect with the entirety of our country. It is to remember that life is a trek and not just waypoints on a task list. Life, as well as travel, is about the experience and the memories you collect. The destination is only a means to an end.
Sitting in a burger joint like Stalla’s Bar & Grill in Bellevue, Nebraska or in the original location of Chap’s Pit Beef in Baltimore, you can see why these places not only continued, but flourished. There is an honesty to the product. They do one thing and do it extremely well. They cater to the people who live in the area and they answer only to them. They are not homogenized. They are regional. You get more of the place than a road sign that passes by at seventy miles per hour. You see the people who dine there, what they wear and how they interact. In short, you get to see America.
Comment below on your favorite regional places that Feed The Muse readers should hit while on the road.
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