Ten Coolest Looking Roadfood Spots I’ve Visited

I had intended to post this week about my Saturday lunch outing. But you know what they say about the best laid plans. The meal wasn’t particularly good and left me with little desire to write about it. I am usually hesitant to post a mainly negative review about restaurants, not wanting to do any harm to the reputation of a long-standing establishment that may have just had a bad day. 

Rerunning an old post on the best roadfood I’ve eaten during my travels around the U.S. became my Plan B. But just as I started to put that together, it occurred to me that I had been thinking recently about the extent to which a classic, old-school atmosphere excites me as much as the food when visiting a restaurant that has been around for generations. 

So I switched plan B to this new list of some of the coolest looking – and feeling – restaurants I’ve visited when traveling outside of the Philadelphia region.

There are other restaurants besides those listed below that could easily be on this list if not for the fact that I have no decent photos of their interior. 

These are in random order, except for the first one – Smitty’s – which is unquestionably my favorite of the lot when it comes to atmosphere:

Smitty’s Market (Lockhart, Texas)

Smitty’s is one of several legendary barbecue joints in the town of Lockhart, Texas. But it’s one of a kind when it comes to transporting visitors back to a previous era via its appearance and overall vibe. We parked in the rear and entered straight into the smoke room, where meats are slowly cooked in a large brick smoker and a pile of oak logs burns on the floor next to an opening at one end of the smoker, providing the necessary heat and smoke. 

After receiving our food, we headed through the double doors into an equally classic dining room and store to pay and grab a place to eat at one of their wood tables. 

Shapiro’s Delicatessen (Indianapolis, Indiana)

My longtime readers know of my love for Jewish-style delis. No other one that I’ve visited during a lifetime of eating corned beef on rye has given me the rush of nostalgic excitement I felt upon stepping into Shapiro’s in Indianapolis. It’s a cafeteria-style restaurant that looks like it could be out of a scene from a 1950s black-and-white film. 

Tinsley Bible Drug Co. (Dandridge, Tennessee)

Perhaps no other roadfood genre excites me as much as old drug stores that still have a lunch counter and soda fountain in the back. One of the most classic-looking I’ve visited is the Tinsley Bible Drug Co. in eastern Tennessee. Bible is the name of one of the store’s founders. I mistakenly expected to see Bibles when I first entered. But it’s a standard old drug store with a counter and some tables in the back. They still serve breakfast and lunch along with a nice array of fountain treats. 

The Lobster Shack at Two Lights (Cape Elizabeth, Maine)

Coastal New England seafood shacks are another of my roadfood loves. None that I’m aware of offers better views than The Lobster Shack in Cape Elizabeth, Maine, which I’ve had the pleasure of visiting several times over the years. While they have indoor seating, if the weather is right, I can’t imagine sitting anywhere other than their patio, which faces the expansive Atlantic. What better environment could there be to enjoy a lobster roll or fried clams?

Zaharakos Ice Cream Parlor (Columbus, Indiana)

Most of my favorite old-school restaurants give off a mid-twentieth century vibe. An exception is Zaharakos, which goes back to the turn of the twentieth century and makes visitors feel like they could be back in Victorian times. The above photo is one example of what I’m referring to. There are many others. 

Summit Diner (Somerset, Pennsylvania)

One of the first posts for this blog was devoted to my favorite diner – the Summit, which is close to an hour east of Pittsburgh and just a couple blocks off the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Both its steel box of an exterior and gorgeous interior are the perfect embodiment of what comes to mind when I think about how a classic diner should look. 

Crown Candy Kitchen (St. Louis, Missouri)

Although the Crown Candy Kitchen first opened in 1913, it was eventually converted into what it still represents today: a beautiful example of a mid twentieth century combination sweet shop and luncheonette. Stepping foot into this place is like traveling 70 years back in time. I can think of no better place to enjoy a sandwich and malt. 

The Redwood Steakhouse (Anita, Iowa)

It was in 2018 that my wife and I ventured to Iowa and eastern Nebraska. The trip’s food theme was old-school, supper-clubby steakhouses. None fit that bill in a more nostalgic and inviting way than the Redwood Steakhouse in southwest Iowa. Not only did they have wood paneling out the wazoo, but they serve the most spectacular relish tray I’ve ever seen. And in this type of place, a relish tray is part of the atmosphere. 

Jesse’s Embers (Des Moines, Iowa)

As part of the same theme on that Iowa trip, we had dinner at Jesse’s Embers. Among the long-standing steakhouses we visited that week, Jesse’s was the classiest. It’s been around since 1963 and looks like an establishment where a lot of business account meals have been downed over the years. It has the look and feel of a quintessential late twentieth century upscale steakhouse, and it’s still getting the job done in the 21st. 

Rosie’s (Tioga, Pennsylvania)

Rosie’s was called Me-Ma’s Country Kitchen when my friend and I stopped to eat there while on our way to Buffalo to see the Eagles play the Bills in 2019. Based on the online photos I found, it doesn’t appear that much has changed there, at least in terms of the interior layout, which is its leading attraction for me. It is the vision of a small-town cafe that serves three square meals a day for the locals. 

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Thanks for your forbearance with regard to this post full of old material. I have a pizza outing with a lot of promise scheduled for this week and plan on posting about it next week.