Garden & Gun

Openings: A Landmark Debut

A museum, by definition, is where people look at objects. But at the Smithsonian’s new <b>National Museum of African American History and Culture</b>, you’ll sometimes need to look twice.<p>One of the most striking pieces featured in the museum’s central exhibit, <i>Slavery and Freedom</i>, is a scrubby pinewood …

First Listen: Marc Broussard’s Cover of “Twistin’ the Night Away”

These days, <b>Marc</b> <b>Broussard</b>’s Carencro, Louisiana, home is silent. His four children—two sons, two daughters—have reluctantly returned to school. “It’s unfortunate for them,” he says with a laugh. “But it’s nice and quiet around here. It let’s me focus on my craft.” Over the course of nearly fifteen …

Happy Hour: A Bourbon Sour with a Twist

Sometimes, you really can drink your troubles away. Or at least some of them. For chef Dean Neff, of <b>PinPoint</b> restaurant in Wilmington, North Carolina, trouble came with an over-delivery of an unfamiliar ingredient. “Last year, we had buckets of local holy basil,” says the chef, who builds his menus …

Good Dog: A Mythic Mutt

When my husband walked in the front door from a work trip early one Friday evening, he was greeted with a full-on Miley Cyrus dance party, featuring our five-year-old, Harriet, wearing one of her skirts like a tube top as she leaped and pranced around the dining room shoutin, “Hands up! They’re …

Why We’ll Miss Legendary Broadcaster Charles Osgood

Get ready to say goodbye to the bow tie. This weekend, Baltimore-bred Charles Osgood anchors his last <b>CBS News Sunday Morning</b>. The newsmagazine has become its own kind of church—a weekly devotion with quirky, charming, and revealing segments that often reaffirm a faith in humanity. The pastor at the …

Pineapple Upside-Down Cornmeal Cake

At <b>Southern Soul Barbeque</b> on Georgia’s St. Simons Island, not only can you order pulled pork and hush puppies but you can also tuck into a jerk chicken burrito, a griddled pimento cheese sandwich, or one-off specials such as smoked amberjack spread, pork necks with gravy over rice, and this …

Ask G&G: The Rules of Cornbread

<b>Q: Is there a “right” way to make cornbread? In other words, sugar or no sugar?</b><p>This is a family magazine, and it’s the Food Issue, so I’ll try to be diplomatic here—which may not work: The addition of sugar to this centuries-old bread is a mark of low character. The color of the cornmeal matters …

Southern Blooms: A Paper Garden

Camellia, gardenia, and magnolia blossoms are living symbols of the South, and New Orleans artist <b>Suzonne Stirling</b> memorializes their beauty in stunning detail—not in paint or pastels, but in exquisitely colored, cut, and assembled crepe and tissue paper. “I make paper flowers because they make me …

A Southern Oyster Bar Revival

When Bryan Rackley and his business partners were preparing to open Kimball House—their grandly nostalgic restaurant set in a former Atlanta-area train depot—they came across a turn-of-the-century menu for a formal dinner. The meal began with a Manhattan and an oyster. “Frankly, that’s not a good …

The Southern Agenda: October/November 2016

<b>A Real Pig Deal</b> <i><br>Bahama, North Carolina</i><p>Some of the best pit masters in the Tar Heel State will be on hand at the inaugural <b>NC Barbecue Revival</b>, a three-day-long barbecue fantasy camp held on Green Button Farm in Bahama, to help you brush up on wood selection, whole-hog breakdown, sauce preferences, or …

New Southern Hot Plates

<b>Bird In Hand</b> <i><br>Baltimore, MD</i><p>The first Baltimore chef to win a James Beard Award, Spike Gjerde of Woodberry Kitchen is continuing his total renovation of the Charm City’s dining scene by partnering with the beloved Ivy Bookshop to open a literary café in Charles Village in October. The concept: …

Going Whole Hog

Some of the best pit masters in the Tar Heel State will be on hand at the inaugural <b>NC Barbecue Revival</b>, a three-day-long barbecue fantasy camp held on Green Button Farm in Bahama, to help you brush up on wood selection, whole-hog breakdown, sauce preferences, or any other ’cue concerns. Splurge for …

Today in Southern History: A North Carolina Film Shocks the World

Think of Wilmington, North Carolina, and extreme violence, depravity, and profanity aren’t the first things that come to mind. But the sleepy colonial port provided the setting for exactly that when film director David Lynch arrived to shoot his surreal cult classic, <i>Blue Velvet,</i> released 30 years …

2016 Good Dog Photo Contest

Return to Mayberry, America’s Favorite Southern Small Town

For 26 years, fans of Sheriff Andy Taylor from all over the South and beyond have traveled to Mount Airy, North Carolina—Mayberry, to them—in late September. They’ll gather this September 21 to 25 again for <b>Mayberry Days</b>, a celebration of Surry County's most famous native son and the series that …

Pickle-Brined Dipped Chicken

It came from Piedmont North Carolina, where Benjamin Franklin Cureton, of Frankie’s Chicken Shack in Salisbury, had the brainstorm to plunge fried chicken into the vinegar-based, tomato-tinged barbecue sauce native to nearby Lexington. <b>Dipped chicken</b>—the sweet-sour-spicy-crunchy result—kept …

Holding Court With John Grisham

Those who would dismiss <b>John Grisham</b> as so much literary flimflam miss the point. “I love to read Southern literature,” he says, “but I don’t aspire to write it.” What the Jonesboro, Arkansas, native does write are white-knuckle page-turners, interlocking the tableaux of the law and the South. …

Amanda Shires: Family Harmony

Amanda Shires offers a warm greeting as she opens the door to the house she shares with her husband, the musician Jason Isbell. At first glance, their place looks like many chockablock Nashville subdivision homes built with standard-issue bricks and vanilla-colored trim. But inside, the decoration …

What’s In Season: Pecans

On a recent drive from Atlanta to Tybee Island, Georgia, Steven Satterfield skipped Interstate 16 in favor of two-lanes through the middle of the state. “I found myself on winding back roads, surrounded by pecan groves,” says the executive chef and co-owner of <b>Miller Union</b>. “They were so beautiful …

Austin’s Neon Cowboy

Evan Voyles remembers lying in the way-back of the family station wagon—a butter-yellow 1960 Rambler—watching the neon lights flash by as the car passed through towns on the way to Abilene, Texas, en route to see his grandparents. The Voyles family lived in Austin—had been there generations—and …

Southern Comfort Classics

Recipes are more than instructions. They’re stories, rich with recollection, handed-down wisdom, and time-honored techniques. Here, six chefs share their takes on the home-cooked Southern dishes that feed their souls.<p><i>Click on the recipes below:</i><p><b>Pickle-Brined Dipped Chicken</b> <i><br>“It reminds me of something</i> …

Cutting-Edge Cookbooks

“In the South, pimento cheese is a little bit like barbecue: everyone swears theirs is the best” is how Ashley Christensen, the chef-owner of Poole’s Downtown Diner in Raleigh and the proprietor of five other Raleigh restaurants, slides into her pimento cheese recipe in <b>Poole’s: Recipes and Stories</b> …

Carla Hall’s Callaloo Collard Greens

<b>Carla Hall</b>’s grandmother Freddie Mai Glover cooked collard greens only one way. “She added pork and simmered them a really long time,” says Hall, a Nashville native who cohosts <i>The Chew</i> on ABC and runs <b>Carla Hall’s Southern Kitchen</b> in Brooklyn. Now that Hall has added consulting chef for the …

Shrimp and Carolina Gold Rice ”Grits“

All his life, <b>Shuai Wang</b> has loved shrimp and rice. “My mom says I would sit down and eat two or three pounds of shrimp all by myself,” he recalls. Now the Beijing-born, New York–raised chef runs the critically acclaimed <b>Short Grain</b> food truck in a city that appreciates both Southern staples as much …

Louisiana Garlic Crabs

You don’t buy seafood at the supermarket in Chauvin, Louisiana, where the Gulf of Mexico imbues everyday life. You don’t waste any of the Gulf’s bounty, either. “My grandma used to boil spaghetti in oyster water,” says <b>Melissa Martin</b>, a shrimper’s daughter from the tiny bayou town. Crab is the most …

A Rocking Revival

Founded over a century ago in Marietta, Georgia, the <b>Brumby Chair Company</b> is still crafting the same style of Appalachian red oak rocker that has graced the porch of the White House and countless porches across the South.<p>But this year marks a turning point for the company. What started slowly in …

Indian-Spiced Macaroni and Cheese

“I had no idea what it was,” says <b>Vishwesh Bhatt</b> of macaroni and cheese, which he discovered as a nineteen-year-old, shortly after arriving at the University of Kentucky from Gujarat, India. After his first bite, he was intrigued but felt something was missing. “I was like, ‘Hey, how come you guys …

Dave Barry’s Reasons To Cut Florida Some Slack

If <b>Dave Barry</b> didn’t live in Florida, he might live in Idaho. Why? “Number one, it’s beautiful,” he says. “Number two, nobody goes there. Three, the license plates say ‘Famous Potatoes.’” But fortunately for his fans, Dave Barry <i>doesn’t</i> live in Idaho. He’s spent a career poking loving fun at Florida, …

My Town: Julian Van Winkle’s Louisville, Kentucky

Today, Julian Van Winkle—the president of the <b>Old Rip Van Winkle Distillery</b>, like his father and grandfather before him—travels the world on behalf of his family’s fanatically popular bourbon brand. But Louisville has always been home. In some ways, the city is a lot like it was in his …

Remembering Vertamae

Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor died earlier this week at the age of 79. Born in Hampton County, South Carolina, she was an author, an actress, an anthropologist, a musician, a television and radio personality, and through it all a champion of Gullah-Geechee culture. The author of the 1970 memoir and …